Stranded hiker in Dry Canyon

[cynthia23]

Hiker is stranded up in Dry Canyon side ravine. High today: 118. Current temp at 12.02 am--101 degrees.
www.kesq.com/news/hiker-stranded-on-rav ... /764275058

[cynthia23]

Oh yeah, how could I forget this additional detail--there's also currently a 70 acre brush fire burning in the foothills near Indian Canyon on the AC reservation, plus a big, growing fire near Yucaipa. And somehow, the current temperature has actually gone up in the past five minutes, to 102.

Good times!

[zippetydude]

Hope the hiker is okay, but the choice of time, place, water supply, weather...etc. seem to be poorly thought out. Maybe the helicopter can just drop a couple of bottles and dump a 5 gallon bucket of water on him.

Cynthia, I know you are often amused by oddities in reporting. There's something odd in this sentence that I cut and pasted from the article...

"Palm Springs authorities are in the process of rescuing a hiker stranded on a ravine."

How does one get stranded on a ravine? On a ridge? Yes. On a mountain top? Yes. On a ravine?

z

[Ellen]

Howdy Z-dude

Considering the unbearable heat and Valley fire in the San Gorgonio wilderness, it helps to read a humorous post, thanks. I love the literacy of the folks on this board.

Cynthia, I know you are often amused by oddities in reporting. There's something odd in this sentence that I cut and pasted from the article...

"Palm Springs authorities are in the process of rescuing a hiker stranded on a ravine."

How does one get stranded on a ravine? On a ridge? Yes. On a mountain top? Yes. On a ravine?

z

Miles of smiles,
Ellen
Burned blonde

[Ed]

I noticed one of the comments below the article was snidely political: that someone this dumb must be a liberal.

We spent last night in a San Diego hotel. The evacuation order was less compelling than the power cut. Not appealing spending a night in a dark house with no AC and no source of information, with a fire - the Alpine West Fire - raging about half a mile away. We managed to make it back to our house today, by taking routes around the usual seems-to-make-no-sense roadblocks. When you talk to the sheriffs sitting in their cars, they simply smile and say they have no idea why they are blocking that route, just following orders. They were blocking the front gate of our community, and admitted that they knew people could enter the back gate.

[Ellen]

Howdy Ed

I'm glad that I didn't look at the snarky comments regarding the stranded hiker.

I'm so sorry you've been affected by the Alpine fire Glad you were able to get home today.

Ellen

[cynthia23]

The hiker was rescued this morning--according to this, he set off on Friday to climb the Dry Falls and fell into a ravine. Because who among us does not get SOME urge to do some x-country climbing and exploring when temps are 119 and multiple fires are burning nearby?

Zip, I thought the phrasing was odd too. I also don't understand how he fell into a ravine and was somehow, though uninjured, trapped in it--killed, yes, but trapped? Dry Falls is not the Grand Canyon, there aren't some kind of slot canyons or crevasses, just a few shallow dips. Ed, I too saw the 'liberal' comment. Troubling. And even more troubling, your fire-related evacuation--I'm so sorry to hear about it, and I will keep a good thought things will get better.

But not the weather. A friend who is a meteorologist sent me a detailed report--looks like we are due for some monsoonal weather, with humidity reaching a high of 70 percent. Temps will be lower with so much cloud cover, but with humidity that high, hiking becomes even more dangerous.

https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/lo ... 765553002/

[cynthia23]

They updated the linked article about an hour ago with actual video of the helicopter rescue--quite interesting to watch, and I'll be interested to hear others' thoughts on it.

[zippetydude]

Cool video! I never saw the political commentary, happily, but applaud the most wildly conservative and liberal members of society who can hold their political tongue and reach out and get a simple but valuable job like saving someone's life, done. Even when it's ON a ravine.

z

[Florian]

Looks like he was at the top of the main "Dry Falls" slab and had slipped down from the top and couldn't climb back up and certainly couldn't go down without climbing gear. It's a trap!