Two incidents from the NPS Morning Report demonstrate the dangers of dehydration, a definite factor in many areas at this time of year....

Lake Mead National Recreation Area - NV, AZ
Bodies Of Two People Found In Stuck Minivan

The bodies of a man and woman from Golden Valley, Arizona, were found near Greggs Hideout in Lake Mead National Recreation Area on Sunday, August 2nd.

Park dispatch received a call just before 5 p.m. reporting that bodies of the two people were found in a minivan by a third party who was passing through.

Mohave County Sheriff’s Office deputies and National Park Service rangers responded and located the pair in a minivan that was stuck in the dirt on Salt Spring Wash Road. They appeared to have died from environmental exposure. Only two bottles of water were found at the scene and there was no cell phone coverage in the area.

The Mohave County Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death and confirm the victims’ identities. The incident is under investigation.

White Sands National Monument (NM)
Two French Visitors Die, Child Rescued

Two visitors from France died Tuesday afternoon while hiking the Alkali Flat Trail in White Sands National Monument. A child in the group was found alive, rescued by monument and local emergency personnel, and treated for heat exposure.

Park rangers discovered the three French nationals while on routine trail patrol approximately 1.5 miles from the Alkali Flat trailhead. The body of the woman was found about 5:30 p.m. and the man’s body and surviving boy about half an hour later. The daytime high temperature in the monument Tuesday reached 101 degrees F.

The deaths are being investigated by the Otero County (NM) Sheriff’s Office. French authorities were immediately notified and are assisting in the case.

What can we learn from these incidents? For starters, carry lots of water, especially in your vehicle where weight is a negligible factor. Extrication gear (i.e., shovel) is always a good idea.

Once again, a $250 PLB would have turned a fatal incident into a merely embarrassing one.

Know where you're going, and the difficulties and hazards you may encounter along the way.

Know the capabilities and limitations of your body, your gear and your vehicle.

Have a "Plan B" and reasonable means of self-help, self-repair and self-rescue.

Leave a hike/travel plan. Tell someone trustworthy where you're going and when you'll be back, every single time you set out for any sort of journey or activity where an accident may befall you unnoticed by others or away from immediate assistance, no matter how routine.

P.S. I have a dim recollection of hearing about some sort of app that lets you set up a deadline after which your custom emergency message will be broadcast to recipients you've pre-selected unless you cancel it before the deadline. Does anyone recall anything like this?

Given we're talking about tourists (read: rental car) Water, walking gear, and a freaking paper MAP is the best we can realistically expect.

True that!

Why lower expectations for someone who rents a car? Do we not all do that some time or another?

This suggests a thread along the lines of "How to prep when you are renting wheels in an unfamiliar location" or something similar......

that location is super-hot in the summer. I would not be surprised to hear max temps in the range 110-120 degrees C.

I feel really sorry for those people. I have been in that situation ONCE, and it was scary. the heat can literally overwhelm you.

the comments about a PLB are right on the money. But most tourists just "wing it". totally tragic.

This was a different incident (for me). But it's relevant. I remember riding my motorcycle on the Death Valley roads in summer ... maybe a year or two ago. But I wasn't stupid. I got up early and hit the road about 5am. It was COOL and beautiful then. By 8:30 am the HEAT was getting intense. I turned around (as PLANNED) and headed back to my point of origin. That was my plan for the day ... escape the heat.

BUT I REMEMBER. As I was heading back to "home", two cars went past me. Cruising thru Death Valley roads in the summertime. And I remember thinking - WHAT ARE THOSE PEOPLE THINKING? If their car breaks down out there - they are literally toast.

And that is the problem today. we cruise around in our nice air-conditioned vehicles, and we have literally NO IDEA how fierce that environment is ... out there.

TRAGIC.
Heat and dehydration is NO WAY to die.

Pete

Rental car driven by French tourists means air travel. That means luggage restrictions. Even when stripped down to comply with airline and TSA regulations, a car kit suitable for off pavement travel is going to take up as much space as a gym bag. And, commercial kits are not cheap enough to be considered disposable. What this boils down to is it's unrealistic to expect them to carry anything but the most abbreviated kit.

EDIT: I already asked a similar question about what to do when things go catawampus on travel.

http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=210638&page=1

Complacency. Most people get so comfortable with their version of normal that they expect their "normal" to continue even when they go off road. The couple from Golden Valley, AZ should have known better. I expect people from AZ to carry a lot more water -- complacency. They didn't plan to get stuck. R.I.P.

The couple from France should have realized that White Sands was not even close to their version of normal. In France you are very rarely outside cellphone coverage, but I'm not seeing much coverage inside White Sands Nat'l Monument -- NM cell coverage (NE of Las Cruces, NM). I've been many places in France and what they had in common was lots of people. You can go a long time between people in the desert SW. again, R.I.P.

Speaking of normal, who else here has a PLB in the vehicle they normally drive?
Do you take the PLB with you when you go on vacation?
Who else carries gallon of water in addition to the water you brought along to drink that day? I'm not even in the desert.

I travel by commercial air all of the time, and I always carry a good kit. They didn't need a road recovery kit or any heavy tools, just a map, a little shelter, signaling and water! Their critical failure was that they did not use their most important survival tool, their brain.

Your brain can get through any airport check point, and it does not cost anything more to take it with you.

With a very little preparation it can get you out of, or prevent, any such situation.

With a little water and food it can continue to function indefinitely, no need for batteries.

It can be improved and become more effective with a little proper maintenance, with very little associated cost.

What do you bring for shelter when you have to travel by air, Montanero? I'm curious because that would seem to be kind of bulky for your one personal item on the plane.

I carry gallons of water in my car. It's just convenient. It's also easy to do. Just drop a case or two of bottled water in the back.

However, on a recent cross country road trip I discovered that my cell phone gets no reception at all in some states. I have enough food and water to last me a few days, and the high way wasn't so deserted. If my car breaks down during the day, I can probably see another car within an hour. But, still, I started thinking carrying a PLB in the car might not be a bad idea. People have driven off the road, gotten trapped in the car for days because nobody could see them or hear them from the highway.

I'm not sure we need to characterize the dead as one way or another. We don't know what they were thinking. Perhaps, as someone pointed out, the French tourists really just didn't know how desolate and dangerous a place they were going to. Maybe they assumed, based on their previous travel experiences with other locations, there would be tons of people to flag down for help if they ran into trouble. Driving in Yellowstone is like that.

I mean, I have water, emergency food, maps, and a 40 lb bag of mechanical tools, medical stuff, and survival equipment in my car. If on this recent trip, my car flipped over and I got injured and trapped in a spot nobody could see from the highway, I'd hate it if people said, "He should have gotten a better cell phone plan! He should have brought a PLB! It's stupid to take a trip when you're so unprepared!"