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

Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 554 points – Death Valley heat melts skin off a man's feet after he lost his flip-flops in the dunes
yahoo.com

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.

170

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.

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)

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.

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.

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

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)

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?

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,)

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Who the f enters Death Valley on flipflops?

Tourists

I wonder how much CO2 was released getting the Belgian tourist to Death Valley.

No one should ever do anything.

People need to reconsider modern indulgences. Things the people did without 100 years ago. I'm not talking about medical advancements, but this type of hyper convenient travel isn't really necessary.

Commercial air travel is actually quite efficient per passenger.

Just a reminder that everyone preaching "individual responsibility" and not starting with the 1% responsible for the lion's share of carbon emissions, is just carrying water for the 1%.

Travel itself isn't necessary. This Belgian traveled half way across the globe to burn his feet in the desert. I won't travel an hour to hang out with friends that can't figure out discord.

We can demand the 1% fix their shit and fix our own shit. Not reducing our own consumption only feeds more profits to the 1%.

Look mate, if I'm going to work myself to death generating profits for the billionaire class, I'm going to use whatever surplus value I'm allotted to live my life, and that includes travelling the world and seeing as much of it as I can afford to in the time I have.

And anyone who dares question my choice to fly economy to Europe/Asia/Oceana or wherever else I feel like visiting once per year, without first reining in the billionaire class that exploits me flying their private jets all over the world on a near daily basis, has revealed themselves to be a class traitor and my enemy.

Flying economy produces 33% fewer carbon emissions per passenger mile traveled than driving a hybrid vehicle (30mpg) without passengers.

The average American drives 14,500 miles per year in their car (26mpg average). A round trip flight between Seattle and Dresden (the flight this family took) is only 10,000 miles. So that flight produces about 3.3 tons of CO2 for one passenger, which comes out to less than 20% of the total average CO2 emissions per capita, and less than half of what is produced by driving.

Germans drive quite a bit less than Americans too, and produce about half the CO2 per capita than an American, so they've more than made up for any travel they do.

And there are people like me that live in the US, but live in dense efficient housing and don't own cars and take hybrid/electric buses everywhere, so you can fuck off if you think I need to keep sacrificing my happiness while the rich burn the world down. If you live in an house or drive a car, you're doing more damage to the planet than I am, so maybe take a look in the mirror before you throw a fit about one German family that visited America (and died here) 28 fucking years ago.

If you want people to make sacrifices to save the planet, go after the ruling class. If you come after the working class, expect to get what you deserve as a class traitor.

EDIT: The reason I don't give a shit about the carbon emissions of the working class, is because the carbon emissions of the working class are just fine. The working class isn't the problem, the ruling class is: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/co2-emissions-by-income/ <-- The top 10% produces 49% of all CO2 emissions. The bottom 90% produces 51% of all CO2 emissions.

And there are people like me that live in the US, but live in dense efficient housing and don’t own cars and take hybrid/electric buses everywhere, so you can fuck off if you think I need to keep sacrificing my happiness while the rich burn the world down. If you live in an house or drive a car, you’re doing more damage to the planet than I am, so maybe take a look in the mirror before you throw a fit about one German family that visited America (and died here) 28 fucking years ago.

I live a mile from work, converted my farm to biodiesel, got as much solar installed as allowed and heat with firewood. I'm pissed about keyboard warriors who complain about the rich, but don't do anything but complain online about it.

Do you also post comments on any article involving beef chastising people for eating it? Do you eat it? That has a dramatically higher carbon impact than people occasionally (or even frequently) taking a vacation.

Edit: from what I can tell, his share of the greenhouse impact of his flight to and from, is roughly equal to eating two 1/3 pound hamburgers.

~1650kg impact per flight each way / 200 passengers (low estimate) * 2 (to and from) = 16.5kg

Estimated 60kg of impact, per kg of beef produced / * 1/3 pound * 2 burgers = ~18kg of impact.

Edit2: found another source that estimated hamburger beef at 21.88kg of impact (the difference seems to be partly how they estimate the methane produced and its relative impact compared to carbon). If so, then it'd be 6 burgers for that round-trip flight.

The first 2 or 3 months of the covid lock down was the most optimistic I've ever been. The air cleaned up immediately and you could almost see the temperatures start to plateau. We will never achieve something like that again.

Cool anecdote about how reducing needless traffic between homes and offices, to satisfy micromanaging executives and the real estate investors who own their office buildings, reduced pollution superficially in populated areas.

Not sure what this has to do with planes, which have a negligible effect on pollution compared to personal automobiles, but I do advocate for going car-free (and still being able to get around), and work from home for the growing population of employees whose jobs don't require a physical presence.

Or, like the beef thing I mentioned, which for many people is a worse contributor than cars. Or a number of other high-prioritt things.

I do believe that we all have a role in greenhouse gas reduction, but it'd really help if they were focused on the things that really actually matter. And not being a condescending, unrealistic jackass would probably have helped them make a point too.

So you're going to just ignore the question I asked and the points I made, very cool.

I never mentioned food. I mentioned the needless conveniences that were created in the recent 100 years. Sure, we should be eating less meat.

I'm just sick of all the people in my life who role play as progressives without thinking about their own actions. There's a friend group that I pretty much dropped contact with because they're too boomer to figure out Discord and I'm too climate anxietied to drive an hour just to watch youtube videos and have the same dozen or so conversations again. I've dropped hollywood movies, partly because of the drive as well, but also the carbon foot print from its production. I literally can not travel for myself without some form of guilt.

I've had climate anxiety for the past 30 fucking years. Been sabotaged by my guidance counselor when I wanted to pursue a college that would be interested in that rather then just producing more consumers. FFS, is that all college is for? Sounds like the highest achievement anyone wants for us is to be good little consumers and make their lines go up.

Should I feel vindicated when my crops fail because of the heat?

Also, not everyone works on the same schedule. I have more important things to do than reply to you on your timetable.

You didn't mention food, no.

I asked you a specific question, brought in a relevant point, explained why it was relevent, and you're still ignoring it with some random streams off consciousness.

Also, not everyone works on the same schedule. I have more important things to do than reply to you on your timetable.

What? But...you did reply. That was the point. I wasn't complaining about the timing, just that you blathered some reply that ignored what it was replying to.

You clearly just want to talk at people, I won't be getting your reply.

For those of you who don’t know Fahrenheit:

123F->50.5C

170F-180F-> 77-82C

200F->93C

109F -> 43C

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?

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.

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.)

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!

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

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

Also -40F = -40C

I know what -40 feels like.

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

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

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

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.

Group of pioneers in 1849: "This place is dangerous! Let's call it Death Valley so people know to steer clear!"

Who wears flip flops to the desert?!

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 😂

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

"sand? so it's just like the beach!"

was he German? they love going hiking in sandals, and then need to get rescued from mountains.

why does anyone go into the desert with flip flops?

Humans seem to have a special mental gap when it comes to mountains. It's warm and sunny so they go up in flip-flops and tiny short shorts, but on the actual mountain it's freezing cold and often raining and they require rescuing because at some point they either fall over due to trying to wander around in what are essentially plastic slippers, or they're too cold and they can't carry on.

We know that the temperature drops as you go up and yet somehow that seems to fail to register for people.

As an American scout, it's also been funny talking to my friends years after the kind of things you take for granted. I had a friend that took a bunch of people up a moderate hike, but they wound up in what could have very easily turned into a not moderate fuck up. I've never really considered myself a "survivalist", but I was seriously in error in assuming people knew the basics.

Yeah. Even completely safe hikes, like even a flat and level trail in your neighborhood can turn into a survival situation if you trip and fall and hurt yourself. If you break something in your leg, you'll have to hobble or crawl your way to help. If you hit your head, you could fall unconscious or even die outright if you hit it just right.

In the 80s, and I was 7, we went to Italy and my parents and I went up Mount Etna and I was wearing flip-flops, making it pretty much impossible to walk up a bunch of lava rocks without them slipping off and cutting my feet. My parents only thought I was complaining about the walk until my mother looked down and saw my feet bleeding.

I haven't been a big fan of them since.

Not even a similar story, but a similar result. As a kid in Vegas in the summer on vacation wearing flip-flops with my feet soaking wet from the various water fountain things. I got blisters, bad. Never been into sandals or flip-flops ever since.

Sandals and flip flops are very different things for walking.

There are awesome hiking sandals that provide excellent support, grip, and all. But flip flops? Oof.

I've had the misadventure of having to do a small jungle trek with flip flops (my super duper fancy hiking shoes were soaking wet). I managed but it wasn't ideal. The Australian rainforest is not exactly flip flop friendly.

I'm one of those special kinds of idiot where I pride myself on my ability to traverse any terrain in my thongs (flip flops).

The kinds of things they do and the places they go in thongs in South-East Asia. It's humbling.

If i was ever going to hike in death valley I'd probably want to go on like a guided group hike, I'd have plenty of sunscreen, snacks and a camelbak filled with ice water.

And hopefully wise enough to not wear flippin flip flops

Wym flip flops are the hikers ideal choice

I'm more of a croc connoisseur if you will. They provide air holes for speed and even offer rear straps for 4wd mode

What's the melting point on those bad boys?

And not go in the summer time.

Why would any tourist want to visit Death Valley when it's comfortable? Extreme heat is the point.

Not that I agree.

This is kind of off topic, but I want to make sure to note that Death Valley is more than just heat! It's one of my favorite places to visit so I can't resist soapboxing a little when it comes up. I've only ever visited in the colder season, which is what most people do.

When I first visited Racetrack Playa there I laughed the whole time because it's so amazing and strange. (It's the place with rocks that leave zigzagging trails through the desert which were unexplained until pretty recently.) You can also hike the canyon where R2D2 is kidnapped in the original Star Wars, visit abandoned mining towns, climb the sand dunes, look over the valley from mountains that stay much cooler than the lower parts of the park... The variety is incredible! Highly recommend if you ever find yourself nearby when it's not too hot.

It's on my list! I'd love to go visit it one day, maybe even in the heat, which I agree is not a time to screw around.

A lot of people don't realize it's hot far past the point that wearing light clothing is helpful, you actually need to be much more covered, like walking into an oven.

People chronically underestimate nature.

They see some beautiful desert, a peaceful sea, or an idyllic mountain and assume that nothing so pretty could possible hurt you.

Forget about cute animals that are actually dangerous, any of the above can secretly store so much energy that humans are completely insignificant gnats, in comparison.

We've become spoiled by how much we've bent nature to accommodate us. We're more fragile than we think.

I went on "a hike" with "a friend" (big quotation marks here because they're no longer a friend obviously) that quickly turned into an unanchored free climb with no way back down with one another friend who was baked.

Our chance of significant injury or death was 90% at 2200 feet up, and we managed to get out of the climb and back down without so much as a twisted ankle. A literal fucking miracle.

When we went for food later, all I could talk about was how close we were to death, and how I'm never doing that again, but they seemed completely unfazed.

My best assumption? Brain worms.

Toxoplasmosis Gondii destroys the fear impulse in humans and causes them to engage in increasingly risky behavior, until it eventually kills them. It's how the parasite procreates in mice (leading them to predators and wild cats).

Some people are just very bad at risk assessment. I'm glad you survived!

Others are bad at risk assessment by over estimating risk. They are boring buzzkills.

Much better to overestimate risk than underestimate it when the risk is death!

But how worth living is a life overly guarded?

There's a big range between "never takes any risks" and "takes stupid pointless risks."

Is "not wearing flip flops in death valley" or "not climbing 200ft up a tree really OVERLY guarded, though? 🤔

Wow, people really wear flipflops there? That's crazy.

Actually, going there is crazy too.

That's what I'm thinking. Even in flip flops you should notice the sand being hot and think, "maybe I shouldn't do this"

I went there in December and it was a perfect 67° F. This was especially great because we had originally come from below zero temps in Minnesota only a few days prior. In truth though Death Valley was not very exciting and I don't think I would ever bother to return.

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.

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."

Eh, I don’t think that’s really fair.

It is a national park, and it’s huge, something like 5000 square miles of desert.

I could see the appeal for someone who has never seen a desert to want to go and see a huge desert for the first time. I could even see why they’d pick that desert: cool name, cool history, lots of beautiful mountains. I can also see why a lot of foreign people would get a false sense of security, it’s called a park, it’s in a well developed country, and it’s “maintained” by its own government agency, so surely things can’t go too wrong out there.

I’ve travelled all over the US, and have been to a lot of national parks. I always do my research about the area, get printed maps, carry a gps, and generally follow all the rules you’re supposed to. But those are American rules because this is kind of a unique country in that you can drive from a city that has everything you need to live into true wilderness where there might not be another human or even a way to contact anyone for miles, in a matter of hours. Most developed countries are not like that. So for someone who’s come from a country like Germany, or really anywhere in Europe, it really would be a culture shock to realize that there are huge sections of this country where you are on your own.

I don’t blame people for wanting to come here and see our beautiful national parks. But the amount of people I’ve seen who either don’t carry water, or just carry a small bottle from a vending machine, is insane. And I doubt those people tell anyone what their route is, or what to do if they don’t show up at a specific time.

These Germans really made some simple mistakes that any average person could, and didn’t have the education on wilderness to truly recognize they had wound up in a fight for their life. I’ve seen it happen before even in small state parks.

Might seem like a stupid question but that's Fahrenheit right not Celsius? I like how in the article they unnecessarily clarify that he's talking about temperature in degrees, (a concussed duckling would be able to work that one out) but not the unit of temperature.

I feel like better temporary solutions could be found (than flaying your own skin on hot sand) like ripping your shirt off and tying it to your feet?

The burns probably happened in seconds.

So that is roughly 80-90 C, makes wonder if you can in a couple seconds burn your feet to a level where its skin falls off?

Scenario: You're barefoot on a hot 90C surface that extends as far as the eye can see. Pain, panic, confusion sets in. How long before you gain the clarity of mind to dump your backpack, yank off your shirt and wrap your feet? With no assistance, because nobody else has any idea why you're screaming in pain.

Yes, your skin could absolutely fall off in that time.

It is not like someone magically transported the sandals out of his feet. It should have been a more continuous process in which he was probably already long made aware how fucking scorching hot the sand is.

"I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and it melts your skin off."

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.

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.

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.

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

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

https://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.

https://www.backpacker.com/survival/the-10-most-dangerous-national-parks-in-america/

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.

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

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.

Dude is lucky he didn't get a Darwin award...

I can't feel bad for these people. Death Valley in mid-summer and you go unprepared. I suppose it's a testament to our amazing transportation systems.

Death Valley, frequented in the summer by those looking to be in contention for the year's Darwin award.

That's the kind of shit i expect to happen in a place called death valley. I will only go if escorted by hokuto no ken

I went to Death Valley once on a tour and the minibus fell off the road. We had to open the door so that we could get some leverage so we could push it out of the small hole that it had fallen in and in the time that we had the door open the plastics on the door completely melted. We were all very hungover as well so it wasn't really a very good experience.

Yeah, if you're going to venture into dangerous areas at least learn basic survival skills. Like why the hell didn't he wrap his feet using his clothes?

It's really bizarre. These kinds of people shouldn't leave the city gates without someone experienced in case something like this happens. Hope he gets well though.

Experienced in what? Reading comprehension? The place is called DEATH valley. Pair of flip flops will do?

Experience with not dying in hostile environments. The bar isn't that high, all you need is some common sense, that apparently, this fella did not have.

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.

Belgian. So probably no freedumb buck based medical system. Wouldn't be surprised if those systems also cover citizens while abroad.

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

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.

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.

Don't they do helicopter tours there? How does that work ... and if/when it does, it seems like it'd be a dying industry...

Not in Death Valley as far as I'm aware, they do in the local area but not actually in Death Valley itself. I must admit though I'm a bit unclear about how far the really hot bit of Death Valley extends.

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?

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.

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.