I assumed same thing. The question is why would they put a traffic limit on it? Seems like it goes against the hope for the website of generating readers... though I guess if he's paying for all the servers himself it makes sense to block at a certain point.
Possibly my favorite piece of writing on the Internet, a substantive, totally engrossing investigative mystery set on what feels like the Martian frontier.
The writer’s descriptions of preparing for searches limited by the environment to a couple of hours might as well have taken place in an airlock, and (spoilers!) when they finally turn up some evidence towards the end and manage to involve the local scattered populace & sheriff in the hunt before the payoff...
Read with a tab of Google Earth open and follow along with the clues for a weirdly immersive experience, preferably on a hot and dry day!
Read this by chance because I usually come to HN for tech articles, but I feel exactly the same and have been recommending this ever since. One of the most thrilling and exciting stories I've read so far.
> Turned out I was experiencing the onset of Graves Disease (a friggin’ chick thing that hardly ever happens to guys!!)
One of many passages that really turned me off of this as a piece of writing. It’s a thorough collection of amateurish blog posts but is it anything more than that? Not to me.
The story is still fantastic, despite some poor phrasing. Graves Disease does predominately occur in women, so what the author is saying is true. It may not be the way I would phrase it, but instead of imputing malice or amateurishness, I opt to think the author was trying to be humorous/add some levity to the story and it just may not have worked for me (or you) in places. Which is okay. Heck, the author even leads with stating that his “usual writing style tends to be somewhat lighthearted and flippant”.
Edit, to add: I think it is a great thing that every article on the web is not crafted like a think-piece in The New Yorker. That would be exhausting.
We (German family) went to Death Valley as tourists in the 80s and we're puzzled by the obsession everyone had with carrying enough water but of course, being German, we complied. It wasn't terribly warm, it was December, and later that day a record breaking thunderstorm dumped on us. We stayed at Furnace Creek, which was amazing, but the road flooded and we had to backtrack the next day instead of passing through.
Now, after decades of living in the western US I understand how easily you can die in the wilderness but at the time it seemed exaggerated.
I'm puzzled by the "european" take on wilderness situations. Even when going on "normal" hikes i.e. actively maintained trails, I always take 24-48 hours of emergency water/supplies because even maintained trails can be dangerous.
Is this viewpoint specifically because of lack of context as how far away help can be?
Though thinking about it, I think you average American city dweller probably would have a same mentality
When I was a freshman in college in Arizona, I went on a short "rock climbing" trip, nothing that strenuous or requiring equipment or particular experience, just clambering over large rocks on a warm and sunny, but not scorching day.
We were told to bring water, but I only took a small water bottle, and it didn't last that long. I was kind of shocked when my vision just went all blank and red with some random sparkles. One moment I could see, the next I was fully conscious but blinded. I wasn't that far away from other people, but I wasn't right next to anyone. Luckily I wasn't that far from rocks that provided shadow where I could get out of the sun, but I was afraid that by doing so, I would be hiding from anyone who could find me. And briefly I had no idea if my condition was permanent, I was going to die, or what.
Anyway, I wasn't a European or city dweller, just a clueless kid not used to the desert and/or outdoor activities much.
I think a lot of people do dumb things, and some survive and learn, and some don't.
I grew up with some great education about wilderness survival. I've made my fair share of mistakes, for sure. Did a stint in search and rescue; learned a ton about whole classes of mistakes I'd never considered.
When I hear people gushing about colonizing Mars, I think about how deadly parts of our own planet are. I just shake my head. Probably 99.9% of our population is completely unprepared for that level of hardship. I know I'm not.
In much of Europe it would be a big challenge to get more than ten miles away from an inhabited building .. and the places that you can are then themselves busy tourist spots.
Even when you do the terrain isn't anywhere near as inhospitable as the American desert.
Not sure what parts of Europe you know, but everything above the arctic circle in Scandinavia, obviously in winter, the eastern alps (cell phone coverage in the western part is too good), etc... you are more than 10 miles away from people.
At least in there places, you're never far from a water source. Maybe carrying water is a bit difficult concept for Northern Europeans, as you can always find drinkable water in the nature.
There really is essentially no American style wilderness in Europe. There’s almost nowhere where you are more than 20 miles from a village or at least a road that people drive down regularly.
That doesn't hold true in Northern Scandinavia as quite a few lost people could verify if they hadn't been lost while on a hike. It is easy to find a 20 miles radius where no people come regularly in Sweden for example.
Fair enough, but perhaps one of those exception proves the rule situations. Either way, the reason these places are the way they are is because they are naturally uninhabitable. Northern Scandinavia because it's too cold, and huge swaths of the American West because there's no water. Going into Death Valley without a ton of water is like going into the Lapland with no winter coat because your car has a heater.
I wouldn't call it "European", but yeah, we don't have that kind of true wilderness in central Europe. Scandinavia is a different story. Let's say it is more a city dwelling issue.
It also depends on what kind of nature you have around you. In my case, mountains. Others have deserts, forests, jungles, arctic... Some principles transfer well, others not so much.
Highly recommend a stay at the Furnace Creek Inn in the summer time. There's a stone in-ground pool there surrounded by stone pillars. The pool naturally maintains a comfortable 85 degrees even at night. At night, if you're lucky, you will be presented with the most amazing night sky you've ever seen. Then suddenly, you'll start to hear squeaks and as though a blanket were pulled over the star scape you'll realize there are thousands of bats overhead. Most will keep their distance, but during one of my visits one fell into the pool and was struggling to get out. Bats can carry rabies among other things, so had to be careful, but was able to nudge the bat to the edge of the pool with the combination of waves and a broomstick.
Don't go hiking in the summer, though. Although I don't think any sane person would even consider it after spending just 15 minutes in 125 degree heat. It's still an experience like no other. If you go any other time of year you're simply not getting the full Death Vally Experience(tm).
We attempted a family hike, day trip, on Corsica a couple years back. Took plenty of water, waited for the afternoon, etc. Turned back after less then half the way due to sun and heat.
Well that was riveting, bit of a cliffhanger at the end there. I had hoped for more closure, just like the author.
What stands out is how the author leaks information to people in the first parts of the story, and then is peeved at the Sheriff's department keeping him out of the loop near the end.
The author says they trusted the wrong person but really they should have trusted no one. You live and you learn.
This article cannot convey to me, a european who has never seen wilderness, what Death Valley really is.
I still don't understand why or how the family would set out from their van, not in the direction their van came from but rather further into the wilderness. With wine and beer as their only apparent sources of liquids.
This seems the biggest issue here, people underestimating Death Valley, I mean it should be apparent from the name.
This article cannot convey to me, a european who has never seen wilderness, what Death Valley really is
DV is about the size of Cyprus, and has the hottest temperatures encountered on the planet.
It's sort of the opposite of how I imagine Siberia. Vast, remote, but hot & dry instead of cold & wet.
Forest areas painted by NPS or various other federal agencies in the US are also criss-crossed with "forest roads", which are marked on park maps (but not generally on street maps), but many of which are little more than rough double track that a small 4x4 could traverse, but nothing you'd travel in a normal car. I could see a European driver (or even an American who doesn't spend time in wilderness) seeing "FR-286" marked on a map, assume it's just an unpaved (but still maintained) dirt/gravel road, and start down it, 10 miles it, it turns to shit, but there's no easy turn-around, so push on deeper and deeper, and suddenly realize he's screwed.
Also worth noting, for those unfamiliar, Wilderness (capital 'W') has a special legal meaning in the US. It's park/forest area in which mechanical transport is forbidden - foot or pack-animal only. And "road" inside Wilderness is likely to be overgrown and very rough.
It's been a couple years since I read through this saga, but as I recall the main theory of why they went that route is that they likely had a map that showed the border of the military base was that direction. Someone not familiar with the American west and US military facilities in general might think that would mean a densely populated base with guards on patrol and people to help, rather than the sad reality of a huge empty wilderness reserved for the military to occasionally do exercises within.
Oh, you explained that slightly better than the author imo.
But now the pieces I remember from the article fall into place.
We have similar places here in Sweden that are technically owned by the military but they have a schedule when they're in use and on off times can often be used for camping by tourists, or grazing by local farmers.
I wouldn't compare anything I've seen in Sweden or Europe to the level of wilderness in DVNP. The most wild thing I've seen here was Samaria gorge on Crete and it was full of tourists, a well defined path and water sources.
(I'm from the south of Sweden, I realize the north has a lot of vast wilderness;)
Intuition can be very misleading. If you know there's nothing behind you, and you're used to something every 100 km or less, then you might decide to go forward.
During WW2, the US kept German POWs in camps in the US Southwest. In the Great Papago Escape, some Germans constructed a collapsible raft, hoping to get to the Salt River and float down to Mexico.
The Salt River is perennial, and there wasn't enough water for them to do that. Germany doesn't have the same geography or hydrology. Because the escapees were unfamiliar with the terrain, most of them were quickly recaptured.
I've been to Death Valley twice, both in vehicles with A/C, and plenty of water. I cannot convey it either.
It's also huge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruhr tells me the Ruhr Valley metropolitan area is 4,435 km2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley says Death Valley is much larger, at 7,800 km2. (It's about 1/2 the size of the Rhine Rift Valley; Oberrheinische Tiefebene.) The drive from Badwater (the lowest point) to Scotty's Castle is about 170km. With no services along the way.
Quick correction; I've never been to Scotty's Castle, but I've been to DV a handful of times and that all struck me as slightly off. It looks like the distance is 117km (73mi), and actually that route is denser in terms of services than any other part of DV. You'll go past Furnace Creek which is the only place in the park with premium gasoline, and you'll pass the major junction with Highway 190 which means regular gasoline is available at Stovepipe just a handful of miles west of that junction.
(The only other place with fuel that I can think of, offhand, is Panamint Springs, and is quite a bit more pricey than the other areas.. and also, a mountain crossing away)
Forget backroads, when travelling by highway you will be met with a sign that says "No Services 120 mi". And there is literally nothing resembling civilization, aside from the road itself, for that entire stretch.
Wow, on my bucketlist is definitely to drive through the states and see those sights.
179 miles is almost half the distance from me to Stockholm. It's not too far gas-wise, I mean you can easily make it without re-fueling. But it's definitely a warning you should heed. Especially with old american gas guzzlers I guess.
I presume the plan was to return to the van as shelter if necessary, as the China Lake[1] military base was "only" 8 miles from the van. Having driven a far down the road as they had, they knew full well they were not going to encounter anyone or anything walking back the way they came.
It's worth noting that China Lake, as original article suggests the DVG may have expected to be fully staffed, is only slightly smaller in size than Turkey. (19,500sqmi vs 23,000sqmi). I don't know much of anything about it, but I'm guessing it makes Death Valley look like a metropolis.
Sorry, where are you getting 19,500 sq. mi.? The Wikipedia article says 4,500 sq. km., or ~1,700 sq. mi.
Not that it matters much. I spent several years stationed at the Army's nearby Ft. Irwin and the area is so desolate the actual number hardly matters.
Edit: Reading further into the Wikipedia article, I think you took the number for the size of the controlled airspace around China Lake, which isn't the same as area enclosed by the land perimeter.
>What stands out is how the author leaks information to people in the first parts of the story, and then is peeved at the Sheriff's department keeping him out of the loop near the end.
One of the things that I think happened at the end was that, as far as the Sheriff's department was concerned, the missing persons' case was solved and they'd recovered what they needed to recover even if not everything was wrapped up in a neat bow. I get the author's somewhat frustration but I also get that the Sheriff's department had absolutely zero interest in any outside involvement that would create an obligation to devote further resources to tying that bow.
I find that in modern times, people have no idea how much nature is out to kill them.
Nature does not give a shit about you. Just because something is a national park does not mean its Disney Land.
I've driven through Death Valley, never hiked (though i wish to do so some day), and I would not wish to deviate from known roads ever. Its a flat huge stupidly hot desert. If you get lost, welp.
Even the main road gets extremely dodgy at a few/many places.
Though if you're lucky you'll find the green patch somewhere in there (a damn golf course in the middle of the desert)
They were actually on a "known road." It's on the map. The problem is that what constitutes a "road" on a map in Death Valley (and many areas in the US West) may not look much like the sort of road many people in more built-up areas expect. See also the assumptions the German tourists apparently made about China Lake.
Added: In general, once you get beyond paved roads, maps don't necessarily reliably distinguish between dirt road that's usually well-graded and maintained and "LOL. You'd better have a high clearance 4WD--not a crossover wannabe--and know how to drive it."
Well yes, but their fate was sealed when they accidentally went off road. I preface "known" with, "the most obviously correct road for current conditions"
The people in the article already were going down roads that were not obviously compatible with their vehicle before they got lost.
Fair enough. I have been on roads in that area of the country where at some point I went "Nope. I have neither the skills nor the vehicle for this" and turned around. (With very considerable difficulty in one case I remember.)
It appears in this case that the family probably felt very pressed for time so they kept on. Which is the sort of thing that often factors into events like this.
The "very considerable difficulty" part is key, as I'm sure you realize. So often as roads get worse, we feel lucky we made it past that obstacle "that one time" and can only imagine it gets better if you press on, because you're not sure you can make it back the way you came.
Of course, one of the problems with a lot of these roads is that they're barely one vehicle wide with a rock face on one side and sharp dropoff on the other.
In this one particular case, I had driven up to a cemetery on a road that wasn't too bad and I decided to continue on up to a ghost town which was a few more miles as I recall. The road worsened considerably and I had neither the vehicle nor the comfort level to inch along for miles of white-knuckle driving never mind potentially encountering another vehicle. Fortunately I eventually came across a slight widening that allowed me to do something like a 30 point turn to get turned around.
I'm actually usually more comfortable on the way back because I can be reasonably confident that if I could get up I can get down. Whereas I'm more concerned that things have just started to get bad on the way up.
One thing that I think throws people off too is that, even if you do your homework, a lot of guides and web sites are written by people who have been driving their properly-equipped Jeep Rubicons around the deserts and mountains for years--which can make things seem a lot more straightforward to amateurs with basically street cars than they are.
That seems to be a general theme, so. More often that not that's how people end up in bad spots in the Alps. That, and weather. Add to is faulty assumptions about the environment and ones skills, and it turns into a bad combination.
Edit:
One intense read! And it reminded me of a safety tip for long distance hiking. Always tell the people at the place you leave where you are going and when you want to be their. If you don't show up, search teams know where to look.
Also, turn around sooner rather than later. Not blaming the tourists, so. I ended up, young and stupid, in places in Alps I neither should have been nor wanted to end up in. Stuff like that just adds up, if you aren't super careful it is very easy to miss the point of no return.
OMG. Their original plan was bat-shit insane and it went downhill from there.
ADDED: I think Google Maps has gotten better at simply not offering really questionable routes as an option. At least that seemed to be the case when I played around with it the last time I read the German tourist story. I think you can force it if there is no alternative to get to a specific location but it tries hard to avoid the very iffy routes.
And once they did get stuck, they behaved sensibly which--perhaps along with a bit of luck--got them out of things.
It really is an amazing national park. The vastness of it all is stunning--you have Batwater Basin at -282' elevation and Telescope peak at 11k. My partner and I hiked Wildrose Peak 9k (+2200) because Telescope had too much snow on it. The size of the park really hits home when you see that 2-inches on the NPS map takes you 1.5hrs by car.
Our rental car was punished pretty hard by the roads, but held up like a champ. There was no way we were getting to the roads that DVG were lost on. The morbid streak in me wanted to find the bush described in [1], but we had to give up after an hour or so. There is something about tying a place to a story. Will definitely be back to explore the park more.
If you are tenting, reserve your site early, because there are only a couple camp areas that aren't engulfed by pull-behinds and their generators running 24/7.
Consider going in the winter. At least, don't go in the summer. Although we did get snowed on in March one year.
I took a motorcycle trip with a friend once, and daytime temps were in the low 70s around sea level in January. Of course, it got very very cold at night, so if you get stuck/lost, that's a whole other set of problems to deal with. We didn't take any risks on our trip, but after seeing how badly my skidplate and oil filter got damaged on some 4wd trails, I'm glad I didn't have to get it hauled out by a specialty towing business to the tune of.. thousands? of dollars.
I suppose it depends on what you're looking to do, but from a "general tourist" standpoint, the few major roads are paved and in excellent condition (or, at least, before the flooding). Across the valley from the Mono Lake area where you enter the area from the west, through Panamint, into the park proper, and all the way out to Nevada.. And from Ubehebe Crater in the north, way down to Zabriske point and out to Las Vegas to the south.
The large tourist attractions are on these paved roads, and even a lot of the hiking is just a short 2 mile drive down a well-graded gravel road. Though I understand the road to Scotty's Castle, if it's open yet, is somewhat rougher.
On the flip side, the remote areas are truly remote. Racetrack Playa is 20 miles down a horrible washboard road from Ubehebe Crater (which itself is about as remote as you can get on a paved road in the park) and I only recommend you drive it in a vehicle owned by someone you truly hate, as it won't be the same again. You won't get stuck or lost, though. Unless you try the "shortcut" across Lippincott pass that looks so much easier on a map than driving back the way you came.
>Racetrack Playa is 20 miles down a horrible washboard road from Ubehebe Crater (which itself is about as remote as you can get on a paved road in the park) and I only recommend you drive it in a vehicle owned by someone you truly hate, as it won't be the same again.
Finally got there on my last trip a couple years ago. My friend and I decided to splurge and go with a guide from Farabee Jeep rentals. It turned out the road itself isn't as scary as the routes with sharp dropoffs. Neither I nor my fairly conservative friend would especially hesitate to drive it ourselves on a future occasion but we'd definitely take a properly equipped rental jeep rather than use a standard rental car. If nothing else, the route must be killer on tires and who knows what the spare and jack situation is with a standard rental. (To say nothing of the fact you're violating your contract.)
Oh, there's nothing remotely bad about the road other than the washboards. There's nothing scary about it.
We were able to cruise at ~40mph and generally passing 4 wheel vehicles, but by the end of the trip my shocks were totally blown.
This was the experience of Edmunds with most of the pickup trucks, even with "offroad package" that they took there. Basically, passenger cars and pickup trucks just aren't built for the abuse.
> I find that in modern times, people have no idea how much nature is out to kill them.
To get an idea with not much chance of dying, check out the reality TV show "Alone" on Netflix or Amazon Prime or the History channel. On season one episode one there's a rough tough cop contestant that SPOILER
taps out after one night of too much reality in the woods ... and I had a lot of sympathy for him.
Wilderness, even in the lower 48, can indeed be wild. You can find yourself in trouble, and walking dead, quite quickly.
That said, there's beauty in even the starkest landscapes, and a respectful and properly prepared visit will reward with memories for a (long, prosperous) lifetime.
If you liked this, I'd also highly recommend Jay Penner's "companion" article, which goes into more geographic detail [1], along with a Google map [2], as well as another nice map of the overall route [3]
The amount of resources invested into this for so long is surprising - not to mention the risks that many people assumed in putting their own lives in danger for bones at best?
It's interesting how the regard for human life(s) in the city seems so small relative to the lengths which people in rural areas/national parks go at times..imagine if this amount of manpower, attention, and money were applied to all missing person(s) everywhere - for years and years.
I can understand the international traveler element, which further makes one wonder if the same amount of resources would have been applied were the missing individuals of American origin?
Also, the author's random mention of his pornography habits was cringey and only cheapened what is an otherwise enjoyable read.
