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  • AI6YR Benai6yr@m.ai6yr.org
    Aug 21, 2026, 8:55 PM

    "DEATH VALLEY, Calif. — A 68-year-old French visitor died Monday, Aug. 17, after he and a traveling companion became stranded on a remote road in Death Valley National Park.

    Pierre Michel Formosa, 68, and his travel companion, both from France, were traveling on West Side Road when their vehicle became stuck in mud near Queen of Sheba Mine Road. With no other vehicles in the area, the men began walking across the salt flats toward Badwater Road to seek assistance. Temperatures reached 116°F that day. After about 1.3 miles, the man was unable to continue. His companion continued toward Badwater Road, where he eventually received assistance from a passing motorist and reported the incident at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center shortly after 2 p.m."

    #Death #deathvalley #nps #heatstroke

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  • AI6YR Benai6yr@m.ai6yr.org
    Aug 21, 2026, 8:56 PM

    "National Park Service rangers and an Inyo County deputy began a search and rescue operation about 2:13 p.m. A California Highway Patrol helicopter joined the search and located the man later that afternoon, approximately 1.5 miles from Badwater Road. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The Inyo County coroner will determine the cause and manner of death."

    #SearchAndRescue

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  • John T (the GRA is silent)grajohnt@chaos.social
    Aug 21, 2026, 9:49 PM

    @ai6yr

    Last Sept, I was letting my son navigate because he had phone signal and I didn't and we ended up turning onto West Side Rd by mistake while trying to head towards Devil's Golf Course.

    I had been there before and quickly realized it wasn't the right route and *carefully* turned around.

    If you go off of West Side Rd in a vehicle that isn't extremely capable, you're going to get insta-stuck. Built-up and loose on the sides, plus the playa base (see pic).

    It was a mere 43C.

    A person standing on salt flats with a bright sun behind them as a dirt road stretches into the distant mountains
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  • John T (the GRA is silent)grajohnt@chaos.social
    Aug 21, 2026, 9:50 PM

    @ai6yr I'm a geologist and used to reading maps and navigating sketchy terrain.

    I turned around because I had a lot of alarm bells going off in my head.

    Without experience and knowledge of how dangerous it is out there, it's *so easy* to fall into these kind of situations in Death Valley. People don't take it seriously enough.

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  • John T (the GRA is silent)grajohnt@chaos.social
    Aug 21, 2026, 10:09 PM

    @ai6yr I have good alarm bells because I've been in some seriously sketchy vehicle situations 😅

    That's me pushing when we got caught in a thunderstorm while trying to drive across a 'dry' lake bed near Serdo, Ethiopia.

    We were *racing* to get back to the paved road before it filled up more! Fortunately we made it, or it would have been a looong walk back and probably weeks before we could retrieve the vehicle.

    Two people push on the back of a white Land Cruiser that's in muddy water halfway up its wheels
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  • John T (the GRA is silent)grajohnt@chaos.social
    Aug 21, 2026, 10:21 PM

    @ai6yr me too! It wasn't even the most dangerous part of that trip.

    There's a good reason National Geographic later called the Danakil Depression the "Cruelest Place on Earth".

    Imagine Death Valley, but inhabited by people who all have AK-47s plus famously big knives and don't like outsiders much. We were held at gunpoint by an angry Afar for one memorable afternoon.

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  • AI6YR Benai6yr@m.ai6yr.org
    Aug 23, 2026, 3:01 AM

    @woodenmachines @grajohnt I have heard that play out on wildfires in Northern California more than a few times, when some crew tries to protect property and somebody growing 420 jumps out of the bushes with an AR51 or AK47... lol.

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  • John T (the GRA is silent)grajohnt@chaos.social
    Aug 21, 2026, 10:32 PM

    @Heidiknits I enjoy it, and have been lucky to have been able to go to some very remote parts of the world (and stay tuned for more - this year!).

    Probably one of the least-visited but fascinating places I've been is the Moçâmedes Desert of southern Angola.

    Lots of euphorbia, some welwitschia, rocks worn smooth from rhinos scratching on them, and all in a desert that has pea-soup fog almost every night.

    A view down a red canyon valley with almost no vegetation and hazy hills in the background
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  • John T (the GRA is silent)grajohnt@chaos.social
    Aug 21, 2026, 10:43 PM

    @Heidiknits it's so wild. See the cobbles in the foreground? If you poke around on those terraces, it wouldn't take you more than a few minutes to find a stone hand tool from the "Earlier Stone Age" - dating from something more than 500,000 years ago (maybe up to 1.4 million).

    They absolutely litter the ground there.

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  • Legit_SpaghettiLegit_Spaghetti@mastodo.neoliber.al
    Aug 21, 2026, 9:06 PM

    @ai6yr Sadly not the first time this has happened. So what's the recommended course of action in that kind of scenario (vehicle stuck, lethal temperature, no means of outside communication)?

    My instinct would be to remain with the vehicle and hope the air conditioner doesn't stop working, or in case the AC goes out remain in the shade near the vehicle, stay hydrated, and wait until dusk, but I have exactly zero wilderness survival experience, so that's probably wrong...?

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  • MCDuncanLabMCDuncanLab@mstdn.social
    Aug 21, 2026, 9:20 PM

    @Legit_Spaghetti @ai6yr

    They addressed exactly this scenario in a traumatizing film I had to watch in hunter training as a tweenager in the 1980s.

    Stay with the car, stay in the shade cast by the car. If no-one finds you, then maybe head out for help in cooler hours.

    It was a really traumatizing film about all the ways you can die in nature.

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  • sadele2sadele2@mastodon.social
    Aug 21, 2026, 9:30 PM

    @Legit_Spaghetti @ai6yr

    Advice in the nps.gov article above.

    They do recommend staying in car (shaded, easier to find a car than a person in a search), but also tell ppl where you're going & when returning, sat phone or emergency beacon, minimum 1 gallon water per person per day plus more for car emergency, etc.

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  • Bekahbolderbekah@mastodon.social
    Aug 21, 2026, 11:26 PM

    @CStamp @sadele2 @Legit_Spaghetti @ai6yr they’re not always being disrespectful, just don’t know. Getting stuck in mud in the middle of extreme desert seems strange. 🤷🏻‍♀️

    They might have had a lot of water, but if so they left what they couldn’t carry.

    *in mtns, visitors don’t understand the seriousness of lighting dangers above tree line, elevation sickness, or how traffic/storm might leave you for hours in a car in single digit temps. You learn from peers/stories if you didn’t grow up in it.

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  • M.S. Bellows, Jr.msbellows
    Aug 23, 2026, 1:33 AM

    @bolderbekah @CStamp @sadele2 @Legit_Spaghetti @ai6yr I haven't seen the most important survival advice yet: always tell a responsible person where you're going, your proposed route, your equipment, and your expected time back. If you no-show, they can point the authorities in the right direction.

    In other words, the time to save your life in an emergency is before you walk out the door.

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  • CarolynCStamp@mastodon.social
    Aug 23, 2026, 2:44 AM

    @Dougfir @msbellows @bolderbekah @sadele2 @Legit_Spaghetti @ai6yr Tourists everywhere need to read bloody signs and take warnings to heart. People get washed off of rocks at Peggys Cove in Nova Scotia because they have to get to the edge of the rocks for that perfect selfie, in spite of lots of signs warning to stay off the black rocks, they are dangerous. My fellow once took a day trip to the Grand Canyon while on a business trip. He took a little hike down the trail...

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  • CarolynCStamp@mastodon.social
    Aug 23, 2026, 2:46 AM

    @Dougfir @msbellows @bolderbekah @sadele2 @Legit_Spaghetti @ai6yr ...to the bottom, but he bloody read the signs. Not used to deserts, he thought that if the sign said how much water to bring, that's what he should do. He didn't have enough, so just took a little hike and was so glad he had paid attention to the signs when he got back up.

    Warnings are for reasons. Not used to tides, listen to the locals. Not used to desert, listen to the locals. In Churchill, Manitoba, folk go for...

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  • John Timaeusjohntimaeus@infosec.exchange
    Aug 21, 2026, 10:08 PM

    @sadele2 @Legit_Spaghetti @ai6yr

    Stay with the car.
    Cover the car as best you can with space blankets (magnets are your friend). Open the windows/ doors on shady side only.
    Drink lots of water.
    [From the official Aramco advice circa 1985]

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  • Hey Guselebertus@eigenmagic.net
    Aug 21, 2026, 10:20 PM

    @sadele2

    100% on the water. Thats the most base line thing you can do.

    Not at all commentary on what happened or critique of the event on my part, but if you're ever traveling through an extreme desert climate (most of the southwest) even getting a flat tire on the highway can be a big deal.

    If you aren't a desert resident sometimes it is difficult to even tell when heat is becoming dangerous because it basically goes from you being fine to your body rapidly failing.

    May sound silly or extreme about the water but it's as important as having boots, gloves, and a coat in extreme cold environments. We don't even run errands here in town (arizona) during the summer without at least filling 1-2 liters for everyone in the car. Gallons for long or remote trips are a standard.

    @Legit_Spaghetti @ai6yr

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  • Purrbiscatsilver_buttercat@kolektiva.social
    Aug 21, 2026, 10:56 PM

    @Legit_Spaghetti @ai6yr No actually, you are generally correct here. If fuel, A/C hold out, use them. If they die off, stay in the shaded area. Do NOT start walking anywhere until the cooler time of day arrives, as the sun sets, and do NOT cut across un-roaded desert. Stay on the roads, since any help is likely to come along them, rather than across open desert.... rare 4x4/dune-buggies exception notwithstanding.

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  • Joan Combs Dursoeconoprof@mastodon.social
    Aug 21, 2026, 9:36 PM

    @ai6yr Remote Road in Death Valley. wouldn't there be lots of signs warning against that? and map apps are unlikely to be accurate?

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  • Justin Freejustin_free
    Aug 21, 2026, 9:00 PM

    @ai6yr
    What's this place called, again?
    We're broke down in "Death Valley"?!!!

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  • FreddyB Aviation Photographycvvhrn@sfba.social
    Aug 21, 2026, 9:59 PM

    @ai6yr traverse that road a while back and it’s technically not difficult although heavy winter rains can chew up those roads pretty bad. Could not find the road they were stranded near, but there is quite frankly nothing out there. that’s with an SUV. Mind you if they were in a sedan. All bets are off.

    I think it is a road that the park service traverses at least once a day

    116° even with proper gear that is a shelter in place scenario and then when the sun goes down, maybe you go out

    The one guy got 1.3 miles which tells me they did not have gear or put in extra water. Most of my desert trips are solo and I budget 2 gallons a day for and Carrie a total reserve of 28 gallons minimum so potentially could go two weeks. Cars become ovens so I do also carry poles and. A heavy duty UV rated tarp to create shade. Cause there’s almost none out there.

    probably would’ve walked back the way I came and I tried to cross the basin

    Image attached toot
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  • AI6YR Benai6yr@m.ai6yr.org
    Aug 21, 2026, 10:01 PM

    @cvvhrn I would wait until nightfall. But requires you have a ton of water to stay cool!

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  • Bekahbolderbekah@mastodon.social
    Aug 21, 2026, 11:28 PM

    @ai6yr I’m sure it’s beautiful but Death Valley has the risk right there in the name. 🫤

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  • ozengozeng@aus.social
    Aug 23, 2026, 3:57 AM

    @ai6yr this is why the advice is to carry ample water and stay with the vehicle. Likely the only source of shade around.

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