National park hikers are dying from falls. Here's how to stay safe.
Across the national park system, more visitors die from drowning and car crashes than falls, but this summer, the number of incidents caused by misplaced steps and perilous slips has been stacking up.
Last week, a 13-year-boy was rescued by rope after tumbling off an edge at the Grand Canyon’s North Rim. Several days later, a California woman plummeted to her death in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. That same weekend at Rocky Mountain National Park, two men from Texas hiking separately were injured in falls, and a Colorado woman died.
“Falling on a trail could happen to anybody,” said Maggie Peikon, manager of communications with the American Hiking Society. “Parks are wild places. We want them to be more like nature than a theme park with guardrails.”
According to National Park Service data, seven visitors in six parks fell to their death between January and the end of July. By comparison, six drownings and 17 motor vehicle fatalities occurred during the same stretch.
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During the seven-month period last year, 14 people died from falls. By the end of the year, eight more hikers would perish this way.
“Falling deaths tend to be rare,” said Cris Hazzard, a professional hiking guide and founder of HikingGuy.com, “but I see it happening in places like the Grand Canyon, when people go past the warnings to take selfie and they fall off the side.”
National parks post warning signs for an array of hazards, such as loose or falling rocks, precarious cliffs and, at Lassen Volcanic National Park, acidic and boiling hydrothermal features veiled by a thin crust of earth. Unfortunately, visitors don’t always take the alerts seriously, which leads to potentially fatal accidents.
“If people don’t think the rules or those warnings apply to them, they definitely do,” Hazzard said. “If I had a nickel for every time I went to Yosemite and saw people passing the barrier.”
Know your limits
Planning and preparation are critical, even for a short outing at national parks. Save your spontaneity for post-hike activities.
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“While it’s natural to want to jump into the car on a whim and drive to a favorite hiking trail, doing so is not necessarily the wisest of choices,” the American Hiking Society states in its “Planning Your Hike” section, which compares hiking to painting a house.
Before setting out, study guidebooks and maps and find a trail that matches your skill set and comfort level. Also check the weather, which can transform an easy jaunt into a Tough Mudder. When choosing a route, the elevation gain is as important as the round-trip mileage.
“Climbing is the big thing that people generally don’t look at,” Hazzard said. “If you hike five miles and it’s 100 feet of climbing, that’s a flat walk. But if you hike five miles and it’s 3,000 feet of climbing, you’re going to basically be walking up stairs the whole way to get to the top.”
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Take into account the altitude, which at higher elevations can impair your health. Symptoms include headache, fatigue and shortness of breath. And don’t push yourself if you have a fear of heights.
Hazzard recalls an incident in which a hiker suffered a panic attack on the cables at Yosemite’s Half Dome, where an Arizona visitor slipped to her death in 2019. The person quickly descended, causing several people ahead of Hazzard to slip.
“I fell a little bit,” he said. “That really shook me.”
Practice good hiking etiquette
Don’t go rogue and stray from the trail; stick to the marked routes, which safeguard visitors and the ecology. “Stay on established trails for your own safety and to prevent soil erosion,” the Grand Teton National Park states in its safety guidelines. “This will keep you safe and also protect the environment from erosion.”
Just like driving and boating, hiking has several rules of the road. Uphill trekkers always have the right of way; downhill trekkers should give their ascending compatriots space to maneuver. If you want to take a photo, don’t block the trail. Make way for other hikers, or choose a roomier spot to snap your picture.
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“If we’re taking pictures on the trail, we’re going to step a little bit to the side where it’s safe and let people pass,” said Carly Moree, the founder of Rocky Mountain Hiking Company. “However, if it’s not safe and it’s too narrow of an area, we will not stop and take pictures there.”
If you happen upon a group of photo-takers, wait until they are finished or back up to give them some elbow room. The Grand Canyon teen fell 70 to 100 feet because he tried to accommodate a throng of people on Bright Angel Point Trail, where an Arizona man died from a fall last August.
“You need to take care of yourself,” Hazzard said. “If you don’t feel like it’s a wide enough place for both people to cross, then go backward til there’s a wide enough place. It’s like cars meeting on a narrow road: Back up until there’s a wider turn-out where you can go past.”
On the trail, if you discover that the hike is harder than you had anticipated, there is no shame in pulling a U-turn.
“Don’t do anything you don’t feel comfortable doing,” Hazzard said. “Go back the way you came. That’s your safest bet.”
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