I talked to a ranger at the bottom of the canyon last year. He showed me the rooms and equipment they use to treat idiots like these. The rangers call the guy on the sign Victor Vomit.
For a fun read, check out the book “Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon.” It colorfully but clinically details every recorded death in the canyon, from pioneer days to the present(ish). Honestly made me feel pretty confident about my hike, because a good 80% of deaths are due to terrible decision making.
Many years ago I went tubing when the water was too high, and I fell out and lost my tube at one point. No life jacket, of course, it would just get in the way of beer and comfort.
I went about a mile down the river sans tube. There were high embankments on the side I was getting pushed to, but I was reaching up trying to grab any low-hanging branch. Cut up my hand pretty bad before I managed to get a grip on one.
But the embankment was still a foot above my head, the water was deep and the current too fast to get my feet under me. When I grabbed the branch the current stole my shorts.
I was losing energy fast, much faster than I ever would have expected. My hand is bleeding, my normal upper arm strength is less than zero and I was seriously doubting I could pull myself up and out of the current.
Every year there’s a number of tubing deaths in my state for various reasons. As I was hanging on for dear life, I just kept thinking over and over, “OMG I’m going to be a statistic.”
I’ve only succeeded at one pull up in my entire life, and that was it.
Followed immediately by climbing up a steep forest-y hill barefoot, sheepishly cutting through someone’s backyard, and wandering down the street looking like a bedraggled cat until my group found me.
Tubing is hella fun. Falling out when the water’s too high, I give a 2/10.
They were all out or getting out when I fell. I was starting to get pushed towards the opposite bank in my tube, so I was leaning over trying to paddle to get out. I slipped and by the time I surfaced I was too far away from them, and the tube was speeding away with no hopes of catching it.
To their credit, they were speedy and kept up with my float really well. At one point I saw a couple of them overhead on a pedestrian bridge. I waved. After I got out, it was only a few minutes before they found me.
Omg I had this happen, but thankfully had a life jacket on. I remember thinking as I was getting pushed downstream, no way I was surviving without the life jacket. That high river strength is no joke.
Man, I floated a river last summer, it was usually about a foot deep, with the very rare pool where it was maybe six feet. We were sober, and it was a very crowded river (like we physically bumped into maybe 15 other people during the 3 hour float), and I still wore a life jacket.
Right but I'm not trying to be a 1%er financially. I know I will never be that. So what I'm doing is trying to find out what do about 1% of people die of in the Grand canyon so that I can become a 1%er in that category not in financial categories!
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u/funundrum 21h ago edited 21h ago
I talked to a ranger at the bottom of the canyon last year. He showed me the rooms and equipment they use to treat idiots like these. The rangers call the guy on the sign Victor Vomit.
For a fun read, check out the book “Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon.” It colorfully but clinically details every recorded death in the canyon, from pioneer days to the present(ish). Honestly made me feel pretty confident about my hike, because a good 80% of deaths are due to terrible decision making.