Death Valley means Death valley........................

Man featured in LA Times story dies in Death Valley amid 121-degree heat

Amy Graff

A 71-year-old Los Angeles man died in California’s Death Valley National Park on Tuesday, likely due to heat, as the afternoon high recorded in the park was 121 degrees, officials said. The Inyo County Coroner identified the deceased as Steven Curry. 

Curry fell to the ground outside the restroom at the Golden Canyon trailhead, the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office and the national park wrote in a news release.

Before collapsing, Curry had been interviewed in the early morning by a Los Angeles Times reporter at Zabriskie Point; he had hiked about 2 miles from Golden Canyon to the point.

“It’s a dry heat,” Curry told the reporter.

He was also photographed covered in sunscreen and wearing a sun hat. In one image, he is “huddled beneath a metal interpretive sign that afforded a small amount of shade,” the sheriff’s office said. Curry was from LA’s Sunland neighborhood, the article said.

Curry later hiked back to Golden Canyon where he had parked his car; officials said they don’t know exactly when.

Other park visitors saw Curry at 3:40 p.m. on the ground and called 911. First responders with the sheriff’s office and the national park arrived at the scene at 3:47 p.m. and provided life-saving measures but were unable to revive him. A helicopter wasn’t able to respond due to the hot temperatures. 

While the cause of death remains under investigation by the Inyo County Coroner’s Office, park rangers suspect “heat was a factor,” the news release said.

While the afternoon high at Furnace Creek, the site of the National Weather Service’s Death Valley station, reached 121 degrees on Tuesday, officials said that “actual temperatures inside Golden Canyon were likely much higher, due to canyon walls radiating the sun’s heat.”

Earlier this month, a 65-year-old man died in the park, likely also due to heat, on July 3.

A barren, sandy expanse in the Mojave Desert, Death Valley is widely recognized as the hottest place on Earth. The world heat record of 134 degrees was recorded here on July 10, 1913. Some scientists question the reliability of this record and prefer to refer to 130 degrees, recorded on on Aug. 16, 2020 and again on July 9, 2021, as the hottest temperature ever measured in the valley.

July often sees temperatures in the valley soar above 120 degrees, and this year is no exception. In the past week, afternoon highs in the 120s have been recorded on five out of seven days. The national park advises against hiking after 10 a.m. in extreme heat.