Originally published at: Hiker finds 3 almost "mummified" bodies at campsite in Colorado Rockies | Boing Boing
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I’ve camped up near there before… that’s some real Jeremiah Johnson level of remoteness in that area. Not much in the way of roads…Jeep trails and fire access mostly. They most likely froze to death last winter and with the record snow levels we had this year it’s not all that surprising that it took this long to discover the bodies. I am surprised that the bears and mountain lions didn’t find them first.
All things considered, freezing to death is not a bad way to go out…that is if Jack London’s To Build a Fire is accurate.
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“It does not appear there was trauma to the bodies, other than what looked like mummification, almost.”
Color me shocked they weren’t picked apart by scavengers.
Maybe the ate poison mushrooms by mistake.
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Deadly mushrooms was my first thought until winter was mentioned. Seems likely they got snowed in like Otter Olshansky.
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That seems improbable, considering the historic weather data for Gunnison, Colorado shows basically zero snow from November 2022 through February 2023.
Now, FROZE to death, I’d believe - there’s several days in that time period where the HIGH was less than 10 degrees.
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What source are you using for this? Every report I’ve seen shows record snowpack levels averaging between 140% to 170% above normal this year.
Richards said the area SNOTEL (snow telemetry) sites are recording the most snow in their current data in the northern area of Gunnison County. She said the highest snowpack numbers are coming from the Butte (149%), Park Cone (158%) and Schofield (146%) SNOTEL sites.
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Oh, I was using Weather Underground: Gunnison, CO Weather History | Weather Underground
Looks like your source is more accurate than mine.
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Ah yeah, Gunnison the town is situated in a valley and doesn’t get that much snow relatively speaking. Where this campground is located is about 40 miles north, deep in the mountains and the Gunnison National Forest.
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I am 100% certain Jack is full of stuff. Freezing to death is a horrible way to go.
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The fact that they were almost in the campground suggests something more akin to poisoning or OD to me. They were roughly 1000 feet from the campground (so around 100 333 yards) seems like they were going to be partying and wanted some privacy. But that’s assuming it was during a time when other campers were around, still not enough information to really judge.
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over 300 yards (333.3, to be exact), said the pedant.
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a purlieu pedant!
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D’oh!
I blame the metric system!
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But what was it in pugs? Or weasels? Because fuck you, metric system!!
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Another possibility comes to mind: Psychedelics. They were on something and didn’t realize the cold. The arrangement doesn’t suggest people who knew they were in cold danger–they would have all been working on the fire if that were the case.
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can verify from personal experience - although also verified - not quite freezing to death is a horrible thing to go through. Freezing is only uncomfortable for a short time, then gets cozier and cozier until you drift off. Getting thawed out is really painful though and can have long lasting effects. (adding a caveat that this may not apply to general hypothermia from less extreme cold)
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Between the lower oxygen at altitude; and zero temps; the sulfur on an end of a match struggles to stay lit at times. Think of a deep freezer; and then lower the oxygen concentration from 20% (~sea level) to 14% (~10,000’).
It’s more significant than it reads. Add in some drugs (time release script med abuse?), or alcohol, maybe mediocre physical conditioning; and yeah. They could have all fallen asleep within moments of each other, and subsequently froze.
Edited to reflect Gunnison altitude.
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Wait… Lean to OVER the fire pit?! I’m guessing CO poisoning from trying to heat the lean to.
Just a guess.
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