A man hiking in the Grand Canyon has died after being found unresponsive over the weekend, marking the third death in the national park within the last three weeks.
A 50-year-old unresponsive male hiker was found on the Bright Angel Trail in the Grand Canyon about 100 feet from the trail head on Sunday, according to the Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center.
Bystanders began CPR while emergency personnel responded to the scene, but efforts to resuscitate the hiker were unsuccessful.
I’ve done this hike; to the very bottom campground, over night, and then hike back up the next day.
I was about 25, then (2011 ish) . I did nothing but field work (hike through the bush - no trails, dig when you get there) all summer, for 300 hrs a month. As a result, I was really used to walking for a very long time, under shitty conditions. Another co-worker came with me (he was into trail running/marathons). We went in May, started our hike down at 4 am (to beat the heat) and hiked back up about the same time the following day.
Let me tell you, this is on the list of top 5 hardest things I’ve ever done. Maybe even in the top 3.
the last quarter of the hike to the bottom is very challenging, because you get into some sandy/dune parts, and they just take whatever you have left out of you.
Hiking out, the bottom half (to Havasupai Gardens) isn’t bad, but then it’s swtichback city, population: you. I started off doing 5 switch backs at a time, but I wasn’t even to 3-mile house by the time I was dropping down to 1, or maybe 1/2 a switch back at a time, and then needing a break.
I can’t imagine being 40-50 and doing this in the heat we’re experiencing now; it was hot as balls when we did it in May.
I did the rim to rim hike over 4 days, 3 nights. We hiked in from the North Rim.
I was not in nearly as good of shape as you were, but in probably the best shape of my life.
It was an amazing trip, but the hike out was no fucking joke. And you did it in half the time I did. Hard to imagine.
I distinctly remember seeing runners who would run by with no camping gear, meaning they were presumably doing the entire trail in one day. I don’t understand how that’s possible.
We saw them, too. Those people are insane. Flat out. Even if they were going to the gardens, it’s nuts. Hell, 3 mile house is a rough go too.
We hiked down in 6 hrs and out the next day in 6.5 hrs. We crushed the bottom part, but my trail runner friend pretty much had to carry me for the upper part of the hike out. Not really, but he seemed hardly out of breath every time we stopped and I wanted to slap him.
what’s a switchback?
Part of a hiking trail that zigzags up steep terrain
Also part of a road that zigzags up steep terrain.
And named after railroad switchbacks, which are multiple tracks that zigzag up steep terrain and require the train to switch back and forth as it climbs. Hence the name.
A switchback is to a hiking trail what a hairpin curve is to a mountain road.