{"id":15932,"date":"2023-09-07T18:28:04","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T22:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/?p=15932"},"modified":"2023-09-07T18:28:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T22:28:05","slug":"saving-lives-at-the-grand-canyon-one-salty-snack-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/2023\/09\/07\/saving-lives-at-the-grand-canyon-one-salty-snack-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving Lives at the Grand Canyon, One Salty Snack at a Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s been a deadly summer for hikers in the Southwest. At least seven have died in recent weeks from apparent heat-related causes \u2014 including\u00a0one at the Grand Canyon<\/a>,\u00a0one in Death Valley<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0two at a state park in Nevada<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 as extreme temperatures this year have met increased visitation at national and state parks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, the National Park Service tallied 3,428 search-and-rescue incidents \u2014 incidents that might include helicopter flights and multiday searches, and can cost tens of thousands of dollars. According to Travis Heggie, a professor at Bowling Green State University and former public risk management specialist for the National Park Service, that number is a significant undercount: It does not include so-called \u201cagency assists,\u201d or search-and-rescue responses by entities like sheriff\u2019s offices, which are often better positioned to respond in some remote areas. If those, too, figured in National Parks statistics, he said, \u201cthe total would probably increase by about 30 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The salty snacks offered by rangers are part of an approach known as P-SAR, or \u201cpreventive search and rescue,\u201d pioneered here after an extreme heat wave in 1996 led to hundreds of cases of heat exhaustion and five fatalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had nonstop calls,\u201d recalled Ken Philips, who led the park\u2019s search and rescue at the time. \u201cIt got to a point where we were like zombies.\u201d Something had to change. Now park staff and volunteers undertake P-SAR training, and are told that the goal is to \u201cget everyone back out of the canyon alive.\u201d Also, said the P-SAR coordinator, Meghan Smith, the aim is to help people avoid experiences that will make them reluctant to return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P-SAR is a bit of a misnomer: It\u2019s not search and rescue so much as its opposite \u2014 education and outreach before any search or rescue is needed, an effort to replace as many helicopter trips as possible with better visitor awareness and preparation, and if need be, position spare tents and food supplies where stranded hikers need them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A cohort of nine seasonal P-SAR rangers and another 70-odd volunteers patrol popular trails, plying hikers with information, advice and extra calories, and providing an early warning system for the park\u2019s much smaller search-and-rescue staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source:<\/strong> Gerety, R. M. (2023, August 1). Saving lives at the Grand Canyon, one salty snack at a time<\/em>. The New York Times. https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/01\/travel\/grand-canyon-heat-search-rescue.html?searchResultPosition=18<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysis:<\/strong> Ryan (our partner) mentioned wanting to find ways to broach more somber topics surrounding the history of aviation and methods to do so in an approachable way. This just got me thinking about how to go about it in a succinct way that is not only easy to learn but easy to teach. People who come to the park should be excited about aviation, but that doesn’t mean we can’t also acknowledge the safety risks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a deadly summer for hikers in the Southwest. At least seven have died in recent weeks from apparent heat-related causes \u2014 including\u00a0one at the Grand Canyon,\u00a0one in Death Valley\u00a0and\u00a0two at a state park in Nevada\u00a0\u2014 as extreme temperatures this year have met increased visitation at national and state parks. In 2022, the National […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":15955,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15932","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-focus"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15932"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15956,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15932\/revisions\/15956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}