Bushwalk Australia

Thursday week ago a 43yo male hiker died whilst hiking in Hattah-Kulkyne NP in 47 degrees + heat against the advice of the park rangers the day before, only for them to find his body the following day. He did at least leave a note in his car indicating what track he was walking on. This was a preventable death!

scownie wrote:Thursday week ago a 43yo male hiker died whilst hiking in Hattah-Kulkyne NP in 47 degrees + heat against the advice of the park rangers the day before, only for them to find his body the following day. He did at least leave a note in his car indicating what track he was walking on. This was a preventable death!

Only preventable by common sense.

He was told not to go, but he chose to ignore that advice. You can lead a horse to water, but you cant make it drink.

walking in that temp is incomprehensible especially if you're in the open... you'd possibly have to drink the best part of a litre an hour to prevent dehydration

Here's a link about it.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/01/21/3673260.htm

A well-earned Darwin Award there.

do australian schools and youth groups educate aussies on the dangers of heat stroke and heat exhaustion>?
in nz hypothermia lessons tend to get thrashed... led me to overdressing massively on my early trips..... ah the days of prickly heat from coarse wool t shirts worn in summer....

Yeah plenty of that here in the schoolbooks. But still some folks go into Top Gear mode : "How hard can it be ?". I'm going to Wyperfeld this week end but only because there's a cold front all over Victoria right now so it's safe to go. But hiking with 40+ temps ? You need regular breaks, and like 1 litter of water every hour if not more... And even when it's only 20° outside the sun is scorching. Maybe the problem comes from people not realizing that even in Victoria you have arid parks, only a 6 hour drive from Melbourne, with temperatures similar and sometimes higher than in Alice Springs...