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Two California hikers found a family's message in a bottle and helped save them
- laumars 7y agoI really enjoyed this story. However I did struggle on one part: > Whitson, his 13-year-old son and girlfriend, Krystal Ramirez, had decided to spend Father's Day weekend backpacking the Arroyo Seco River. It took me longer to parse this sentence than I should perhaps admit to. The first couple of reads lead me to believe his son and girlfriend were the same person.
- jdbernard 7y agoNice place for an Oxford comma.
- laumars 7y agoI was thinking this too. I'm generally a big fan of the Oxford comma.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- lonelappde 7y agoThe Oxford comma isn't the issue here. The issue is that "his" binds both son and girlfriend, and therefore needs an "and" in front of it. It's not grammatical as is.
- rpmisms 7y agoIt would still read perplexingly. The Oxford comma isn't a tool for the inept; rather, the ept.
- Spare_account 7y agoIt's interesting how sometimes what appears to be a prefix, isn't.
- rpmisms 7y agoThat is an affront up with which I will not put.
- hervature 7y agoJust an fyi, Oxford comma only applies to lists of 3 or more. I think this is just a dangling modifier.
- kbutler 7y agoLeaving out the oxford comma is like relying on JavaScript automatic semicolon insertion - it works fine, until it doesn't.
- ChristianBundy 7y agoThankfully we have linters!
- wvenable 7y agoJust imagine if he had a daughter instead. I don't know why some linguists are so against the Oxford comma.
- CWuestefeld 7y agoI'm still not sure whether it's the dad's girlfriend or the son's.
- parliament32 7y agoDefinitely an oxford comma situation, and need to fix those commas around the girlfriend's name. Whitson is the subject, not the son: > Whitson, his 13-year-old son, and girlfriend Krystal Ramirez had decided to spend Father's Day weekend backpacking...
- lentil_soup 7y agoThis reminded me of this real life story of trying to find a German family that got lost in Death Valley. It's a tragic story but I found very interesting how this person tries to piece together what happened. It's a long but worthwhile read. https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/ https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hu...
- dmix 7y agoDiscussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12019567 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12019567 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19263057 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19263057
- sizzzzlerz 7y agoIt is a fascinating story and the persistance of the author in trying to find the family is remarkable but its totally different than this story. The Germans were completely unprepared for their adventure without the correct clothing, not enough water, and apparently little or no knowledge of where they were going or where they were. The family in this story were prepared, knew exactly where they were going and where they were. They just ran into some bad luck but kept calm and did precisely the correct thing. The Germans were responsible for their own situation and paid the ultimate price.
- carlmr 7y agoI think this is almost a phenomenon. Europeans have trouble imagining the vastness and untouchedness of American national parks. In Europe almost all hiking trails are close to civilization and well-marked. If you expect the same in America you're in for a surprise.
- bedhead 7y agoI just returned from a three week RV trip to some of the national parks out west, including Death Valley. Two of the things I noticed were (1) Europeans outnumbered Americans in the RV parks and (2) Europeans seemed far more inclined to break the national park rules. At one point we were in a guided jeep tour in Canyonlands which is some seriously treacherous driving on cliffside switchbacks. An Escalade sped by us at one point and we were all like WTF these people are insane...it's a cliff!! We caught up to them at an overlook (the Thelma and Louise Overlook) and our guide got out to scold them. He came back and was like, "No surprise, they're Italian." He went on to explain that 90% of the issues they see with people acting recklessly were Europeans who didn't seem to comprehend how dangerous these places can be.
- hprotagonist 7y agoAmong other reasons, this is why i have a contingency email draft that I have ready to go whenever I go out on a serious-ish hike, along these lines: “here’s who is going, this is our license plate, this is our gear, this is how much food we have, here’s a very rough itinerary; if i don’t update this email by such and such a time, contact the following SAR groups...”
- latchkey 7y agoMy favorite service for this: https://www.deadmansswitch.net https://www.deadmansswitch.net
- hprotagonist 7y agoI just have a template saved in my notebook repository that i can export as needed into an email draft. It's convenient because it makes me shake my gear down, too.
- LorenPechtel 7y agoUseless for backcountry safety, it won't trigger for way too long. Off the top of my head there are two apps that are actually useful: Cairn and I believe AllTrails has just added such capability. You can set a notification that will be delivered at a certain time if you don't check in with it. Cairn's capability on Android I find quite limited, I haven't tried AllTrails.
- hazeii 7y agoIn hotels I leave a note on the table saying where to look if I'm not back (never been needed, but stories like this remind me to keep doing it).
- lostlogin 7y agoThis and a personal locator beacon and you have saved yourself and others a massive set of problems if anything goes wrong.
- throwaway5752 7y ago
- olalonde 7y agoThat autoplay video almost gave me a heart attack.
- mjevans 7y agoI would actually love if there were a browser setting that froze video (and motion image sets) until they receive mouse focus; preferably also with a payload size dependent switch to having a play button start the download.
- gardnerbickford 7y agoI don't mean to be rude but: why is this here? It would be a neat project to map out the changes in the types of stories and comments on HN over time. Over the years, HN has grown more and more in the direction of reddit front page and become less and less like an irc channel where people talk about technology.
- lelf 7y ago> Please don't submit comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills. (c) https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html, should be in FAQ too ;-)
- mrfredward 7y agoI agree with you on the turning into the reddit part, but I have to say that the way I read the guidelines, this article fits the description for off-topic more so than it meets the description for on-topic.
- moate 7y agoI would argue that at least 110 people (as of this comment's posting) disagree with you. Yay democracy!
- mrfredward 7y agoTrue, but the lack of a downvote button on posts means we'll never know how many agree. This community is far bigger than 110, so the vast majority (as with every post) abstained from the vote, and we'll never know their reasoning.
- andy_ppp 7y agoSurely you already know the reason it’s here? Someone submitted it and the community upvoted it. Chances are it’s probably interesting.
- 7y ago
- dgaudet 7y agothe news article left me wanting to know more about the hike, and i discovered this ropewiki article[0] which seems to be related, and link to a more detailed trip report[1]. i'm more of a peakbagger myself, but the photos of the canyons are fascinating (many examples in google images). i'm guessing satellite locator beacons (such as resqlink, spot or in-reach) don't work very well in canyons. you'd need a much more monster antenna and transmitter. [0] http://ropewiki.com/Arroyo_Seco_Gorge_(Los_Padres) http://ropewiki.com/Arroyo_Seco_Gorge_(Los_Padres) [1] http://www.teamsk.org/arroyo/seco.html http://www.teamsk.org/arroyo/seco.html
- opwieurposiu 7y agoWe use an in-reach for text messaging at our cabin which is in the bottom of a gulch in the rocky mountains. It does work, but only when a satellite happens to be in the right position. This basically means you have to queue up a message and it will get sent in 5-50 min.
- newsreview1 7y agoI grew up in Southern Utah, just a few miles from the Zion Narrows, and have read of many tragic situations that didn't end nearly as well as this group's story. (Including my own brother on an overnight scouting event). God bless the two hikers who "left before the rescue without giving their names!" I hope the family can find them so they can give them personal thanks.
- savingGrace 7y agoWhy could they not turn around and go back the way they came? I am not a hiker.
- yardie 7y agoBecause descent is usually trickier than ascent. If you've ever climbed down a ladder missing a rung there is that brief moment of free fall where you assume where you're going to land. But if you're on a rain slick, moss covered trail a controlled descent can be difficult even under ideal circumstances.
- arethuza 7y agoPeople also have tendency not to want to backtrack uphill again so will continue downhill way past the point where it stops being a good idea.
- jseutter 7y agoFrom reading http://theory.stanford.edu/~rvg/arroyo/ http://theory.stanford.edu/~rvg/arroyo/ (warning: nudity) linked from the ropewiki page, when hiking from the top, this journey is a combination of hiking, wading along the river and floating down it. It sounds like lots of fun. Turning around at the waterfall means that they would have to hike back as well as swim upstream, possibly through rapids, to get back to their starting point. It could be next to impossible. I could see this being an easy trap to be caught out by if you had limited exposure to conditions in the area, or even if you had checked weather conditions and missed a rainfall upstream while out hiking. While they might be ashamed of needing a rescue, they thankfully made a smart choice and this is a cool story rather than a search for bodies.
- welder 7y agoJust went to that waterfall in July. Even when water isn't flowing too fast that rope is hidden behind the water... you just have to pull it out. Another option is just ride the water down... 3 small waterfalls that end up in a deep pool so not too dangerous. My friend Scott did it without rope just for fun. He did get a bruised leg but otherwise no injuries. Photos of the camping spot a few hours swim down from waterfall: https://photos.app.goo.gl/kgMRunAAVZ9ogJnP7 https://photos.app.goo.gl/kgMRunAAVZ9ogJnP7 I'll add photos of the waterfall to that link later.
- doctorRetro 7y agoNothing really poignant to say about this, other than thanks OP for posting something positive to read today.
- chooseaname 7y agoI love stories like this. But, what if the hikers would just rather not be found?
- ukyrgf 7y agoIt's just one sentence mentioning it at the end of the article. Doesn't sound like they're launching a massive campaign.
- chooseaname 7y agoI really wasn't implying they were. I was just rhetorically asking the question. Just something to think about.
- roymurdock 7y agoI went backpacking up arroyo seco with 2 friends on the same weekend. On our way into the campgrounds the rangers told us this story, we almost didn't believe them the story was so ridiculous on its face. Crazy to see this article in the news now. Beautiful place to hike and camp, and if that's not your thing then check out the Tassajara zen center. I wrote a trip recap here: https://roymurdock.com/blogs/2019/0722ventana.php https://roymurdock.com/blogs/2019/0722ventana.php
- thiscatis 7y agoUnrelated to the article but damn, that autoplay of the video and that woman's voice scared me.
- DenisM 7y agoIt surprises me that people can’t bring a PLB along when going to a non-trivial hike. It’s only $300 and it can transmit SOS both to low orbit satellites and to rescue copters, and it has shelf life of five years (no need to charge).
- Rebelgecko 7y agoI think the monthly subscription fees are a turnoff to some people (although I think there are a few brands now that don't require that)
- DenisM 7y agoThere is no subscription for PLB, and I have not seen it in the last five years since I noticed those devices.
- LorenPechtel 7y agoPLBs have no subscription. You must register them with the government but it's free. And mine only cost $250--watch prices on Amazon to get a better deal. What you are thinking of are the SPOT & inReach units--those have subscription fees but provide you text messaging while off the grid. PLBs are single-shot HELP messages, they can't be customized. (Are you simply stranded like these guys, non-threatening injury that keeps you from getting yourself out, or is it a major issue--say, the guy here last year that keeled over on top of Hell Hill. It probably wouldn't have made a difference but the hour it took to get help certainly wasn't good.)
- bobowzki 7y agoI always bring ham radio equipment when I hike like this. Most people don't realize mobile coverage is very limited.