DEATH VALLEY, CA – A 27-year-old woman died last weekend while hiking in Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park.
The woman and her aunt started their hike from the sand dune parking lot around 11:00 am on Saturday, November 6. The pair split up around 11:30; the aunt returned to the parking lot and the woman said she would return in one or two hours. The woman was an experience hiker.
After a few hours, the aunt hiked back into the dunes but was unable to locate her niece.
She contacted park rangers around 5:00 pm to report her niece overdue. Park rangers
searched unsuccessfully that evening. A larger group of park rangers searched the next
morning. Around 9:00 am, one of the search teams found tracks matching the missing
woman’s hiking boots.
The deceased woman was found at 9:22 am. She was in the flats north of the sand dunes,
about 1 ½ miles from the parking lot. Park staff used a wheeled litter to carry her body to
the parking area.
The Inyo County Coroner’s Office is investigating. However, foul play is not suspected.
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Every one of these sad news stories on loss of life from hiking, climbing, bouldering, etc., always seem to include the phrase that the deceased “was experienced.” It seems that “experience” and “judgement” are all too often, exclusive of one another. These tragic incidents are–or could be– valuable lessons for others to learn from, but it seems that, all too often, there is little to no follow-up by local news media outlets, or the agencies charged with investigating them.
Sad to here this happened