Man falls into hot spring at Yellowstone and is killed
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Yup, think falling off the bones tender. It'd be very difficult to collect all the remains, I would think, and involve safety compromises to those trying to recover them.
Well, again - the ph levels of this water is like battery acid, and it's double the temperature of boiling. It's actually more like promession - where a body is boiled in a solvent under pressure for hours. All soft material is totally dissolved, and the bones are basically chowder.
This guy's body has been in there a couple days. There's basically nothing recognizable left - including bones, which would be tiny fragments, basically indistinguishable from the sand in the pools.
Well, again - the ph levels of this water is like battery acid, and it's double the temperature of boiling. It's actually more like promession - where a body is boiled in a solvent under pressure for hours. All soft material is totally dissolved, and the bones are basically chowder.
This guy's body has been in there a couple days. There's basically nothing recognizable left - including bones, which would be tiny fragments, basically indistinguishable from the sand in the pools.
Kind of creepy to think about, ain't it?
Sure is. I hadn't thought about the pH of the water. Makes me wonder why they would even try to recover his remains. You hear stories of animals occasionally falling into those pools when they've gotten too close trying to stay warm in the winters there. Makes me wonder how they'd ever be able to identify any remains they might find.
Please. There are miles and miles of boardwalks through thermal areas at Yellowstone. The boardwalks do just what they're supposed to do - they make is very safe for people to explore some of the thermal areas. What they don't do is make it absolutely, 100% safe. Nor should they. You might as well say that all the animals should be behind fences and every cliff should have a railing.
I think at a minimum since they had the ability to build these boardwalks (which I can only google image), they should have at least put some level of railing, perhaps up to hip height. In some areas, these people are walking on a relatively narrow boardwalk inches away from 200F water. Either do it right or don't put the boardwalks there at all. I don't know how you can claim the existing boardwalks are "very safe". If only boiling water and certain death wasn't only inches away.
EDIT>> Here's a pic where they did have some railing, but obviously it's not everywhere and it appears ok in this instance. But where there's boiling hot springs right below you (such as in the case of what you quoted - the guy simply falling over), there should have been railing.
I think at a minimum since they had the ability to build these boardwalks (which I can only google image), they should have at least put some level of railing, perhaps up to hip height. These people are walking on a relatively narrow boardwalk inches away from 200F water. Either do it right or don't put the boardwalks down at all. I don't know how you can claim the existing boardwalks are "very safe".
The boardwalks aren't narrow (they are about four feet wide), and they do have railings at certain spots (just not everywhere). And how would railings keep people from deliberately leaving the boardwalk? Most of the injuries are NOT coming from people tripping, but from visitors blatantly ignoring the safety rules!
(Railings everywhere would also make the boardwalks harder to move, which has to be done periodically when the ground under them changes and is no longer safe. That's why the park uses boardwalks in most thermal areas instead of paved paths.)
I am sorry, but Yellowstone is no place for the careless or the foolish. Those folks should stick to "visiting" by watching a DVD. Those people who CAN follow some very simple rules, though, should go - they will have a marvelous time there.
I think at a minimum since they had the ability to build these boardwalks (which I can only google image), they should have at least put some level of railing, perhaps up to hip height. These people are walking on a relatively narrow boardwalk inches away from 200F water. Either do it right or don't put the boardwalks down at all. I don't know how you can claim the existing boardwalks are "very safe".
I proclaim them very safe because they are.
In 2015, over four million people visited Yellowstone National Park. That's 4,000,000+ people. The biggest draw in the park are the thermal features - geysers, springs, pools, mudpots, etc. Most of those four million people visiting the park visited one or more of the thermal areas. Not a one died in them. Before this most recent event, the previous fatality in one of the hot springs was in 2000. So, over 50 million people had manage to visit the park during that time span without boiling themselves alive before this recent instance - which was a very intentional act that a railing would not have prevented.
That's why I claim that Yellowstone is a very safe place. It is.
What isn't Yellowstone? It isn't 100% safe. Welcome to planet Earth.
PS - You don't need to post a pic. I've been there, and I know whereof I speak. I've explored the thermal areas. Even some in the backcountry, that have no boardwalks at all. I've encountered brown bears miles from a road. And I was safe about it. Was there some risk? Of course. That's life.
^ I'm not sure how you can claim this boardwalk design is very safe:
The guy you quoted had a story about a man falling right over into 200F water.
True this is not Disney and people have to have some level of mental & physical competence (welcome to earth), but that's not what I'm contesting. This is deliberately offering people a walkway potentially above scalding waters, which you deem very safe. And why do they opt to put railing in certain places and not others (such as where that man in the other story tripped and fell from the boardwalk)? It makes zero sense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aredhel
The boardwalks aren't narrow (they are about four feet wide), and they do have railings at certain spots (just not everywhere). And how would railings keep people from deliberately leaving the boardwalk? Most of the injuries are NOT coming from people tripping, but from visitors blatantly ignoring the safety rules!
4ft wide doesn't mean much when it's busy like the above. Also I never argued about people deliberately leaving the boardwalk, they deserve what they get.
^ I'm not sure how you can claim this boardwalk design is very safe:
The guy you quoted had a story about a man falling right over into 200F water.
4ft wide doesn't mean much when it's busy like the above. Also I never argued about people deliberately leaving the boardwalk, they deserve what they get.
I can claim that it is very safe because (unlike you) I HAVE BEEN THERE! Several times, in fact. If you take reasonable care (which includes walking, not running) and pay attention to what you are doing, you are not going to trip on the boardwalk. It takes either real effort or seriously bad luck to be hurt in the thermal areas.
We shouldn't modify the park in ways that degrade the experience for everyone just because some people don't have the brains God gave a grasshopper.
The boardwalks aren't designed to be barriers that are impenetrable by a human, they are there to say, walk here and don't go over there where it isn't safe. You can't design something that costs 1000X what a boardwalk would cost to try and keep out a few stupid people who will find another way to die if this doesn't work.
What this story really highlights is the national parks are not a playland that is designed to provide a safe recreational experience for everyone who comes. Its not another Disneyland. Its often the very features of the parks that make them dangerous that also make them attractive to tourists. The hot springs at Yellowstone are a good example. The springs are beautiful, but get off a marked trail and you may fall right through the ground into a hot spring with boiling hot temperatures of water. Other tourists are routinely gored or attacked by free roaming bison within the park. In Grand Teton National Park, there are very steep and jagged mountains. These mountains are particularly dangerous to climb. Death Valley National Park has the highest temperatures in the country and the risk during the summer of injury or death from sunstroke is considerable. Zion National Park has spectacular scenery, but it also contains hiking trails that are very narrow and steep and contain many places where a person could fall to their death.
People need to respect the parks and recognize the inherent dangers involved in visiting them. There is no excuse for not following park rules.
These kinds of incidents will continue to happen. The major reason is that some people just don't follow warnings and directions.
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