Death Valley National Park Employee Rescued After Severe Medical Emergency

A resort employee of the Death Valley National Park had to be rescued after a suffering a medical emergency on a hike of Panamint Butte.

Cracked mudflats in the Panamint valley within Death Valley national park, with the mountains in the background. / Steve Gribble / Unsplash

Death Valley National Park can be hard for even the most qualified of hikers to get through safely. That was proven when a park employee had to be rescued after suffering from severe dehydration, per a release.

On August 13, a resort employee left for a 4 am hike leaving from Panamint Springs Resort. It was a 8.5-mile trip in which he gained around 4,600 feet of elevation. He got to the summit of Panamint Butte's west face around noon and then headed back.

He took most of the proper precautions. He left early in the morning, brought a map and tunred around when he didn't have the right equipment.

The one thing that he didn't have enough of was water. He ran out of water around 4:30 pm which is when things took a turn for the worst.

As the heat and dehydration mounted, the hiker ended up losing consciousness and fell down a slope. It's unclear how long he was out, but he ended up using his an SOS function to send out a request for help.

“Carry more water than you think you need. Have a plan and tell someone where you’re going. Carry a Garmin or some sort of communication device if you’re not staying close to a road," said the rescued hiker in an attempt to warn others.

It took around two hours for the first park rangers to get his request and then the first agency they contacted didn't have any helicopters available to help.

Eventually, help was found at the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake about 80 miles away. The distance and an issue with an alarm on the helicopter delayed the rescue until aroun 11:15 pm that night.

It was a busy day for the park rangers as they also had to process three other requests for help.

One was from a wife that was worried about her husband not coming back from a hike in time, but he was able to contact her and the search came to an end.

A similar situation with a woman overdue from a one-hour hike near Mosaic Canyon, but was eventually able to reach her family after getting cell phone service back.

The scariest came when a woman called after suffering a "horrible accident." It's unclear what the accident was, but she was able to get help from other park vistiors who brought her to park rangers who then transferred her to a nearby hospital.

It's important to make safety the top priority when visiting Death Valley National Park.