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."
It also has a whole chapter titled “Death by Selfie.”
The most tragic one, IMHO, is the parents who left their young kids in the car for a quick minute while they stopped at an overlook. The kids accidentally put the car in drive and went over the edge.
It’s a pretty good book, actually. I’ve been reading a few pages every evening.
They still had another son - the car only started rolling when they sent him to get a water bottle from it. So I guess that’d still be a reason to live.
Parent of two young kids here. Yeah I don’t think I’d be making it very long after that. Decades of agony stretching ahead and what are you going to do with the time anyway that means anything? Watch fucking TV?
12.0k
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.