this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2024
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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.

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[–] ben_dover@lemmy.world 30 points 4 months ago (5 children)

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?

[–] deltapi@lemmy.world 39 points 4 months ago (2 children)

No, the Belgian man was not German.

[–] MeekerThanBeaker@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

But he may have spoke German. I'll allow it.

[–] Blumpkinhead@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago
[–] echodot 28 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] batmaniam@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 4 points 4 months ago

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.

[–] ScreamingFirehawk 18 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Belgian, so I'm surprised they were sensible enough to wear any kind of footwear

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 31 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] SilverFlame@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

I always thought of Belgians as being swamp French. It's the Dutch who are swamp Germans.

[–] ours@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] shaman1093@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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).

[–] ours@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

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

[–] barsquid@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago