Quentin Taratino's Editor Found Dead After A Day Hike

I live 10 minutes from that park. I'm there at least three times a week. Amazing to think that someone could die like that in the middle of Los Angeles.
 
... and that area is really not that tough of an environment, although LA was unusually hot around that time. Around the same time, I had travelled to tucson. It was probably around 109 or so the day we went out for a quick hike. At that temp, it is just stupid to go out on some long uphill hike in an exposed-to-the-sun environment. Unless you are a (real) bushman or aboriginee or something, your body is not designed for it. Even with constant cycling of water through your system, it is still beyond what you are designed to endure.

We only went up the hill for about 20 minutes and back down, knowing that we were never far from help and had enough water for a few hours. Meanwhile, they had a chopper way up in the mountains trying to find someone who was in quite a pickle. It was beyond me why anyone would have gone that far up the trail on a day like that. Beyond stupid.

We talk a lot about "survival" and this and that, but seeing that situation play out made it pretty concrete. Made me re-evaluate the sort of supplies and tools are really of a sort that can save your life. First thing on my list are a few colored smoke flares--that chopper was not having an easy time finding the people.

But more than anything, it reminded me that the most important thing isn't even the gear you lug with you, but just making decisions about your trip and not putting yourself in a dangerous situation. 113 degrees, hiking on a fairly tough uphill hike.... ALONE??? Hard for me to understand...
 
Kirk_Ferentz said:
... and that area is really not that tough of an environment, although LA was unusually hot around that time. Around the same time, I had travelled to tucson. It was probably around 109 or so the day we went out for a quick hike. At that temp, it is just stupid to go out on some long uphill hike in an exposed-to-the-sun environment. Unless you are a (real) bushman or aboriginee or something, your body is not designed for it. Even with constant cycling of water through your system, it is still beyond what you are designed to endure.

We only went up the hill for about 20 minutes and back down, knowing that we were never far from help and had enough water for a few hours. Meanwhile, they had a chopper way up in the mountains trying to find someone who was in quite a pickle. It was beyond me why anyone would have gone that far up the trail on a day like that. Beyond stupid.

We talk a lot about "survival" and this and that, but seeing that situation play out made it pretty concrete. Made me re-evaluate the sort of supplies and tools are really of a sort that can save your life. First thing on my list are a few colored smoke flares--that chopper was not having an easy time finding the people.

But more than anything, it reminded me that the most important thing isn't even the gear you lug with you, but just making decisions about your trip and not putting yourself in a dangerous situation. 113 degrees, hiking on a fairly tough uphill hike.... ALONE??? Hard for me to understand...
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Yeah, around here it gets up to 110 during the summer sometimes. When they measure it as 110 in the city, it's generally actually about 115 out in the surrounding areas. I remember one day in this little rural town of Gleed, the thermometer on the back porch read 117.

Anyway, when we get those little heat spells, it's generally recommended that children and the elderly don't even go outside of air conditioned rooms, and people are told that if they must work outside are basically told to drink as much as they can. Still, a lot of people working in orchards or landscaping jobs wind up dying of heat exhaustion.
 
We get one or two days like that every year in Melbourne. You quickly learn to appreciate that any sort of physical activity has to be close to an abundant source of drinking water and even then you can do yourself some serious damage via heat stroke and severe sun burn.

Makes you wonder though how our Aborigines survived in these conditions which is pretty much the norm for the 'top end'.
 
HandofCod said:
....Makes you wonder though how our Aborigines survived in these conditions which is pretty much the norm for the 'top end'.
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Like most cultures that experienced this type of heat, they rested during the hottest part of the day (the word siesta comes to mind :D )

This tragic story reminds me of a line from a Dirty Harry movie.

"A mans' (or in this instance a woman's) got to know their limitations" :thumbup:




Kind regards
Mick
 
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