Permanent Drought Claims Three Darwin Award Nominees

Three hikers who fell over a popular Yosemite waterfall are presumed dead, park officials said late Wednesday morning.

Hormiz David, 22, of Modesto, Ninos Yacoub, 27, of Turlock and Ramina Badal, 21, of Modesto were on a day trip to Yosemite National Park with friends and family Tuesday afternoon when they climbed over a metal guardrail at the top of Vernal Falls near Curry Village in Yosemite Valley, park officials said.

Witnesses told rangers that several people urged the group to get out of the cold, fast-moving water, but the three were swept over the 317-foot falls.

A search-and-rescue effort lasted until Wednesday morning. Park officials said teams would continue to scour the Merced River for the victims.

The trail leading up to the falls, the Mist Trail, has been reopened after it was closed during the initial search.

There have been six water-related deaths in Yosemite this year, including the latest incident, park officials said.

Two hikers drowned in the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir on June 29, and a hiker slipped and fell into the Merced River on the Mist Trail on May 13.
Officials said there were several recorded cases of visitors going over Vernal Falls and other waterfalls in the park.

Because of a larger-than-normal snowpack this winter, rivers and streams in Yosemite and Central California have been especially dangerous in recent months.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/

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6 Responses to Permanent Drought Claims Three Darwin Award Nominees

  1. suyts says:

    Usually, a guardrail is placed for a reason. Apparently, some take is as an invitation to climb and be on the other side. I seem to recall a video of some lady that did the same thing in a polar bear display at a zoo in Germany. And some others. I wonder if it wouldn’t benefit society if videos of guardrail climbers were regularly shown?

    My condolences to the friends and family of the ones lost.

    • I was working as a forest ranger in the Sandia Mountains outside Albuquerque. Two hang glider pilots were getting ready to take off of the 10,000 foot peak as large thunderstorms were building. We told them not to do it. They went anyway, and one of them ended up as a giant hailstone in a tree 10 miles away, after being taken up to 40,000 feet.

    • suyts says:

      lol, we had base jumper climb to the top of the worlds second largest shovel crane.(Big Brutus close to nearby West Mineral KS.) And jump from a whopping 160 ft in the air. ………. Bad call, ended the same as hang glider and once again, guardrail climbing was involved.

  2. Grumpy Grampy ;) says:

    All should be bestowed the award. I understand it is not limited in number of winners. There was also the one on Maui who fell into a blow hole and one who jumped into a waterfall pool on Kauai.

  3. P.J. says:

    “My condolences to the friends and family of the ones lost.”

    Mine too. Here in southern Ontario, 4 people have drowned over the last few days. Two were tween girls who couldn’t swim and they weren’t wearing life jackets … sad.

  4. gator69 says:

    My last backpacking trip in Yosemite, I shared a campground with a man who was bandaged head to toe. He had climbed out to get a better look at the water wheels, ignoring the wet rocks, and as a result tumbled down the slope. It looked very painful, and he was extracted the following morning ending his vacation, but thankfully not his life.

    Famous last words of a dumbass, “Hey everybody, watch this!”

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