[removed]

[removed]

That’s some strange tourism, I’ve experienced sub negative 50 and have no desire to see the opposite side of that spectrum.

As someone who lives near DV, all I can say is that if you're going to do this (and I strongly recommend that you DO NOT do this), make sure you check off ALL the boxes here first at a MINIMUM...

* Visit Furnace Creek Visitor Center only, do NOT explore the backcountry in these temperatures (even by car). Visit only near established facilities with shade, water, and park staff
* Do not hike, do not travel off road
* If your car is in anything less than perfect working order, DO NOT GO
* Do not enter the park without a full tank of gas and fill up whenever you see a gas station
* Have a functional, preferably full sized, spare tire and know how to change it
* If you blow your tire and change it out, your trip is over. Turn around and go back. Do not continue on without a functional spare.
* If you get stranded or your car breaks down, do NOT leave your car. Stay with the car and wait for help. Do NOT walk into the desert.
* Have at least three (preferably more) gallons of water *per person* with you and drink LOTS of water at all times
* Wear sunscreen and loose, lightweight clothing
* Let someone know where you are going and when you expect to be back
* And probably write a will before you go

I get the novelty of people wanting to experience the extreme temperature. But this isn't a place for the unwary tourist. There is little to no cell service. Death Valley is larger than Connecticut and only has three gas stations. It's not Disneyland.

The desert kills. Particularly those who are careless or unprepared.

Edit: Thanks for all the awards, y'all! Stay safe and hydrated out there!

Edit 2: Wow, this really went off! Going to add a few more great desert safety things that were mentioned in the comments...


* Bring alternative communications, as cell service cannot be relied upon. For me, I take a combo GPS map / satellite messenger / emergency beacon (Garmin GPSMap 66i). These require a subscription usually, but can usually be relied upon to have signal even in the most remote areas. The Garmin subscription can be turned off for months you don't use it. Alternatively, you can rent sat phones for trips if you don't want to invest in your own.
* Restore your electrolytes! (It's what plants crave!) Bring powdered or tablet electrolytes and consume them regularly. Or, if you don't have those, salty snacks are a good backup.
* Pack some shade! Shade makes a world of difference in the desert. A small canopy or even just an umbrella can help reduce the amount of heat bearing down on you.
* When I say 'stay with your car' when stranded that doesn't necessarily mean stay IN your car. Temps inside your car will rise dramatically with no AC, so stay WITH your car... but seek shade within sight of your car and the road. Keep watch for the sound of approaching vehicles to flag down for help.
* Make sure you are DRINKING the water you brought. Do not attempt to conserve it, it doesn't do you any good in left in the bottle. The best advice is to sip water constantly, rather than chug it all at once.
* 3 gallons of water is assuming you are not going to be hiking or active in this heat. If you are active (walking, hiking, stumbling down the road) in 130F / 6% humidity, you are going to be losing water extremely fast and will need a LOT more water. But you SHOULDN'T be active in this weather. Seriously, you are in danger of dying.
* Limit travel only in the coolest part of the day (morning) if possible.
* Watch your vehicle's temperature gauge, it may overheat before you do (particularly on steep grades). Your AC will make the engine overheat faster. Turning off the AC and turning on the heater may help cool it down, but then YOU will be miserable. Bring extra coolant.
* And... again... the smartest thing you can do is NOT go in these temperatures. Locals don't go to DV in the summer. We go in winter and spring. (It's beautiful in spring when the wildflowers come in!)

I have a buddy who tries to run in this crazy heat, gets super fucking sick, misses work for week, and posts about what a badass he is for running and succumbing to this heat. Meanwhile he’s gonna die from heat stroke. Don’t promote stupidity, Alex!

Edit: He’s ok, not actually dying, I mean not any more than the rest of us! I was being hyperbolic, but he sure felt like he was.

In other news the ocean is so warm in Florida, 100 degrees, people can no longer go in there to cool off

Edit Source https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-ocean-temperatures-rise-to-the-90s-nearly-hitting-100/

I got sunburned just reading the article.

“People run down to the beach to see why the water is suddenly receding at a rapid rate.”

How we have made it this far as a species is beyond me.

I live close to the area. These people are absolute idiots. Every year loads of people get hauled out of here, Joshua Tree, Mojave, and Anza Borrego because they think they can beat the heat and survive. Every year emergency services risks their lives to go after these idiots.

I live in the Arizona desert right now right outside the grand canyon, I don't understand why in the ever-loving fuck someone would want to come experience this heat. People are going to fucking die.

>​Earlier this week, German tourist Daniel Jusehus snapped a photo of the famed thermometer at the visitor centre after challenging himself to a run in the sweltering heat.

Because German tourists have such a great reputation for survival in Death Valley...

That’s 131 Freedomdegrees for Americans!

In other news people jump off of buildings to experience the sudden stop of hitting the sidewalk below.

This is a great occasion to link the "The Hunt for the Death Valley Germans" story.

Without taking anything away, it's the story of the search for a German family that disappeared in Death Valley in 1996. It's quite the read, but it's worth it.

christ that just sounds like torture, why would you willingly go experience that sort of heat

Sounds about as smart as taking a carbon fiber submarine to go look at the Titanic.

Damn. I’ve been bored before but never ‘lets travel to the desert to experience record hot’ bored

This is a classic tale of what can go wrong in Death Valley:

https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/

>“It’s hot, but the scenery is awesome,” he said.

My dude it will look just as cool when it's not 131 degrees. It's rocks.

the body starts shutting down if the core temp reaches 105f, this is 25 degrees hotter. this is absolute insanity

>tourists flocking to Death Valley National Park

they talked to like 2 people. Is that "flocking" now? Nothing in the article shows or even indicates more people are going there right now

This is what we call natural selection

As an Australian - fucking idiots lol

Heatstroke is a thing which can hit you before you even realise

Something important to note is that Death Valley has abnormally low humidity, usually below 7%. For context of how absurdly low that humidity is, I live in a hot dry desert ecosystem, and our humidity is frequently between 20-27%. Humidity is significantly more important than atmospheric temperature when determining how hot things are going to feel or how hard your body is going to work to survive the conditions. To adjust for that, meteorologists use a technique called "wet bulb temperatures" to calculate "real feel" for temperatures.

So, Death Valley has absurdly hot temperatures, but you'll feel significantly worse in a Miami, FL 29.5 C (85 F) than you would in Death Valley. As an example, Death Valley at 49 C (120 F) has a wet-bulb temperature reading of only 25 C (77 F). For context, Miami, FL today is 32C (90 F), but has a wet-bulb temperature due to humidity of 29.7 C (85.5F). So, despite a massive difference in atmospheric temperature, Death Valley, CA at 49 C is significantly more livable than Miami, FL at 32 C.

What's special about Death Valley heat like this, however, is that our machines ***do*** care about atmospheric temperature since they don't thermoregulate the way our bodies do. Most HVAC and heat pump systems, even those rated to work in extreme atmospheric temperatures, have an operational limit of 51.7 C (125 F). So, people living or driving in these conditions risk their heat pumps, HVAC systems, and automobiles overheating and breaking down.

No need of a frying pan, just jump right into the fire

If your gas tank is half full while in Death Valley, fill up. Do not go without water and do not go without a working car AC. The heat will kill you and has killed before.

The issue with dumb people is not that they kill themselves in stupid ways but that they almost always procreate before they do it.

Death valley germans and record heat.

What could get wrong?