It's off to a fast start already this year! A list of incidents involving people trying to obtain the coveted Darwin Award. I will keep you up to date of all the stupid tourist tricks.
A 5,000-year-old rock carving of a figure on skis is among the most recognized symbols of Norway. Two kids, however, thought it could use some improving. In what's been described as "a national tragedy," the Norwegian boys are accused of using a sharp tool to retrace the image on the island of Tro—among the earliest evidence of skiing—to make it more obvious, per the Local and New York Daily News.
The image of the skier—which inspired the logo for the 1994 Lilliehammer Olympics—wasn't even the only one damaged. An image of a whale that's part of the same scene also was hit.
Yellowstone Park employee dies after fall from Grandview Point
A Yellowstone National Park employee died Friday morning after falling from a view point above the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River.
Estefania Liset Mosquera Alcivar, 21, fell from Grandview Point, according to a news release from Yellowstone National Park. Alcivar was a concession stand worker and was standing with co-workers when she fell over the edge of the rim trail at about 3 a.m.
Park rangers and paramedics responded and had to wait to locate Alcivar's body until daylight. They determined the fall was not survivable and recovered Alcivar's body just after 10 a.m.
Alcivar was born in Quito, Ecuador, and was in the U.S. on a work visa.
The incident is under investigation by the National Park Service, and visitors are urged to use caution when walking on rim trails.
The woman's death is part of a summer of unfortunate incidents at Yellowstone.
An Oregon man died at the park in June when he walked off the boardwalk at Norris Geyser Basin, slipped and fell into a hot spring.
Earlier that month a 13-year-old boy was burned when his father, who had been carrying him, slipped into a different spring.
In May, a Canadian film crew was accused of leaving an established boardwalk and stepping into a fragile geothermal area where they snapped photos and took video of themselves.
Also that month, another Canadian man loaded a bison calf into his SUV because he thought it was cold. The calf later had to be euthanized because it could not be reunited with its herd.
Originally Posted by BWillie:
You guys must all covet nature much more than me. Going to a national park sounds incredibly boring.
Maybe when you get older you will appreciate a nice picnic in the mountains with a beautiful girl, skiing in fresh snow through white dusted forest, seeing all the different species of birds, plants and animals as you tackle a tough hiking trail-then reward yourself by dipping your tired feet into the glacier waters of a rambling stream. [Reply]
The extended soak....details on Mr. well done and his last adventure
Man died seeking place to soak in Yellowstone park
An Oregon man who died after falling into a scalding Yellowstone National Park hot spring was looking for a place to "hot pot," the forbidden practice of soaking in one of the park's thermal features, officials said.
Sable Scott told investigators that she and her 23-year-old brother, Colin, left a boardwalk near Pork Chop Geyser on June 7 and walked several hundred feet up a hill in search of "a place that they could potentially get into and soak," Deputy Chief Ranger Lorant Veress told KULR-TV in an interview.
As Sable Scott took video of her brother with her cellphone, he reached down to check the water temperature and slipped and fell into the hot pool, according to the incident report obtained by KULR through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Park officials did not release the video or a description of it.
Search and rescue rangers spotted Colin Scott's body in the pool the day of the accident, but a lightning storm prevented recovery.
The next day, workers could not find any remains in the churning, acidic water, Veress said.
"In very short order, there was a significant amount of dissolving," Veress said.
The National Park Service did not issue any citations in Colin Scott's death.
Scott was on a college graduation trip with his sister at the time of his death, which came a day after six people were cited for walking off-trail at the park's Grand Prismatic Spring.
A week later, a tourist from China was fined $1,000 for breaking through the fragile crust in the Mammoth Hot Springs area, apparently to collect water for medicinal purposes.
Originally Posted by Bwana:
The extended soak....details on Mr. well done and his last adventure
Man died seeking place to soak in Yellowstone park
An Oregon man who died after falling into a scalding Yellowstone National Park hot spring was looking for a place to "hot pot," the forbidden practice of soaking in one of the park's thermal features, officials said.
Sable Scott told investigators that she and her 23-year-old brother, Colin, left a boardwalk near Pork Chop Geyser on June 7 and walked several hundred feet up a hill in search of "a place that they could potentially get into and soak," Deputy Chief Ranger Lorant Veress told KULR-TV in an interview.
As Sable Scott took video of her brother with her cellphone, he reached down to check the water temperature and slipped and fell into the hot pool, according to the incident report obtained by KULR through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Park officials did not release the video or a description of it.
Search and rescue rangers spotted Colin Scott's body in the pool the day of the accident, but a lightning storm prevented recovery.
The next day, workers could not find any remains in the churning, acidic water, Veress said.
"In very short order, there was a significant amount of dissolving," Veress said.
The National Park Service did not issue any citations in Colin Scott's death.
Scott was on a college graduation trip with his sister at the time of his death, which came a day after six people were cited for walking off-trail at the park's Grand Prismatic Spring.
A week later, a tourist from China was fined $1,000 for breaking through the fragile crust in the Mammoth Hot Springs area, apparently to collect water for medicinal purposes.
Originally Posted by Bwana:
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeah apparently the Chinese tourists are getting warmed up in B.C. Canada before they show up in Montana this year.
Originally Posted by Bwana:
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeah apparently the Chinese tourists are getting warmed up in B.C. Canada before they show up in Montana this year.
The sea lion got tired of poutine and wanted some dim sum. [Reply]
