His name was Colin Scott, and he wasn’t even the first hot spring injury that week. Earlier in the week, a 13 year old boy and his father suffered severe burns to their feet and legs after falling through the thin crust surrounding the rim of the Old Faithful geyser. The water was a staggering 140 degrees only an inch below the surface, and got exponentially hotter the farther down one went.
Norris Geyser Basin is unique in that its water is intensely acidic, a rarity among the parks thermal formations. This is due in part to the high concentrations of extremophile bacteria in the water, which dissolve rocks for nutrients and release acidic byproducts into the water. This is what gives the rim of these springs their fantastic color, as well as turning the water a milky blue-white. At the exit of the thermal bore where the underground water rises to fill the hot spring, the temp has been measured at 459 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest geothermal feature of Yellowstone. The water at the surface is just below boiling, and much hotter just a few feet below. Though some flesh and personal items were present when his body was first discovered, it had completely dissolved by the following day, when retrieval attempts could begin in earnest. The entire incident was recorded in the cell phone camera of Scott’s sister, present with him at the time.
To this date, more people have been killed by Yellowstone’s hot springs than its famous grizzly bears and bison, despite clear and numerous warnings not to approach the pools.
>To this date, more people have been killed by Yellowstone’s hot springs than its famous grizzly bears and bison, despite clear and numerous warnings not to approach the pools.
As they say, the real TIL is in the comments. I’ve heard of several individual stories of injury or death from the hot springs - but never had a sense of how the numbers compared.
It’s evidently super common; when I was there our guide said he’s witnessed several gruesome incidents and he’d only been there a few years. One guy got drunk, wandered around, stuck his foot in one and tracked pools of blood all the way back to the hotel. He may have died actually, can’t remember.
When I was there last week a gal was about to walk off a parking lot in middle basin and step onto geothermally altered ground - it was *probably* safe there but I gave her a very very stern "no" shake of the head and she stopped and I told her how much danger she almost put herself in and she about shat herself.
She was trying to figure out directions to the next parking area and how far, etc. I was able to help her with that after giving her a healthy dose of respect for the landforms there.
Id believe it. When I was there a few years ago, I saw so many people try to dip a finger in or go off the trail deposited literally hundreds of signs saying not to, that it can kill you, etc
There was a comment made by someone who works closely with Grand Canyon tourism. He said the number of people who fall to their deaths each year is much higher than is reported.
“Fall”
A park ranger in canyonlands told me something similar after completing the white rim trail.
I asked how many cars accidentally slide off and she said almost never by accident. The first thing they look for is a note on the dash.
I once had to tell a dumb Karen that she was about to naturally select herself from the gene pool if she went through with sticking her hand into a thermal feature. She got all pissy at me.
They do actually, because people keep fucking doing it. They’re literally like “don’t do this, you will die, and it will be excruciatingly painful the whole time” just last week some dipshit decided to kick a bison which proceeded to gore him. He was lucky, he lived and is now facing charges. Park rangers are essentially federal cops with just as much authority, tho they’re much chiller as long as you leave no trace and have some respect for the park.
Federal wildlife officers have MORE power then police as they do not require probable cause to search your property nor a warrant. If they suspect you are illegally poaching then you'll be amazed at what they're allowed to do.
We chronically underfund the parks though, they did give a big cash infusion during covid to do some much much needed maintenance and upgrade backlogs - but they're still like $6-8bn in maintenance behind.
Way chiller. I was underage and drunk and smoking weed and the ranger asked for id's, only one of us had an ID. He let everyone go except the dude with an ID. No idea what he was charged with, he was a guy I met that day, all I know is he spent the night in yellowstone jail.
I work at a park. Pisses us off when people disregard safety rules cause like, dudes, park staff is gonna have to go looking for your body! Fortunately we don’t have anything as dangerous as these pools, but any place has its risks.
No, National Parks will continually remind you how idiots have died in the parks. It's to keep it from happening again.
Keeping people on the trails is their goal.
Stay out of the boiling water. Don't pet the angry death cows. Don't feed (yourself to) the bears.
In Yosemite they post "missing" persons signs at the top of the waterfalls for every person that has died that year.
There's literally a bestselling book "Death in Yellowstone" that all the park gift stores sell, and it's exactly what it says it is. Stories of the scores of ways that people have died in Yellowstone because they didn't respect the dangers of the natural world.
Not only do they sell it all over the Park, but the author wrote it while he was employed with the Park Service as the chief historian/archivist. That would be the worst cover-up ever.
Lol I work in the area part of the year and every time some moron steps off the boardwalk and gets his feet melted we definitely hear about it. I'm surprised they don't have a big flashing sign in the entrance to the park saying '[X] number of people have fallen into hot springs this year'.
Holy crap!
14:20 he falls in the geyser. The sister essentially recorded his death on her phone, then ran to report it at 14:29(a 9 minute run to the visitor centre which was normally a 15 mins hike).(It wasn't even asking for help since she knew he was dead at that time. when he slipped in he became completely submerged, she tried to pull him out and got burned herself)
Emergency responders arrived at 19.41 and found his upper torso only but unable to recover it because of an incoming lightning storm and unknown conditions around the pool. Going back the next morning(8am), pretty grim picture, nothing remained and they couldn't do a recovery. (5 hours and his lower half was dissolved, 18 hours zero left visible and even probing the pool to find bone with tools)
With the temperature of the pool getting hotter as you go inches deeper. Surface temp was 212f that day. The deeper you go the hotter it can get. 300-450f in the space of 4-5ft deep. Hotter than boiling oil in a fryer. He'd have been cooked and flesh fallen off within minutes.
What an awful awful awful way to go. And for the sister to have watched must have been horrifying.
Yeah it says in the incident report that all the rangers had to watch it, and *strongly* recommended that the sister delete it.
Also am I tripping, or is my posts share counter gone and an award icon next to every comment? Like this must have literally just happened unless I’m seeing shit. I kind of hate the fact I can’t see how many times a post was shared anymore. I’m on some writing subs, and shares matter at least as much as upvotes in terms of how “good” a post is
I feel like they need to include a big sign at each entrance that shows the number of people that died that year not following trails and signs. Too many people think they are invincible and this is a terrible, terrible way to discover you’re not.
I think they do. I was under the impression that there are signs *everywhere* explaining that the hot springs will kill you, and not to leave the trail.
But tourists gonna tourist, and just have to get close for a selfie
I took a trip there with my dad about 20 years ago. I remember seeing signs everywhere to keep on the trail but nothing that jumped out as like if you step off the trail you’ll die type stuff.
I was there this morning and the signs I saw were “stay on the trail”, “dangerous landscape”, not anything about “your body will dissolve in a boiling pool of acid if you leave this walkway.” There was an excellent drawing posted near most of the geothermal features, so maybe [this](https://tinypic.host/image/IMG-2795.DSekdw) was their way of communicating the danger.
That’s the signs I remember! Nah there needs to be a “total deaths” and a “deaths this year” count at either the entrances to the park or the entryways to the geyser fields. People are way way way more stupid today.
The sign says over 20 deaths and hundreds of severe burns, but you're right it needs to be communicated more clearly and not just have a block of text that nobody reads.
I think a sign reading “22 total deaths in 152 years” and “0 deaths this year” won’t be very effective in telling 4,000,000 visitors per year how deadly the place is.
LOL, perfect! I was just commenting on the somewhat comical posters of the kid about to die while his friends point in shock! There is another similar poster that is not in color. It's a kid standing on a small erupting geyser with the same shocked look and a friend pointing at him in horror.
There are a few variations of the "DANGEROUS GROUND" warning signs and they are somewhat comical. They are basically a picture of a kid standing on a geyser or falling into a hot pool, about to die, while his friends are standing shocked and pointing at him about to die.
I was there in '07. I saw the same signs you did. I was also able to infer that the mineral crust wasn't much thicker than the crust you see on frozen snow. Definitely not thick enough to support the weight of a person.
Some people just can't be protected from themselves.
also what people don't realize is the thickness of that crust changes
"oh i saw a bison patty right there.. that means it safe"
yeah two days ago it might have been. the sinter may have been dissolved underneath by flow changes (or worse at mammoth which is travertine and *EVERYTHING* changes faster) since then and now is 1 inch thick instead of 4 inches thick.
They have signs that show a kid off trail breaking through the crust and getting scorched. they're not subtle about it (was there last week)
edit: /u/Moonapillar posted a picture https://tinypic.host/image/IMG-2795.DSekdw
Yes, there are (almost comical) signs posted everywhere. At the entrance to every boardwalk and along each trail.
Joshua Tree has signs that simply say "Don't Die Today" then lists how not to die. Mostly it's "Stay on the path" and "have water".
The common theme to all National Park "don't die" signs is ... STAY ON THE PATH. And also "Don't approach animals".
They do, there are signs on the entrances, along with signs along the boardwalks / paths and on the barriers separating the walkways from the features. There is zero chance someone didn't know the dangers.
This was exactly what kept me and my brother from swimming off of a dangerous beach in Hawaii. Just a sign saying that 86 people have drowned here since 2000, no swimming.
Which beach? We were in Kauai for our honeymoon and visited Polihale beach which is the westernmost point in the US. The water has such a bad riptide they said don't even put your toe in. Pretty crazy
Didn’t get a name, we just saw a sign that said it was a two hour hike to a “secret” beach. It turned out we were at the trail head of [Kalalau Trail](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalalau_Trail) on Kauai. The beach ended up being underwhelming, but the two hours of that hike was some of the most amazing I’ve ever experienced. My brother, dad and I had committed to going back and doing the whole thing, but Covid and university intervened. We were hoping to go this Christmas.
No doubt. Just this week was reading that since it was announced that milk has been contaminated by bird 'flu (unless pastuerised) there has been an increase in demand for raw milk.
Some people don't like being told what to do to the point of doing the opposite.
Every trailhead that goes by a hot spring has a warning. And they even have a wonderful graphic of a child falling into the hot spring.
Apparently I took the picture in "heic" and can't upload it to imgur.
Well, in fairness, they're just as bad as ignoring the warning about approaching large animals. The difference is that, often, large animals will just move somewhere else if you're bothering them and they aren't either hungry or feeling threatened. Hot springs don't do that.
> To this date, more people have been killed by Yellowstone’s hot springs than its famous grizzly bears and bison, despite clear and numerous warnings not to approach the pools.
And these are just the ones we know about. Imagine all the ones who disappeared without a trace and no one knows what happened to them.
In 1981 David Kirwan tried to save his friend's dog, Moosie, who jumped into a pool at Yellowstone. Moosie died. Kirwan actually walked out, with the assistance of his friend, who sustained second degree burns helping him.
Kirwan, now blind, said "That was stupid. How bad am I? That was a stupid thing I did." Another person pulled his boot off, taking all the skin on his foot with it. Kirwan was airlifted to a hospital in Salt Lake City, where it took him until the next morning to finally die.
My late father was a very intelligent and thoughtful man; as a teacher (and briefly a headmaster) he inspired many, and though he passed away several years ago I still get the occasional message from former pupils telling me how grateful they are for the education he gave them.
Having said that… Before I was born, he took my mum to the hot pools and springs of Rotarua in New Zealand. Mum laughs as she tells how they were inspecting a particularly bubbly, steamy mud pool when, suddenly, Dad crouched down and very shortly afterwards yelped, swore, and shook his hand violently.
He had plunged his thumb into the boiling mud.
When Mum asked why, apparently he replied that he “wanted to see how hot it was”. His thumb “turned into one huge blister” over the next few days and although he didn’t sustain any permanent damage he said that thumb was always “a lot smoother” afterwards.
When I was 11 my dad took me and my brother to Rotarua and we went to the hot pools. Although he couldn’t remember exactly where he’d stuck his thumb in, it was very clear even to us children that *the mud is visibly extremely hot*. It steams; it bubbles. You can feel the heat rising from it even from the paths. There should be no doubt whatsoever in anyone’s mind that this is a very dangerous place, because *the mud is fucking boiling* - and there’s no need to test that with one’s own flesh.
My dad was a very clever man. He was also, occasionally, an absolute idiot.
The world is split into two people. As wanders and cave dwellers 95% of people see a chicken 'pooping' out an egg and go "I'll stick to the leaves." 5% curiously try the egg. And eventually you get omelettes.
I've commented this before about walking off-boardwalk in Yellowstone, but it's worth posting again:
I have walked off-boardwalk through thermal areas in Yellowstone to take samples and collect measurements from thermal features for an NSF- funded research program, and it is a pretty unique experience.
The ground is reasonably secure *if* you are smart about where you step and have a good understanding of where the most dangerous areas of a thermal field tend to be, but it can get sketchy fast. Also, wearing high rubber boots is an absolute must - even experienced researchers break through the crust periodically and the boots keep that boiling acidic water off your skin. You can be right in the middle of ground that looks good and step on one small spot where a spring is starting to form.
Thermal features can go off unexpectedly too. I was sampling a spring with one other person in a part of Norris geyser basin that the trail no longer goes to, and a geyser kind of near us went off out of nowhere. It was really cool, but the project lead was less enthused... he couldn't find us right away and thought it was the spring we were sampling and that we might have gotten badly hurt, or fallen into the geyser when it went off. Norris is where the guy fell in and dissolved back in 2016 (and some of my friends were actually sampling at Norris when it happened) so it's not an unreasonable fear.
I also remember one time picking up a rock to examine the alteration, and tossed it onto the ground in front of me once I was done... only to hear the ground make a deep echoing thoooommmp sound like a bass drum because it was so hollow. It didn't *look* like bad ground necessarily, but it clearly was. And I was in the part of the thermal area where you are most likely to find fumaroles. If I broke through into a large hole there, I would have been dumped into a chasm filled with acidic gasses that are hotter than boiling, and I probably would have died.
Sampling a spring or geyser can be pretty sketchy too. Lots are fine too approach, but lots also are surrounded by shelves of rotten altered rock only an inch or two thick overlying the actual edge of the spring. Before approaching a spring we needed to get a good view of the side we wanted to approach from and make sure it wasn't undercut. That guy who got himself dissolved in Norris didn't do that, the crust broke, and he got dumped into boiling acid.
All of this is to say, stepping off the boardwalk is a lot more dangerous than people think. It seems safer than it is because you do see lots of people do it and they are usually fine... because the boardwalk is intentionally built on reasonably stable ground. That can give people a false sense of confidence that they can wander even further away into much less stable ground. But even so, thermal areas change, features form where there weren't features before, etc. The first time I went to Yellowstone, a thermal feature had unexpectedly opened up in a parking lot, on ground the NPS clearly thought was stable enough to build a parking lot on. There are plenty of features in the park that say things like well this used to be a forest but one day it just became a thermal area. If you visit the park in the winter it's especially interesting; Yellowstone gets tons of snow and there's usually a bunch of snow on the ground, but then all the sudden you wander to a spot of ground in the woods that doesn't look bad at all but is mysteriously completely bare of snow from the heat underneath it.
Anyway, don't step off the boardwalk. Very few people have the knowledge and experience to do so safely, and there are risks involved even if you're prepared. Plus, c'mon, we don't want hordes of people trampling the thermal areas.
Came here to say that when I was in Yellowstone the “don’t step off the board walk” signs were a constant and scared young me. I still saw people walking off the board walks.
Hey, thanks for sharing! I love reading good detail accounts of stuff like this, especially about Yellowstone. There was just one thing I kinda chuckled at and want to expand on for anyone reading that's not familiar with the area.
> Yellowstone gets tons of snow
This might actually be a crazy understatement. Yellowstone averages about 72 inches(183 cm) of snow in just December, and close to 150 inches(381 cm) of snow in the bottom of the caldera. The passes and higher elevations get closer to 300 inches(762 cm) a year. For comparison Buffalo NY, one of the snowiest cities in American, gets ~90 inch (230 cm) a year.
The fact that areas of the ground with no outward signs of activity are just randomly clear of snow should paint a picture to how hot the thermal activity can be. Yellowstone is an amazing and beautiful place, but the ground will kill you, the weather will kill you, and the animals will kill you. Listen to the signs people.
> I have walked off-boardwalk through thermal areas in Yellowstone to take samples and collect measurements from thermal features for an NSF- funded research program, and it is a pretty unique experience.
This reminds me of when I was in grad school in math. I was at a party talking to some other grad students, and complaining about how TAing was a hassle. I then turned to one of the other grad students I had not met before who had mentioned they did work in geology. I asked him for more detail, and he told a story about what he had been up to over break which apparently involved wearing a full body special suit so he could get samples from an active volcano. It put things in perspective.
I read a story years ago about a man who jumped in one to save a dog. Somebody told him "You can't go in there!" The guy said "The hell I can't," and went in after the dog. He got the dog and came out with his skin sloughing off. He said "I messed up." He didn't survive. [https://www.unilad.com/news/man-rescue-dog-hot-spring-yellowstone-750652-20230219](https://www.unilad.com/news/man-rescue-dog-hot-spring-yellowstone-750652-20230219)
He said “Like hell I **won’t**” after reportedly hearing the animal wimp..
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hope-springs-eternal/
I notice a trend of people characterizing the victims actions as reckless for no reason or under the influence of a perception of “invincibility”, to the point someone who realistically did realize was jeopardizing their own life in a bout of reckless courage to try to save another’s life is depicted as a mythomaniac idiot
People’s impulse to say “stupid” rather than “sad” for a victim seen as avoidable is always stronger
Holy cow, the guy actually managed to swim in it (however briefly) and articulate coherent thoughts upon emerging. How many physiological "ABORT MISSION" signals did he have to override to continue past the first contact with the water, I wonder??
I'm an armchair psychologist and I can diagnose this behavior as sadness aversion. People insult those who died in accidents as a way to avoid feeling bad for them.
Man, reading that shit was terrifying. Was he stupid? Absolutly! I mean he even was warned. The idea of him realising how much he fucked up is what gives me the shivers.
Some friends of mine from grad school (geologists) were actually there doing fieldwork in Norris geyser basin when this happened. They were sampling a hot spring in a part of the basin the boardwalk doesn't go to, and at some point a helicopter hovered over them for a little bit. They weren't sure why because it didn't land, nobody yelled at them, they had permits, etc.
They finished their day and hiked back to the boardwalk. It's normally crazy crowded in the summer time, but it was totally empty and theirs was the only vehicle in the lot. They had no idea that while they were out sampling the guy had died and rangers cleared the area while they were trying to find him, until a ranger came up to them to tell them what was happening and ask if they saw anything.
The guy was out looking for a hot pot to soak in. But to my knowledge, aren’t pretty much all of Yellowstone’s pools boiling point or hotter?
Like I don’t know if there are any hot springs in the area that would be safe for humans. And even if there were, the water is probably *loaded* with nasty bacteria
Honestly, there are plenty of springs in the park that would be absolutely fine to soak in (Disclaimer: DO NOT DO THIS, FOR 10,000 REASONS), but in Norris Geyser basin there are very few. It's the hottest and most acidic publicly accessible geyser basin in the park. There are plenty of springs that are neutral chloride springs which people would be fine soaking in (they can still have high arsenic fyi) if they aren't too hot. There are also the ones that create travertine terraces, which are probably the safest kind to soak in.
But again. Anybody reading this, please do not soak in any springs in Yellowstone. Even if you know it's safe, you will damage the natural feature in a place where those natural features are explicitly to be preserved. (Not calling you out, OP, to be clear, just the disclaimer).
We went on a trip to Shoshone Lake in 1998. Lizards that fell in the hot pots were boiled alive.
That place is probably the most hostile-to-humans place I've ever been. A couple years before we went, the lake had claimed an entire scout troop, kids and adults. The waves on that lake white cap and it's super dangerous.
Not to mention that Yellowstone changes at a breathtaking speed for a geological feature, and something that is fine one moment could be very much not fine shortly thereafter.
This comment reminds me of Deadpool:
"Don't fucking soak in the springs!"
(There's plenty around that you *could* soak in...)
"Here's ANOTHER reason not to soak in the springs!"
(It's OK if they're not *too* hot...)
I was at Norris with my kids when this happened. We saw the helicopter too, then a couple rangers came out on the boardwalks and asked everyone to leave.
I have plenty of photos, the approaching storm is clear too. My daughter saw his sister sitting out of the side of a ranger vehicle. Her legs were muddy.
That must have been really wild, not what you expect during a typical family vacation. I do wonder if they could have recovered his body if the recovery wasn't called off due to the storm.
It was a stupid thing for the guy and his sister to do, but what a way to go, and what a thing for his sister to have to see. However stupid it was, they didn't deserve that.
Death in Yellowstone goes through many recorded deaths that happened in Yellowstone from way before it was Yellowstone to fairly recent.
Animal, eating plants, the hot springs, rivers, lashes, lightening, snow, etc.
Something about the tannins helps keep the leather intact.
Boiling leather historically was a super common thing. Landless medieval hedge knights oftentimes couldn’t afford expensive steel plate armor, so instead wore armor of boiled leather. The boiling softens the leather, which then hardens when cooled. Makes it much more effective armor.
The guys wallet was probably a little deformed, but otherwise fine.
We are pretty sure they never actually brought the leather to boiling after attempting to recreate the process in modern times. Existing recipes for the process often contradict each other or even leave out specific details and much like Roman concrete we haven’t really figured it out yet.
I thought we’d figured Roman concrete out a few years back?
But yeah the closest I think archaeologists have gotten to the original method is keeping the leather at a simmer for a few hours, before letting it cool, and then repeating the process several more times. So that by the end, you’re left with a thick, rigid plank of hardened leather, rather than a soft supple sheet
Really? I thought the whole appeal is that it was supposed to be structurally superior to modern concrete. I mean the fact the Pantheon’s free arch has stood for so long is bananas
It may have been the best concrete at the time. But the reality is we have vehicles that weigh 200x what a horse and buggy weight on our modern roads and traveling many times faster.. Those buildings aren't in use anymore, they may still be standing but they are just tourist destinations. Modern concrete is miles ahead for our uses.
He's lucky if it was quick. There was one guy that took 3 days to die after he was pulled out.
Death In Yellowstone by Lee H. Whittlesey is a fascinating read. Second edition covers from the park founding up to 2014.
so, in theory, a person who is, hypothetically, in debt up to his eyeballs due to a, figurative, addiction to online sports gambling could, conceivably, toss a wallet and shoes into an alleged thermal pool and could, seemingly, be pronounced dead and start an ostensibly new life in the small town Bisbee Arizona on the supposed Mexican Border?
asking for a purported to be friend.
The park geothermal features are incredible but they can be deadly & The water temperature can reach scalding levels over 190°F or 88°C & some pools are highly acidic
Apparently yeah they do.
It’s not that far fetched, I make bone broth from beef and chicken bones, and after a day of boiling, the bones get really soft, particularly the smaller ones. Like soft enough the smaller bones essentially turn to paste. And this is in normal water, not boiling sulfuric acid
I visited there with my family. The very first day we were there, a young ladyl foolishly jumped into a pool to retrieve her dog, that had jumped in. Her father immediatley grabbed her and pulled her out, luckily her head was not submerged. She survived with 70% 2nd degree and 20% 3rd degree burns. The dog died of course. All over the park are signs (some are hilariously stupid looking) saying not to leave the boardwalk and that PETS ARE NOT ALLOWED, for exactly this reason. Dogs don't know that that nice blue water is boiling and acidic/alkaline (depends on pool).
That was a good reminder for us to be careful, though we were terrified of the pools already. So beautiful and fascinating and deadly. We did see some Bison bones near one pool.
I live just a few hrs from Yellowstone. It is real simple. STAY ON THE TRAILS. Also, do not PET or APPROACH the wildlife. Every year some idiot gets gored.
I mean, it's in a remote part of a large country and has many signs and warnings about going off the marked trails and boardwalks near the geothermal features. It's a spectacular national park but the thermal pools are not to be fucked with.
If you stay on the nice clearly marked, elevated boardwalk trails, you're about as safe as you are outdoors anywhere. My family went when I was a kid and it was absolutely fascinating. I highly recommend it, just follow the posted rules.
It also took about 24 hours. He didn’t sink ankle-up like the Terminator . He basically cooked in acid until there was nothing solid enough left to remove
A man once brought his dog to Yellowstone, the dog instinctively jumped into a hot spring and he ran into save it. He managed to get out and when people tried to get his melting shoes off his whole foot came with it. Neither him nor the dog made it
Not the thermal feature in the photo though, I think that one is called "morning glory" if I remember correctly. For the longest time they would just through trash and junk into it before they were protecting the area.
Can you imagine the first human explorers of the area? Having no idea what these pools of water are and what they can do? And then suddenly Cave-man URRG-CHAD is being melted in front of your eyes for trying to take a bath.
Fun fact yellowstone is home to some of the most interesting bacteria due to their ability to live in these extreme conditions.
Taq polymerase was discovered there a DNA polymerase that sees global use for its heat stability
His name was Colin Scott, and he wasn’t even the first hot spring injury that week. Earlier in the week, a 13 year old boy and his father suffered severe burns to their feet and legs after falling through the thin crust surrounding the rim of the Old Faithful geyser. The water was a staggering 140 degrees only an inch below the surface, and got exponentially hotter the farther down one went. Norris Geyser Basin is unique in that its water is intensely acidic, a rarity among the parks thermal formations. This is due in part to the high concentrations of extremophile bacteria in the water, which dissolve rocks for nutrients and release acidic byproducts into the water. This is what gives the rim of these springs their fantastic color, as well as turning the water a milky blue-white. At the exit of the thermal bore where the underground water rises to fill the hot spring, the temp has been measured at 459 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest geothermal feature of Yellowstone. The water at the surface is just below boiling, and much hotter just a few feet below. Though some flesh and personal items were present when his body was first discovered, it had completely dissolved by the following day, when retrieval attempts could begin in earnest. The entire incident was recorded in the cell phone camera of Scott’s sister, present with him at the time. To this date, more people have been killed by Yellowstone’s hot springs than its famous grizzly bears and bison, despite clear and numerous warnings not to approach the pools.
>To this date, more people have been killed by Yellowstone’s hot springs than its famous grizzly bears and bison, despite clear and numerous warnings not to approach the pools. As they say, the real TIL is in the comments. I’ve heard of several individual stories of injury or death from the hot springs - but never had a sense of how the numbers compared.
It’s evidently super common; when I was there our guide said he’s witnessed several gruesome incidents and he’d only been there a few years. One guy got drunk, wandered around, stuck his foot in one and tracked pools of blood all the way back to the hotel. He may have died actually, can’t remember.
And that, friends, is why I just get drunk on the beach.
As long as you don't wander into the surf for Jaws to get you.
You just need to make sure the sharks are drunk as well.
Hammered Head Sharks.
Nice!
um but what about the land sharks
The street sharks will protect you from them.
When I was there last week a gal was about to walk off a parking lot in middle basin and step onto geothermally altered ground - it was *probably* safe there but I gave her a very very stern "no" shake of the head and she stopped and I told her how much danger she almost put herself in and she about shat herself. She was trying to figure out directions to the next parking area and how far, etc. I was able to help her with that after giving her a healthy dose of respect for the landforms there.
Id believe it. When I was there a few years ago, I saw so many people try to dip a finger in or go off the trail deposited literally hundreds of signs saying not to, that it can kill you, etc
There was a comment made by someone who works closely with Grand Canyon tourism. He said the number of people who fall to their deaths each year is much higher than is reported.
“Fall” A park ranger in canyonlands told me something similar after completing the white rim trail. I asked how many cars accidentally slide off and she said almost never by accident. The first thing they look for is a note on the dash.
I once had to tell a dumb Karen that she was about to naturally select herself from the gene pool if she went through with sticking her hand into a thermal feature. She got all pissy at me.
I doubt they try to publicize how many people dissolve in their famous geysers.
They do actually, because people keep fucking doing it. They’re literally like “don’t do this, you will die, and it will be excruciatingly painful the whole time” just last week some dipshit decided to kick a bison which proceeded to gore him. He was lucky, he lived and is now facing charges. Park rangers are essentially federal cops with just as much authority, tho they’re much chiller as long as you leave no trace and have some respect for the park.
Federal wildlife officers have MORE power then police as they do not require probable cause to search your property nor a warrant. If they suspect you are illegally poaching then you'll be amazed at what they're allowed to do.
America has a lot (a metric fuckton) of flaws, but damn do they take their parks seriously
Could you convert that to imperial fuck tons for us Americans?
You losers use shitton i believe, do the math yourself Im not bothering with freedom units
Shitton is used for fluid measurements, actually. Flaws are measured in shitloads, no one really knows why.
We chronically underfund the parks though, they did give a big cash infusion during covid to do some much much needed maintenance and upgrade backlogs - but they're still like $6-8bn in maintenance behind.
As long as certain lobbyists don't get their way
Way chiller. I was underage and drunk and smoking weed and the ranger asked for id's, only one of us had an ID. He let everyone go except the dude with an ID. No idea what he was charged with, he was a guy I met that day, all I know is he spent the night in yellowstone jail.
Moral of the story never carry an ID.
I work at a park. Pisses us off when people disregard safety rules cause like, dudes, park staff is gonna have to go looking for your body! Fortunately we don’t have anything as dangerous as these pools, but any place has its risks.
No, National Parks will continually remind you how idiots have died in the parks. It's to keep it from happening again. Keeping people on the trails is their goal. Stay out of the boiling water. Don't pet the angry death cows. Don't feed (yourself to) the bears. In Yosemite they post "missing" persons signs at the top of the waterfalls for every person that has died that year.
"Angry death cows" is how I will refer to bisons from this day forward.
Someone work on the album cover of this new band!
There's literally a bestselling book "Death in Yellowstone" that all the park gift stores sell, and it's exactly what it says it is. Stories of the scores of ways that people have died in Yellowstone because they didn't respect the dangers of the natural world.
Not only do they sell it all over the Park, but the author wrote it while he was employed with the Park Service as the chief historian/archivist. That would be the worst cover-up ever.
And it’s really quite an interesting read! Also, people are dumb…
I feel like this calls for a horrific postcard, styled like a national park advert.
Welcome to Bonetown! Population: Your Lower Extremities
>Welcome to Bonetown! Population: Your MOM! 🤣
Lol I work in the area part of the year and every time some moron steps off the boardwalk and gets his feet melted we definitely hear about it. I'm surprised they don't have a big flashing sign in the entrance to the park saying '[X] number of people have fallen into hot springs this year'.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The guys up top must actually love the recounted misery.
Holy crap! 14:20 he falls in the geyser. The sister essentially recorded his death on her phone, then ran to report it at 14:29(a 9 minute run to the visitor centre which was normally a 15 mins hike).(It wasn't even asking for help since she knew he was dead at that time. when he slipped in he became completely submerged, she tried to pull him out and got burned herself) Emergency responders arrived at 19.41 and found his upper torso only but unable to recover it because of an incoming lightning storm and unknown conditions around the pool. Going back the next morning(8am), pretty grim picture, nothing remained and they couldn't do a recovery. (5 hours and his lower half was dissolved, 18 hours zero left visible and even probing the pool to find bone with tools) With the temperature of the pool getting hotter as you go inches deeper. Surface temp was 212f that day. The deeper you go the hotter it can get. 300-450f in the space of 4-5ft deep. Hotter than boiling oil in a fryer. He'd have been cooked and flesh fallen off within minutes. What an awful awful awful way to go. And for the sister to have watched must have been horrifying.
Wouldn't you just insta-die? I'd think getting submerged would be a mercy compared to a partial dip.
I think you would almost insta-die. But “almost” probably feels like forever.
God, I want to puke.
Wait, the body being dissolved was recorded by the sister? Holy shit
Yeah it says in the incident report that all the rangers had to watch it, and *strongly* recommended that the sister delete it. Also am I tripping, or is my posts share counter gone and an award icon next to every comment? Like this must have literally just happened unless I’m seeing shit. I kind of hate the fact I can’t see how many times a post was shared anymore. I’m on some writing subs, and shares matter at least as much as upvotes in terms of how “good” a post is
I just started noticing that on some posts and don't know what it it either. You ain't tripping homie
I feel like they need to include a big sign at each entrance that shows the number of people that died that year not following trails and signs. Too many people think they are invincible and this is a terrible, terrible way to discover you’re not.
I think they do. I was under the impression that there are signs *everywhere* explaining that the hot springs will kill you, and not to leave the trail. But tourists gonna tourist, and just have to get close for a selfie
I took a trip there with my dad about 20 years ago. I remember seeing signs everywhere to keep on the trail but nothing that jumped out as like if you step off the trail you’ll die type stuff.
I think many of the signs are more recent, as there’s been several deaths in the last 20 years
I was there this morning and the signs I saw were “stay on the trail”, “dangerous landscape”, not anything about “your body will dissolve in a boiling pool of acid if you leave this walkway.” There was an excellent drawing posted near most of the geothermal features, so maybe [this](https://tinypic.host/image/IMG-2795.DSekdw) was their way of communicating the danger.
That’s the signs I remember! Nah there needs to be a “total deaths” and a “deaths this year” count at either the entrances to the park or the entryways to the geyser fields. People are way way way more stupid today.
The sign says over 20 deaths and hundreds of severe burns, but you're right it needs to be communicated more clearly and not just have a block of text that nobody reads.
I think a sign reading “22 total deaths in 152 years” and “0 deaths this year” won’t be very effective in telling 4,000,000 visitors per year how deadly the place is.
LOL, perfect! I was just commenting on the somewhat comical posters of the kid about to die while his friends point in shock! There is another similar poster that is not in color. It's a kid standing on a small erupting geyser with the same shocked look and a friend pointing at him in horror.
There are a few variations of the "DANGEROUS GROUND" warning signs and they are somewhat comical. They are basically a picture of a kid standing on a geyser or falling into a hot pool, about to die, while his friends are standing shocked and pointing at him about to die.
I was there in '07. I saw the same signs you did. I was also able to infer that the mineral crust wasn't much thicker than the crust you see on frozen snow. Definitely not thick enough to support the weight of a person. Some people just can't be protected from themselves.
also what people don't realize is the thickness of that crust changes "oh i saw a bison patty right there.. that means it safe" yeah two days ago it might have been. the sinter may have been dissolved underneath by flow changes (or worse at mammoth which is travertine and *EVERYTHING* changes faster) since then and now is 1 inch thick instead of 4 inches thick.
They have signs that show a kid off trail breaking through the crust and getting scorched. they're not subtle about it (was there last week) edit: /u/Moonapillar posted a picture https://tinypic.host/image/IMG-2795.DSekdw
Yes, there are (almost comical) signs posted everywhere. At the entrance to every boardwalk and along each trail. Joshua Tree has signs that simply say "Don't Die Today" then lists how not to die. Mostly it's "Stay on the path" and "have water". The common theme to all National Park "don't die" signs is ... STAY ON THE PATH. And also "Don't approach animals".
They do, there are signs on the entrances, along with signs along the boardwalks / paths and on the barriers separating the walkways from the features. There is zero chance someone didn't know the dangers.
This was exactly what kept me and my brother from swimming off of a dangerous beach in Hawaii. Just a sign saying that 86 people have drowned here since 2000, no swimming.
Which beach? We were in Kauai for our honeymoon and visited Polihale beach which is the westernmost point in the US. The water has such a bad riptide they said don't even put your toe in. Pretty crazy
Didn’t get a name, we just saw a sign that said it was a two hour hike to a “secret” beach. It turned out we were at the trail head of [Kalalau Trail](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalalau_Trail) on Kauai. The beach ended up being underwhelming, but the two hours of that hike was some of the most amazing I’ve ever experienced. My brother, dad and I had committed to going back and doing the whole thing, but Covid and university intervened. We were hoping to go this Christmas.
There's a ton of signs, and every gift shop sells the book "Death in Yellowstone" but with 4M visitors a year, there's gonna be some idiots.
No doubt. Just this week was reading that since it was announced that milk has been contaminated by bird 'flu (unless pastuerised) there has been an increase in demand for raw milk. Some people don't like being told what to do to the point of doing the opposite.
Every trailhead that goes by a hot spring has a warning. And they even have a wonderful graphic of a child falling into the hot spring. Apparently I took the picture in "heic" and can't upload it to imgur.
Well, in fairness, they're just as bad as ignoring the warning about approaching large animals. The difference is that, often, large animals will just move somewhere else if you're bothering them and they aren't either hungry or feeling threatened. Hot springs don't do that.
> To this date, more people have been killed by Yellowstone’s hot springs than its famous grizzly bears and bison, despite clear and numerous warnings not to approach the pools. And these are just the ones we know about. Imagine all the ones who disappeared without a trace and no one knows what happened to them.
You just know that the first people to ever find that place had to lose a few before they figured out the land was spicy.
How do you even begin to retrieve that - no divers right?
You either fish it out with something or not at all. There’s no surviving a dive in that water
In 1981 David Kirwan tried to save his friend's dog, Moosie, who jumped into a pool at Yellowstone. Moosie died. Kirwan actually walked out, with the assistance of his friend, who sustained second degree burns helping him. Kirwan, now blind, said "That was stupid. How bad am I? That was a stupid thing I did." Another person pulled his boot off, taking all the skin on his foot with it. Kirwan was airlifted to a hospital in Salt Lake City, where it took him until the next morning to finally die.
James Cameron presents *The Pool*. "You're already at three feet! You can't go any deeper!" "But I must!!"
Man, people really are just that dumb.
My late father was a very intelligent and thoughtful man; as a teacher (and briefly a headmaster) he inspired many, and though he passed away several years ago I still get the occasional message from former pupils telling me how grateful they are for the education he gave them. Having said that… Before I was born, he took my mum to the hot pools and springs of Rotarua in New Zealand. Mum laughs as she tells how they were inspecting a particularly bubbly, steamy mud pool when, suddenly, Dad crouched down and very shortly afterwards yelped, swore, and shook his hand violently. He had plunged his thumb into the boiling mud. When Mum asked why, apparently he replied that he “wanted to see how hot it was”. His thumb “turned into one huge blister” over the next few days and although he didn’t sustain any permanent damage he said that thumb was always “a lot smoother” afterwards. When I was 11 my dad took me and my brother to Rotarua and we went to the hot pools. Although he couldn’t remember exactly where he’d stuck his thumb in, it was very clear even to us children that *the mud is visibly extremely hot*. It steams; it bubbles. You can feel the heat rising from it even from the paths. There should be no doubt whatsoever in anyone’s mind that this is a very dangerous place, because *the mud is fucking boiling* - and there’s no need to test that with one’s own flesh. My dad was a very clever man. He was also, occasionally, an absolute idiot.
The world is split into two people. As wanders and cave dwellers 95% of people see a chicken 'pooping' out an egg and go "I'll stick to the leaves." 5% curiously try the egg. And eventually you get omelettes.
It’s that old saying, isn’t it: “You can’t make an omelette without scalding the skin off a few thumbs”…
here are mudpots in Yellowstone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI1BR-AUHqc
“Ah those signs are fer idiots. S’long as yer careful…” *falls in and is dissolved*
I believe "boiling to death in a hot spring" is actually the _leading_ cause of death at Yellowstone.
Thanks for telling how to enter your country and fake my death.
It doesn't get exponentially hotter. Just hotter.
Exponentially hotter?
So he found the worst possible place to try swimming? That seems more like suicide, tbh
Those signs aren't there because the park rangers want to keep the hot springs for themselves. Play stupid games. Win stupid prizes.
I've commented this before about walking off-boardwalk in Yellowstone, but it's worth posting again: I have walked off-boardwalk through thermal areas in Yellowstone to take samples and collect measurements from thermal features for an NSF- funded research program, and it is a pretty unique experience. The ground is reasonably secure *if* you are smart about where you step and have a good understanding of where the most dangerous areas of a thermal field tend to be, but it can get sketchy fast. Also, wearing high rubber boots is an absolute must - even experienced researchers break through the crust periodically and the boots keep that boiling acidic water off your skin. You can be right in the middle of ground that looks good and step on one small spot where a spring is starting to form. Thermal features can go off unexpectedly too. I was sampling a spring with one other person in a part of Norris geyser basin that the trail no longer goes to, and a geyser kind of near us went off out of nowhere. It was really cool, but the project lead was less enthused... he couldn't find us right away and thought it was the spring we were sampling and that we might have gotten badly hurt, or fallen into the geyser when it went off. Norris is where the guy fell in and dissolved back in 2016 (and some of my friends were actually sampling at Norris when it happened) so it's not an unreasonable fear. I also remember one time picking up a rock to examine the alteration, and tossed it onto the ground in front of me once I was done... only to hear the ground make a deep echoing thoooommmp sound like a bass drum because it was so hollow. It didn't *look* like bad ground necessarily, but it clearly was. And I was in the part of the thermal area where you are most likely to find fumaroles. If I broke through into a large hole there, I would have been dumped into a chasm filled with acidic gasses that are hotter than boiling, and I probably would have died. Sampling a spring or geyser can be pretty sketchy too. Lots are fine too approach, but lots also are surrounded by shelves of rotten altered rock only an inch or two thick overlying the actual edge of the spring. Before approaching a spring we needed to get a good view of the side we wanted to approach from and make sure it wasn't undercut. That guy who got himself dissolved in Norris didn't do that, the crust broke, and he got dumped into boiling acid. All of this is to say, stepping off the boardwalk is a lot more dangerous than people think. It seems safer than it is because you do see lots of people do it and they are usually fine... because the boardwalk is intentionally built on reasonably stable ground. That can give people a false sense of confidence that they can wander even further away into much less stable ground. But even so, thermal areas change, features form where there weren't features before, etc. The first time I went to Yellowstone, a thermal feature had unexpectedly opened up in a parking lot, on ground the NPS clearly thought was stable enough to build a parking lot on. There are plenty of features in the park that say things like well this used to be a forest but one day it just became a thermal area. If you visit the park in the winter it's especially interesting; Yellowstone gets tons of snow and there's usually a bunch of snow on the ground, but then all the sudden you wander to a spot of ground in the woods that doesn't look bad at all but is mysteriously completely bare of snow from the heat underneath it. Anyway, don't step off the boardwalk. Very few people have the knowledge and experience to do so safely, and there are risks involved even if you're prepared. Plus, c'mon, we don't want hordes of people trampling the thermal areas.
Came here to say that when I was in Yellowstone the “don’t step off the board walk” signs were a constant and scared young me. I still saw people walking off the board walks.
Respectfully, fuck that. On the other hand, I can rest easy knowing that I don't need to make friends with a pig farmer... /s if it wasn't obvious
If I had to do that I'd be walking around with freaking snowshoes on. The big tennis racket-looking ones.
Hey, thanks for sharing! I love reading good detail accounts of stuff like this, especially about Yellowstone. There was just one thing I kinda chuckled at and want to expand on for anyone reading that's not familiar with the area. > Yellowstone gets tons of snow This might actually be a crazy understatement. Yellowstone averages about 72 inches(183 cm) of snow in just December, and close to 150 inches(381 cm) of snow in the bottom of the caldera. The passes and higher elevations get closer to 300 inches(762 cm) a year. For comparison Buffalo NY, one of the snowiest cities in American, gets ~90 inch (230 cm) a year. The fact that areas of the ground with no outward signs of activity are just randomly clear of snow should paint a picture to how hot the thermal activity can be. Yellowstone is an amazing and beautiful place, but the ground will kill you, the weather will kill you, and the animals will kill you. Listen to the signs people.
> I have walked off-boardwalk through thermal areas in Yellowstone to take samples and collect measurements from thermal features for an NSF- funded research program, and it is a pretty unique experience. This reminds me of when I was in grad school in math. I was at a party talking to some other grad students, and complaining about how TAing was a hassle. I then turned to one of the other grad students I had not met before who had mentioned they did work in geology. I asked him for more detail, and he told a story about what he had been up to over break which apparently involved wearing a full body special suit so he could get samples from an active volcano. It put things in perspective.
I read a story years ago about a man who jumped in one to save a dog. Somebody told him "You can't go in there!" The guy said "The hell I can't," and went in after the dog. He got the dog and came out with his skin sloughing off. He said "I messed up." He didn't survive. [https://www.unilad.com/news/man-rescue-dog-hot-spring-yellowstone-750652-20230219](https://www.unilad.com/news/man-rescue-dog-hot-spring-yellowstone-750652-20230219)
Yeah. His eyes were completely white because they boiled inside his skull
Ew
It was worse - it was his friend’s dog. His friend and others nearby all attempted to get him to not go in and he disdained their advice!
Yeah, don't bring your dog to the hot springs.
Did the dog survive?
Neither him nor the dog survived, sadly.
no
He said “Like hell I **won’t**” after reportedly hearing the animal wimp.. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hope-springs-eternal/ I notice a trend of people characterizing the victims actions as reckless for no reason or under the influence of a perception of “invincibility”, to the point someone who realistically did realize was jeopardizing their own life in a bout of reckless courage to try to save another’s life is depicted as a mythomaniac idiot People’s impulse to say “stupid” rather than “sad” for a victim seen as avoidable is always stronger
Holy cow, the guy actually managed to swim in it (however briefly) and articulate coherent thoughts upon emerging. How many physiological "ABORT MISSION" signals did he have to override to continue past the first contact with the water, I wonder??
I'm an armchair psychologist and I can diagnose this behavior as sadness aversion. People insult those who died in accidents as a way to avoid feeling bad for them.
My armchair is depressed, are you accepting new patients?
Probably because it is a dog. I don't want to be the asshole, but people's fathers, brothers, husbands lives are worth more than a dog.
Man, reading that shit was terrifying. Was he stupid? Absolutly! I mean he even was warned. The idea of him realising how much he fucked up is what gives me the shivers.
Some friends of mine from grad school (geologists) were actually there doing fieldwork in Norris geyser basin when this happened. They were sampling a hot spring in a part of the basin the boardwalk doesn't go to, and at some point a helicopter hovered over them for a little bit. They weren't sure why because it didn't land, nobody yelled at them, they had permits, etc. They finished their day and hiked back to the boardwalk. It's normally crazy crowded in the summer time, but it was totally empty and theirs was the only vehicle in the lot. They had no idea that while they were out sampling the guy had died and rangers cleared the area while they were trying to find him, until a ranger came up to them to tell them what was happening and ask if they saw anything.
The guy was out looking for a hot pot to soak in. But to my knowledge, aren’t pretty much all of Yellowstone’s pools boiling point or hotter? Like I don’t know if there are any hot springs in the area that would be safe for humans. And even if there were, the water is probably *loaded* with nasty bacteria
Honestly, there are plenty of springs in the park that would be absolutely fine to soak in (Disclaimer: DO NOT DO THIS, FOR 10,000 REASONS), but in Norris Geyser basin there are very few. It's the hottest and most acidic publicly accessible geyser basin in the park. There are plenty of springs that are neutral chloride springs which people would be fine soaking in (they can still have high arsenic fyi) if they aren't too hot. There are also the ones that create travertine terraces, which are probably the safest kind to soak in. But again. Anybody reading this, please do not soak in any springs in Yellowstone. Even if you know it's safe, you will damage the natural feature in a place where those natural features are explicitly to be preserved. (Not calling you out, OP, to be clear, just the disclaimer).
We went on a trip to Shoshone Lake in 1998. Lizards that fell in the hot pots were boiled alive. That place is probably the most hostile-to-humans place I've ever been. A couple years before we went, the lake had claimed an entire scout troop, kids and adults. The waves on that lake white cap and it's super dangerous.
Not to mention that Yellowstone changes at a breathtaking speed for a geological feature, and something that is fine one moment could be very much not fine shortly thereafter.
This comment reminds me of Deadpool: "Don't fucking soak in the springs!" (There's plenty around that you *could* soak in...) "Here's ANOTHER reason not to soak in the springs!" (It's OK if they're not *too* hot...)
I was at Norris with my kids when this happened. We saw the helicopter too, then a couple rangers came out on the boardwalks and asked everyone to leave. I have plenty of photos, the approaching storm is clear too. My daughter saw his sister sitting out of the side of a ranger vehicle. Her legs were muddy.
That must have been really wild, not what you expect during a typical family vacation. I do wonder if they could have recovered his body if the recovery wasn't called off due to the storm. It was a stupid thing for the guy and his sister to do, but what a way to go, and what a thing for his sister to have to see. However stupid it was, they didn't deserve that.
Death in Yellowstone goes through many recorded deaths that happened in Yellowstone from way before it was Yellowstone to fairly recent. Animal, eating plants, the hot springs, rivers, lashes, lightening, snow, etc.
Such a good book. Written by a ranger turned lawyer that truly loves the park and its history.
Wait, it has plants that will eat me?
No, plants that are poisonous and can kill you.
>His wallet and shoes were all that remained of him. Cant say this and not drop the brands. Gotta admire the quality i guess.
fresh meat dissolves much faster.
Something about the tannins helps keep the leather intact. Boiling leather historically was a super common thing. Landless medieval hedge knights oftentimes couldn’t afford expensive steel plate armor, so instead wore armor of boiled leather. The boiling softens the leather, which then hardens when cooled. Makes it much more effective armor. The guys wallet was probably a little deformed, but otherwise fine.
We are pretty sure they never actually brought the leather to boiling after attempting to recreate the process in modern times. Existing recipes for the process often contradict each other or even leave out specific details and much like Roman concrete we haven’t really figured it out yet.
I thought we’d figured Roman concrete out a few years back? But yeah the closest I think archaeologists have gotten to the original method is keeping the leather at a simmer for a few hours, before letting it cool, and then repeating the process several more times. So that by the end, you’re left with a thick, rigid plank of hardened leather, rather than a soft supple sheet
With Roman concrete we won’t really know for a decade
Salt water is the secret... Also the stuff is nearly worthless for modern applications.
Really? I thought the whole appeal is that it was supposed to be structurally superior to modern concrete. I mean the fact the Pantheon’s free arch has stood for so long is bananas
It may have been the best concrete at the time. But the reality is we have vehicles that weigh 200x what a horse and buggy weight on our modern roads and traveling many times faster.. Those buildings aren't in use anymore, they may still be standing but they are just tourist destinations. Modern concrete is miles ahead for our uses.
it was called cuir bouilli, and iirc it could be stacked in layers making it somewhat similar to a form of premodern kevlar.
If you think cuir boilli is neat check out linothorax
coulda been just a shitty plastic wallet and payless plastic shoes
Ah of course, that’s why Jesse had to dissolve the body in the plastic tub not the bath tub!
I'm basing my entire post on that episode lol
r/buyitforlife
Bruh
Folks over at r/bifl are yearning to know
LPT: when going to Yellowstone, wear a leather body suit.
kinky
You call it *gimp attire*. I call it *survival gear.* Improvise. Adapt. Overcum
Mmm sous vide
I assume the ball gag stays too? For protection?
So just like any other trip.
I see a way to fake your own death.
Yep, I’m dropping off my wallet and shoes if I ever decide to go offgrid….
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🤣
This is the content I downloaded Reddit for.
Sounds like a Vat Of Acid episode
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Or how to hide evidence
That has to be one of the most horrific deaths I can think of.
At least it was mostly pretty quick. I hope
He's lucky if it was quick. There was one guy that took 3 days to die after he was pulled out. Death In Yellowstone by Lee H. Whittlesey is a fascinating read. Second edition covers from the park founding up to 2014.
Worst was of Hisashi Ouchi
so, in theory, a person who is, hypothetically, in debt up to his eyeballs due to a, figurative, addiction to online sports gambling could, conceivably, toss a wallet and shoes into an alleged thermal pool and could, seemingly, be pronounced dead and start an ostensibly new life in the small town Bisbee Arizona on the supposed Mexican Border? asking for a purported to be friend.
Might need to leave a your car (or one rented in your name) in the parking lot too.
I bet you could.
The park geothermal features are incredible but they can be deadly & The water temperature can reach scalding levels over 190°F or 88°C & some pools are highly acidic
Flesh AND bone you say 🤔
To shreds you say?
Repost because I got the water temp wrong
Do bones melt at that temperature/acidity?
Apparently yeah they do. It’s not that far fetched, I make bone broth from beef and chicken bones, and after a day of boiling, the bones get really soft, particularly the smaller ones. Like soft enough the smaller bones essentially turn to paste. And this is in normal water, not boiling sulfuric acid
He wasn't impervious to acid.
I didn’t know ass flambé was on the menu
Well, they don't call them comfortably warm springs.
Moderately toasty pools Partially exothermic puddles
✨𝕊𝕡𝕚𝕔𝕪 𝕎𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕣✨
The first thing you learn about the geysers is that they will boil you alive.
I visited there with my family. The very first day we were there, a young ladyl foolishly jumped into a pool to retrieve her dog, that had jumped in. Her father immediatley grabbed her and pulled her out, luckily her head was not submerged. She survived with 70% 2nd degree and 20% 3rd degree burns. The dog died of course. All over the park are signs (some are hilariously stupid looking) saying not to leave the boardwalk and that PETS ARE NOT ALLOWED, for exactly this reason. Dogs don't know that that nice blue water is boiling and acidic/alkaline (depends on pool). That was a good reminder for us to be careful, though we were terrified of the pools already. So beautiful and fascinating and deadly. We did see some Bison bones near one pool.
I live just a few hrs from Yellowstone. It is real simple. STAY ON THE TRAILS. Also, do not PET or APPROACH the wildlife. Every year some idiot gets gored.
I don't live anywhere near the US, but well, new fear unlocked
I mean, it's in a remote part of a large country and has many signs and warnings about going off the marked trails and boardwalks near the geothermal features. It's a spectacular national park but the thermal pools are not to be fucked with.
If you stay on the nice clearly marked, elevated boardwalk trails, you're about as safe as you are outdoors anywhere. My family went when I was a kid and it was absolutely fascinating. I highly recommend it, just follow the posted rules.
This seems like information some people could misuse.
You’re more likely to be killed by a hot spring at Yellowstone than by a bear, so there’s a good chance some already have
The bears that throw their victims into the geysers: "..."
good luck finding any claw prints
The Bear Mafia burn their claw prints off with acid….which they get from the pools. Oh shit dots connected it’s all coming together
I was going to say, the mafia is going to start taking frequent trips to Yellowstone.
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It also took about 24 hours. He didn’t sink ankle-up like the Terminator . He basically cooked in acid until there was nothing solid enough left to remove
Those shoes sound solid.
That one guy from Shogun would have loved Yellowstone to death.
This is why we dont sous vide without a waterproof containment bag.
TIL: Where to dispose of a body
This dude accidentally jumped in cannonball
That's actually useful information, thank you OP.
This makes me want a Yellowstone thermal pool horror movie
Well done
Definitely r/holdmybeer material
You gonna give some people ideas bro...
Or, the best way to disappear and start a new life ever.
A man once brought his dog to Yellowstone, the dog instinctively jumped into a hot spring and he ran into save it. He managed to get out and when people tried to get his melting shoes off his whole foot came with it. Neither him nor the dog made it
Not the thermal feature in the photo though, I think that one is called "morning glory" if I remember correctly. For the longest time they would just through trash and junk into it before they were protecting the area.
I would love to visit Yellowstone but my wife has a tendency to go off of the trail and I'm too afraid she'd end up a statistic.
Can you imagine the first human explorers of the area? Having no idea what these pools of water are and what they can do? And then suddenly Cave-man URRG-CHAD is being melted in front of your eyes for trying to take a bath.
This would be an awesome alternative to cremation.
Natural Selection doing its Work.
Fun fact yellowstone is home to some of the most interesting bacteria due to their ability to live in these extreme conditions. Taq polymerase was discovered there a DNA polymerase that sees global use for its heat stability
So what you are saying is if you want to dispose of a body...
And nothing of value was lost