Girls Dehydrate at Massada, Dead Sea

samantha87

Tue, May 19 2015, 10:28 pm

A death which could have been avoided.

http://www.ynet.co.il/articles......html

Her family - Briana McHam is posting on her fb page. It is so sad beyond words.

Ladies, don't go out hiking without a few *liters* of water per person.

proudmama1

Wed, May 20 2015, 12:15 am

I shudder to think! My son just told me they will be going hiking there! I don't think I can handle the wait till he calls that he's back safe and sound d! Warned him to take bottles and bottles of water! Is there a way to feel /see that you're on the verge of being dehydrated?

MagentaYenta

Wed, May 20 2015, 12:25 am

proudmama1 wrote:

In a desert the concept is to drink until you urinate.

etky

Wed, May 20 2015, 12:47 am

proudmama1 wrote:

Today is supposed to be a bit cooler but still quite hot.
Is he going with a school/yeshiva or just a group of friends?

Sanguine

Wed, May 20 2015, 4:14 am

Pretty irresponsible of whoever didn't cancel a trip to Masada in a heat wave but the reason she died was because she fell (maybe because she was dizzy from the heat?) and no one realized for an hour and a half so she lay in the heat alone for so long. If someone had seen her fall this would have ended differently

chani8

Wed, May 20 2015, 4:19 am

Even carrying water and drinking it then, isn't enough. You have to be an already hydrated person to hold up under that kind of heat, on that kind of hike.

samantha87

Wed, May 20 2015, 7:25 am

Sanguine wrote:

Going to Massada is not irresponsible. The irresponsible bits were walking down and her friends not realizing that she wasnt with them. They probably pushed to walk feeling that this was the only time, maybe in their lives, they would be there.

The other group that got in trouble (sem?) also seemed oblivious to how many girls there were and where they all were.

5*Mom

Wed, May 20 2015, 8:07 am

samantha87 wrote:

Going to Massada is not irresponsible.

Not generally, no, but this week we've been having an extreme heat wave with temperatures in the 100s.

BD"E.

etky

Wed, May 20 2015, 8:23 am

In extreme weather like this they close the snake path going up at 9:00 am and for those descending at 11:00. I read in the paper that the reason they didn't see her has something to do with the terrain. She wasn't visible from their vantage point and they assumed she was on the way, or something like that. In general tourists are not as savvy as locals in terms of what to expect weather wise at different sites. I'm sure that no Israeli groups were climbing Masada yesterday. I'm wondering why the employees at the site didn't try to advise them of the dangers. Maybe they did. Who knows? It's a horrible tragedy and she is indeed not the first tourist or Israeli to lose their lives in the region due to weather. It's an extreme place, like its inhabitants of yesteryear.

Fabulous

Wed, May 20 2015, 9:19 am

BDE

This totally could have been me almost ten years ago. I went with a group that had first gone to ein gedi in the heat of the day and then massada in afternoon. I hadn't been feeling well and had thrown up and obviously not drank enough. I chose to walk down, because I figured what's the big deal for down. Meanwhile all the water vendors had closed already. I literally felt like falling the entire second half down. I had a girl on either side of me practically holding me to make sure I didn't because I was so dizzy. Very scary but I have such hakaras hatov to those two girls who probably saved my life.