Oregon Man Killed in Yellowstone: Darwin in Action

[RobertJ.]

A 23 year-old Oregon man left the trail in the Norris Geyser basin and fell into a boiling hot spring, that was also extremely acidic. All they recovered were his flip-flops.

This guy had a bachelor's degree in psychology from Pacific University.

Lesson learned:

You can be well educated, but still be a moron!

EDIT:
Since first posting this, I've come to realize how insensitive it was towards both him and his family. Also, he was 23. When I was in my late teens through my early 20's, I did stuff way more stupid than that. Stuff that would have made people shake their heads and ask, "What was he thinking?" So, if you comment, let's just remember how his family feels.

 

[fr3db3ar]

Were there witnesses? How do they know he actually went in if they don't recover a body?

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[Arik]

So the spring was so acidic it liquefied the body but not the flip flops?

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[Old Sarge]

And they continue to breed.

 

[Old Sarge]

Over and over, the end is nowhere in sight.

 

[RobertJ.]

After thinking about it for a while, I realized it would be the perfect way to go "off the grid".

The only witness was his sister. Who better to help than a trusted family member? And yes, recovering the flip-flops and no body seems fishy.

 

[timn8er]

When I saw the title of this thread I was sure it was going to be about some obliviot that was trying to get a selfie with a grizzly or some bison. But, I would have to echo Arik's question: the spring was so acidic it liquefied the body but not the flip flops? Sounds a lot like an urban legend to me, even if it did "happen" in a state park...

 

[NYlakesider]

A 23 year-old Oregon man left the trail in the Norris Geyser basin and fell into a boiling hot spring, that was also extremely acidic. All they recovered were his flip-flops.

This guy had a bachelor's degree in psychology from Pacific University.

Lesson learned:

You can be well educated, but still be a moron!

He would have been much better off with a degree in Chemical Engineering! Best bet he will not do that again!



I do agree as other posters have said that there is a good chance this is a hoax!

 

[Rule3]

Seems more of a tragic accident after reading the news reports. No he should not have gone off the trail but he is not the first to do so, nor the last.

How many people walk out into traffic and get killed, are they all morons?

The hot spring is over 400 degrees F and acidic, not much if anything will be left.

 

[RobertJ.]

How many people walk out into traffic and get killed, are they all morons?

No, not all.

A disturbing trend I've seen recently, though, are people walking blindly into a crosswalk, neither looking both ways, or slowing down. Those people are.

I lived not far from Yellowstone for 5 years, and went there plenty. I've walked through the thermal area in the Norris Geyser basin more than once, and was never, not even once, tempted to leave the boardwalk!

 

[rwsmith]

Some materials are....

So the spring was so acidic it liquefied the body but not the flip flops?

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....resistant to acid.

 

[Arik]

....resistant to acid.

If it melted a human body, bones and all?

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[rwsmith]

What a creative....

I think the possibility has been raised that it may have been a suicide.

What a creative way to go. He could possibly be the first suicide by jumping into a boiling spring. A prize may be possible.

PS Old Faithful (now Old Faithless) shoots 200 ft into the air. I wonder what pressure it would take to shoot water that high?

 

[rwsmith]

I was looking into one pool...

I was looking into one pool in Yellowstone that was steaming hot, acid, clear and DEEP. I wondered what would happen if you fell in it. I can say, that if the body sank at first, nobody would be able to go down and recover it. When enough flesh was eaten away, even when the body bloated, it wouldn't float.

But yeah, it does sound like a yarn, but it's very possibly true.

 

[Kronos]

If it melted a human body, bones and all?

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Acids don't eat rubber and some other stuff why you see people wear rubber gloves to handle acid,but at 400 degrees it'd melt it.

My guess is he sunk and is still down there,no idea what kind of acid is present and I dunno if it'd break down bone but it'd also take time even if it did,not like movies,not quick.

 

[Chuck24]

And they continue to breed.

Maybe Darwin got this one in time.

 

[Rule3]

Maybe he was on his I phone posting important stuff on a Internet Forum and took a very wrong step.

Sure hope some backpacker doesn't get killed by a bear or fall off a cliff, as he or she would then be the next award winner.

 

[tlawler]

The hot spring is over 400 degrees F and acidic, not much if anything will be left.

If it is over 400 degrees Fahrenheit, then it would be a steam geyser, more like old faithful, not even water at all. And acidic just means a pH lower than 7, not necessarily flesh stripping sulphuric acid. That would require a pH somewhere around 2.0 or lower and rarely occurs in nature.

 

[Gamecock]

I was inching up on Grand Canyon of Yellowstone to take a picture. A woman yelled at me. She said a man fell from where I was standing the day before. Fell 400 feet to his death as his wife watched in horror.

I backed up.

 

[rwsmith]

I pictured..

Acids don't eat rubber and some other stuff why you see people wear rubber gloves to handle acid,but at 400 degrees it'd melt it.

My guess is he sunk and is still down there,no idea what kind of acid is present and I dunno if it'd break down bone but it'd also take time even if it did,not like movies,not quick.

I pictured him going down bubbling and boiling and resurfacing just enough to see that he was now a skeleton, then sinking, like they do in the movies.

In "Teenagers From Outer Space" a girl was climbing out of a pool on the ladder when she got hit with the 'skeletonizing ray' and was instantly a skeleton that collapsed back into the water.

You know they had a ball with a 'science class skeleton' and trick photography.