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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[–] Aceticon@lemmy.world 31 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Hah! Total failure!

The guy is still alive. Nice try Death Valley!

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[–] echodot@feddit.uk 22 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Might seem like a stupid question but that's Fahrenheit right not Celsius? I like how in the article they unnecessarily clarify that he's talking about temperature in degrees, (a concussed duckling would be able to work that one out) but not the unit of temperature.

[–] weeeeum@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Correct

120f = 48c

200f = 93c

[–] ben_dover@lemmy.world 31 points 10 months ago (8 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?

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 27 points 10 months ago (4 children)

In the 80s, and I was 7, we went to Italy and my parents and I went up Mount Etna and I was wearing flip-flops, making it pretty much impossible to walk up a bunch of lava rocks without them slipping off and cutting my feet. My parents only thought I was complaining about the walk until my mother looked down and saw my feet bleeding.

I haven't been a big fan of them since.

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[–] ScreamingFirehawk@feddit.uk 19 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 32 points 10 months ago (1 children)
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[–] echodot@feddit.uk 28 points 10 months ago (2 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.

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[–] ours@lemmy.world 11 points 10 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 10 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).

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[–] NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml -1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

If there are no relevant foot pictures in the article then it didn't happen.

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[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I feel like better temporary solutions could be found (than flaying your own skin on hot sand) like ripping your shirt off and tying it to your feet?

[–] awesome_lowlander@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The burns probably happened in seconds.

[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

So that is roughly 80-90 C, makes wonder if you can in a couple seconds burn your feet to a level where its skin falls off?

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[–] Cosmicomical@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's the kind of shit i expect to happen in a place called death valley. I will only go if escorted by hokuto no ken

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 3 points 10 months ago

I went to Death Valley once on a tour and the minibus fell off the road. We had to open the door so that we could get some leverage so we could push it out of the small hole that it had fallen in and in the time that we had the door open the plastics on the door completely melted. We were all very hungover as well so it wasn't really a very good experience.

[–] AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Don't they do helicopter tours there? How does that work ... and if/when it does, it seems like it'd be a dying industry...

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 3 points 10 months ago

Not in Death Valley as far as I'm aware, they do in the local area but not actually in Death Valley itself. I must admit though I'm a bit unclear about how far the really hot bit of Death Valley extends.

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