Hiker will get caught in freezing QUICKSAND for hours throughout journey to iconic Utah nationwide park
A seasoned hiker narrowly escaped after getting trapped in knee-deep quicksand during a solo hike through Utah‘s Arches National Park.
Austin Dirks, who has hiked thousands of miles, was trekking along the Courthouse Wash trail early Sunday morning when his left foot dropped without warning.
‘I shifted my weight to the right, and that leg went to the knee immediately. I freed the left foot, but the right stayed locked in place,’ the hiker detailed in a Reddit post.
Dirks, who believed he had been walking on solid ground, was trapped in quicksand for several hours in the freezing cold, with temperatures reaching around 21° F.
He tried to dig himself out of the entrapment with his trekking poles, but the stream of water filled every hole he dug out with icy cold water.
The hiker’s fingers turned numb from the digging and flailing, his knee bent to a ‘painful forty five degrees’ over his foot, and he had given up all hope.
Dirks managed to send an SOS message on his GPS satellite messenger, prompting the Grand County Search and Rescue to deploy a drone over the canyon and pinpoint his exact location.
Rescuers rushed deep into the canyon with a ladder, shovels and vehicle traction boards in tow, which helped them work next to Dirks without getting trapped.
Austin Dirks, (pictured) who has hiked thousands of miles, was trekking along the Courthouse Wash trail in Utah’s Arches National Park on Sunday morning when his left foot dropped without warning and he trapped in knee-deep quicksand
Drone footage showed the moment rescuers rushed deep into the canyon with a ladder, shovels and vehicle traction boards in tow to get him out
Rescuers created a stable path across the quicksand using the ladder, images showed
‘They built a stable path across the quicksand and dug around my leg faster than the stream could fill the hole,’ Dirks said.
‘When they finally pulled me free, my shoe almost tore off but held on. My leg had no feeling left in it and nearly collapsed when I put weight on it.’
Dirks carefully crossed the ladder and headed to solid ground, where he was met by paramedics who wrapped his leg in a heated blanket.
The hiker was uninjured in the incident and regained feeling in his leg after about 15 minutes, he recalled.
He managed to hike out of the canyon on his own, but was accompanied by his rescuers.
Officials say quicksand rescues are extremely rare, although there was a case in 2014 in the same area where Dirks got stuck.
‘The page went off and I kind of shook my head and said: “Did I hear that correctly? Somebody is stuck in quicksand?”‘ Grand County Search and Rescue incident commander John Marshall told NBC News.
The Grand County Search and Rescue ream rushed to the scene after Dirks managed to send an SOS message on his GPS satellite messenger
Dirks, who believed he had been walking on solid ground, was trapped in quicksand for several hours in the freezing cold, with temperatures reaching around 21° F. He tried to dig himself out of the entrapment with his trekking poles, but the stream of water filled every hole he dug out with icy cold water
Marshall warned that while quicksand has a ‘good bite’ and can trap people fast, they rarely sink deeper than their waist due to the natural buoyancy of the human body.
‘The more people struggle, the deeper they go,’ he explained. ‘So, one or two footsteps into that sand is really all it needs to initiate that initial stuck factor.’
Dirks described the experience as the closest he has ever come to dying and told KSTU that ‘how it’s depicted on TV is nothing like it is in real life’.
He added: ‘Before this trip, I honestly thought quicksand was more of a folklore or a legend.’
In 2019, a hiker was rescued after getting stuck in quicksand Zion National Park in southwest Utah.
Ryan Osmun was hiking with his girlfriend Jessika McNeill, when she suddenly tripped into quicksand.
As he helped McNeill out, Osmun got his own right leg stuck in the quicksand and was unable to free himself.
McNeill then had to hike for three hours to get cell service to call for help. Osmun was trapped for an entire day before rescuers were able to reach him and airlift him out.
Rescuers built a stable path across the quicksand and dug around his leg, before they finally pulled him free
Dirks carefully crossed the ladder and headed to solid ground, where he was met by paramedics who wrapped his leg in a heated blanket
Quicksand forms when sand becomes saturated with water, causing it to become mushy and sag under weight – but it is typically only a few feet deep meaning people will only sink to their waist.
The actual amount of people who die from quicksand submersion is so rare that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) doesn’t record the number of deaths.
Experts warn that hikers should lookout for tell-tale signs of quicksand, including a more dense appearance like mud rather than sand with a rippled texture and water seeping up from underneath it.
Anyone trapped in quicksand is advised to sit down or lie on their back to redistribute their weight and make it easier to wiggle their feet free.
