According to a National Park Service news release, the 42-year-old Belgian tourist was taking a short walk Saturday in the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in 123-degree heat when he either broke or lost his flip-flops, putting his feet into direct contact with the desert ground. The result: third-degree burns.
“The skin was melted off his foot,” said Death Valley National Park Service Ranger Gia Ponce. “The ground can be much hotter — 170, 180 [degrees]. Sometimes up into the 200 range.”
Unable to get out on his own and in extreme pain, the man and his family recruited other park visitors to help; together, the group carried him to the sand dunes parking lot, where park rangers assessed his injuries.
Though they wanted a helicopter to fly him out, helicopters can’t generate enough lift to fly in the heat-thinned air over the hottest parts of Death Valley, officials said. So park rangers summoned an ambulance that took him to higher ground, where it was a cooler 109 degrees and he could then be flown out.
This reminds me of the story of the German family that went on a trip to Death Valley and ended up accidentally driving up an Arroyo they thought was a road, getting stuck, and dying of dehydration after they tried to walk to safety.
If you’re going to go to a new and strange environment, make sure you get some advice from a local and don’t push yourself. Many tragedies like this are caused by people making genuine mistakes, but they can be prevented. If he’d simply asked someone if walking around Death Valley in flip flops was a good idea, he’d be fine.
I live a half hour from Death Valley, and it’s not named ironically, it’s a death zone. It’s not really habitable for humans, you should never go alone, have full body covering clothes, heavy duty foot wear, lots of food and drink, and know how to get out from where you are at all times. It’s not safe, many people still die there every year. It’s just sad to me. I’m always sad to hear about anyone that dies or gets injured, we’re a little isolated out here and tourists are some of the best people we regularly deal with, I love tourists. They just aren’t always aware of the risks out there.
I just want to say I like the general tone of this comment. Compassionate, respectful, and warning.
I remember that! The write up by the guy who found their remains was pretty interesting.
One line really stuck out to me: ‘at that point they were in a survival situation, although they probably didn’t realize it yet.’ He really detailed out how, without making any obvious mistakes (from their perspective), they ended up in a deadly situation. From their point of view, it was situation normal… until it wasn’t.
The writeup is here, for anyone interested. I wholeheartedly recommend it, it’s a fascinating story.
Also it took over a decade to find their remains if memory serves me right, because all of the initial search and rescue attempts were done be folks who would know what to do in that situation. It took a dude putting his mind in “ignorant European” mode to find the skeletons, because basically no one from the south west would think to cross a desert to go to an old military base. Half those things are abandoned why would you try that, but that aint how it works in much of Europe.
Maybe don’t even go to a place called “Death Valley.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley_Germans