Teen dies on Australian hiking trip

[wayno]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/ ... iking-trip

A 14-year-old boy from Scotland has died while on a hiking trip with his father in Western Australia's northwest.

The teenager, who arrived in the country in mid-December, became dehydrated while walking along Badjirrajirra Creek, about 20km south of Exmouth, yesterday.

He collapsed about four hours into the hike with little water or shade. Temperatures in the region were well above 40 degrees Celsius.

Police say they responded to emergency calls from the boy's father, a 49-year-old Geraldton man, only to find the pair about 700m down a gully near the Badjirrajirra car park.

Officers carried the boy to the car park and performed CPR.

He was rushed to Exmouth Hospital by ambulance but died early last night.

[ofuros]

Sad...so very sad.
I'm working in a N.T mine at the moment,
voluntary hydration tests are conducted 3 times a day....its a big, big issue here.
Consuming 8-15 litres of water a day is not uncommon, depending on the work being done.
Never under estimate high temps with high/low humidity.
Dehydrating or heat stroke is never far away.

Take care.
ofuros

[wayno]

yes totally tragic, being from scotland i guess they may have underestimate the effect of the dry heat....

how do they test for hydration?

[claudicles]

I just read that story and it really is awful. If his Dad is from Geraldton it is a bit surprising though. It doesn't surprise me the lad didn't have enough water though. I did the Offa's Dyke National trail a few years back with a big group in a heat wave, for Wales that is. It took a few members of the group a little while to work out that you need to take a lot more water to walk in 30oC for 30 km that you do in 15oC. There was one lad who just didn't get it and the rest of us were topping up his water every day by lunch time.

[ofuros]

Urine test kit for accuracy + a coloured chart to compare the colour of your urine with.
5 levels from almost gin clear to dark orange, also checks your salt levels.
Before starting work, midday & just before knockoff.
If your found to be dehydrated, your directed to a crib room for an hour to cool down & to drink water, then re test.
38-40 degree's is just another normal working day here.

[taswegian]

This is extremely sad.

One also needs to heed the opposite when too much water is consumed.
http://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10965&p=145715&hilit=Dies+tasmania#p145715
It's only too easy to try and do the right thing and end up making things worse.

[rogo]

I have lived up in Exmouth and know that area. It was apparently 48c and there is no shade no water. It was crazy even to attempt a walk like that this time of year. From what I have read the Dad isn't an aussie but he lived in Geraldton, so he might not have experienced our tough climate in summer.

It was an eight km loop and the family possibly thought they could do it in two or so hours.

Sympathies to his family.

[wayno]

so Im guessing the dehydration lead to heat exhaustion or heat stroke, he's just arrived in aus, presumably from a northern winter..,
you've got the radiant heat coming off the ground...

[ryantmalone]

That is terribly sad, however it is all too common these days to see people enter the bush completely unprepared.

Just this weekend alone, I saw more people at Feathertop carrying a 600ml coke bottle full of water, yet they have very expensive looking walking poles with no wet weather or cold weather gear, only to find no water at Federation Hut before they had to head back out along the razorback when a storm was incoming.

Honestly, I'm surprised that we don't see this in the news more often.

This is extremely sad.

One also needs to heed the opposite when too much water is consumed.
http://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10965&p=145715&hilit=Dies+tasmania#p145715
It's only too easy to try and do the right thing and end up making things worse.

Drinking too much water is a very real danger. One of my biggest achilles heels when I go hiking is drinking too much water when I rest. If I take in more than a few hundred ml too quickly, it will come straight back up, as will anything else I drink after that.

Small sips is the key. Just take what you need, and don't act on urges.

[wayno]

this incident looks like a typical one of people visiting a country where they aren't familiar with how the weather conditions can adversely affect you. foreigners arent necessarily going to equate australia with the same weather as the Sahara, but if you told people they were going to the sahara they may prepare differently or be more conservative in what trip they do...
new zealand is classic, it doesnt have extremes of weather compared to a lot of countries, but they are still enough to catch people out.
a german tourist just died in the south island after slipping on snow... he wasnt equipped for walking on a steep slope in snow, so he musnt have expected to encounter snow. its mid summer , which may have affected his expectations on where the snow would be and not be....

[ryantmalone]

I suppose that's where it all comes down to preparation. Knowing where you are going, knowing what to expect, and making sure that you have all the gear that you would need for all possible situations that the season can throw at you.

[wayno]

and not just going by ads for tourists that show people are always happy and comfortable...

[ryantmalone]

haha Gotta love the photos of people enjoying their hikes, looking like they have just come out of the shower and capable of standing bolt upright without collapsing.

[wayno]

marketing = accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative... i wonder how many tourists go swimming in croc, shark, box jellyfish infested waters...