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Comment by triplesec | Hacker News Reader

The warning is not over the top at all to anyone with any experience of the Nevada deserts. You want to be prepared and fit. The extreme heat will tire you out and raise your need for water. See the multiple gallons of water they carried in for just a couple of days? Many people have no clue that hill walking in moderate climates is much uch easier compared with the desert in terms of stamina.

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Even in the Central Valley in California, it routinely gets into the high 100s for a few months in the summer. Having lived most of my life there, and knowing how debilitating that level of heat is, I can't imagine what drives people to think they can hike around in 20 degrees (F) warmer weather without carrying a gallon of water for the afternoon.

... Aside: I seem to remember seeing something about the Arabian Peninsula soon becoming so warm you cannot maintain core body temperature by evaporation of your sweat, at which point it will be uninhabitable outside of modern buildings with A/C ...

Then again, if you live in a coastal area where the temperature is usually between 50 to 80 F, an 8 mile hike in the hills sounds like a pleasant activity to take on after lunch :-)

> Aside: I seem to remember seeing something about the Arabian Peninsula soon becoming so warm you cannot maintain core body temperature by evaporation of your sweat, at which point it will be uninhabitable outside of modern buildings with A/C ...

No source on this, but I remember reading somewhere that in the hottest conditions recorded (Persian Gulf heat + humidity), the humidity would actually condense on a human like a cold water bottle on a hot day.

Great, so you get to absorb the heat of vaporization from how ever many moles of water that is per hour.

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