Last week, Haley Smith of The Los Angeles Times went to Death Valley to experience the 128 degrees heat. She said it was "the kind of heat that burns your eyeballs, that shocks your brain and makes your body feel nauseous and weak."
There she met 71-year-old hiker Steve Curry, wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat, his "face smeared with white zinc sunscreen; his body clad in khaki against the searing sun." Smith asked Curry if he'd like to join her and the paper's photographer in her air-conditioned car. He politely declined and continued on his trek.
The article continues:
What we now know is that Steve did finish his journey, but just barely. He collapsed outside the bathrooms at Golden Canyon at about 3:40 that afternoon and died shortly after. Though the coroner has not yet confirmed his cause of death, officials said they believe it to be heat-related.
Smith wrote Curry's obituary for the Times.
