Then, without trying, I overheated simply by exercising in a room that I didn't know was 95F.
(Since I've mostly only lived in cold/moderate climates, and had never learned how risky 95F is.)
It was highly unpleasant, in an uh-oh, I can see how people die this way, kind of way.
Now, I actively avoid anywhere much hotter than about 80F.
Just last week, I declined a very interesting recruiting outreach from a CEO in Austin, telling him, sorry, but the weather in Texas is just too hot for me.
I'm ready to repurpose the term "special snowflake".
> A young woman seems to be walking around in a daze. [...] I don't think they believed their guidebooks about how uncomfortably hot it can get in Death Valley.
I hope someone helped the dazed person with first aid. And that other people take the heat seriously. It's right there in the name: Death Valley.
I saw the same things begin to happen to my wife some years later when bike riding in the heat. I did the same for her and all was well.
I grew up playing baseball and tennis in 95-100º weather with high humidity routinely. It wasn't pleasant, but nobody was getting heatstroke, nobody was cancelling games or practices. But on a visit to Montana a few summers ago, I saw that kids' baseball games had been cancelled because the temperatures had reach a dangerous level: 90º (in dry mountain air.) Same human beings, different levels of acclimation, very different safety thresholds.
I've never been in the temperatures described in this article, though, and I don't know what the physical limits of acclimation are.
I recall with some amusement thinking I was coming down with heat stroke one summerbecause the light wind felt chilly on my skin. But then I realized it was only 95 degrees
And the other way around.
I once went to a conference, held in early spring, at a Greek hotel. It was 15 C and the hotel staff had closed the pool as it was "too cold" to swim.
Us Brits were puzzled. The Finns were utterly baffled.
Go to work freezing, spend all day in a dry 70F office and then come out into an afternoon sauna.
I just turned 55 and have been thinking about this a little, wondering if maybe I should back off on the biking?
[0] I don't know how well nailed down this is, but I didn't find any wildly differing opinions in my internet research: you achieve roughly 80+% of the heat adaptation you're capable of in this time period, assuming 90 minute sessions with physical activity.
Now if it had been 50% RH, the web bulb temp would be > 96°F which is not survivable by humans for very long because no amount of sweating in that humidity will cool you down.
Don't want to be projecting, but first time I went to Death Valley happened to be in August. I saw dunes from the car and thought I had to walk up there. Fifteen minutes later I had an unbearable headache and quickly headed back. Sombreros don't look all that ridiculous to me anymore.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/12/tragic-death...
It is currently - well after sunset - 82°F outside. A couple days ago it was mid-90s in the afternoon, and it should get back to that after the current weather passes in another few days.
Mowing the yard when it's high 90s and muggy and sunny is not as rare an occurrence as I might like.
https://gitlab.com/smart-referrer/smart-referer
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/smart-referer...
Anyone know of a reputable replacement?
EDIT: And this is what a serious amateur can do on that route: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-03-10/astrophy...
Thousands of people run 50k's without a crew every year, worldwide. Maybe even just within the US, even.
Also, Hummels did his traverse in February; TFA is about doing something in July. In Death Valley, that's a world of difference.
Fun fact about Matt, he built a great compression algo as well.
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/10/1253920678/-2546-death-valley...
anadem•7mo ago
1024core•7mo ago
rafram•7mo ago