Oops, I see wannabepro scooped me by 4 mins!
Extreme weather in the mountains.
Maybe mods can aggregate these, or scrub this one
China. China. China
That's crazy s@#$.
Prior to this race, what are the most deaths in a race from natural causes?
So... 20 runners didn't check the weather forecast?
There were over 150 runners competing. Some were just lucky to make it to shelter or get rescued. I'm sure the weather was well checked beforehand but even with todays technology forecasts can still be inaccurate.
jonathon wrote:
So... 20 runners didn't check the weather forecast?
Abrupt. Look up the definition. Any time you're in the mountains, things can turn bad faster than you'd think.
Just how low did the temperature get? Hypothermia takes a while, especially if you're warmed up and moving. And if the weather hit an 11k high altitude stretch, then it's at worst 5.5k from safety in one direction or the other.
Details are missing to make this story add up.
Is this the deadliest running incident ever? I wonder how much a light down jacket would have helped. It's not running, but I've been on multi day treks at altitude in the summer and I was always happy to have my down jacket at the end of the day. Bad weather can happen even in the summer.
RIP
One of China's top ultramarathoner was among the victim, another was a deaf paralympics gold medalist (who wouldn't have been able to hear cries for rescue). About 1/2 of the deceased were seasoned runners.
The organizers are largely to blame for inadequate preparation and delayed rescue efforts. They failed to stop the race in time.
Very sad.
One can only imagine the unfortunate combination of casting everything aside to be as light and unencumbered as possible in order to race effectively, and then getting caught in freezing rains, high winds, and fast falling temperatures, all of which in a very remote area.
A disaster of epic proportion.
The gist of what is written below goes something like this:
(From tw.appledaily.com)
"As I was going up I saw some people already coming down saying it was too cold and they really couldn't take it and they were dropping out. The first thing I thought of was: you're just gonna give up a1600 renminbi entry fee so easily? But later I regretted it and wanted out." More participants were coming down "including some really top people." He was getting worse and worse, soaked through and the wind was blowing so hard he could barely stand. The cold was getting unbearable, so he tried to find a place that was relatively protected from the wind and took out his space blanket but it was almost immediately blown off of him. "I had nothing. Some of the other racers had blankets, but they were ripped to shreds by the wind."
He was wearing fingerless gloves so his fingers were really uncomfortably cold. He tucked his hiking pole under his arm and started down the mountain slowly. But his fingers quickly lost all feeling. He put his fingers in his mouth but still he could feel nothing, and even his tongue became frozen. "a¥At that moment, I had only one purpose, to get out of this race and get down the mountain." However getting back down was not as easy as getting up because of how steep it was and the difficult terrain. The rocks were wet and slippery invisibility was poor. He also began to shiver uncontrollably. Tiny step by tiny step he continued down the mountain in a daze. "I had only one thought: I just have to get down this mountain. If I pass out, it's going to be when I get off the mountain."
"I think I'm fortunate that I made the decision when I did. It was right around that point when I really started to lose body heat. I was really on the edge of that point. As I was coming down the mountain, I was already feeling the effects of low body temperature." When he got down to a lower point on the mountain, following the directions of rescuers he found a cabin. They were about 10 other participants already there. Waiting for rescue over the next hour, the number of people rose to nearly 50.
He wrote that the people that came into the cabin after him, seeing participants lying on the trail unable to move, some of them with foam around the corners of their mouths. One participant said seeing those people lying there you wanted to help but there was nothing you could do. It was difficult to save oneself and there was no possibility of helping anyone else. "Saying this, he was on the verge of tears."
「我在往上爬的時候，看到第一個從上面往下走的選手，說上面太冷了，受不了，退賽。第一時間我在想甚麼：就這樣放棄1600（人民幣，參賽可得的費用）了嗎？後來每念及，我都想抽自己。」之後又有幾名選手下來，「包括很大神的選手」。他的情況則越來越不好，全身濕透，風吹得他站不穩，也冷的越發受不了，他便找了個相對避風的地方掏出保溫毯裹在身上，但瞬間就被風吹散開，「什麼用都沒有。還有選手的保溫毯，直接被大風給撕碎了」。
他戴著無指手套的手也凍得受不了，就把登山杖夾在腋下，慢慢往山上走。但10根手指很快就都失去感覺，把手指放嘴裏含很久，也仍然無感覺，同時覺得舌頭也冰涼了，「這個瞬間，我果斷決定退賽，下山。」然而，上山容易下山難，這種很陡的地形尤甚。岩石是濕滑的，視線是模糊的，身體也開始不由自主地發抖。他一小步一小步地往下挪，已感到迷迷糊糊，「我只有一個信念，一定要堅持到山下，即便要倒，也要倒在山下」。
「我想我是幸運的，在最後時刻及時做了決定。做決定那一刻，應該是在失溫（低溫）的邊緣徘徊，處在臨界點上，毫釐之間，下山的時候，已經出現了失溫的症狀。」他撤到山腰，按藍天救援隊人員的指引，走到一間小木屋，裡面已有約10名選手。在等待救援的一個多小時裡，人數又增加到近50人。
他寫道，之後撤回到小木屋的選手們，一路上看到倒下來若干名選手，躺在路邊一動不動的、已經口吐白沫的。有選手們說，看到路邊躺着的人卻有心無力，在自身難保的情況下沒辦法幫助他們。「說這話時，他們眼圈都是紅的。」
Sounds like it was a very fast moving, aggressive storm dropping temps rapidly and hitting the runners with ice and rain. If you look at the pictures there is absolutely no snow on the course. Just a freak mountain storm. Tragic.
Bad Wigins wrote:
Just how low did the temperature get? Hypothermia takes a while, especially if you're warmed up and moving. And if the weather hit an 11k high altitude stretch, then it's at worst 5.5k from safety in one direction or the other.
Details are missing to make this story add up.
Ignorance ^^
Hypothermia can get a skinny, sweaty, tired, disoriented runner in a matter of minutes.
And they had difficult terrain to negotiate as well.
Nadya wrote:
Bad Wigins wrote:
Just how low did the temperature get? Hypothermia takes a while, especially if you're warmed up and moving. And if the weather hit an 11k high altitude stretch, then it's at worst 5.5k from safety in one direction or the other.
Details are missing to make this story add up.
Ignorance ^^
Hypothermia can get a skinny, sweaty, tired, disoriented runner in a matter of minutes.
And they had difficult terrain to negotiate as well.
This. They were not prepped for winter conditions. Basically the extreme cold killed them, and it literally takes minutes.
Bad Wigins wrote:
Just how low did the temperature get? Hypothermia takes a while, especially if you're warmed up and moving. And if the weather hit an 11k high altitude stretch, then it's at worst 5.5k from safety in one direction or the other.
Details are missing to make this story add up.
You are truly the worst poster on letsrun in my opinion.
RIP to the victims.
Bad Wigins wrote:
Just how low did the temperature get? Hypothermia takes a while, especially if you're warmed up and moving. And if the weather hit an 11k high altitude stretch, then it's at worst 5.5k from safety in one direction or the other.
I don't think you realize just how serious a sudden storm in the mountains can be. It is nothing like a storm in your local park. The first difference is you are inside the storm cloud, not below it. Humidity is at 100% and everything is saturated with water within minutes. If you have ever been in a steam bath imagine what it would be like if the steam was just above freezing. Heat is sucked out of your body at an alarming rate.
Secondly, visibility drops to near zero, your field of vision becomes just the ground in front of your feet. The swirling wind may make other features briefly come into view but they will just be dark , indeterminate shapes which could be a few feet away or 100 yards away. Trails that seem obvious in good weather become incredibly hard to follow. Rainwater run off will confuse you as to which is the path and which is just a rill. If you don't have a compass your sense of direction will be next to useless.
Finally there is the wind. It will be far more severe than anything at low altitudes. The report posted above mentions runners trying to take out their thermal blankets only to have them ripped to shreds. This is not surprising.
Even if properly equipped a sudden storm at altitude is frightening. If you can't get off the mountain in time, and in most cases you won't, your only course of action is to find shelter from the prevailing wind, put on your rain gear and sit it out. Shelter usually consists of a large boulder that can keep the wind off you. The rain, you are stuck with. And be prepared to sit there for several hours.
I spent a few years in China and what I noticed is that a lot of Chinese people do not prepare adequately for cold weather (they are better at taking preventive measures with hot weather).
In cold weather they would often be inadequately prepared for the low temperatures for example, no hats, no layers, no gloves and just generally inadequately dressed for cold-weather.
The people who really know how to prepare for cold weather include Eastern Europeans for example people in the Ukraine, etc and Russia and other countries around there in the winter they never leave their home without adequate layers and always with a woolly hat.
Remember so much heat is lost through the head but in China people never seem to think about that or very rarely. You very rarely see Chinese people wear woolly hats in winter despite being very cold in many places in China. Really boggles the mind.
Bad Wigins wrote:
Just how low did the temperature get? Hypothermia takes a while, especially if you're warmed up and moving. And if the weather hit an 11k high altitude stretch, then it's at worst 5.5k from safety in one direction or the other.
Details are missing to make this story add up.
Yeah, 5.5k that are just 18-19 minutes or so.
Looks like Bad Wigins have never left his track in his life.
Bad Wigins wrote:
Just how low did the temperature get? Hypothermia takes a while, especially if you're warmed up and moving. And if the weather hit an 11k high altitude stretch, then it's at worst 5.5k from safety in one direction or the other.
Details are missing to make this story add up.
MORAN