sad news from the Wave.

I wasn't going to bother with this story but it is true and it turned out well for the foreign hikers.
We got into the Wave fairly early as we planned on hitting all the good stuff and getting back before dark. My first trip in, and was warned to constantly look back to get the opposite view, as return can get a bit tricky if you're not using a GPS. We met a young Japanese couple as we were leaving the Wave for the boneyard and other areas that morning. All appeared well for everyone and we all went off in different directions.. We started our hike out late in the afternoon and ran into the same couple about a mile north of the Wave. They were completely confused and frazzled as to which direction would get them back to the Wire Pass parking area. They were very stressed out until we showed up. We gave them some water and granola bars and assurance that all would be well. They followed us back to the lot and were extremely grateful for guiding them back.
This is not about their nationality, but about their inexperience and lack of preparation for what many people think is a walk into Disneyland instead of a desert wilderness. I think many people really don't know what this hike is all about, often underestimating it. The consequences can be severe when it's super hot and dry. A good ending.
 
As it has become a tangential and somewhat related topic in this old post :)........ I can't help but mention a change in tourist dynamics. Up here (Yellowstone) say....10 years ago and previous to that perhaps for decades.....nearly all Asian tourists one would see were Japanese. Any Asian tourist speaking an Asian language was assumed Japanese and that they usually were. Now, nearly all Asian tourists we have are Chinese. (I lived in Japan for 4 years and though I don't speak much Japanese I can quickly distinguish the languages, even written). Bus loads of Chinese. I guess they now have the money? :)

Like I said, I just find it to be an interesting dynamic. The change happened so quickly I think the Chinese tourist are often called Japanese tourists by many here. If someone here refers to a group of Japanese tourists they saw at Old Faithful or something like that....in my mind I can't help but think "more likely Chinese and you just didn't know it" :)

Not sure about down there on the Colorado Plateau. Unfortunately I only get there maybe 2x/year these days and usually OTB path so I don't see many tourists. Oddly enough....when i do run into foreign tourists when backcountry redrock hiking....they are always Dutch or German. There must be a "secret red rock locations in America" book published in one of the Germanic languages :) Or better yet.....they all know about BCP :)
 
Duke said:
...Oddly enough....when i do run into foreign tourists when backcountry redrock hiking....they are always Dutch or German. There must be a "secret red rock locations in America" book published in one of the Germanic languages :) Or better yet.....they all know about BCP :)
Click to expand...

Or they're all just friends of @Michael. :)
 
WasatchWill said:
Or they're all just friends of @Michael.
Click to expand...

Don't forget the other Michael aka the "The Author", his books are much more appreciated in Europe, that's not only because he uses Practical Units like meters and kilometers:) but because the wealth of info in Kelsey's books is astonishing.
We don't have that blaming, shaming and claiming culture over here, and instead of moaning about "incomplete descriptions" we are already happy with vague hints of where the good stuff can be found and than explore the details ourselves.

@Michael told me he has a full set of his books and so do I, and i know for sure that a lot of info available on the European websites is derived from Kelsey's works.

I found out about the Wave around 20 years ago, at that time the BLM site showed a calender for each month, the squares with the dates were filled with a number of 0-10 depending on how many people already had booked.
In February it was still no problem to find free spots in April/May for almost every day.
We choose 2 days with an interval of 4 days hoping for good weather for at least one of them.

Once at the Paria Contact Station we were told to follow the Wash in direction Wire Pass until we saw a sign "WIRE PASS -->" there we should instead take the faint path to the right over a sandy dune, cross a wash, climb over slickrock than take a right and stay high. "After a while you will see a Crack, the Wave is below that Crack".
That's all we got at that time, no printed maps or pictures of features along the trail and, moreover, nobody had a GPS.

We got beautiful weather the 1st visit, than we went to Toroweap for 3 days hiked down to Lava Falls, a much more nasty and intimidating trail in my opinion, than returned for a 2nd visit of the Wave in good weather.

Since than we have been back maybe 10 times, every time the amount of info increased but chances of getting a permit dropped,
Last year we got lucky on day 4.
In our own experience over those years, the people we met that got or felt lost, or in one case even insisted to continue the wrong way, were by no means only aliens.
I wonder whether there are any records of such horrible accidents from the period the Wave was (almost) a secret.
 
What upsets me the most is that people care where people are from. I mean...argh, they're so far from home and then they get into trouble and don't have any support close. Seriously, how dare you guys care...seriously!


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