re: Camelback Mountain hiker found dead; I suspected foul play from beginning

This is wild!

I just did this hike with my wife in May. We didn’t start until around 11am, fresh off the plane. We are both in great shape but it was hot as shite and we both drank about 2 liters of water each doing it.

What a wild story.

What's freaky is that in that picture she had no idea her life would end within an hour or so.

Maybe she went down the mountain and met someone else who "consoled" her or he did it.
There is room for doubt when putting up a defense.

Sorry if I missed it, but do you know where she was found and how they're saying she died?

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do you know where she was found and how they're saying she died?

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Her body was found in the back yard of a home at the base off the mountain. I'm not familiar with exactly where the home is located (that was my first time in Phoenix since I was a kid). According to the articles I've read, the house is "well off" the trail.

Edit: The initial reports called it "heat exhaustion."

Tantalizing OP but the truth is likely going to disappoint.

Two Instagram daters decide to hike Camelback on 100+ degree weather with no water and no experience.

Female bails halfway up, gets dehydrated, possibly disoriented, maybe even slips and falls on the section with the rails, gets off trail in search of water as her body is shutting down, not realizing she is almost back to trailhead and water fountain. Succumbs to the heat and dies within yards of a house.

Male continues on, pissed that his date is not going well. No water + 105° + 1000ft+ of elevation gain + stress of booty call gone wrong leaves him disoriented at top and he descends the Cholla Trail on the back side that goes past The Phoenician and dumps him on a residential street in Paradise Valley. Since it was his first time hiking he doesn't realize his mistake in time to turn around so just goes with it. Orders an Uber to take him back to the Echo Canyon Trailhead parking lot.

The timing works as it takes about an 1:15 to hike 1.2 miles in the heat and ~15 minutes to get an Uber and drive the several miles back to parking lot.

Heat exhaustion/stroke is more common than you think.

An experienced trail runner died last month in a San Francisco park while running in the heat with no water in less than an hour, took a month to find his body as he was off trail presumably searching for water and help, just like this lady in Phoenix. LINK

Hiking/running in anything over 80 is draining in the desert, over 100 is just a death wish if not prepared. Instagram should create a warning like they did for COVID and attach it to every post about hiking in the western US in the summer and the risk of heat stroke/death.

Eta: thanks for starting this thread OP, you do add some interesting first hand details to what was covered in the press. My hypothetical above is just a first instinct guess based on personally hiking Camelback a dozen times, including going up Echo Canyon and down Cholla (although I jogged back to the parking lot rather than an Uber), many of those hikes in dangerous temps, and seeing a dozen stories like this every year of people dying from heat exhaustion while hiking in the southwest during the summer.

The more details that emerge about the cop, mainly his conflicting information about his experience and his total disregard for his date's welfare in a known dangerous and potentially life threatening situation, raise some red flags.

If he is a police officer there is no way he wouldn't know how dangerous doing a hike in the middle of summer would be with no water.

Also with her being from out of town to see him they were likely drinking the night before as well making her dehydrated to begin with.

I think the guy is just an idiot and she died from the heat. He needs to be hit with something for that kind of negligence though.

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No water + 105° + 1000ft+ of elevation gain + stress of booty call gone wrong leaves him disoriented at top and he descends the Cholla Trail on the back side that goes past The Phoenician and dumps him on a residential street in Paradise Valley. Since it was his first time hiking he doesn't realize his mistake in time to turn around so just goes with it.

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He told park rangers the day of the incident that he "hikes the mountain all the time and is very familiar with it." He then changed his story to say that it was his "first time hiking the mountain." I find that suspicious.

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"heat exhaustion."

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Not normally fatal.

I've had it before, I imagine most people who have done August two a days have had it before. Its less than a heat stroke.

Hiking on a bachelor party is all I got out of that