In mid-December, a 25-year-old hiker died in Red Rock National Conservation Area, falling about 80 feet to his death.
Almost every year, someone dies in a fall hiking in the mountains around Las Vegas. Many more are rescued by the men and women of the Las Vegas Police Search and Rescue Unit.
The question is: why does the mix of people and the outdoors lead to death, especially when there are ample signs and warnings telling people about the risks?
Well, believe it or not, there’s an answer.
Author Michael Ghiglieri has researched and written about deaths in national parks for years. With Thomas Myers, he co-authored, “Over the Edge, Death in the Grand Canyon.”
How did you become interested in this topic?
“I worked for decades as a guide even through graduate school I was a river guide and I worked in Grand Canyon for more than 40 years now. And I was around for fatal events that happened on other trips…. Eventually, it got to the point that I thought ‘so many of these, if not all of them are preventable, so what is it that’s going on?’ What is the decision making that leads to these fatal errors.”
According to your book, 764 people have died in the canyon between 1860 and 2012, what is the profile of someone who dies in the canyon?
“It’s not easy because the average profile differs from the type of incident to the type of incident”
“But the average person, if you have to be pinned down, is somebody who is not heat acclimated who shows up from some other part of the United States or part of the world where 112 degrees never happens and they just go. And they usually go later in the day, when it’s the hottest time and they usually take too little water”
From the book it looks like most of the victims were younger and most were men?
“Men far and away outnumber women with regard to making dumb mistakes. The only place where they start to catch up is with these heat injuries. There are a lot of women who are just as obvious to the time of day and the effect of heat and the amount of water you need to drink as men. But in most other types of injuries men vastly outnumber women.”
Some of these stories are incredibly sad, is it wrenching for you to write some of these stories?
“Oh Yea! Tom, my writing partner, we thought for years and years that we might do a similar type of book for Hawaii, the big island. And the problem is neither of us can face wallowing through all those miserable experiences – yet again.”
Do you have any theories about why people who go out into the wild end up dying?
“People don’t get it. At the risk of sounding like an elitist, I have a shabby little hypothesis and that is: one of the prime reason people get in trouble is, comparatively speaking, they’re poodles in a world of wolves, once they leave the pavement. I don’t say that in a sneering way. I just say it because we learn what we learn based on the environments in which we live and if we exit that environment into something drastically more dangerous but the dangers don’t seem apparent until they’re thrust upon us when it’s too late.”
Does it have to do with movies that show people in extreme situations living?
“Yea. It’s hard for me to watch adventure movies anymore because I know too much. So, I think ‘well that’s impossible’ or ‘no you can’t get out of that situation by doing this.’ People who suffer in celluloid really are acting, according to how much the script calls for that’s how much they suffer. We learn through movies. Movies are incredibly powerful media that shape perceptions.”
“The biggest reason that Tom and I decided to tackle this Death in Grand Canyon was we thought ‘Well if people understood what they were getting into before they got in to, they would be well prepared not to become victims’ and it turns out we were incredibly naïve in thinking that.”
(Editor's Note: This story originally aired in January 2016)
Michael Ghiglieri, co-author, "Over The Edge: Death In Grand Canyon"
