But It's A Dry Heat

From the NPS Morning Report today...
Death Valley National Park
Heat-Related Fatality


The park had its third heat-related fatality and second within the month on Wednesday, August 28th. Brett Kedish, 32, of Budd Lake, New Jersey, began a hike to Stovepipe Wells sand dunes with his wife around 10 a.m. that morning. The air temperature in the shade was 113 degrees; ground temperatures exceeded 150 degrees. Kedish’s wife, feeling hot and tired, decided to return to their vehicle after about an hour. At 1:50 p.m. she reported him as overdue. Three hasty search teams went to high observation points around the dunes while park pilot Ed Forner and maintenance worker Ron Giblin searched from the air. Ranger Aaron Shandor saw a person meeting Kedish’s description walking about a mile from the Stovepipe Ranger Station. Within moments, he’d disappeared again. Shandor and ranger Kyle Nelson found his tracks in the sand and followed them for about 100 yards, where they found Kedish lying unconscious on the ground. Basic life support was begun. The two rangers were soon joined by resource management employees Tim Croissant, Jim Roche and Ryan Taylor. Roche ran the half mile back to the ranger station and got a vehicle, then drove to meet the others, who were carrying Kedish out on their shoulders. Kedish was taken to a waiting ambulance, driven by visitor use assistant Bruce Casper. Roche and Nelson continued rescue breathing while Kedish was driven to Furnace Creek. He was transferred to a waiting helicopter, then flown to a hospital in Las Vegas, where he died the next day due to heat exposure. Shandor was IC for the incident.
[Submitted by Kyle Nelson, Park Ranger]