From the Reddit post, "I Had to be Rescued off the Hayduke Trail Today in Arches National Park After Getting Stuck in Quicksand."
The story appears at many news sites now, including "Stuck in Quicksand, a Hiker in Utah Has His SOS Answered/Austin Dirks used a Garmin satellite device to reach emergency responders, who rescued him in a remote canyon in Arches National Park" (NYT). That's a free link, and there's some good video there, showing the rescue.
A quote from one of the recipients of the call for help: "We always try not to be judgmental. But you’re thinking, Quicksand, really? It’s probably some tourist with their foot stuck in the mud somewhere."
AND: Dirks shows up the comments section at the NYT:
I'm the hiker who was rescued in this story and Ill give some more context to why I couldn't get out of the quicksand. The advice I heard growing up did not work. People say to spread out, lay back, increase surface area, and swim out. None of that was possible for two major reasons.
First, my leg was trapped behind me at a bent angle and locked in place like it had been poured in concrete. There was a huge amount of strain on the knee just keeping myself upright. Laying down or twisting would have dislocated my knee or broken something. I tried small movements to break the suction but it wouldn’t budge.
Second, the air was in the twenties and the water was just above freezing. I’d walked past patches of ice that morning. If I had laid back, I would have soaked myself in the stream flowing over the quicksand. In those temperatures, hypothermia would have beaten the rescue team to me.
I tried everything I could to shimmy free, but the leg was locked too tightly. Digging with my hands and trekking poles was hopeless because the stream filled the hole faster than I could clear it. By the time you see the drone footage, I’m completely spent from hours of fighting the sand. Nature won the first round. I’m grateful SAR showed up before it claimed the second.
Posts
22 comments:
He's out of the quicksand, but is he still stuck in a 1960s television show?
I think Gilligan got stuck quicksand once. I don't recall, but The Professor probably gave that advice.
Real men hack their limbs off using their belt as a tourniquet while crawling on their bellies for days sipping dew to stay hydrated, just saying.
He should have brought a collie named Lassie to go for help.
Prof, I am genuinely surprised you don’t have a quicksand tag. The subject has come up a few times. CC, JSM
I have always hiked wearing snow shoes regardless of terrain. Laugh all you want but I haven't been stuck in quicksand.
The advice I heard growing up did not work. People say to spread out, lay back, increase surface area, and swim out. None of that was possible for two major reasons.
Isn't that advice meant for the apocryphal Tarzan/Gilligan quicksand where the risk is your entire body will entirely submerge below the surface? Not when your foot is stuck.
Quicksand looks like regular sand, and that's way before the Chameleon came along. Quicksand is no walk in the beach my friends.
Lord Beasley Waterford in search of the Pussycat Swallowtail!
https://youtu.be/NO0wqBCPFVs?si=oZoQsxiC8oykqz5H&t=5
There is a long-running meme on X about people who were always scared that getting caught in quicksand was a real danger because it was a plot device in so many TV shows in the sixties and seventies. Stereotypes really do spring from reality I guess.
..the air was in the twenties and the water was just above freezing..
yep, they always act like it's going to 80 degrees when you get stuck.
"Quicksand Tag" sounds like a 90's Jackass episode.
"Prof, I am genuinely surprised you don’t have a quicksand tag. The subject has come up a few times. CC, JSM"
You're absolutely right. Thanks for causing me to add one (to this post and to all the old posts)
""Quicksand Tag" sounds like a 90's Jackass episode."
LOL
Some men think about the Roman Empire at least once a day. I think about quicksand. I have now met my quota. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Someone tell John Mulaney!
"As a kid, I thought quicksand was going to become a bigger issue that it really is."
The Acme Catalog probably had a tool for this eventuality,
https://twistedsifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/wile-e-coyote-acme-products-catalog.jpg
I’ve spent a lot of time in this area of Utah. Hiking and running around in my Jeep. This is totally plausible. Unusual yes, but plausible.
At least the R.O.U.Ss are still not real.
I think it was Dave Barry who wrote "I learned from 60's TV that I had an exceptionally high chance of dying trapped in quicksand."
You can swim in quicksand, just like water.
dpn1031, the victim indicates that swimming wasn't possible in this particular quicksand. I would imagine that, since quicksand conditions would be dependent on the liquid to solid ratio plus shape of particles, it's possible to have quicksand of higher viscosity than is swimmable - especially in such cold conditions.
My son is going to college in SLC and loves to hike. Going to tell him about this incident, because he has the native caution of 22yo men - that is to say, next to none!
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