2 female hikers found dead in a Nevada state park amid heat wave
2 female hikers found dead in a Nevada state park amid heat wave
State police released no details of the hikers’ identities or possible causes of death. Southern Nevada remains under an excessive heat warning; the high temperature Saturday was 114 degrees.
Deserts are no joke. The great read of the missing Germans exemplifies the danger of these areas.
Great read, thanks for sharing
Fantastic read, thanks for sharing!!!
I got it to work, thanks for sharing this!
Try it now. I just read it all. It might have been bogged down with too much traffic earlier as I suspect it's hosted on a old server plan.
Hikes and walking are apparently irresistible to Germans, to the point where they regularly die in volcanos in Guatemala. Not surprising lol
Thanks for sharing, this was a fascinating read!
I read through all of that, but I still can't fathom how large and hostile a place like that is. It doesn't help that the largest place I've hiked is the Yorkshire Dales
Well that's an hour of my life gone
An hour well spent thanks for the link!
My comment from another community:
Oh wow, I was there a few days ago and we could barely stay outside the car for more than 5 mins to take a few pictures. The heat was absolutely unbearable and at every corner there were warning signs literally saying "no hiking, you will die". I can't imagine someone going on a physically intensive activity like hiking there...
If you're ever in the Vegas area, I highly recommend going to the Valley of Fire State Park. I visited Red Rock Canyon, Death Valley, Hoover Dam, Zion - all of those were absolutely incredible, but valley of fire was otherworldly in ways those other places aren't. It's only about an hour drive from Vegas.
All that said, if you want to go to Vegas as a base camp for all these amazing things, don't do it during the summer. Heat exposure is no joke. This article says there was a group of hikers who had encountered these women earlier in the day and noticed that they hadn't come back, so they called the authorities at 3pm. They weren't lost out in the desert for days, they went out hiking for a day and were dead in hours.
Visiting the desert in the winter is uncomplicated. You don't need nearly as much water, you're not in significant danger just for being out there. During the hot months, it's another story. Unless you're very experienced and extremely well prepared, it's just not worth it. And even then, just go somewhere else in the world to hike while it's 115°f/46°c in the desert.
It’s a dry heat though!!
That's what the guy said who died in death valley last week
I would caution that, in winter, the deserts can get cold and hypothermia becomes a very real threat. To make matters worse, the temperature swings can be extreme enough that you will be hot during the day and freezing at night.
By way of example, camping in Joshua Tree National Monument, we were huddling in the shade during the day, sweating our asses off, then huddling in sleeping bags around the fire at night trying to keep warm while watching a meteor shower.
Know the conditions you are headed into and prepare accordingly.
Vegas is an abomination in the face of common sense.
I definitely get the sentiment. On a base level, building a city in the middle of the desert where it takes more resources to sustain the city than it should.
That said, when it comes to the primary scarce resource, water, one thing a lot of people don't know is that the city is extremely efficient at recycling water and has taken significant measures to reduce water usage. 99% of water used indoors in Las Vegas is recycled, and they recently banned non-functional grass which has been a big contributor to water usage in the past.
https://adventure.com/how-las-vegas-conserves-water/
It's easy to look at a city that is built on a culture of excessiveness and come to the conclusion "Las Vegas bad" but there's definitely more to it than meets the eye and I think there are far more productive places to focus our attention.
Why do people hike in this weather?
Anyone who has been around hikers have met one of these types of people:
I was in Vegas this weekend and it was absolute hell. Every time I walked outside I was blasted in the face with hot air, like when you check food in the oven. I can't even imagine doing any type of exercise in this weather. It was still 40C (104F) at midnight, the heat just never let up.
This is just the beginning.
We need to act to mitigate and adapt to climate change now
And also stop goes for hikes in the middle of a heat wave.
The beginning was like 15-20 years ago.
... like 70
I mean the complex, long-term effects climate change will have on the Earth. We're locked into change for the foreseeable future. At some point the temperature can stabilize, but the cascading impacts will continue for centuries even after it does.
So... we're just at the beginning.
Pretty sure since the beginning of written history, wandering into the desert has never been portrayed as a safe activity, especially in the middle of a heat wave.
Climate change is real, but that's like saying someone froze to death in the Artic due to climate change.
Cripes. What a way to go.
Why in the absolute hell would you go hiking in a desert during a damn heat wave? I can’t imagine a place I would least want to be.
I swear, common sense is not a flower that grows in everybody’s garden.
I'm gonna be using this from now on. Banger of a quote.
Glad you like it!
Down in the southwest it's common advice to have a giant hat and a fuckton of water, and also go really early in the morning. Hell people are walking around with umbrellas for shade now in Phoenix. But in these temps I think you'd still be a goner..
I’m from the southeast, and the thing they drill into us as kids is “if you’re thirsty, it’s too late” when it comes to keeping hydrated.
I feel like a lot of folks don’t respect heat in the same way they do cold. People, in general, know not to screw around when the temperature gets too low, but don’t realize the heat will kill you just as dead.
This reminds me of the days when our schools taught us to sit under our desks just in case Iran nuked us. Fun times. Even as a kid I was like "How is this particle board desk supposed to save us from a NUKE!?"
Fun fact- the first umbrellas were for protection from the sun.
All I can say is that Darwin was right