While hiking is all good fun, we must never forget that it’s a hobby to be followed with a level of caution. What could be a beautiful serene experience in nature at one moment, could quickly turn into a fatal or near-fatal experience. While many dedicate their lives to hiking and discovering untouched trails, others indulge in the activity rather vocationally.
The line between these two kinds of people is very blurred. This potentially leads to a high chance of unpreparedness or a momentary lapse in concentration causing fatal endings. Russian scientist Dr. Dmitry Fedyanin is a man who encountered such an unfortunate fatal ending.While Fedyanin evidently loved to hike, this was certainly not the way things should have ended for him.
What happened to Fedyanin while hiking?
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
Fedyanin, 34, was an ultra-violet light and a senior research fellow at the Nanooptics Department of Siegen University in Germany with a passion for the hills. On a fine-weathered day, the scientist would set out, equipped with his hiking app, into the mountains. He must have set out to hike countless times before. But on this fateful day, things went drastically wrong.
On what would now be known as his last hike, Fedyanin’s hiking app sent him down the Hoher Laafeld peak on an incorrect path, which ultimately “sent him over mountain precipice.” His was eventually found at the bottom of Hoher Laafeld Peak, which sits at about 7,000 feet.
Local authorities declared that Fedyanin is understood to have fallen at least 150 meters (492 feet) after having slipped.
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
How Authorities Reacted to the Death
Police spokesman Maximilian Maier said the Russian scientist presumably slipped in the rocky area which features some patches of grass. Search parties looked for the Russian’s body for a stressful 10 days. They even discovered four other hiking-related deaths while on the job.
In one case, a woman, 57, who was hiking with her husband, slipped and fell to her death with her husband was left alone, helpless, and horrified. Besides this, a 29-year-old Austrian woman also tragically fell to her death after a “misstep.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
Another saddening detail about the incident was that Fedyanin was alone up in the mountains. He shared his last moments only with the nature around him. Fedyanin passed away doing what he loved. However, it’s certain his loved ones are in a state of turmoil over his passing wondering what could have been.
Watch This Story: Top 5 Beginner-Friendly Dirtbike Tricks to Master Easily