According to authorities, a 55-year-old Virginia man perished in the Grand Canyon while attempting to climb 21 miles in one day from the South Rim to the North Rim.
Ranjith Varma of Manassas was the hiker who passed away on Saturday, according to Grand Canyon National Park officials. The South Rim to North Rim trip can take 12 to 15 hours to accomplish, and the spot where he died is at the end of it.
Around 2:00 p.m. On the North Kaibab Trail, about a mile south of Cottonwood Campground, the Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center reported receiving an emergency call concerning a hiker in danger on Saturday.
Varma lost consciousness, and spectators and rangers both unsuccessfully attempted to revive him, according to park officials, according to CBS News.
It wasn't immediately obvious whether his demise was caused by the heat. The Park Service and the Coconino County Medical Examiner were conducting an inquiry.
Could the Heat Be the Cause?
At the Grand Canyon Airport, which is roughly a 20-minute drive from the South Rim, the high temperature on Saturday was 87 degrees.
An Indiana lady, 36, lost her life earlier this year while attempting to hike to the Colorado River and back in one day. On May 14, she was discovered unresponsive above the Three-Mile Resthouse along the Bright Angel Trail.
On July 3, a 57-year-old woman passed away while hiking eight miles in Grand Canyon National Park in temperatures of triple digits.
Park officials advise the public not to hike in the inner canyon between the hours of 10 a.m. and noon since summertime temperatures on exposed areas of the route can reach above 120 degrees. and 4 p.m.
A 34-year-old woman who went missing on a trip in Arizona was found dead last month; the cause of death appeared to be heat-related, according to investigators.
Read also: Joe Biden to Designate Grand Canyon Monument to Block Uranium Mining
This Year's Heat is Unusually Intense
Only three national parks-Grand Canyon, Death Valley, and Big Bend-were the locations of all of this year's probable heat-related fatalities. Additionally, more than half of the 68 heat-related fatalities documented by the park service since 2007 occurred in these three locations.
That comes as no surprise given that all three parks are situated in the Southwest, which is the nation's oven, and that all but one of the fatalities occurred west of the Mississippi River.
The Southwest is accustomed to being hot. However, this year's heat is unusually intense and prolonged. Phoenix, which is only a few hours south of the Grand Canyon, broke its record for consecutive days with temperatures of 110 degrees or above and only sometimes fell below 97 degrees at night, which is a record-warm low temperature.
According to a recent study by the nonprofit research organization Climate Central, human-caused climate change increased the likelihood of the Southwest heat wave in the first half of July by at least five times.
Related article: Grand Canyon National Park's Water Supply Contaminated by E. Coli, Officials Say
