Jan

26

The first chart needs mouseover code, but otherwise…

An Analysis of Deaths in U.S. National Parks

Charles Sorkin comments:

Before I even scrolled down to the horizontal bar chart, my guess for most likely cause of death was "car accident." The bubbles with the highest death frequency are the ones with extremely high road traffic, such as Yosemite, Great Smoky Mountain NP, and the Blue Ridge Parkway. I'd expected that the super-remote parks, like North Cascades and Denali would be more death-prone, but perhaps visitors are far more prepared for contingencies.

H. Humbert writes:

A man seems to have killed himself or slipped into one of the boiling geysers in Yellowstone this past summer. His foot surfaced a few months ago.

Having hiked pretty extensively in Yellowstone, I can attest to there being more danger from falls than grizzly bears. You can be hiking along and all of a sudden find yourself on a cliff.

My biggest fears when hiking have been lightning (when hiking on a ridge with a quick moving summer storm rolling in) and trees — as in being in a lodge pole pine forest trying to get out and over much deadfall and the wind picks up.

A few of us were wandering far off trail, exploring mud pots and geysers. All of a sudden the ground started sinking under me. Fortunately I reacted quickly and alerted the rest of the group. That was way scarier than the wet grizzly paw print we came upon one time.

Most park visitors don’t venture far off the beaten path which is why drownings and falls are the leading causes of death. Those who do venture out tend to be more prepared and knowledgeable. Most of the time.

There is an older gentleman who does a lot of off-trail hiking in Yellowstone to see wildlife and he records his hikes. He seems to have mastered the art (and science) of wildlife spotting while keeping himself safe.

Shortly after he did this hike, he did another where he had to make himself scarce from two grizzlies. I learned a lot by watching what he did to stay out of harm's way.

Zubin Al Genubi connects:

The category Death by GPS has some lessons for quants who don't look up and around.

Big Al adds:

An interesting fist-person read:

‘That Girl is Going to Get Herself Killed’

There is risk in the wilderness — even in mild adventures — and yet we still seek to reason with it, to assign order to it, to control it, and to tempt it.

H. Humbert responds:

Thanks for the read, Al. It is spot on. I would add that even when we are careful and respectful and experienced, anything can happen. In the wild, especially a place like Yellowstone, change is constant so what may have been safe last year may not be so stable this year. Even for Stan Mills who is super experienced, respectful, and cautious, he found himself between two grizzly bears. As he pointed out in his video on the incident (not the one I linked to), when two bears meet, chaos can ensue and he would have been right in the middle of that mix if not for his swift action and a whole lot of luck. For those of us bit by the wild bug, we do tempt it. Because hiking in these places offers a “high” that is almost impossible to obtain any other way because when you are in the wild you have to be so aware of your surroundings that there can be no space in your head for anything else, and you feel and hear and see more of everything. I call it being in the complete and total present tense. But I have no illusions about trying to order or reason with it.


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