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The Hunt for the Death Valley Germans
- goombastic 10y agoWhat is a wordfence? Anyone else blocked from reading this "article?"
- jat850 10y agoI had no issues reading it in entirety (datapoints: Canadian IP, Linux+Chrome)
- gozur88 10y agoNo problems for me using chrome on a mac.
- Tiksi 10y agoI think wordfence is a wordpress plugin that is supposed to block malicious traffic. So most likely they either blocked the country you're in, your ip is blacklisted somewhere, or you have malware on your computer/network.
- vmarsy 10y agoHere is an archive.org mirror from June : https://web.archive.org/web/20160619164015/http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/ https://web.archive.org/web/20160619164015/http://www.otherh... It looks like a (2012) tag should be added to that submission, the 2012 wayback snapshot looks exactly the same as today.
- witty_username 10y agoI'm blocked; I live in India.
- zhte415 10y agoBlocked by the host website. Reason: Access from your area has been temporarily limited for security reasons
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- jmspring 10y agoI've heard about this incident first hand from old timers out in DV, having gone for years myself. The warning at the start of the piece, maybe merited, feels a bit over the top. The story itself is quite intriguing.
- jmspring 10y agoReading through the story, I had heard most of it while in the desert a few years ago. The writer's style generally rubs me the wrong way on multiple fronts. It's an interesting story and case, but I can't get over the "style" of the presentation.
- meddlepal 10y agoI was not a huge fan of the style either, but it does a fairly good job of keeping the reader interested. That said, the amount of digs he takes at various local and federal agencies is really unnecessary.
- sverige 10y agoI dunno, I think he earned the right to criticize them. It was fairly mild, considering the effort he put into it compared to them. And he was complimentary to them overall. He didn't even launch into what would probably be an epic rant if he were to provide all the details, but rather stopped himself. Apparently he has gotten the "style" feedback enough that he felt it necessary to put a full disclaimer at the head of the article.
- syllogism 10y agoI think the effort he put in is pretty hard to justify objectively. He can do what he likes with his time, but it doesn't mean the various agencies deserve criticism for doing less.
- dredmorbius 10y ago
- confluence 10y agoThis is probably one of the greatest pieces of long form journalism I have ever read, and I've read a lot. You'd be doing yourselves a disservice by not setting aside some time and reading this all the way through.
- seibelj 10y agoI read it a year ago and just reread it now. I thoroughly enjoyed it, the author sounds like a very unique person to do this.
- steffenfrost 10y agoPast midnight, couldn't stop reading. Can't imagine the sheer horror of their predicament in that terrain, during the summer heat. The author deducing how the Germans ended up in that canyon was a stroke of investigative genius.
- RichardCA 10y ago"There are some who will say that any backcountry travel in Death Valley using a normal street vehicle in Summer is inherently foolish. This is certainly a debatable topic." No, it's not.
- ghaff 10y agoIt probably depends on your definition of backcountry. There are some reasonable unpaved roads. But in general I agree. EDIT: And summer certainly raises the stakes.
- jmspring 10y agoThe last wild flower bloom(not this year, 5 or so years back), a buddy and I only had a 2wd Tacoma at our disposal. The back roads we were used to (out to Butte Valley, for instance), which aren't all that bad were a challenge and we opted to play safe. Any time of year, parts of DV back country are not to be taken lightly. You may not see anyone for days if something goes wrong.
- Gargoyle 10y agoThe key thing is knowing when to turn around. I've taken some drives out into the Mojave and Death Valley that weren't all that smart in a 2wd sedan, but I also turned around the instant the road made me feel uncomfortable. And I had a couple pallets of bottled water in my trunk, but I always do. Calculated risks. Still, it can be really hard to turn around when you're far enough in to be "committed" to the road. Sunk costs and all that.
- douche 10y agoTacomas are tough little trucks though... I've seen them go into and out of places they really have no business being.
- jmspring 10y agoThey are, but tires play a big part in being able to handle terrain as well. And typical tires on a 2wd Tacoma aren't usually that rugged.
- blueintegral 10y agoThis guy also wrote about his hunt for the crash site of a predecessor of the SR-71. I enjoyed reading it: http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/area-51-and-other-strange-places/bluefire-main/bluefire/the-hunt-for-928/ http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/area-51-and-other-strange...
- fapjacks 10y agoYes! The titanium bits. Phenomenal, this guy's stories.
- triplesec 10y agoMentioned at the very end of the story. Hours of endless fun. He also has a sidebarlink, but from personal experience many people may not click: he goes places and tells lot of stories, should you wish to try them. http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/miscellaneous-adventures/ http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/miscellaneous-adventures/ Also here's the report from another group that went hiking there successfully in early 2010. I do hope that the 'animal bone' the teenager is holding is indeed from a burro. http://www.panamintcity.com/backpacking/anvilspringcanyon.html http://www.panamintcity.com/backpacking/anvilspringcanyon.ht...
- mapmap 10y agoGood find! Was there any followup on that bone? That trip was March 18 2010 and it wasn't until the last week of November 2010 that the officials allegedly helicoptered their 4-5 man team in for an overnight to recover the remaining bones. Further studying the trip log, the bone discovery appears to be early in their hike while they were still in Lost Spring Canyon. This is a considerable ways east of the Germans' area.
- mapmap 10y agoFollowing up: I confirmed from the source that NPS looked at his picture and it was an animal bone.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- valarauca1 10y agoI came across this blog a while ago when doing a deep dive into EM-Drives. Turns out the author did his master's thesis under one of the original pioneers of that field (well the field is still really new). Awesome to learn something new about and old source :)
- julianpye 10y agoThose who argue about the level of danger of that terrain should note one really important aspect: young children overheat really quickly in thelse environments. In these scenarios even if given water reserves, adults will outlive children (initially). There are plenty of tales in Death Valley about this. So with kids the risk is an entire level higher.
- sliverstorm 10y agoDo you know why? Is this a surface area vs volume case, except in reverse e.g. the environment is pumping heat into small creatures faster than big creatures?
- jsprogrammer 10y agoA child will have significantly less water mass.
- sizzzzlerz 10y agoWhat is amazing is the scope of the search that took place, both when the Germen's car was found and, several years later, when the human bones were located. It is gratifying to know there are people in the S&R teams who will devote their time trying to find (or, very often, recover) people who have gotten into trouble.
- colmvp 10y agoAlso credit goes to the human penchant for curiosity, an observation I'm suggesting because of recently watching the TNG episode, "Clues."
- lttlrck 10y agoExtremely well written, a sad story full of important lessons. I will certainly remember it if I ever find myself wandering onto unknown terrain.
- joncp 10y agoI dunno, he meanders through the story in a very long-winded way, including bunches of stuff that doesn't actually move the narrative forward. A good editor could have helped him cut maybe a third out of that without losing anything of significance. Then again, it's a blog so no big deal.
- StavrosK 10y agoYeah, you can pretty much skip the later entries without missing much, it's all about how they searched but couldn't find anything else.
- ktRolster 10y agoUnless you like reading trip reports, then it was great. I wish he had described the problems with the police in more detail, though.
- lttlrck 10y agoNaturally it could be better but I was riveted. My patience has suffered far more at the hands of more established authors like Tom Clancy and more recently Neal Stephenson with stuff that I really don't need to know.
- pmcollins 10y agoHere's a map someone made to go along with the story: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?dg=feature&msa=0&ie=UTF&mid=1RQa5pgo6pybGmqfRTX3moi-6f4Q https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?dg=feature&msa=0&ie=UTF...
- kjp1 10y agoI got kind of obsessed reading this story and needed to follow it on Google Earth too, my map has a few extra places marked, such as the landing sites, China Lake sites, and final resting place. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FdGZI6DDRPe3Y9-dtpLGGtDr2pQ&usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FdGZI6DDRPe3Y9-dtpLGGtDr2p...
- mapmap 10y agoThank you, I couldn't locate the tower without this.
- cpt1138 10y agoWhat fascinated me about this article is how much info they were able to gather. The context of my fascination is the idea that currently the powers that be are asking to track more and more and more in the hopes of pre-crime detection. The ability to collect so much information in such a hostile place seems like if you are motivated, it was already all there in 1996, no more is needed.
- london888 10y agoI wonder if the German government recognised his efforts in some way. That would have been a nice gesture. Even if just a photo or handshake from the Ambassador or the Consul in LA.
- ams6110 10y agoIt's hard for me to second guess but I think if it had been me, as soon as the car got stuck I would be backtracking the way I came in. If a car made it in, it's clearly going to be pretty easily walkable, and you're heading back towards more main roads where a passing car is more likely. I can't imagine taking off into the brush with no water or gear. Especially with kids.
- brianshaler 10y agoThe author did an excellent job of getting into their heads in the situation and rationalizing their decisions. They underestimated road conditions; "their pamphlet offered an (erroneous) alternative, apparently shorter route back down to the valley in the form of a road down Anvil Canyon;" they made an easy-to-make wrong turn; and they were operating under an assumption that help was a few miles south instead of dozens of miles back. "Given the information available to them, where could they best find it? It is likely they had gone the entire day without seeing another human, so their entry route offered little hope of others. In examining their maps, Ballarat was many miles away, and with unknown services. Furnace Creek, with everything they needed, was far to the north, out of their reach. Even the paved Badwater Road on the valley’s east side had only intermittent traffic and was in a zone of lethal heat. But there was another possibility... [only about 8 or 9 miles to the south of them]"