When someone dies in the backcountry, there’s a tendency to blame them for being inexperienced or underprepared. That may sometimes be the explanation, but in other cases it may be that they were just unlucky. One risk that’s hard to prepare for is extreme heat, leading to heat stroke.
Two examples where it’s not clear if they could’ve been avoided with better preparation are the case of the Death Valley Germans, thoroughly investigated by Tom Mahood here, and of the family that died because of extreme heat while hiking only 1.5 miles from their parked car in Mariposa county.
Nehaveigur 