Dangers of heat exhaustion and how to avoid it
 

Two Portuguese die from Heat Exhaustion

Just want to share some sad news with you all.

Last Tuesday 2 portuguese, Carlos Ramos, 39 years ols and younger brother António José Ramos 35 years old,ridding Hondas Varadero 1000 died near Erfound.

From what I could gather,3 bikes where doing a piste near or on the Erg Chebbi, with lots of sand ridding, apparently getting stuck often, and having to work hard to dig the bikes out.

On what became the 2 brothers last time stuck in sand , they where unable to release the bikes from the sand. Their friend noticed they where not talking coherently and decided to go find help alone.

When he returned 40 minutes latter with help they where dead .

It's still to early to know what really happened, the bodies are going to autopsy, but first indications is that they dehidrated badly, all that protective clothing, helmets, heavy bikes ( varaderos ) and with all the rush to release the bikes and finish the piste they didn't notice they where dehidrating.

I don't know what temperature was there, but my guess is that it must be hot, in Ourzazate max air temp was 38, min 22.

The lesson I take is simple ,to take plenty of water, drink,be carefull what time of the year to go. Going to the desert is like the sea, must be respected all the time.

If anyone of the forum members understands a litle of Portuguese you can read the full story here : Dois irmãos morrem de exaustão em prova todo-o-terreno - Portugal - DN

Has one final note to this tragedy, they died on their mother's birthday .

Tito

Very sad
 

Indeed sad; 40 minutes is more than enough time to die of hyperthermia = heatstroke, which is far more serious than heat exhaustion.

So, a further lesson is to know about this issue and be able to spot the symptoms, early, and know what to do about such instances - intervening in cases of heat exhaustion early is preferable to trying to deal with heat stroke:-
BBC - Health: Heatstroke

Bottom line: heat stroke can lead to death very quickly and it needs urgent treatment to reduce the patients' core body temperature.

Please note a strange phenomenon: When close to heatstroke, you stop sweating !
And about the confusion: I was close to a heatstroke on a bicycle trip through Australia and after lying down in the shade, under wet clothing, I wanted to continue, but I had to give up packing my thermarest, as I couldn't get all the air out, which normally don't give me any problems.

Sad news!


"40 minutes is more than enough time to die of hyperthermia = heatstroke, which is far more serious than heat exhaustion."

I didn't know that it could take only 40 minutes......a lesson learnt.

Thanks; I just wanted to put out that information - it can't do anything for the poor unfortunate guys who died in Morocco, but maybe someone can benefit from these sad cases.


A good example of the symptoms and well described! Even the simple things become difficult to achieve, and the mind becomes confused by the bad state of the body, leading to poor decisions; in your case, you wanted to push on - I have seen people with the same "wrong" decision process in the mountains in bad weather when "exposure" can lead to hypothermia.

I have seen more examples of hypothermia ( Hypothermia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) being in the UK, usually, but the symptoms of each are quite similar despite the very different circumstances that prevail - they can both result in death, and rapidly.

The human body can only survive in a very tight range of core body temperature; too high or too low is not good!!

Every single body will react slightly differently in these circumstances but the end state is just a matter of time if treatment/preventative measures are not done; that is the really sad aspect, because such incidents of death are preventable, in the main.
Two or more people together, riding bikes or whatever, should look out for the symptoms in each other = the buddy/buddy system, because those entering the early, mild, stages of both hyper- and hypo-thermia will be the last to realise what is happening.
The first person who identifies the issue needs to take charge and deal with it; those suffering from the symptoms will probably resist, wanting to carry out a bad decision while in a confused state.

I'm especially pointing this out, because many sites don't mention this.

On my trip I noticed that my jersey was dry, but I just thought that my new jersey was very good at transmitting sweat to the outside. I didn't recognise the symptoms as it wasn't mentioned when I researched this prior to the trip.

My wish to push on was selfpreservation. I had been lying for half an hour in the shade, continually drinking and wetting my clothes and did feel better. I also knew that there was a watertank, 25 km ahead and a chance to meet other people.

I did bring a satellite emergency beacon, epirb, but didn't find that my situation warranted the use of it just yet.

Insane bikes - Tragic Story
 

A really sad story

If there is another lesson here (apart from Dont be in Morocco in Summer) its that guys, PLEASE dont take heavy road bikes like Varaderos to ride Dakar Pistes or sand dunes.

Its nuts. Its ridiculous. Its insane.

This big bikes for Adventure routes thing is really going to far. When are people going to learn. They are just for the asphalt. Its one thing making yourself utterly miserable trying to ride a Varadero or Super Tenere or 1200 Triumph Explorer across dunes, dakar pistes or other remote off road routes, its another thing altogether when the risk of that misjudgment of your / the bike's capabilities is death :censored:

Bad news !!
I was on the same piste, back the Erg Chebbi !!! last week !!
easy to be lost !!....and 40°

So sorry to hear about all three of these people. Especially for the two poor souls who died, but it can't have been nice to come back to your friends like that, either.

I agree that large bikes have limitations. I'm going to Morocco next Summer (it's the one time in the year when I get the time to do so), but am going to be be as sensible as I can with my F800GS. I like the idea of going off the beaten track, but will draw the line at major sand / pistes. Especially as my experience is not high with these conditions; the name above is an aspirational one!

My thoughts are with their families.

Shocking how quickly it can all go wrong, but IMO the size of the bikes was not the main issue - scores do Moroccan pistes (98% stony) every year on giant Advs and manage what little sand there is with a bit of a fright.

It was just the wrong time of year. When it's hotter than body temp, exposed on a bike the margin for error becomes very small. One little problem (unsuitable tyres, falling over, lack of water, vapour lock) and it becomes a matter of survival.
Iirc, in 2008 a tourist died sitting in a punctured car near Remilia while her partner staggered around looking for a phone signal. And before the road was built, others have perished on the short drive back from Merzouga to Erfoud.

None of this would have been a drama in the cool seasons.

Ch

"So sorry to hear about all three of these people."

Linking these two together, this 3rd guy will blame himself for a very long time; that is the nature of such incidents, increasingly as time passes.
The one who survives asks himself how that came to be, and, and ............. it goes on for a long time.
I hope that he continues to ride, all in due course.

+ for any single one of the unfortunate chain of events it can be survived (while those involved don't even realise how close they have got to a non-happy ending) but putting them all together becomes a litany of decisions, chance and choices - "there by the grace of" go all of us.

How terrible for them, I was there in May and it was hot then. No way i'd take a big bike on the dunes it's madness.

Very sad. My first thought was for the two guys and their families: they were brothers! What a hard time for their family. And the 2nd thought for their friend who survived, he shall be now enduring the toughest moment of his life, hopefully he will overcome it. Sure his friends wouldn't want him to blame himself when he tried his best.

Add that in summer in dry and hot climates, what may be feasible at 9:30am may be almost suicidal at 3pm, so plan ahead to avoid midday hours when the sun is more vertical (ex. 12pm-4pm).

An experience here in Andalusia: table olives are still harvested by hand in the 1st days of September, so it's still very hot. Olive pickers start at 6 or 6:30 am and stop at ca. 12:30pm, working 6 days/week instead of 5, only in order to avoid the hottest hours of the day. Keep in mind that we are west of GMT, so it's actually 1 hour less (aka start at 5-530), so pretty early. This has been done for ages. Thus, hearing cicada song means it's good time to stop any activity.

If no chance to avoid the activity at that risky time, apart from the typical advice of looking for shade, wearing a hat and drinking a lot, act in slow motion: yes, move very slowly, do not overexercise at all to avoid sweating profusely and wet your face, head, neck and shoulders with water to keep you cooler. The same effort that can be done at 9am, should be avoided at 2pm. If possible, just go for a siesta instead, it's not by chance that during the summer we do it...

Esteban

PD: Thanks for sharing that precious info. I didn't know it either, fortunately I have never seen myself a headstroke.

Another sign of heatstroke is rigors (uncontrollable severe shaking) which I had once in Israel, another time in Greece. Because I am not good in high temperatures I have an accurate temperature gauge fitted to my bike with the sensor in the shade away from heat.

My take is as follows:
20C typical English summer day
24C English heatwave
28C lovely--warm enough to ride in T-shirt
32C about as hot as I like it. Take lots of water, sugar, salt
36C getting silly, especially mid summer, head for a swimming pool
40C TURN BACK, head for the coast or mountains

Once it's over 40C you can no longer raise your visor to get air flow over the face as it's like facing a hair dryer, so you have to ride with the visor closed. These are shade temperatures and you have to understand that 36C in October isn't the same as 36C in June/July when the effect of the sun is far more severe.

I also was in the same area last week. I had been planning to do the route Foum Zguid - M'hamid - Taouz - Merzouga - Rissani with Alfie, my son-in-law. He was flying in to Marrakech, so before he was due to arrive I was checking out some of the pistes around Zagora. But the conditions were insane with highs of 41C and overnight lows of 28C. Coupled with absolutely zero shade... I saw two groups of Spanish riders on pogos, but no northern Europeans.

The only way to deal with heat like this is to start real early (I started pre-dawn once) and then find somewhere with a pool to handle the heat of the day which is from 2pm to 6pm. But when it doesn't cool down overnight your body can't handle it. The high overnight temperature was the main cause of the 14,000 heat-related deaths in France in 2003.

Another trick, if you have access to sufficient water, is to soak your clothing in water. This particularly helps if you are riding, even slowly, but is less effective if you are stuck. I have been doing this for the last few days as it is still hot in Morocco, it was 36C yesterday leaving Marrakech. But you can't do that if you are with little water in the sand dunes.

Because of the heat I decided that when Alfie arrived we would discard the idea of the southern sandy pistes and after visiting Ouarzazate we would go to the Todra then into the High Atlas at Imilchil and then head west to check out the connecting pistes across to Anergui and then on to the Cathedral. Nevertheless the 39C temperatures of Ouarzazate took their toll and on the road to Boumalne du Dades Alfie was complaining of headaches. He was fairly well hydrated but we stopped for sugary mint tea and I mixed up three rehydration sachets and more salt (really essential as salt encourages the body to keep hold of the water rather than passing it straight through).

After we got to the Todra Alfie could go no further--bad headache, lethargy, nausea. So even though it was only about 2pm I organised a room in Kasbah les Roches and off he went to sleep in the cool dark room. Later that evening he was much better and we cooled down in the freezing cold spring water of the Todra river and once we got used to the cold water we spent 30 minutes immersed in the stream cooling down our core body temperature.

Icy cold water of the Todra - YouTube

Then more helpings of salt with the evening meal and lots of hydration. After that, the altitude did the trick as the next overnight stop was at 5C! And after finding the highest navigable tizi in Morocco it was me who was suffering, this time from altitude effects with slurred speech and running out of breath.

Exped Mira II tent - YouTube