![]() ![]() In February 2019, Ryan Osmun spent 10 hours waist-deep in quicksand at Zion National Park. However, incidents do happen, especially when quicksand is paired with bad weather. “Exposed edges or rattlesnakes or hypothermia are the things that actually can kill you.” “It’s something to be aware of when you’re hiking, but maybe not something that should be outright feared,” he says. Zion National Park Chief Ranger Daniel Fagergren says that Hollywood unnecessarily sensationalizes the danger of being trapped in sucking sand on a hike. In real life however, quicksand isn’t the death trap it’s made out to be. If you watch cartoons, quicksand is like, the third biggest thing you have to worry about in adult life, behind real sticks of dynamite and giant anvils falling on you from the sky.” In his stand-up comedy special “New in Town,” comedian John Mulaney joked about the oversaturation of quicksand on childhood TV shows: “I always thought that quicksand was going to be a much bigger problem than it turned out to be. Read more: The Outdoors’ Most Spectacular Natural Phenomena, Explained Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! ![]() Quicksand is not normally a problem at Zion National Park, but an unusually wet winter contributed to weather conditions that created the quicksand, Baltrus said. “If it wasn’t for them and Jessica, I’d be dead for sure,” Osmun said. He was taken to a hospital and was later released, saying he felt very lucky that all he suffered was a swollen leg. READ MORE: Penticton victim in Kamloops shooting may be a case of mistaken identity Osmun stayed in a sleeping bag on top of a mat next to a fire until Sunday afternoon, when the helicopter made it to the site. ![]() He was suffering from hypothermia and rescue workers needed to airlift him out on a helicopter but it was snowing so they all had to spend the night at the site. Rescue workers found her suffering from hypothermia, park officials said in a statement.Īfter rescue workers found Osmun, it took them two hours to get his leg free from the quicksand. McNeill said she felt like she was going to faint when she finally spoke with dispatchers. ![]() It took her three hours to reach a location with cellphone service so she could call 911. “I kept telling myself: ‘He would do it for me,’” McNeill said. She left him with warm clothes and decided the fastest way to get help would be to swim down the river, which was waist-deep with frigid waters, rather than taking a trail. With no cellphone service in the remote area, they decided McNeill would have to go for help. She tried to pry his leg out with a stick, but realized that effort would not work. The trouble for Osmun and McNeill began about four hours into the couple’s hike on a popular route called “The Subway” in the southern Utah park. “When water cannot escape, it creates a liquefied soil that cannot support weight and creates suction,” Baltrus said. Osmun had stepped into a small hole filled with it, Baltrus said. Quicksand can form in saturated loose sand and standing water - the combination found on the river bed trail Osmun and McNeill were hiking, said Aly Baltrus, Zion National Park spokeswoman. man survives heart attack thanks to Facebook “And then toward the end I thought I wasn’t going to make it.” “I thought for sure I would lose my leg,” Osmun said. Ryan Osmun, 34, of Mesa, Arizona, told NBC’s “Today” show that he hallucinated at one point while waiting several hours alone after his girlfriend Jessika McNeill left him last Saturday to get help. A man who was stranded for hours in frigid weather with his leg sunk up to the knee in quicksand at a creek in Utah’s Zion National Park said Tuesday that he feared he would lose his leg and might die because the quicksand’s water was so cold. ![]()
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