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Death Valley heat melts skin off a man's feet after he lost his flip-flops in the dunes

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.

NatakuNox ,
@NatakuNox@lemmy.world avatar

Who wears flip flops to the desert?!

pyre ,

“sand? so it’s just like the beach!”

Hugh_Jeggs ,

Have you ever even met a Belgian?!?

There’s a good reason their car numberplates are red, it’s so you can avoid the daft cunts 😂

Theoriginalthon ,

Red number plates? Didn’t notice that, however they seem incapable of navigating roundabouts

Hugh_Jeggs ,

Level of observation achieved - BELGIAN

some_guy ,

Terrible fates that I’d never considered for $100.

Hellnikko ,

The best part is no matter what health insurance he has (or doesn’t have), that’s gonna be expensive as fuck by the end of the year.

skuzz ,

Belgian. So probably no freedumb buck based medical system.

PixTupy ,

They don’t, you’re advised to buy the most expensive travel insurance you can find when going to USA or Canada.

Halcyon ,
@Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

International travel health insurance is not that expensive in Europe. In Germany you can get it for the equivalent of around $15-20 a year. Then you are fully insured for a travel period of 8 weeks per year. Insurances like that also exist in Belgium.

PixTupy ,

True, I worked with travel insurance for a while in Euorpe. It’s still advised to get better coverage ones when going to North America, even several travel insurances, as the top amount in the cheapest ones will not be enough to even open an American hospital door.

frickineh ,

I feel like if you go to Death Valley, in July, when we’re having record-breaking temps all over the world, and you wear flip flops…look, I’m not saying anyone deserves to lose a foot just because they’re making stupid choices, but maybe like, a toe. Because man, that is wildly stupid.

ConstipatedWatson ,

While I fully agree with you, for a second there I wondered what could have been proper clothing and footwear for this type of trip. I normally wear Chaco sandals in the Summer and they seem to be sturdier and more appropriate footwear for this walk and then I thought they could melt too, so… Hiking boots? Those would possibly not melt, so maybe they would have been appropriate, but I’m not sure…

A strange game, the only winning move is not to play… You don’t go to Death Valley in the boiling hot summer (I myself have been in June of many years ago and it was a chillier day)

FuglyDuck , (edited )
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

It’s Death Valley.

You want at least mid-rise hiking boots. Trail hiking shoes might be okay, except in the case you step on a rattler.

The boots aren’t full proof protection but they’re much better than a sock.

The biggest reason to go down to shoes is if you plan to be moving over boulders- it’s pretty hard to edge.

Biggest things are that they’re comfortable, sized right and sturdy enough to not fall apart. (Also? Bring lots of socks. Swapping socks frequently will help with the perspiration)

(ETA) For general clothing avoid dark or bright colors- light tan is best, wear light breathable pants and similar shirt. Id recommend avoiding cotton (it sucks for wicking,) and go with linen. I recommend long sleeves but a lot of that has to do with me having 3 shades- white, pink and burnt.

Hat and sunglasses that are comfortable.

Also? The biggest rule? Tell someone where you are going, what your route is, and when you expect to get out. I recommend checking in and out with the parks service cuz they’re gonna be the ones looking for you.

Etterra ,

Do rattlers even live in death valley? I’m not sure that they do.

FuglyDuck ,
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

the Mojave Rattler, Mojave Sidwinder Rattler, and Panamint Rattler all can be found there.

There’s other venomous snakes, too, on that list. It’s not a place you want to go about in sandals. not. at. all. There’s also plenty of nasty spiders and scorpions, too. (to be fair, there’s basically scorpions everywhere. except like. the artic)

Suru ,

Huh. There being scorpions everywhere except the Arctic is such a wild statement to your average European. Never have I ever seen a scorpion outside a terrarium despite having traveled and hiked extensively in various countries around the continent.

Are they truly that common in the Americas, even in more temperate climates?

FuglyDuck ,
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

They’re that common basically everywhere, actually.

The UK has yellow tailed scorpions from southern Europe; and with climate change spreading a lot. Northern Europe is still close enough to the artic to give them difficulties; but there’s other species that are smaller that are just hard to find.

There’s also tons of pseudoscorpids that lack the tail (and are tiny,)

Suru , (edited )

Ah. Well, perhaps I ought to amend it to an average Northern European, then. There are definitely no true scorpions in the Nordics, although we probably have some tiny pseudoscorpids around somewhere. Although I’ve hiked all over Southern Spain and never spotted a scorpion there either.
…which probably says more about my perceptiveness or lack-there-of than anything else.

/edited for spelling

FuglyDuck ,
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

They’re pretty hard to see. Researchers go out at night with UV lights to make them glow in the dark. Otherwise they’re very sneaky.

They’re pretty much restricted to temperate though so nordics are definitely too cold.

But they’ll be coming for you soon, /sadlol

beansbeansbeans ,

Interesting anecdote. I’m a European-American; members of my family and I have all seen scorpions in Spain, Italy, and especially Greece - all you need to do is stroll through a village at night. As for the US, I’ve never seen one outside a terrarium.

VirtualOdour ,

You’ve gone straight to hiking though and are talking about crossing boulders, thats a world away from what happened here. It says he took a short walk from the carpark, likely a footpath to a scenic view, the path is probably suitable for kids and old people. It did say he was with family and other tourists carried him to the carpark so this was not a trek or hike, it was a brief walk

I think the story here isn’t ‘idiot fails to prepare for hike’ it’s more like ‘hot sand can be more dangerous than you think’ which is important because I would never go hiking unprepared but I would take a short walk to look at the view without really considering the possibility that the sand will melt my feet off.

raef ,

"some folks will never lose a toe; then again some folks’ll. Like Cletus the slackjawed yokel. "

Jayb151 ,

Aye! What’s goin’ on on this side!?

Etterra ,

I’ll say it. This dumbass deserves to lose his feet. Hell, he earned it.

EarthShipTechIntern ,

Literally burned it

weeeeum ,

Yeah, this is akin to wearing a bikini to Antarctica.

AlexWIWA ,

Yeah even if he had the flip flop he’d still be leaving with burns when the flip flop flips and flops some sand between the shoe and his foot.

Grass ,

why do people keep going here. does nobody watch the local news there or is it all biden gone here’s herris, trunp maga pooble dooble and nothing actually local?

catloaf ,

The average person has become accustomed to no threats to their life. You know how they tell you not to feed wild animals, because they become accustomed to it and can’t fend for themselves? It’s like that.

newtraditionalists ,

A more cynical way I've seen this put: we've made it too easy for stupid people to survive.

FuglyDuck ,
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

Technically, the reason they tell you not to feed wild animals is because they’re likely to maul you when you run out of food.

TropicalDingdong ,

Death Valley

To be fair, it is right there in the name.

FuglyDuck ,
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

“I thought that was like, ironic, bruh.”

Etterra ,

“Irony didn’t get you into this mess, son.”

newthrowaway20 ,

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.

TIL.

TropicalDingdong ,

Death Valley: We mean it.

Stopthatgirl7 OP ,
@Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world avatar

Legit, I did not know this until I read this article, either.

cybervseas ,

So do we just need to close death valley or require permits in the summer or something? The safety issues seem to be compounding with the extreme heat.

protist ,

I assume you have to pay a fee to enter Death Valley National Park, and like every National Park I assume the rangers at the entrance and signage all throughout warn you of potential dangers. You can easily get yourself in trouble at Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain, or Big Bend National Parks, for example, if you don’t take the risks seriously and make poor decisions.

TropicalDingdong ,

Sure but those other parks… they aren’t called “Deathstone” or “Death Mountain” or “Big Death”…

I feel like Death Valley is being very frank with you on the matter.

protist ,

A group of European-American pioneers got lost here in the winter of 1849-1850, while looking for a shortcut to the gold fields of California, giving Death Valley its grim name. Although only one of the group members died here, they all assumed that the valley would be their grave.

I bet more people have died at each of the other 3 parks than at Death Valley NP. Maybe there’s data out there on that somewhere

TropicalDingdong ,

Interestingly, the park service have a very nice dashboard to look at this:

www.nps.gov/aboutus/mortality-data.htm

However, it doesn’t give you the deaths per count of visitors.

This article claims Denali, to be the top park in deaths per capita.

backpacker.com/…/the-10-most-dangerous-national-p…

It looks like Death Valley is up there, but not the highest, due to motor vehicle accidents. This makes sense since going to death valley ends up just being a lot of time in the car.

margaritox ,

There are no entrance stations in Death Valley. There’s a fee, but they sorta “trust you” to have paid in advance.

treadful ,
@treadful@lemmy.zip avatar

Rangers can do their best to inform visitors and provide necessary services for survival, but at the end of the day, safety is one’s own responsibility.

Stopthatgirl7 OP ,
@Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world avatar

For those of you who don’t know Fahrenheit:

123F->50.5C

170F-180F-> 77-82C

200F->93C

109F -> 43C

apfelwoiSchoppen ,
@apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world avatar

Also -40F = -40C

FuglyDuck ,
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

I know what -40 feels like.

I’d still take that over the other end of the spectrum.

catloaf ,

You can always put warmer clothes on. You can’t keep taking them off.

margaritox ,

Yea, people look at me like a deer in headlights when I tell them that.

Kalkaline ,
@Kalkaline@leminal.space avatar

For those of you who only know temperatures based on internal temperature of cooked meats:

123F-danger zone of most meats, some bacteria will continue to grow at these temperatures

170F- all meats including ground poultry are safe to eat at this temperature, but most people would call steak way overdone at this temperature

200F- start of 6 pack number 2 for cooking brisket, depending on what texture you’re going for you might be able to pull it or drink another beer

109F- you trying to kill someone with that burger?

halfstep ,

Thank you, it all makes sense now.

Fuckfuckmyfuckingass ,
@Fuckfuckmyfuckingass@lemmy.world avatar

Thanks for translating. It is so frustrating when people only use their weird localized temperature scale.

brbposting ,

Hmm ‘tis an American news source

Hugh_Jeggs ,

The Belgian burnt his feet in °c tho

growsomethinggood ,

And for those of you who only know temperatures based on brewing tea or coffee:

123F: Probably insufficient for even fairly delicate teas. You could probably make “sun tea” at this temperature by leaving tea in room temperature water to be heated by the sun, but this is not recommended as anything below ~130F is considered the danger zone for bacterial growth.

170F: This is the appropriate temperature for delicate or green teas to preserve flavor, antioxidants, and prevent bitterness.

200F: An acceptable temperature below boiling (212F) for black teas and coffee where overextraction is minimal.

109F: Unacceptable for tea brewing, barely above body temperature.

FuglyDuck ,
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

We make sun tea by leaving it outside (90’s, 35c). In the sun. It’s a bit like cold brew, it takes longer to extract the flavors.

It’s also bitter so generally sweetened with lemon juice. And some form of sugar. (Honey preferred.)

growsomethinggood ,

Correct, I should clarify, you are likely safe brewing sun tea at those ambient temperatures because the glass of the brewing vessel will trap the sun and heat the tea higher than that, like a car traps heat on a hot day. You’ll likely hit 130F+ easily and be out of the danger zone!

superminerJG ,

This makes me want to see someone cook steak in Death Valley by merely using the heat of the ground.

lemonmelon ,

Maybe someone who used to be a huge asshole? Out there making sloppy steaks in Death Valley with the Dangerous Nights crew.

Tarquinn2049 ,

So, basically it’s like checking how close the water in a pot on the stove is to boiling by putting your hand in it, then falling and putting all your weight on that hand as it sits on the bottom of the pot, and being unable to lift it again for a few minutes.

Something like that.

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