Study: Bad judgment leads to peril in Utah parks

If you're a guy on a day hike in a national park in Utah, step carefully. You're among the most likely to need rescuing.

Between 2001 and 2005, there were more than 1,100 search and rescue operations at National Park Service units in the state, according to a new study. Of those, 60 percent involved men, and most ran into problems while on a day hike or boating.

The biggest sources of trouble? Take your pick from fatigue, heat, darkness, insufficient equipment and not wearing the proper clothing.

The most common culprit, though, was bad judgment or lack of good information, according to the study headed by Travis Heggie, an assistant professor at the University of North Dakota.

He's hoping the park service will do more - especially on the Web - to educate visitors about how to stay out of trouble in the parks.

"The best time to get people the safety message is before they leave the house," Heggie said.

In 2007, $4.7 million was spent in national parks across the country looking for lost, stranded or injured visitors, according to Park Service figures. More than 97 percent of searches were successful within 24 hours.

Although search efforts often make headlines at Grand Canyon, Yosemite and parks in Alaska, Utah's five national parks and five national monuments draw about 8 million visits per year - and a few visitors are bound to run into trouble.

"It's a high profile area with some important parks," Heggie said, who based the study on annual reports from Utah's national parks. The report is in the latest issue of the journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine.

Overall, there were more than 4,700 medical calls in Utah national parks, including 79 fatalities between 2001 and 2005, according to the study.

The Park Service couldn't immediately verify the figures in Heggie's paper but several of the trends noted were similar to those in Park Service records.

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area had the highest number of incidents, accounting for nearly half of the search and rescue operations during the study period. On average, there were about 112 search and rescue operations per year, the study said. Many of them involved boaters going overboard.

Zion National Park had the highest number of first aid calls and the largest number of hikers that needed help.

As canyon exploration becomes more popular, Zion is seeing a shift in emergency calls from stranded climbers to those stuck or injured in lower-lying areas, said Bonnie Schwartz, Zion's chief ranger.

Heggie said it's unlikely many visitors understand the financial costs of search and rescue operations. On average in Utah parks, each costs around $1,146. Individual parks pay for those less than $500. More expensive operations can be paid for by regional or national funds.

Canyoneering typically requires a permit. Schwartz said rangers use that as an opportunity to educate visitors about safety and make sure they have the proper equipment.

"We do our best to give them the most information as we can on the front end," said Schwartz said.

Often, though, visitors don't fully understand that they're entering a largely uncontrolled environment - out of cell phone range and away from city amenities - where they're responsible for their own safety.

"One of the common themes is people overestimate their ability," said Loren Greenway, director of the Salt Lake City-based Academy of Wilderness Medicine, which provides courses in outdoors medicine.

Other common problems are people becoming disoriented and not responding properly, hikers leaving too late and getting caught in the dark, and equipment failures. He said those going into the wild need to be better prepared in wilderness medicine and better educated about where they're going.

"If you don't even appreciate the risks, then there's no way for you to prepare," Greenway said.