RIP Steve Curry

 Golden Canyon at sunset (my photo).

Steve Curry was nobody famous. He was just someone who loved to hike, and who fatally pushed his luck in Death Valley. (Yes, this story is a year old, but I saw it via another website, which talked about how climate change is making med-evac helicopter rescues in summer in the Southwest more and more problematic, because of lesser air lift in hotter temperatures.)

Since he's not famous, this isn't a takedown obit, but it IS a precautionary obit.

First, he was 71 years old. By no means does that mean, go to a retirement home. It does mean work within your limits, and know that as we (I'm no spring chicken any more) get older, our bodies get less efficient at thermoregulation in both extreme heat and extreme cold.

I hate rock circles and cairns, but this was 20 years ago, and at least I played with it in Photoshop. Golden Canyon, my photo. And, a reminder to enjoy hiking.

Second, know your adaptedness to the conditions. He was from Sunland, a "foothills" neighborhood in Los Angeles. He didn't regularly get exposed to Death Valley weather or close to it. Me, I'm in Tex-ass. Not the most humid part, but certainly not the least humid part. I'm used to 100-degree temperatures with 40 percent or more humidity, which produce heat indexes near 110. Also, even North Texas (not the Panhandle) is at a lower latitude than LA, so I'm used to sun more nearly directly overhead than Curry was.

Badwater Basin from the west side; HDR photography. Author photo. Click to embiggen.

Related? It sounds like he'd never hiked DV in anywhere near full summer, and like some of the nutbar Germans who do similar, decided he had to do this:

But on Tuesday, Curry collapsed after completing a hike in Death Valley, one of the hottest places on the planet, and died of what officials believe were heat-related causes.

“He went having accomplished something he wanted to do,” said Rima Evans Curry, his wife of 29 years. “He wanted to go to Death Valley. He wanted to do a hike.”

The temperature in the park Tuesday was unbearably hot, but Curry was intent on completing his round trip from Golden Canyon to Zabriskie Point, a scenic overview overlooking the sun-drenched moonscape. ...

More later on that:

“He had talked about Death Valley for at least a week or more,” his 76-year-old wife said. She told him she was worried about the temperature. “But once he got an idea like that ...” she trailed off.

Wrong move, if you hadn't done this before.

That leads to No. 3.

I've done Zabriskie Point and Golden Canyon before. In January and in April. I would never do that in July, because I know this:

Around 10 a.m., Curry stopped to rest under a metal sign, the only spot of shade at Zabriskie Point. He declined offers of assistance, determined to finish what he set out to do.

Yeah, wrong.

Fourth? Stop comparing yourself to others.

It had taken him about two hours to reach Zabriskie Point — and the return hike would take longer — but he said he was mostly worried that he wasn’t keeping pace with younger people he had seen out walking.

Since I'm not a spring chicken, whether it's in the Desert Southwest or a 14er in Colorado, as was the case last year? I expect to get passed left and right by younger people. Sadly, tying this in with Point 1, it sounds like he couldn't accept that he was 71 years old.

Fifth? Know what other things will and will not do.

SPF 50 sunscreen? Great at keeping you from sunburn. Does nothing to cool you off, other than the cooling from not being sunburnt. In other words, it's not spray-on Freon. (And, please, folks, don't think that a bottle of computer keyboard cleaner will get you around DV incident-free, either.)

Fifth, part 2? Per what I said about that environmental website, know that, even in what seems to be a well-traveled place, medical help may not get to you. This is also going to apply to some degree to other popular state and federal outdoors sites in the U.S. Southwest. In other words, don't be a Steve Curry at Mojave National Preserve, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Joshua Tree National Park, etc. Also, contra both German tourists and some Americans, don't listen to Google Maps.

Sixth, here's more to know on what heat can do to you.

If you want to "visit" Zabriskie Point with fiery heat, do it another time, and do a Michel Foucault, drop a tab of acid there, and wait for a fiery vision. And also, be poetic about your deserts.