![]() Ask for and take the advice of rangers and locals in the know. The best thing to do is get to know the area you plan on going to before hitting the beach with your four-wheel drive. If you’ve driven your car into quicksand, you cannot pull the car out using other vehicles. And the cowboy actually dying from having the rope around his waist,” he says.ĭaniel doesn’t know how true those stories are, but it’s a good urban legend and a cautionary tale of what can happen if you try. “There are all kinds of stories about cowboys lassoing their rope around their horse and the horse, trying to pull them out. The man’s leg got stuck in quicksand in a location that was about a three-hour hike from the start of the trail they were taking, called the Subway route. This could severely injure you because of the sheer force needed to remove you. Or get your friends to tie a rope around you and use their truck to pull you out. You can slowly lift your legs back up to the surface and gently paddle out, as demonstrated in this Australian Academy of Science video.ĭon’t take guidance from Hollywood and get a cowboy to lasso you with a rope and use their horse to pull you out. Instead, rotate your legs in slow, small movements to reintroduce water between the sand and your legs. We are not as dense as quicksand, so we will only ever sink partway like a rubber ducky in a tub. What Daniel found is that we can never drown in quicksand. Thankfully, our iconic devil didn’t sink beneath the quicksand, never to be seen again.Īs quirky as this experiment sounds, it has real-life applications. He collected samples of quicksand in Iran and analysed what it was made from – mix of fine sand, saltwater and clay.ĭaniel then used beads and other items, including (bizarrely) a Tassie devil figurine with similar densities to humans, to check whether they would ‘drown’ in the quicksand he re-created in the lab. This was a question Dr Daniel Bonn, Professor of Physics at the University of Amsterdam, was determined to answer. Is this fear warranted? Can you really drown in quicksand? When that didn't work, I dug frantically with my bare hands, but it was useless-the water filled in instantly, preventing any progress and freezing my fingers.Perhaps the fear of quicksand engendered in many of us is compounded by a snake being used to pull Indiana Jones out of quicksand in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.Īlthough quicksand is no longer a go-to for films, fear around it remains. ![]() I tugged with all my strength, trying to brace with my free left leg. Jessika was safe-the nearby mud was solid-but now I was stuck. I lunged forward and pulled her out by her torso, but in doing so, my own right leg sank to the knee. ![]() She had sunk to her knees and couldn’t get free. There was no way around the pool, but it looked shallow so, testing the footing with the walking stick, we began to make our way across. I helped Jessika over large rocks and found a sturdy walking stick for balance.įour miles in, a pond-size puddle blocked the trail. Snow dusted the ground when we set out at 8 a.m. Our route would take us 10 miles round-trip to the Subway, a tunnel-like canyon accessed via boulder scrambles and creek crossings. Six hours prior, I’d embarked on a day hike in Zion with my girlfriend, Jessika. I listened for footsteps or voices, but heard nothing except the gusts rippling the water around me. Only a chilly wind broke the silence of the ravine. The contrast of white atop the rust sandstone and pines looked lovely-I tried to focus on that instead of the numbness in my trapped leg. As told to Zoe Gates.Ī FRESH LAYER of snow settled on my shoulders and hat. Trapped In Quicksand Backpacker | November - December 2019 Ryan Osmun, 35, took a wrong step while hiking in Zion National Park in February and spent 10 hours stuck in the mud.
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