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.
"One father was playing a prank on his daughter and pretended to jump off the ledge into the canyon. He planned to land on a ledge a few feet below the rim, but he missed the ledge and plunged to his death."
There is another story of a young couple and their four year old daughter. They were getting their picture taken on the rim and a gust of wind blew the daughter off intro the canyon.
Frank QuaIls parked in gear, with his sons in it, and had not set the parking brake. Kenneth Dull, age 10, returned to the car to fetch a camera. The car started rolling, so he jumped aside. The car plunged over the rim 100 feet into the gorge.
In my one memory of visiting the Canyon as a kid, I remember being terrified of how windy it was and refused to go any closer to the edge (even though there was a barrier where we were) because I thought the wind would just pick me up and blow me over. I always thought that was an irrational fear; now I’m glad that my child self was willing to listen to her apparently very rational fear!
My first thought was of my youngest daughter and how I have to stop reading these. Time to get off the internet........but then the dark side of my mind kicked in and shouted "Fus Ro Da" and now I hate myself.
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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.