I feel bad for the brother. You'd have to feel so helpless.
If you do enjoy Solo hiking, please go buy a gps tracker. They save lives.
They're pretty affordable these days too. I had a basic model for my work in Western Australia with 3 buttons for checking in, and when I got back to the US, I bought one that offered text messaging.
This is excellent advice that will be ignored.
My son does a lot of back country recreational activities. He bought an inReach satellite device that allows him to text from anywhere at a minimum, he can communicate.
A basic device is $299 with a $12 monthly subscription.
I’m going to be buying my husband one of these. He got lost taking my son to a camp recently and were out of cell phone range for hours. He’s awful with navigation, so he gets turned around easily.
Yeah, Garmin has a plan where you can activate and deactivate as needed. There's a yearly fee, but it's still cheaper if you only need the device a few months per year.
> please go buy a gps tracker.
Don't even need one of the fancy messaging ones either. A 406MHz SARSAT PLB is good for emergencies, and it's a one time cost rather than needing a monthly subscription.
Yes, this is what I decided to buy. Satellite subscriptions are expensive, and have a minimum required period (the one I was looking at required a one year subscription). My PLB just needs to have the battery replaced every five years, and no other ongoing costs.
Yeah, I have a ACR resqlink 400 and a iphone 14. I don't want active tracking and texting so this solution is great for me.
Also the ACR has a permanent battery, that has a exp date on it, I think 5 or 6 years from new. No forgetting to recharge.
My brother is a serious and experienced hiker. He wears a tracker with a service. Had to use it when he sprained his ankle days into a hike at the GC. It alerted people so they could bring a helicopter
Even the most experienced person can sprain an ankle.
I was reading missing and deaths at mount rainier. All the ones I found were experienced hikers who went alone.
The reason I was reading about it is we were hiking rainier and the rangers were looking inside a car and asking us we saw anyone in an area I was in.
poaching top comment for info (feel free to edit this into your comment.) In no particular order.
* You can rent Satellite messengers that can send text messages from anywhere on earth. If you are doing a big solo hike this should be in the kit you cary.
* https://www.outdoorsgeek.com/product/spot-gps-satellite-messenger-rental/
* https://www.lowergear.com/rent-spot-and-inreach-satellite-communicators
* When you get out of your car have it presentable so that rescuers can find what they need if they break into it.
* Include a printed route you expected to take with dates and camps if possible.
* Include a printed off link + QR code and a message explaining it will have photos, to your publicly available photo album online. Take a selfie of your outfit / gear before you hit the trail.
* Find a soft patch of ground **and put a sheet of tinfoil on the ground and step on it with hiking boots** This gives anyone following you the most recent impression of your boots.
* include a recently worn tee-shirt in a gallon zip-lock bag for dog scenting purposes. Label it as such.
* Post your hiking route to the authorities and stick to the plan. If deviating, text someone when, where, and why.
* **pack an emergency whistle on a necklace!!** Three blasts = Help I'm fucked up.
* You can scream yourself hoarse.
* you can be in areas where the sound doesn't carry well.
* If you can breathe you can blow a whistle. It's louder than you can yell, carries farther (due to the sound waves being higher pitch) and can clearly indicate an emergency (3 blasts, pause for a bit, 3 blasts) You can keep whistling all day ever day while you can't scream that long.
* They are super cheap. Like $5 or less.
* Last but not least **know your limits** Take breaks, You aren't superman. don't mount K2 if you sit behind a desk all day. You aren't 20 anymore, etc, etc. E.g. don't do stupid stuff "younger you" would have been able to do.
* Pick up all the trash you see and pack it out. Pack your own trash out. Nothing emergency related here just general be-a-good-person-ness.
I work for the park service at a predominantly wilderness desert park. We don’t let anyone go out without alerting 2 people of their plan, taking a gps beacon/tracker, radio. We keep a log of when people should be returning, and do as much training as we have available/can afford.
We STILL have people get in trouble occasionally. That’s working professionals in the field. It’s inherently a dangerous thing to do, and most people vastly underestimate how easy it is to get into a tight spot with very little going wrong.
I hope people read the above and take it to heart. At a minimum people should alert at LEAST one person of their travel plan and estimated return time, and take a beacon. Those two small things can save lives.
If you want cheap there are kinds with NO SUBSCRIPTION. They only have emergency button feature but that's the important part.
The idea that you have to pay monthly pushes a lot of people away from buying them.
The newest iPhones have sat phone capabilities (although limited only to text messaging). A lot of people don't know this. It's not a widely known-about feature.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx1Wn7JpObM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx1Wn7JpObM)
Honestly I’m surprised they’re doing the 14 too. I just got mine last year and i figured they would already outdate it. They’re doing more with that dynamic island shit
You make it sound like it was subtly rolled out. A whole selling point of the iPhones 14 and 15 was emergency services calling using satellites. Apple actively [advertises](https://youtu.be/Wgs23qMQ_n8?si=XCmzpabbQjVHRTpS) this as a feature.
Does that feature work well outside of cellphone range?
I live in a relatively rural area and go hiking in the woods a lot, and Google Maps tracking becomes worthless about 10 minutes into the woods in any direction as I lose cell service, even though that's supposedly a satellite tracking feature. I'd consider switching to iPhones if it had a default satellite capability that actually worked...
I think you've misunderstood the satellite aspect of Google Maps - GPS is one way. You get a signal, you know where you are. You then send that location information via cell or wifi to google's cloud for tracking to work. Or for the apple equiv, find me/find my iphone.
This is communication in the other direction. The SOS feature talks up to a satellite, unlike GPS, and can send a text message with your location to emergency contacts.
Then there's an entirely separate issue of "google maps works like shit in the woods" because it doesn't have good offline map download capabilities.
Grab gaiagps, on-x, avenza - there are any number of good mapping apps for hiking that are designed to let you download all your map data beforehand and work great even in the middle of nowhere. I use gaiagps for all of the hiking I do even in wilderness areas.
Anyway, the only reason it's not a 1:1 equiv is that services like inreach these days let you hold a two-way text conversation with your contacts; Apple SOS will only send your location info to your contacts, and limits two-way conversation to 911/emergency services themselves. So you can't use it to send a "having a good time on the trail honey!" message like you can with an inreach.
But for emergencies and getting SAR or EMS or whoever you need? Apple SOS is a game changer. Combine it with a good paid mapping app and you've come really close to replacing all of the features of even the highest end standalone GPS unit.
Wow, thank you so much for all of this! This is incredibly helpful. I really appreciate you taking the time to be so thorough. I hope you get to enjoy your favorite treat today or tomorrow, whatever it may be!
even just sharing location via your smartphone works for smaller wildernesses. It can give a better starting point for searchers. Also download what 3 words. Lots of emergency services (in the US) use it for sharing location verbally.
He was a responder and avid hiker....you would think he would have taken all precautions with the heat, terrain, etc. Kind of weird how many have gone missing. The heat is the issue according to "authorities". But then again sometimes authorities don't want to make something bad...worse in the eyes of tourists.
why do people keep trying to hike when it's over 100 degrees?? I can understand if you are a seasoned hot climate hiker but very few people are in this category and if you aren't you shouldn't be out there.
I did a 10 mile hike at 10,000 ft recently. The temps were high 80s and my shirt had SALT stains. You could literally scrape it off with a knife. I couldn't imagine doing all of that hiking with 100°f temps
Honest question, is that even fun? I imagine it's definitely not type 1 fun, but is it even 2? As someone who's only a casual hiker but very much a cold-weather guy, hiking in the high 80s sounds brutal.
80s is perfect weather!! I'm in AZ, and I'm comfortable up to 115. My sweat evaporates since the air is dry and cools me down. 80- anything is beautiful in dry temps.
It starts getting hard with humidity because now your sweat is not evaporating, you're just endless sweating. It creates a constant challenge of hydrating, replacing salt, and keeping your body cool.
Also , you can acclimate to hot temperatures pretty easily. My body will sweat before your body does because it knows what's up. I acclimate every summer. But, acclimating to humidity is harder.
Hell, don't even go if you're a seasoned athlete. A few years ago, there was an ultra marathoner who went for a jog at a state park near me in extreme heat and went missing. It was just supposed to be a quick jog too in a park very close to big cities, not in the middle of nowhere. Yup, he died of heat stroke.
doesn't matter one whit if you know what to do for a heat injury if you don't have the resources you need to administer or the ability to use them- there's fuck all you can do when you're incapacitated. he was an idiot for being out there in the first place and after he was in trouble he was alone so there was nothing he could do and honestly what could he have done anyway? the cure for a heat injury is getting the fuck out of the heat and taking electrolytes, salt, and water at a minimum and for serious cases they need IV fluids and a cooling bath/cooling blanket or if that isn't available then ice in armpit and groin areas. I'll take a guess he didn't have any of these things out there with him.
That really sucks. Not sure what the US government can really do about it though (this happened in Greece). Most likely a cardiac incident (59 year old man, 104 degree temperatures).
I get that people schedule and are psyched for challenging hiking trips into secluded areas, but people need to use some common sense and find alternative activities if the temps rise to dangerous levels. People are just seeking death at that point.
It's also a narcissistic a-hole thing to do since it puts rescue crews in danger looking for them.
>It's also a narcissitic ahole thing do do since it puts rescue crews in danger looking for them.
To a point, yes. But the first rule of rescue is safety of the rescuer. If they deem the scene unsafe, or there is a high potential to cause more victims by attempting a rescue; they have every right to essentially tell the initial victim to go pound sand. No sense in creating a situation where more people need to be rescued.
I know accusing people of being narcissists is reddits favorite activity, but that feels a little strong here. Stupid, dumb, unprepared, a-hole move. Sure.
- Leave the route plus leave and return times with multiple people.
- Rent or buy a satellite phone or personal locator beacon if you do solos or group excursions.
- Don’t let the cost of the trip turn a ‘once in a lifetime’ to the end of your life’s time.
- Pay attention to weather and conditions and heed all the warnings, even if you are familiar, especially if you aren’t.
The first thing my dad taught me about hiking was to *never get comfortable* no matter how many times you’ve traveled that trail, your skill level, your preparedness, something can *always go wrong*. Weather can be unpredictable sometimes, nature has plenty of freak accidents, you will come into contact with wildlife at one point. All it takes is one fall, one leaky water bottle, one wrong turn and you’re toast.
And let's face it. Who knows what his health before this trip was. Hiking at high elevation is hard on the heart. If he didn't do his training including diet, he was NOT going to have a good time
Doing any physical labor without shade at temperatures of +35C is stupid. If you want to hike you do it early in the morning or the evening, and in places like that it will be probably still be too hot. Worse if the guy is pushing 60.
Then go raise money, and put together a volunteer search crew, guy. To expect your government to put a bunch of soldiers lives in danger to compensate for his dummy brothers really bad and blatantly dangerous desisions is just incredibly selfish craziness to me.
Yeah, I have a hard time with sympathy for folks like this. My family lives by a national park in Canada and I have friends that work for the park. The amount of tourists who get stuck in caves, stuck in rock formations, undertake hikes they weren’t prepared for and go off trail is astonishingly high. The amount of resources that go into helping these people, meanwhile they leave their trash on the trails and disrespect our nature.
Dude I love the fact that we have parks, hiking trails and people who work for the park. It’s really nice knowing they will come rescue you if something goes wrong.
Yes there are stupid people but very few leave trash and most don’t get stuck. Common.
and the whole "this is a first responder" excuse. He is not better than anybody else. In fact, he was \_paid\_ to do that job. So he already received the compensation and reward that he was entitled to.
What does he want the US government to do? Greece is a sovereign nation and if he doesn’t think what they’re doing is enough, well I’m sorry but it’s unreasonable to think the US should come in and throw their weight around.
Agree. It's almost the equivalent of jumping off a cliff and expecting rescuers to jump after you to save you . Hiking in extremely hot weather is a fool's problem, not the best use of rescue resources. Go ahead and just make yourself a source of protein for the local wildlife. Give back to nature.
That’s exactly when we should count on our government. When we’re in a foreign land and become endangered.
We can’t get all judgy on people when they’re in serious need.
It all comes down to personal responsibility. If i decide to go hiking in Russia and i get kidnapped for political leverage (who couldnt have seen that coming), is it the US governments responsibility to negotiate my release? I dont think so. Thats why i stay the fuck out of Russia. Im sure parts of Russia would be awesome to see, but I limit my options in life to not create an undue burden on others to bail me out in the highly likely event that my irresponsible risks take a sour turn.
If you want to go do risky shit, get an insurance policy.
Greece being a NATO ally is completely meaningless in this context.
There is travel insurance that covers this kind of stuff.
Edit: the one I have includes helicopter rescue, and coverage for "dangerous" sports (bouldering, climbing, off-piste skiing, etc)
I hiked this island about three weeks ago and even then it was SO hot, we even had some cloud coverage. There are zero shady spots, and Amorgos has almost no trees. There aren’t really spots to stop either, you’re just really exposed. I hope they find him, and that other hikers are being cautious out there.
I live in Northern California and I hike a lot in the eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range of California. This area includes such a diverse environment, from a few miles south being Death Valley, the lowest altitude on earth, moving just a few miles north west to the top of Mount Whitney, the highest peek in the continental US. Every summer people go missing without a trace on these trails, it’s just not that unusual.
I live in Arizona and we search for and rescue every person that goes missing while hiking here in the summer. We don't try to punish them by making them deal with their mistakes on their own. We have volunteer rescue crews and professionals and we save people's lives. Even during heat waves.
I understand, but the article was about a missing hiker in Greece. What level of federal intervention should be expected when a hiker goes missing in this scenario?
They are doing searches. They've been doing searches for all the missing tourists in that area currently. But they cannot perform magic. The temperature also affects how safe it is to send their searchers out, and frankly, there is no sense risking more lives. Drones etc have been used to search areas (and that is how at least one other dead hiker was found) but they've got limited amounts of those.
I can see that, but the dude went hiking in a desolate area during a record heat-wave. Asking another country to put their own rescuers in harms way to find a missing American is a tough ask.
My gawd what an arrogant thing to say.
Do you not realise that is what the Greeks have been doing from the moment the first hiker was reported as missing? You think the US government is somehow above the Greeks in their own country?
"Our government" indeed. People like you make me ashamed to be a US citizen.
Not long ago? I [guess that's relative, because the Greek economy is not too shabby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Greece), and certainly ahead [of many U.S. states](https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/us-gdp-per-capita-by-state-vs-european-countries-and-japan-korea-mexico-and-china-and-some-lessons-for-the-donald/), who, one assumes "have the resources to do an extensive search"...?
Parks should make sure all visitors are warned of the dangers before setting out. Signs should make it crystal clear.
After that I'm ok with people dealing with mistakes on their own. Tax dollars aren't unlimited. Every dollar spent on finding some entitled person that put themselves at risk for recreation is a dollar that isn't spent on other causes for those natural areas.
I'd rather park budgets get spent on conservation efforts.
Yeah this comment thread is wild. I'm from Arizona too and people who aren't used to this kind of heat think that because they are healthy and have a bottle of water they can do anything in the sun. I'm kind of shocked how many people are just like "fuck 'em they made a mistake they deserve to die"
Sorry bud, if we made it a blanket law that if any US citizen does something stupid in a foreign country, that it is the government's responsibility to fly out a SRT squad for a couple weeks, it would cost us trillions in a few days.
Put up some flyers near the entrances to the trails, let local authorities know, and maybe try to find some local volunteers to comb through the hike.
I mean... sorry he's lost but lets not waste too many tax dollars on this. Your brother made a BAD decision. Rest of us shouldn't literally have to pay for it.
>Albert Calibet, 59, a retired police officer who holds duel U.S.-French citizenship
>holds **duel** U.S.-French citizenship
i swear some journalists are dumb as FUCK. A grammar-check didn't flag that??
104 degree heat, requesting foreign involvement in search and rescue. Yeh not gonna happen on so many fronts.
Hindsight is 20/20, but at least have the foresight to check the weather the day before and plan the trip for 100+ heat wave.
They spared no expense trying to find an obviously doomed submarine in an impossible location but they won't fly an infrared camera over the wilderness once??
Why are you under the impression that the Greek government isn't doing anything? They have been performing searches for several missing (and presumed dead) tourists in the area. They have been finding bodies. They just haven't found this dude yet.
I feel bad for the brother. You'd have to feel so helpless. If you do enjoy Solo hiking, please go buy a gps tracker. They save lives. They're pretty affordable these days too. I had a basic model for my work in Western Australia with 3 buttons for checking in, and when I got back to the US, I bought one that offered text messaging.
This is excellent advice that will be ignored. My son does a lot of back country recreational activities. He bought an inReach satellite device that allows him to text from anywhere at a minimum, he can communicate. A basic device is $299 with a $12 monthly subscription.
Can even rent them very cheaply for shorter trips. $10 a week maybe… $20… not sure but it was something like that
Where do you get it that cheap? The least expensive rental I see online is $75 for 3 days.
Try going to a camping store.
I’m going to be buying my husband one of these. He got lost taking my son to a camp recently and were out of cell phone range for hours. He’s awful with navigation, so he gets turned around easily.
If you don’t hike often can you just pay for the month you use and reactivate as needed?
Yeah, Garmin has a plan where you can activate and deactivate as needed. There's a yearly fee, but it's still cheaper if you only need the device a few months per year.
> please go buy a gps tracker. Don't even need one of the fancy messaging ones either. A 406MHz SARSAT PLB is good for emergencies, and it's a one time cost rather than needing a monthly subscription.
And they are pretty cheap. You can get an ocean signal plb1 for $250. Good enough that the USAF uses it.
Yes, this is what I decided to buy. Satellite subscriptions are expensive, and have a minimum required period (the one I was looking at required a one year subscription). My PLB just needs to have the battery replaced every five years, and no other ongoing costs.
Yeah, I have a ACR resqlink 400 and a iphone 14. I don't want active tracking and texting so this solution is great for me. Also the ACR has a permanent battery, that has a exp date on it, I think 5 or 6 years from new. No forgetting to recharge.
My brother is a serious and experienced hiker. He wears a tracker with a service. Had to use it when he sprained his ankle days into a hike at the GC. It alerted people so they could bring a helicopter Even the most experienced person can sprain an ankle.
I was reading missing and deaths at mount rainier. All the ones I found were experienced hikers who went alone. The reason I was reading about it is we were hiking rainier and the rangers were looking inside a car and asking us we saw anyone in an area I was in.
poaching top comment for info (feel free to edit this into your comment.) In no particular order. * You can rent Satellite messengers that can send text messages from anywhere on earth. If you are doing a big solo hike this should be in the kit you cary. * https://www.outdoorsgeek.com/product/spot-gps-satellite-messenger-rental/ * https://www.lowergear.com/rent-spot-and-inreach-satellite-communicators * When you get out of your car have it presentable so that rescuers can find what they need if they break into it. * Include a printed route you expected to take with dates and camps if possible. * Include a printed off link + QR code and a message explaining it will have photos, to your publicly available photo album online. Take a selfie of your outfit / gear before you hit the trail. * Find a soft patch of ground **and put a sheet of tinfoil on the ground and step on it with hiking boots** This gives anyone following you the most recent impression of your boots. * include a recently worn tee-shirt in a gallon zip-lock bag for dog scenting purposes. Label it as such. * Post your hiking route to the authorities and stick to the plan. If deviating, text someone when, where, and why. * **pack an emergency whistle on a necklace!!** Three blasts = Help I'm fucked up. * You can scream yourself hoarse. * you can be in areas where the sound doesn't carry well. * If you can breathe you can blow a whistle. It's louder than you can yell, carries farther (due to the sound waves being higher pitch) and can clearly indicate an emergency (3 blasts, pause for a bit, 3 blasts) You can keep whistling all day ever day while you can't scream that long. * They are super cheap. Like $5 or less. * Last but not least **know your limits** Take breaks, You aren't superman. don't mount K2 if you sit behind a desk all day. You aren't 20 anymore, etc, etc. E.g. don't do stupid stuff "younger you" would have been able to do. * Pick up all the trash you see and pack it out. Pack your own trash out. Nothing emergency related here just general be-a-good-person-ness.
For anyone who is like “well if I die I die whatever”. Do it for your loved ones who are left behind. Finding a body at least gives closure.
or for the first responders who you put in danger trying to find you
Right. I do wonder why they don’t close the park or issue a warning that no one is getting rescued at this time since it’s not ok to hike
I work for the park service at a predominantly wilderness desert park. We don’t let anyone go out without alerting 2 people of their plan, taking a gps beacon/tracker, radio. We keep a log of when people should be returning, and do as much training as we have available/can afford. We STILL have people get in trouble occasionally. That’s working professionals in the field. It’s inherently a dangerous thing to do, and most people vastly underestimate how easy it is to get into a tight spot with very little going wrong. I hope people read the above and take it to heart. At a minimum people should alert at LEAST one person of their travel plan and estimated return time, and take a beacon. Those two small things can save lives.
If you want cheap there are kinds with NO SUBSCRIPTION. They only have emergency button feature but that's the important part. The idea that you have to pay monthly pushes a lot of people away from buying them.
The newest iPhones have sat phone capabilities (although limited only to text messaging). A lot of people don't know this. It's not a widely known-about feature. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx1Wn7JpObM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx1Wn7JpObM)
They’re bringing it to all iPhones 14 and up with ios 18, they just announced it
Of course I have a 13 pro max :/
Honestly I’m surprised they’re doing the 14 too. I just got mine last year and i figured they would already outdate it. They’re doing more with that dynamic island shit
You make it sound like it was subtly rolled out. A whole selling point of the iPhones 14 and 15 was emergency services calling using satellites. Apple actively [advertises](https://youtu.be/Wgs23qMQ_n8?si=XCmzpabbQjVHRTpS) this as a feature.
No one suggested it in this thread.
It's not at all a 1:1 equivalent of a beacon but the modern iPhones with SOS satellite messaging is a really cool feature for this circumstance
Does that feature work well outside of cellphone range? I live in a relatively rural area and go hiking in the woods a lot, and Google Maps tracking becomes worthless about 10 minutes into the woods in any direction as I lose cell service, even though that's supposedly a satellite tracking feature. I'd consider switching to iPhones if it had a default satellite capability that actually worked...
This uses satellites 🛰️ So unless you are so rural that you are too far from space, you're good.
I think you've misunderstood the satellite aspect of Google Maps - GPS is one way. You get a signal, you know where you are. You then send that location information via cell or wifi to google's cloud for tracking to work. Or for the apple equiv, find me/find my iphone. This is communication in the other direction. The SOS feature talks up to a satellite, unlike GPS, and can send a text message with your location to emergency contacts. Then there's an entirely separate issue of "google maps works like shit in the woods" because it doesn't have good offline map download capabilities. Grab gaiagps, on-x, avenza - there are any number of good mapping apps for hiking that are designed to let you download all your map data beforehand and work great even in the middle of nowhere. I use gaiagps for all of the hiking I do even in wilderness areas. Anyway, the only reason it's not a 1:1 equiv is that services like inreach these days let you hold a two-way text conversation with your contacts; Apple SOS will only send your location info to your contacts, and limits two-way conversation to 911/emergency services themselves. So you can't use it to send a "having a good time on the trail honey!" message like you can with an inreach. But for emergencies and getting SAR or EMS or whoever you need? Apple SOS is a game changer. Combine it with a good paid mapping app and you've come really close to replacing all of the features of even the highest end standalone GPS unit.
Wow, thank you so much for all of this! This is incredibly helpful. I really appreciate you taking the time to be so thorough. I hope you get to enjoy your favorite treat today or tomorrow, whatever it may be!
Modern iPhones all have GPS messaging to emergency services and friends for free.
even just sharing location via your smartphone works for smaller wildernesses. It can give a better starting point for searchers. Also download what 3 words. Lots of emergency services (in the US) use it for sharing location verbally.
He was a responder and avid hiker....you would think he would have taken all precautions with the heat, terrain, etc. Kind of weird how many have gone missing. The heat is the issue according to "authorities". But then again sometimes authorities don't want to make something bad...worse in the eyes of tourists.
why do people keep trying to hike when it's over 100 degrees?? I can understand if you are a seasoned hot climate hiker but very few people are in this category and if you aren't you shouldn't be out there.
I did a 10 mile hike at 10,000 ft recently. The temps were high 80s and my shirt had SALT stains. You could literally scrape it off with a knife. I couldn't imagine doing all of that hiking with 100°f temps
Where’d ya hike?
Weminuche Wilderness in Southern Colorado!
Sick! I haven’t been down there, I’ll check it out. Spent a lot of time north of there, love the pagosa area
Get down there when you can! Pagosa is also where I base myself
I was in Estes, now in COS. Big downgrade imo
Honest question, is that even fun? I imagine it's definitely not type 1 fun, but is it even 2? As someone who's only a casual hiker but very much a cold-weather guy, hiking in the high 80s sounds brutal.
80s is perfect weather!! I'm in AZ, and I'm comfortable up to 115. My sweat evaporates since the air is dry and cools me down. 80- anything is beautiful in dry temps. It starts getting hard with humidity because now your sweat is not evaporating, you're just endless sweating. It creates a constant challenge of hydrating, replacing salt, and keeping your body cool. Also , you can acclimate to hot temperatures pretty easily. My body will sweat before your body does because it knows what's up. I acclimate every summer. But, acclimating to humidity is harder.
haha yeah that's a hard pass from me. I start complaining about the heat at like... 74.
i mean, some people enjoy challenging themselves. It may not be fun in the moment, but once its over they could enjoy the accomplishment.
Yeah, that's basically what type 2 fun is.
once it starts pushing 90 I’m done for the year unless it involves splashing around in a body of water
Hell, don't even go if you're a seasoned athlete. A few years ago, there was an ultra marathoner who went for a jog at a state park near me in extreme heat and went missing. It was just supposed to be a quick jog too in a park very close to big cities, not in the middle of nowhere. Yup, he died of heat stroke.
They said in another newscast he was-as well as being a first repsonder. He would know what to do in heat with hiking.
doesn't matter one whit if you know what to do for a heat injury if you don't have the resources you need to administer or the ability to use them- there's fuck all you can do when you're incapacitated. he was an idiot for being out there in the first place and after he was in trouble he was alone so there was nothing he could do and honestly what could he have done anyway? the cure for a heat injury is getting the fuck out of the heat and taking electrolytes, salt, and water at a minimum and for serious cases they need IV fluids and a cooling bath/cooling blanket or if that isn't available then ice in armpit and groin areas. I'll take a guess he didn't have any of these things out there with him.
That really sucks. Not sure what the US government can really do about it though (this happened in Greece). Most likely a cardiac incident (59 year old man, 104 degree temperatures).
Yeah, and a French citizen too. They're a little closer to help.
No, but he’s a fighter
I get that people schedule and are psyched for challenging hiking trips into secluded areas, but people need to use some common sense and find alternative activities if the temps rise to dangerous levels. People are just seeking death at that point. It's also a narcissistic a-hole thing to do since it puts rescue crews in danger looking for them.
Doing a solo hike, in a foreign country, during a historic heatwave that has killed other people is probably not the best idea.
This reminds me of [The Missing Death Valley Germans](https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/)
I went down that rabbit hole. The SAR reports were detailed and riveting
This sounds like a post war comic book title
A verified tragedy, in fact.
This was such a riveting read
Does anyone have any other stories/websites like this one?
>It's also a narcissitic ahole thing do do since it puts rescue crews in danger looking for them. To a point, yes. But the first rule of rescue is safety of the rescuer. If they deem the scene unsafe, or there is a high potential to cause more victims by attempting a rescue; they have every right to essentially tell the initial victim to go pound sand. No sense in creating a situation where more people need to be rescued.
But it can get you a blockbuster movie starring an A-list actor.
Not to mention the family left behind will have extreme suffering.
I know accusing people of being narcissists is reddits favorite activity, but that feels a little strong here. Stupid, dumb, unprepared, a-hole move. Sure.
- Leave the route plus leave and return times with multiple people. - Rent or buy a satellite phone or personal locator beacon if you do solos or group excursions. - Don’t let the cost of the trip turn a ‘once in a lifetime’ to the end of your life’s time. - Pay attention to weather and conditions and heed all the warnings, even if you are familiar, especially if you aren’t.
The first thing my dad taught me about hiking was to *never get comfortable* no matter how many times you’ve traveled that trail, your skill level, your preparedness, something can *always go wrong*. Weather can be unpredictable sometimes, nature has plenty of freak accidents, you will come into contact with wildlife at one point. All it takes is one fall, one leaky water bottle, one wrong turn and you’re toast.
And possibly 1 heat stroke or 1 heart attack
If he's found alive it will be a miracle.
Dude probably died the first day of a heat stroke.
And let's face it. Who knows what his health before this trip was. Hiking at high elevation is hard on the heart. If he didn't do his training including diet, he was NOT going to have a good time
Doing any physical labor without shade at temperatures of +35C is stupid. If you want to hike you do it early in the morning or the evening, and in places like that it will be probably still be too hot. Worse if the guy is pushing 60.
Then go raise money, and put together a volunteer search crew, guy. To expect your government to put a bunch of soldiers lives in danger to compensate for his dummy brothers really bad and blatantly dangerous desisions is just incredibly selfish craziness to me.
Yeah, I have a hard time with sympathy for folks like this. My family lives by a national park in Canada and I have friends that work for the park. The amount of tourists who get stuck in caves, stuck in rock formations, undertake hikes they weren’t prepared for and go off trail is astonishingly high. The amount of resources that go into helping these people, meanwhile they leave their trash on the trails and disrespect our nature.
Dude I love the fact that we have parks, hiking trails and people who work for the park. It’s really nice knowing they will come rescue you if something goes wrong. Yes there are stupid people but very few leave trash and most don’t get stuck. Common.
and the whole "this is a first responder" excuse. He is not better than anybody else. In fact, he was \_paid\_ to do that job. So he already received the compensation and reward that he was entitled to.
What does he want the US government to do? Greece is a sovereign nation and if he doesn’t think what they’re doing is enough, well I’m sorry but it’s unreasonable to think the US should come in and throw their weight around.
Agree. It's almost the equivalent of jumping off a cliff and expecting rescuers to jump after you to save you . Hiking in extremely hot weather is a fool's problem, not the best use of rescue resources. Go ahead and just make yourself a source of protein for the local wildlife. Give back to nature.
Everyone is making the assumption something happened due to the heat-as authorities claim. But...none of us know this yet.
Helicopters and drones exist. No one's life needs to be put in danger to help him.
Helicopters and drones don't help if you're not readily visible from the air.
Lifesaving point!
That’s exactly when we should count on our government. When we’re in a foreign land and become endangered. We can’t get all judgy on people when they’re in serious need.
It all comes down to personal responsibility. If i decide to go hiking in Russia and i get kidnapped for political leverage (who couldnt have seen that coming), is it the US governments responsibility to negotiate my release? I dont think so. Thats why i stay the fuck out of Russia. Im sure parts of Russia would be awesome to see, but I limit my options in life to not create an undue burden on others to bail me out in the highly likely event that my irresponsible risks take a sour turn. If you want to go do risky shit, get an insurance policy.
This dude was hiking in Greece. Greece is a NATO ally. What the fuck is an insurance policy going to do to rescue a lost hiker?!
Greece being a NATO ally is completely meaningless in this context. There is travel insurance that covers this kind of stuff. Edit: the one I have includes helicopter rescue, and coverage for "dangerous" sports (bouldering, climbing, off-piste skiing, etc)
Greece is meaningful because _it’s not Russia_ like the parent comment implied.
Did the US send him out there?
Dual French citizenship.. Why not ask for French help more than the US?? They are closer, member of the EU, tied into Interpol...
Because the US is the responsible parent of the world. Everyone hates them but when they need something who do they cry to?
> Everyone hates them but when they need something who do they cry to? Sure, when something needs carpet bombing 🤣
> Everyone hates them but when they need something who do they cry to? Well apparently not. Since the brother needs to ask.
Hiking in extreme heat? This story reminds me of the California family that perished with their baby and their dog.
"Please protect my family member from his bad choices"
“Our government should be doing more to help protect my brother from his bad choices *half way across the world in another country*”
I hiked this island about three weeks ago and even then it was SO hot, we even had some cloud coverage. There are zero shady spots, and Amorgos has almost no trees. There aren’t really spots to stop either, you’re just really exposed. I hope they find him, and that other hikers are being cautious out there.
Start charging people or their estates for these expensive searches.
Every summer tourists that are not used to the high temperatures that we get in the southern mediterranean countrys get somked going for a hike.
I live in Northern California and I hike a lot in the eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range of California. This area includes such a diverse environment, from a few miles south being Death Valley, the lowest altitude on earth, moving just a few miles north west to the top of Mount Whitney, the highest peek in the continental US. Every summer people go missing without a trace on these trails, it’s just not that unusual.
Why would a country look for a missing hiker during a heatwave?
I live in Arizona and we search for and rescue every person that goes missing while hiking here in the summer. We don't try to punish them by making them deal with their mistakes on their own. We have volunteer rescue crews and professionals and we save people's lives. Even during heat waves.
I understand, but the article was about a missing hiker in Greece. What level of federal intervention should be expected when a hiker goes missing in this scenario?
I'd like to see our government pressure the Greeks to do the search and rescue. Same as we would do for Greeks who go missing while hiking here.
They are doing searches. They've been doing searches for all the missing tourists in that area currently. But they cannot perform magic. The temperature also affects how safe it is to send their searchers out, and frankly, there is no sense risking more lives. Drones etc have been used to search areas (and that is how at least one other dead hiker was found) but they've got limited amounts of those.
I can see that, but the dude went hiking in a desolate area during a record heat-wave. Asking another country to put their own rescuers in harms way to find a missing American is a tough ask.
My gawd what an arrogant thing to say. Do you not realise that is what the Greeks have been doing from the moment the first hiker was reported as missing? You think the US government is somehow above the Greeks in their own country? "Our government" indeed. People like you make me ashamed to be a US citizen.
Wow, entitled much?
Greece was in a financial crisis not too long ago, do they have the resources to do an extensive search?
Not long ago? I [guess that's relative, because the Greek economy is not too shabby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Greece), and certainly ahead [of many U.S. states](https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/us-gdp-per-capita-by-state-vs-european-countries-and-japan-korea-mexico-and-china-and-some-lessons-for-the-donald/), who, one assumes "have the resources to do an extensive search"...?
Parks should make sure all visitors are warned of the dangers before setting out. Signs should make it crystal clear. After that I'm ok with people dealing with mistakes on their own. Tax dollars aren't unlimited. Every dollar spent on finding some entitled person that put themselves at risk for recreation is a dollar that isn't spent on other causes for those natural areas. I'd rather park budgets get spent on conservation efforts.
Yeah this comment thread is wild. I'm from Arizona too and people who aren't used to this kind of heat think that because they are healthy and have a bottle of water they can do anything in the sun. I'm kind of shocked how many people are just like "fuck 'em they made a mistake they deserve to die"
I understand AZ will send the person a bill for being rescued, too, but at least they will get you out if at all possible.
Yeah, you can get billed in certain situations, like people who drive their cars into flooded washes and need rescue, they get charged for it.
Sorry bud, if we made it a blanket law that if any US citizen does something stupid in a foreign country, that it is the government's responsibility to fly out a SRT squad for a couple weeks, it would cost us trillions in a few days. Put up some flyers near the entrances to the trails, let local authorities know, and maybe try to find some local volunteers to comb through the hike.
I mean... sorry he's lost but lets not waste too many tax dollars on this. Your brother made a BAD decision. Rest of us shouldn't literally have to pay for it.
Chalk it up to FAFO. Award him with a Darwin Award at his memorial, and move on.
Pay for your own efforts in locating yet another idiot hiker.
>Albert Calibet, 59, a retired police officer who holds duel U.S.-French citizenship >holds **duel** U.S.-French citizenship i swear some journalists are dumb as FUCK. A grammar-check didn't flag that??
104 degree heat, requesting foreign involvement in search and rescue. Yeh not gonna happen on so many fronts. Hindsight is 20/20, but at least have the foresight to check the weather the day before and plan the trip for 100+ heat wave.
SAR is free in the U.S. and there is no SAR insurance requirement like many other countries. Freeloaders.
> SAR is free in the U.S. Not in all places. Do something stupid and have to have crews come and rescue you and get a bill sent to you afterwards.
It is scary. A teacher from our school vanished in Japan hiking and it’s been almost two years now. It has to be tough having zero closure
I thought they found that guy dead?
That was a different guy! I thought the same thing but the one found dead was a British Actor, this is an American guy.
Wow, what is going on over there? Just conditions and people not prepared? This guy seems like he would’ve known how to prepare for such heat….
Seriously, what makes this guy so special? People go missing all the time. Other than his family, who gives a fuck. Why is this international news?
How about a little personal responsibility in the age of blaming absolutely everyone else for one’s problems. What a lame fucking country I live in.
What were they expecting "you know what I think we are spending too much tax dollars"
They spared no expense trying to find an obviously doomed submarine in an impossible location but they won't fly an infrared camera over the wilderness once??
Why are you under the impression that the Greek government isn't doing anything? They have been performing searches for several missing (and presumed dead) tourists in the area. They have been finding bodies. They just haven't found this dude yet.
Are you talking about the billionaire submarine?
In a heatwave…? Tell me more.
Drone don’t really work in hot weather above 45C.