Has anybody died geocaching?

[claypigeon58]

I know this might be a sensitive topic, but my very first geocaching outing was almost my last. I was in a forest during a hellacious windstorm, and a tree uprooted and fell 10 feet behind me. I would've been crushed and killed. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had close calls, or know of anyone who has gone to the great waypoint in the sky due to this activity.

Please understand I'm not doing this out of morbid curiosity, but if there are things we can learn from, this is what forums are for. While he wasn't geocaching, the Utah climber who severed his arm to survive got me to thinking hey, it could've been a cacher just as easily.

Again, I apologize if this is deemed an inappropriate topic.

[+Smitherington]

I agree. This is a very serious subject.

Seriously, I have not died yet while caching nor have I died at any other time. I cannot speak for others.

If this were a poll, I would have to answer NO. Just speaking for myself though.

[+ETREX 700]

I heard of one geocaching incident that ended in death, I think it was heat related. Also, the owner of This cache busted his ankle while placing it.

[+briansnat]

I also heard about the geocacher who died of heatstroke last summer. There is more detail in the west forums.

 

I had a close call. I was looking for a cache along a cliff face and it was wet. I took one step and slipped. While falling, I was able to contort my body so I fell backwards instead of over the cliff. It was a purty close call.

 

"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues" -Abraham Lincoln

[+Tsegi Mike and Desert Viking]

I would never want to pass judgement on anyone who had a close call or a problem like that Colorado hiker, but without a doubt it always wise to let someone know where you are going and when you might return.

 

I read a log entry where someone found a dead body while geocaching. The body was of a hiker who took a fall.

 

That moss-covered bucket I hailed as a treasure,

For often at noon, when I returned from the field,

I found it the source of an exquisite pleasure.

 

Samuel Woodworth The Old Oaken Bucket

[+ShaneN4Girls]

I haven't died yet while caching, but my wife has offered to off me a couple of times when I get home late after an all day hunt.

 

Adversity is certain, misery is optional.

[+cachew nut]

There was this guy who almost drowned. You know, the Colorado hiker, and others like him who have these fantastic survival stories really make the news not because they were good at their hobby, but rather because they were poor at it or had incredibly bad luck. Be careful out there.

[Captain Chaoss]

I died once while waiting on my wife to get ready so we could go caching.

My whole life passed in front of my eyes. that was because her "few minutes" allowed me to view every pic and home video in existence. Though she said she was just doing her hair, I suspect she was secretly decoding her genome, breaking down the individual molecules, and re-assembling herself anew. Unfortunately, I died of old age that day, before we ever got out to search.

Thank goodness, you don't actually have to be a living entity to continue a marriage. Matter of a fact, being deceased has actually made the last several months easier.

 

Two roads diverged in the woods and I,

I took the one less traveled,

and that is how I found the cache.

[+Dread Pirate Roberts']

quote:

---

Originally posted by Smitherington:

I agree. This is a very serious subject.

Seriously, I have not died yet while caching nor have I died at any other time. I cannot speak for others.

If this were a poll, I would have to answer NO. Just speaking for myself though.

---

That just really tickled my funny bone

[smashsquatch]

just to be clear - our chap from aspen is actually an accomplished outdoorsman. he made only one mistake - and anyone can. and it only takes one. his skills kept him alive after the mistake.

 

it turns out he misjudged the soundness of a single handhold.

 

fyi - i nearly die in traffic every day, here. living is risky.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

hey... what's that smell?

[+jonboy]

If you are out in an area and have a cell phone, make sure that it is programmed with the emergency numbers you would need to call, 911 may not be the best number to call. The police will eventually route your call to the appropriate authorities to initiate a search and rescue, but your cell phone batteries may die in the mean time. have a 24 hour emergency number specific to where you are on the phone.

[+mtn-man]

Mike Curtin, Sept. 1, 2002.

 

This is the topic in the forums.

 

The links don't work any more in the topic.

[+ron50eli]

Not that I know of. But I fall down a lot. Or fall off my bike. Which ever comes first. A day caching without me falling down is like a day without sunshine.

 

rocker

 

give to the world the best you have,

and the best will come back to you.

...............MaryAinge deVere

[+briansnat]

quote:

---

just to be clear - our chap from aspen is actually an accomplished outdoorsman. he made only one mistake - and anyone can. and it only takes one. his skills kept him alive after the mistake.

 

it turns out he misjudged the soundness of a single handhold.

---

 

Actually, his main mistake (and he admitted it) was not letting someone know where he was going and when he planned to be back. Probably could have saved his arm had he done that.

 

"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues" -Abraham Lincoln

[+Tsegi Mike and Desert Viking]

I doubt they could have saved his arm from what I heard. There was serious tissue and circulation damage from being pinned under the rock. But they probably could have spared him from self amputation.

 

He's a braver and tougher person than I could ever be. I'd have been a corpse rotting in the sun when they found me still pinned under the rock.

[+briansnat]

quote:

---

He's a braver and tougher person than I could ever be. I'd have been a corpse rotting in the sun when they found me still pinned under the rock.

---

 

Agreed. Don't think I'd be able to do that. But just in case, I'm making sure my pocket knives are sharp.

 

"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues" -Abraham Lincoln

[+Peanuthead]

His name is Aron Ralston. It is a name worth remembering.

 

[+GeneralBracket]

I was so consumed by a multi-stage puzzle cache recently that after about 30 hours awake I set out for one of the stages by heading off into the desert with no water in dress jeans, tennis shoes and a polo shirt. It was a .75 mile balls-out run to the cache and another .75 run back to the car. I have no idea why I was running. Seemed like the thing to do at the time.

 

The whole time while out there running across the open desert I was having visions of Chevy Chase in Vacation when he's doing the same across the sand dunes. I was really cracking myself up. If anybody had seen me they'd have surely looked twice. A guy charging through the desert in Friday casual-dress cloths with a small electronic device laughing hysterically.

 

Ooof.

[Captain Chaoss]

I like the story of the guy who turned cannibal from the Donner party. Its said the indians avoided the crazy white man with the dismembered leg slung over his shoulder.

 

Next to him General, you'd be pretty welcome !

 

Two roads diverged in the woods and I,

I took the one less traveled,

and that is how I found the cache.

[+evergreenhiker!]

Last summer towards end of August, I did a cache called Mashel Falls...highly recommend by the way:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=28150

 

Well, I took the billy goat route to the cache. You can take a much longer and safer route via series of trails. Since I was on my way home and wanted to hit a few more boxes after this one, I chose the suicide route.

 

The route down was dadgum near vertical in places...slippery,loose dirt. Anyway, I got to the river just above the falls.

 

It look like just a simple hop over the narrow gap just above the falls. I didn't factor in the smooth, slippery surface of the stream bed. I hopped over and dadgum near fell...only my trusty hickory hiking stick kept me in just enough balance to keep me from going over the falls certainly to the Other World.

 

In fact there's a cross down there. Apparently someone died there. If you do this cache, do not do the route I did...be safe and take the longer route!!!!

[+Kouros]

quote:

---

Originally posted by ETREX 700:

I heard of one geocaching incident that ended in death, I think it was heat related. Also, the owner of this cache busted his ankle while placing it.

---

 

Yup - That'd be me. Caused more by ineptitude rather than anything else, I think.

 

I still don't walk straight, but I'm grateful that it didn't result anything more serious.

 

------

An it harm none, do what ye will

[Team Kender]

I almost died tuesday while looking for a benchmark in a busy intersection. The location description was confusing me and I started doing a grid search. This was right on an extremely busy intersection for a highway and cross-town traffic. I was so caught up in what I was doing that I actually disoriented which light was turning green (not the one I needed to cross the street) and I walked right in front of a bus.

So despite climbing on cliff faces or treading in rip-tides, you can face danger just walking on a sidewalk. Always be aware of your surroundings, no matter where you are.

 

Team Kender - Willow and Dan exploring the Bay Area backroads!

[+ChinCache]

Hey jonboy' -The cell phone is a good idea IF you can get a signal I know some of the caches I;ve done are in the middle of nowhere. My car got stuck in sugar sand once and luckily it was fri.. I waited about three to four hours till the high school 4x4er's came tp party. it was either that or hike out about three hours on logging and forest roads.

[Tahosa and Sons]

We have just lost one of Colorado's good cachers while searching for this Cache. Details are sketchy but there will be some kind of service done in his honor by C.A.C.H.E at our spring meeting.

[+Sagefox]

Apparently someone died there. If you do this cache, do not do the route I did...be safe and take the longer route!!!!

That is true, a guy slipped on the upper falls ledge and went over to his death very close to the time you visited this cache. He was not a geocacher.

[+DamOTclese]

I don't think I know of anyone who has died while out geocaching but when geocaching ourselves Shydavid and I occasionally come across people out in the Mojave Desert that are stuck -- without food, water, communications devices, or even hats. At some of them he and I have rescued were so, well, stupid that we had to wonder why the desert sands weren't littered with bones.

 

A good example was when we had visited a number of caches along the 15 highway between San Bernadino, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada. On the Western side of Baker, California there are some four or five easy caches to reach. One of them is along Basin Road.

 

After hitting the caches we took Basin further South East along a fairly well maintained dirt road that 18-cheelers use to cart silver ore and other minerals out of the area on. The trucking routes peeled off to the right and the forward dirt road goes on into the flatlands of the Mojave Silver Lake area.

 

Shydavid was in his Toyota Pickup, a vehicle that he routinely has to jack up, dig out, and rock-move to get into and out of areas while he does his desert geology and other studies (see http://coyotewicca.org/dp/index.htm ) I was in my wife's Jeep Cherokee.

 

We came across some people in a minivan stuck out in the middle of no where. They had left the sandy road and decided to head off into the middle of squatt. No food, no water, no telephone, no hats... they were moaping sadly around their stuck vehicle apparently waiting for the sun to go down so they could set out for the road and try to make it to Highway 15.

 

It's a good thing they didn't try it during the day; they would have been baked dead after three or four hours. Doing it at night is just as bad if they don't know enough to travel by stars.

 

They were straight from Japan and had landed in Las Vegas, picked up a rental and decided they would go see the Nevada desert.

 

And that was only one of the times we've rescued people.

[+CO Admin]

As noted above we did lose a wonderful cacher this weekend. I am going to close this thread for the next few days out of respect.

 

CO Admin