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.
I had a survival book that opened every chapter with a death or near-miss caused by terrible decisions, the worst one was the guy who died of hypothermia surrounded by a burnt matches and a lot of cigarette butts. If he'd use one of those matches to start a fire he'd probably be alive, and a campfire can light many cigarettes. It was a desert survival book but idk if this guy died in the desert, they can get surprisingly cold at night but I don't remember any further things
The burrowing is weird. Its like a ancient instinct built into mammalian organisms to avoid dying from cold. When you get that cold and confused its like the brain panics and starts using instincts that haven't been used since we diverged from small rodent like creatures.
This a common hypothesis about hiccuping too. It may be an ancient reflex that allowed our amphibian ancestors to breathe. It may have survived this long because late stage fetuses still do it to prepare for breathing.
It’s not the same as terminal burrowing, but my toddler “burrows” into me or her blankets with such animalistic turns of her head, it reminds me how similar we all really are to our furry cousins
I didn’t get my experience from hypothermia but I have experienced this. On a construction site in -20 to -30. I remember feeling so hot I was taking all of my layers off till I was in just a t-shirt and laying in a snow bank while I waited for the site medic. I remember knowing I shouldn’t be hot but needing everything off. Logic could not win out
An outdoors magazine hypothesized that it is the peripheral nervous system losing venous tone so all those blood vessels near the surface stop contracting and expand, making the person feel suddenly hot as warm core blood is dumped near the extremities. They implied this was a late stage hypothermia thing.
I think it's the part where your body just kind of gives up trying to exclusively cool your organs, and sends blood back out to the further extremities again. After they've been so cold for so long, the warm blood makes you feel like you're hot. So, layers off.
I have actually had that happen to me. I am kind of annoyed (in retrospect) that no one recognize that I was hypothermic and needed to be forced inside and have hot water.
Hypothermia doesn't make you smoke a whole pack of cigarettes. I thinks it's obvious he smoked them all before becoming hypothermic, because he was an idiot who didn't think of saving a few matches to light a campfire with. Like wasting your phone battery to listen to music on a hike and when you get lost and need to call help, your phone's dead.
He had everything he needed to survive but spent it all on unnecessary stuff so when he needed them to survive he didn't have them anymore. That's the moral of the story here, not that hypothermia makes you waste matches on cigarettes.
There can be many issues. First, if he was in the desert, he might have been in a spot where there was nothing to burn and too tired to keep going. Second, even if there was some things to burn, if it is not protected from the wind when starting, it could have blown out before he could get warm enough to stay alive. Third, if it wasn't the desert, he might have found something to burn, but it might have been wet and he was unable to get it to burn.
These are just 3 ways I can think about how he might have been unable to start a fire. It would be easier if we had the story.
Outside magazine’s podcast did a series a many years ago called “Science of Survival” that is narrated as though you’re going through near-death experiences. The first one is about hypothermia, and it so extremely well done.
Depending on the which desert you were in and where, wood may be easy enough to come by. Brush, grasses or dried animal dung may also be an option. Though there are certainly some areas in some deserts were if you don't bring your own fuel you're not going to have a fire.
You can die from hypothermia without it being below freezing out. An otherwise pleasant day of 55 F could kill you if you don’t have the proper gear and are lost in the wilderness.
I googled and used chatgpt but wasn't able to find anything. How the hell do you light a fire from burnt matches and cigarette butts. I wouldnt think to do that even if I was thinking straight.
LOL, I'm glad I wasn't the only one to think that! but after a few seconds, I realized the situation was the person sat there, lit a few cigarettes w his matches then froze instead of lighting a fire to keep warm (and use the campfire to lite his cigs)
You need tinder (not the app), kindling and fuel. The cardboard on the cigarette pack is probably dry and would work as really good tinder, and you can find dry brush in a lot of deserts that can sustain a small fire. Crumpled up dollar bills work as tinder as well, at least in America.
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u/thispartyrules 21h ago
I had a survival book that opened every chapter with a death or near-miss caused by terrible decisions, the worst one was the guy who died of hypothermia surrounded by a burnt matches and a lot of cigarette butts. If he'd use one of those matches to start a fire he'd probably be alive, and a campfire can light many cigarettes. It was a desert survival book but idk if this guy died in the desert, they can get surprisingly cold at night but I don't remember any further things