Rescue in the Grand Canyon: The Epic Hike that Nearly Killed Dan Becker (Being Wise Enough to Know When to Make Camp)
BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 3 months ago
This is a captivating tale, and a true one, told by the apparent leader of the group. There are a number of good lessons in it, most or all of which we’ve discussed before in painful detail. But let’s cover them again for the sake of education.
When the party crossed into the climb of the North Rim, I knew that one or both of them were going to suffer from Rhabdomylosis. I knew that without being told, without having to watch the rest of the video (I did watch the rest of it to confirm by thoughts), and without reading the video description. I knew it with certainty.
Do you recall journalist Sebastian Junger’s hard work at Restrepo? The soldiers would come back smelling of ammonia. It was in their sweat, and it was indicative of hydration and kidney problems. More to the point, hydration is only one part of the story.
In Rhabdomylosis, the body no longer has energy stores to power the physical exertion and must burn muscle to propel itself. The kidneys then have to remove that protein from the system. This will cause kidney failure if not addressed quickly.
One method to address it is hydration. The most important method is to stop the exertion. The leader of the group wasn’t very wise. He continued the climb forward for several reasons, one legitimate, and one not. The only legitimate reason to have continued the climb was that rescue would have been nearly impossible if they didn’t reach the rim. The irony is that the only reason this is a legitimate concern is because they didn’t stop when they should have, and this brings up the illegitimate reason to have continued: panic. He even says so in the video. They panicked.
We’ve discussed this before. Panic is a killer in the bush. It’s deadly. The best option would have been to suspect what was about to happen, and find a place to make camp, get Mr. Becker warm, hydrate him, and get him food energy and rest. As it was, they pushed until he vomited, only dehydrating him more.
Sure enough, according to the medical professionals, Mr. Becker was suffering from Rhabdomylosis. He said in the video that this was a “rare” occurrence. That’s not true. It’s not rare among people who undergo extreme physical exertion. It also may happen to people whose body has undergone extreme exertion for reasons other than climbing from rim to rim in the Grand Canyon. I’m imagining a “fictitious” conversion between a certain NP and a patient: “How long have you been on this meth bender?” “Oh, three days.” “Well congratulations, you’re now in Rhabdo and I need to push fluids to try to save your kidneys.”
I also don’t believe that this necessarily happens to the weaker among a group. It may happen just because it happens, for whatever reason: genetics, what a person ate several days ago, whether a person hydrated enough before the exertion, or for no particular reason that can be pinpointed.
The point is that a leader needs to be wise enough to recognize that this is a possibility and stop before it happens. Waiting until it happens is too late.
Make the decision early enough to prevent injury and death. Find a decent place to camp for the night. Find firewood, and if there is no firewood, get people inside tents or a tarp and start isobutane stoves. If there is no tent or tarp, know how to fabricate a shelter in the bush, or some sort of debris hut. Find a source of hydration, and if you didn’t carry enough water with you, make sure you brought filtration. Get food energy into your body. Rest. But most of all, just stop the physical exertion. That’s imperative if you want to survive. One warning sign is that your piss will be colored brown, but if it’s gone that far, you’re probably too late. Stop before that happens.
If you don’t, it may be deadly.
