Death Valley Germans bluff site

[Osmigo]

This is my first post on the forum.  I live in Texas, but have some family history around DV in the Baker area, around Silver Lake and Owl Holes. I've been to several places there such as Bob and Ward cabin, with Bill Gossett, a truly great guy.  

I know just about everybody is familiar with the "Death Valley Germans" story.  There have been a bunch of online articles and reports on the incident, and I've read them all. Like many of you, I like exploring places with a "story" and was wondering if anyone here would be interested in going out to the bluff where their remains were found.  This won't happen anytime soon; maybe next year sometime.  It's not a problem getting to the Geologist's Cabin, then it's about a mile from there to the entrance to Anvil Canyon.  Beyond that entrance, though, the BLM prohibits motor vehicles, so from there it would be about a 6 mile hike to the bluff, if we roughly trace the path they took.  That may be problematic. 6 miles is a pretty long way to haul jugs of water.  The terrain is pretty very rocky, with lots of lumps, walking down washes and across flats crisscrossed with gullies.

Anyway I'm just putting out feelers to see if anyone has any interest in this, or at least is interested in talking about it. Again, it won't be anytime this year. Maybe next spring or fall, I don't know, I'm open.  Right now it's just in the "thinking about it" stage.

Any thoughts to share? Here is a picture of a satellite view. The yellow line starts at the bottom, at the canyon entrance, and shows the route of the hike. You can drive to that point, about a mile from Geologist's Cabin. After that, no motor vehicles allowed. It's about a 6 mile hike.
   

Thanks,
Ron in Texas

[netllama]

Welcome to the forum!

We've got some hard core hikers here, so I would not be at all surprised if a few people were interested in this project.

[shane]

Hey Ron, I’m interested. I sent you a DM.

[Osmigo]

Thanks for the reply!  Here's another pic. This is the bluff (at the end of the yellow line in the previous post) that would be the destination.  After hiking about 6 miles over washes and rough, rocky terrain, you come out on a flat, rocky table. The bluff is on the other side of the table, a little over a mile away. This is where they died, and where the remains were found. It must have been a dark feeling, just sitting there, knowing there was no hope, and absolutely nothing to do but wait to die.  Here are two images of the bluff, one up close, and another showing when you first see it, after emerging from Anvil Canyon. The second image is in the next post.
   

[Osmigo]

   

[trailhound]

I would love to see this area. Unfortunately, my current health issues prevent anything like this for a while. Tom Mahood makes it sound worse than the Bataan Death March.

As a point of reference, if you’re not physically capable of doing a day hike to the top of Mount Whitney and back, and aren’t a skilled, off-trail hiker, you should stay out of this area.  My opinion, anyway. That’s a measure of how hard it is to get into the area on foot (and out, safely!).  At this point I know the location and surroundings probably better than anyone, and I’m not going back.  The area scares me just a bit.

By the time that the Germans reached the bluff, they were likely gone mentally.  The end stage of hyperthermia includes confusion and delirium.

As for water, Tom found water at Squaw Spring after a search. I don't think that I would depend on that considering the drought. An alternative might be to hike half way the day before and stash water. That would reduce the initial load you need to carry.

Good luck and please post pictures.

[Osmigo]

I would love to see this area. Unfortunately, my current health issues prevent anything like this for a while. Tom Mahood makes it sound worse than the Bataan Death March.

As a point of reference, if you’re not physically capable of doing a day hike to the top of Mount Whitney and back, and aren’t a skilled, off-trail hiker, you should stay out of this area.  My opinion, anyway. That’s a measure of how hard it is to get into the area on foot (and out, safely!).  At this point I know the location and surroundings probably better than anyone, and I’m not going back.  The area scares me just a bit.

By the time that the Germans reached the bluff, they were likely gone mentally.  The end stage of hyperthermia includes confusion and delirium.

As for water, Tom found water at Squaw Spring after a search. I don't think that I would depend on that considering the drought. An alternative might be to hike half way the day before and stash water. That would reduce the initial load you need to carry.

Good luck and please post pictures.

I think Mahood was taking the safe way out. A LOT of people have no business wandering around out there.  The Germans were a good example, actually.  But *IF* you know what you're doing and have an appreciate for the dangers and demands of desert hiking, you should be OK *IF* you know where you're going. That's not a huge issue with today's modern handheld GPS's and whatnot.

It's definitely not a place to be just roaming around, especially in July/August.  It's just about 6 (some say 7 or even 8) miles from where the van got stuck to the bluff; not a long way under most circumstances, but roaming around beyond that area has some serious implications.

[MojaveGeek]

The comparison to day hiking Whitney seems rather overboard, OTOH scaring away would-be thrill seekers is sensible. That being said, I've never walked in that area. I certainly know places in DV where 6 miles can be killer, but they usually involve a fair amount of steep terrain. Well, anyway, I do hope we see a post on whatever is found. If I hike in that area, there are other places I'd place on higher priority.

Gotta wonder what would have happened had the Germans followed standard advice and stayed with their vehicle. It didn't sound like anyone knew their schedule or had any idea of where they were. Is there any place people travel you could hit with a signal mirror from nearby?

[DVexile]

Probably the best thing they could have done to signal once their vehicle was hopelessly stuck would have been to set the spare tire on fire during daylight hours in calm wind conditions. This can be done by using motor oil to get the tire burning and the tire will burn for quite some time. The sooty smoke is very visible from the air and given their location would have had a good chance of being seen by a military pilot who would have investigated. If it doesn’t work one day then take off another wheel and try again.

But that’s assuming a whole lot of advanced knowledge about what the best thing to do in that situation in that particular region would be. Anyone with that knowledge would probably not have ended up in the situation in the first place. Like most tragedies it was a cascade of decisions that led to the outcome and while clever signaling might have saved them there were many simpler decisions that could have been made earlier to avoid tragedy.

These days the solution is trivial: carry satellite based emergency communications which are small, lightweight and a modest single upfront cost.

[Osmigo]

The comparison to day hiking Whitney seems rather overboard, OTOH scaring away would-be thrill seekers is sensible.  That being said, I've never walked in that area.  I certainly know places in DV where 6 miles can be killer, but they usually involve a fair amount of steep terrain.  Well, anyway, I do hope we see a post on whatever is found.  If I hike in that area, there are other places I'd place on higher priority.

Gotta wonder what would have happened had the Germans followed standard advice and stayed with their vehicle.  It didn't sound like anyone knew their schedule or had any idea of where they were.  Is there any place people travel you could hit with a signal mirror from nearby?

I don't think so.  As far as staying with the van, that wouldn't have worked, either.  As it were, the van wasn't spotted until 3 months later, when it was accidentally spotted from a helicopter. The remains and bones weren't found until 13 YEARS later. The most logical choice would have been returning to the geologist's cabin, a mind-boggling omission. Lots of food and unlimited cool, fresh water.  Apparently they were so naive they thought the "military base" was "just over that hill over there..." 

As far as burning tires, it's very possible they didn't have anything to start a fire with.

Nothing would be found, I'm sure. The area has been gone over with a fine toothed comb.  My interest is purely personal and subjective.