When Technology (Users) Fail - Grand Canyon Hikers Summon Rangers 3x - Water "Tasted Salty"

[hatrack]

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The national parks’ history is full of examples of misguided visitors feeding bears, putting children on buffalos for photos and dipping into geysers despite signs warning of scalding temperatures. But today, as an ever more wired and interconnected public visits the parks in rising numbers — July was a record month for visitors at Yellowstone — rangers say that technology often figures into such mishaps.

People with cellphones call rangers from mountaintops to request refreshments or a guide; in Jackson Hole, Wyo., one lost hiker even asked for hot chocolate. A French teenager was injured after plunging 75 feet this month from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon when he backed up while taking pictures. And last fall, a group of hikers in the canyon called in rescue helicopters three times by pressing the emergency button on their satellite location device. When rangers arrived the second time, the hikers explained that their water supply “tasted salty.”

“Because of having that electronic device, people have an expectation that they can do something stupid and be rescued,” said Jackie Skaggs, spokeswoman for Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. “Every once in a while we get a call from someone who has gone to the top of a peak, the weather has turned and they are confused about how to get down and they want someone to personally escort them,” Ms. Skaggs said. “The answer is that you are up there for the night.”

The National Park Service does not keep track of what percentage of its search and rescue missions, which have been climbing for the last five years and topped 3,500 in 2009, are technology related. But in an effort to home in on “contributing factors” to park accidents, the service recently felt compelled to add “inattention to surroundings” to more old-fashioned causes like “darkness” and “animals.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/science/earth/22parks.html

[XemaSab]

1. If you haven't read "Death in Yosemite"

it's a truly monumental compendium of stupid ways to die. :P

(My personal favorites are the people who hike to the tops of the waterfalls, and they're all hot and sweaty so they take a refreshing dip in the river that's conveniently sited at the top of the trail. :P )

[hatrack]

2. I would assume gravity involvement in many of said incidents?

:shrug:

[XemaSab]

5. Long hike up

followed by a swift ride down. :P

[hlthe2b]

3. Bad enough when they are stupid themselves...

but I can recall several incidents where tourists put children on the back of Bison in Yellowstone or placed them down to get their feet wet in the hot pools-- well, I don't think I have to spell out the horrors that result...

[denbot]

4. We have read Death in the Canyon, in Yellowstone, and in Yosemite

I found out later a friend of mine's sister is in the Yosemite one.. She was a student who went there with friends. In the book it says that it was her boyfriend, but my buddy says that a chaperon fell in the water, and several students tried to save him. They were able to grab him, but in the process she was swept off the top of the near by falls.

[tavalon]

7. My husband has been reading that this week

and he's read some choice pieces to me. Man, some people are just too stupid to be allowed out in the wilderness. The story about the large plane of marijuana did have me rolling, though.

He was just at Yosemite and it is his favorite park. He saw a number of people doing exactly what you said. Nobody cares about Mr. Undertoad anymore. Poor Mr. Undertoad. Wait, no, he wins most of the time. Bye-bye.........................Wheeeeee splat!

[tavalon]

8. The ledge trail sounds pretty fun too

in an amusement park without the safeties built in kind of way.

[XemaSab]

12. I lived near there for a year and a half

The park encourages people to treat it like Disneyland, and then they're shocked when people treat it like Disneyland. :P

[Bitwit1234]

6. This is not dangerous or anything like that BUT

I worked at a Motor Vehicle Administration. One day a lady came in to one of the cashiers and said I need to buy another sticker I put mine on the wrong car. The cashier said well I can do a move over but I need to get the sticker number and the wrong car's tag number. She goes out with the lady and looks at the cars so as to make the transfer. Lo and behold....the lady had a BLACK LINCOLN AND SHE HAD PUT THE STICKERS ON AN ""ORANGE"" SPORT CAR. Go figure.

[txlibdem]

9. Common sense isn't so common anymore

I forget who said that but I suspect they were very wise.

[petronius]

10. I've always felt that it's important to encourage people to use the Parks and wilderness

if we want support to protect these areas, but some people are too stupid to breed, let along backpack. Three SPOT activations over three days? I hope they got a bill for all 3 helicopter flights...

[TheMadMonk]

11. These are not mishaps/accidents. Theses are the results of WILLFUL ignorance.

It is rarely (if ever) simple ignorance that causes people to pop their kid on the back of a wild bison or dip them in boiling acid. It is the sort of ignorance that has to be worked at. It's the deliberate tuning out when the flight attendant goes through her routine at the start of the flight; or when the ranger says do not feed the animals or cook your child in Old Faithful; the sign saying no dogs on the beach does not apply to them, even if they fail to avoid seeing it; it's the discarding of warning pamphlets unread, AND it is NEVER their fault when their actions result in inconvenience, injury or even death.

AND

Frivolous use of a rescue service should result in a bloody hefty bill.