Grand Canyon rangers try to prevent heat-related hiking deaths

Saturday, Aug. 2, 1997 | 9:11 a.m.

With only one canteen of water and sandal-clad feet, they tell rangers they plan to hike down the Bright Angel Trail to Plateau Point, an inner canyon spot that overlooks the Colorado River gorge.

They think the trip will take about four hours.

Not likely, says Peggy Kolar, a preventive search-and-rescue ranger. It's a 12-mile trip, and a few thousand feet down.

The men finally are persuaded to walk the paved trail that winds around the canyon's rim instead.

Rangers are having similar conversations over and over with hikers this summer, hoping a little education at the canyon rim can head off the need for a rescue - or worse.

Last year, four hikers got in over their heads and died in the canyon as a direct result of heat exposure. Two were children.

"Everybody wants that adventure," said supervising ranger Chris Fors. "They see that nice maintained path. So they say, 'let's go,' and they don't realize there's not much cover down the path.

"Sometimes they didn't eat breakfast. They have no water or no food. They probably underestimate what bad shape they're in."

He said hikers also underestimate the heat. While it can be cool and breezy in the rim's pine trees, a descent into the canyon means desert-like temperatures.

Last year's deaths, along with some 200 heat-linked rescues, prompted rangers to develop an educational program "with some teeth in it," said Park Superintendent Robert Arnberger.

The program consists of posters and fliers mixed with a heavy dose of advice from rangers at the top and along the popular Bright Angel and Kaibab trails.

The message is clear: "Heat Kills," the bright yellow posters proclaim at trailheads.

Park officials say they expect some unavoidable rescues, but they hope to cut down the number of heat-related rescues and deaths. Last year, about half of all the rescues they had to perform were the result of heat exposure.

As part of the program, rangers and volunteers are posted at the trailheads to make sure would-be hikers have enough water and food and are dressed appropriately.

So far, rangers are finding many planning a hike "very naive" and "shockingly unprepared," said Andrea Lankford, a supervisory park ranger.

On this day, this group included a family from North Royalton, Ohio.

Rangers walk the trails to make sure hikers are OK and give pep talks to those who are too discouraged to keep hiking. They also offer food and water to people like 14-year-old Tana Peterseim, whose family didn't bring enough water for their 3 1/2 mile hike.

Tana, who was wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt, got hot and then clammy when her family ran out of water. Her head and her stomach hurt, so her 24-year-old brother hiked ahead and got some saltine crackers and water from rangers.

The teen, looking flushed and tired, eventually climbed out of the canyon with her father, William, and brother Stewart.

In addition to the rangers and pamphlets, the park service also has public service announcements on local radio warning hikers not to become casualties.

A number of people have returned their permits to hike in remote canyon areas since park officials have begun detailing the hiking dangers, Fors said.

While park officials are not yet ready to claim total program success, he said the number of rescues is down, and it looks like their efforts are paying off.

Lankford said about half the hikers really take her advice seriously. But those who disregard the rangers' warnings and later have to be rescued will be cited for endangering themselves and rescuers.

"We tell people from Phoenix, 'Would you consider hiking 10 miles in 105 degree heat?"' Lankford said. "So why do it here?"