Reddit reviews Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon

Yup! I think the book was called "Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon" or something like that. I got it when I visited and the ways people die there are so dumb and sad. One story they told was of a father who pretended to fall off the edge and wanted to land on an outcropping a couple of feet below out of view from his kids watching him, but he ended up missing it and just falling to his death. His family walked all the way back to the car thinking he was playing a cruel joke before they realized something was actually up. Really fucked up. Morbidly fascinating book though. It had me walking as far away from the edge as possible.

EDIT: Link to the book for those interested. I highly recommend it, especially if you're going to visit the Grand Canyon anytime soon.

People fall into the Grand Canyon every year because they simply think they because they're on vacation or at some sort of attraction they won't get hurt. There's a book about this mentality written by a twenty year park ranger I have on my shelf. When I get home I'll give you the title. It's a good one.

Edit: Over The Edge: Death in Grand Canyon I was originally drawn to this book because it has accounts of most of the known, fairly recent deaths and how they occurred. I also need to correct myself in saying that people fall in every year. It is less frequent than that but I'm still sticking to the point I made earlier because this book has some seriously good stories in it about exactly what we're discussing.

THIS!

There's a book about deaths in the Grand Canyon, and one of the conclusions made is that children hardly ever are the ones involved in falls or other accidents; they seem to have an innate sense of danger that keeps them from doing really stupid things around cliffs. The highest demographic for deaths in the GC: males in their early 20s.

-People are missing or found near creeks, rivers <br />

of course they are, thats where people go when they are lost. they think it will lead them out of the forest. (it doesn't)

-There is a geographical clustering of disappearances

-Bad weather usually occurs just as the search party gets under way
What? This doesn't make any sense. to be able to make a claim like that, you have to analyze thousands of NPS records to find a correlation between weather and searches. Also most searches take place right after someone went missing, which is probably also connected to the weather.

-Swamps and briar patches play a role in the disappearances
Do you know how easy it is to get lost in a swamp?

-Many disappearances occur in the late afternoon
Late afternoon is the time when people are usually expected back from outings, if they left in the morning. They may have disappeared earlier, but are not reported until later.

-If a person is later found, they usually are unable or unwilling to remember what happened to them.

PTSD. Simple as that.

-The missing are often found in places that were previously searched
The people doing the searches are not usually well trained parks staff, but locals and volunteers. Also, most bodies are found years later when someone stumbles on the body accidentally.

-Berries are somehow related to the disappearances.
that is so vague I honestly don't know where to start. "he ate berries." "there were berries on the trail." "they had a blueberry pie yesterday." you claim pretty much anything is related to the disappearances if you try hard enough.

how i feel right now

/rant


for anybody actually interested in National Parks search and rescue, i suggest this book, written by two park rangers who get paid by the government to rescue people

There's actually a whole book detailing all of the people who have died in the Canyon over the years. The overwhelming majority of deaths can be attributed to being young and male. There's also a maybe not surprisingly large number of guys who died while peeing off the side of the Canyon.

Morbid, but interesting read about every death in the Grand Canyon. It's a lot. Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon

Edit: ~12 per year (700ish total and counting)

https://smile.amazon.com/Over-Edge-Death-Grand-Canyon/dp/097009731X?sa-no-redirect=1

There's even a book.

Want to know more about Grand Canyon fatalities? I have a book recommendation for you.

Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon

This reminded me of a book I bought in Arizona... There is a book that documents every death in the Grand Canyon. A large chunk of those deaths is people who died trying to pee into it. http://www.amazon.com/Over-Edge-Death-Grand-Canyon/dp/097009731X

There's an entire book about people who die in the Grand Canyon: https://www.amazon.com/Over-Edge-Death-Grand-Canyon/dp/097009731X

I read part of it and I recall that the most common death was 30ish males who died of dehydration because they underestimated their water needs. A lot of them thought it was a quick day trip to the bottom of the canyon and back. Didn't take any water and succumbed to thirst and exhaustion on the trip up.

Books I’d recommend:

House of Rain by Craig Childs: Part travel journal, part science. It gives the best account of pre-historic and historic southwestern history I’ve ever read. I really recommend this to anyone who knows a little (or a lot) about the Ancestral Puebloan (formerly Anasazi) culture and wants something that puts it all together. If you only visited Mesa Verde, Hovenweep, Wupatki, Chaco, or Walnut Canyon, you might be a little confused by the different narratives. This’ll straighten you out and is just a really great read.

The Outlaw Trail by Charles Kelly: Written in the 1920’s by the first superintendent of Capitol Reef National Park. What makes this different from other books about Butch Cassidy is that Kelly interviewed former members of the Wild Bunch. Many of them were still alive, so it’s a great historical account, as well as being a great western story. If you plan to visit SE Utah at any time, read this and you’ll recognize a lot of the place names as you drive from Arches to Canyonlands and Capitol Reef.

Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon by Ghiglieri & Myers: Tired of the books filled with heartwarming ranger tales about baby bears? This contains an account or listing of every person who’s ever died in the Grand Canyon. Drowning, suicide, accidents, falls, snake bites, tetnus - it’s all there. Has just as much nitty gritty info as you ever wanted, if kind of morbid, but extremely fascinating - and now part of a series.

Photographing the Southwest by Laurent Martres: Obviously a great book for photography tips, but I use it mostly as a guidebook. He has fantastic directions to all the popular spots as well as some little-known areas. What makes it even better is he’s very clear on if a normal sedan can drive there, or if you’ll need a Jeep. As a Camry owner in the land of Jeep trails, this is invaluable. His information is accurate in the National Parks and he doesn’t direct people into dangerous or illegal situations. It’s an excellent book for areas outside the parks as well. Then, when you get to your cool spot, you’ll know how to get a good photo of it.

This won't be news to anybody who does Search and Rescue. One of the most exhaustively researched reports before now is the book Over The Edge: Death in Grand Canyon, which examined every fatal incident in the park's history and found the most likely to get in trouble were not just men, but men of a certain age: 17 to 25. Years after the book was first published, neurology studies established that there's a second growth spurt in human brains starting at age 17 during which, for a few years, there are far more synapses than are needed, even as the process of maturation in the frontal lobes (which govern impulsivity) is not yet complete. Put that lack of working brakes together with macho culture, and there goes another drunken showoff, over the edge.

The Grand Canyon is one of my favorite places to hike. Just make sure you have an idea of the weather above and below the rim, and be sure to pick up and read Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon by Michael P. Ghiglieri. Armed with the stories and knowledge shared by the ranger(s) that wrote that book, you should be fully prepared when it's time to head out.

Recommended reading.

It’s a desert, it’s always very dry – and if you’re not from a super dry place, you’ll feel awful if you don’t stay on top of keeping moisture in.
Take/drink plenty of water. Take lotion for your hands and chap stick for your lips.

The Grand Canyon is different from every other hike on Earth, because you start by walking down. So when you get to the bottom, you haven’t really done any of the work yet.
Stay on trails. Please take a map and a compass. Please take twice as much water on hikes as you think you need.

Take plenty of stuff to keep you warm. It gets down to freezing regularly at the Grand Canyon in April.
A pad to get you off the ground, a sleeping bag, and two good blankets. And even then you might be wearing sweats in bed to keep warm.

And if you’ve got $10 to spare, get this book used.

http://www.amazon.com/Over-Edge-Death-Grand-Canyon/dp/097009731X

There is a book about this.
https://www.amazon.com/Over-Edge-Death-Grand-Canyon/dp/097009731X/ref=nodl_

Relevant.

Relevant

change the aw/d to product

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/097009731X

Made me think of this. Quite a good read. Lots of stories resulting from photography.

You know, the last time I was at the grand canyon, I bought a book there: Death in Grand Canyon.

It was interesting in how it detailed all the various ways people died, were murdered, committed suicide, etc.

Fascinating reading.

Not true! One of the most common questions asked of park rangers is how many people have died in the Canyon, and this is the best-selling book in the park. When I worked for the local paper, we always covered the deaths whether from falls, exposure, exertion, suicide or drowning in the river.

Here's a book about deaths in the Grand Canyon. It's an interesting read.

All I could find when searching "Death Above the Rim" was a movie about basketball ("Above the Rim"). Is this the book you're referring to: https://www.amazon.com/Over-Edge-Death-Grand-Canyon/dp/097009731X

Very intrigued.

Niiiice. This reminds me of a book I have. Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon. I'm kinda into the macabre.

I visited the Grand Canyon a couple of years ago and picked up the book Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon. In it was a similar story. Someone fell off, and they couldn't find the body. They searched and searched but couldn't find it. Someone had the idea of dropping a bale of hay and watched where it landed. Sure enough, just like in your case, the bale landed right near where the body lay.

Not search&rescue really, but I guiltily enjoyed the book "Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon" way too much. It outlined almost every single death that occurred in the Grand Canyon over a large number of years -- falls, hikes that go wrong, river rapid troubles, and so forth.

I bought after my own trip to the Grand Canyon, where I was boggled at the sight of tourists leaping about on slippery rocks at the edge of the canyon in the rain. Granted, I'm overly paranoid (and very clumsy), but it still didn't seem like the wisest thing. I got to thinking that surely people must just fall in, and searching led me to that book.

If you're into this sort of story I'd recommend Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon

He mentioned the book https://www.amazon.com/Over-Edge-Death-Grand-Canyon/dp/097009731X

Just in case you forgot to check back

I decided to read this book about every documented incident of people falling over the edge at the Grand Canyon just before vacationing there myself. Worst decision ever. Did the same as the OP.

Ah, reminds me of all the stupids in Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon.