It will not be the human-swallowing horror of Golden Age Hollywood movies, however quicksand is a real-life hazard for hikers. It pays to know what it’s and easy methods to escape.
A quicksand warning signal close to the Thames estuary in the UK. (Picture: Matt Mawson / Second by way of Getty)
Revealed March 7, 2026 11:37AM
“I didn’t suppose that was actual.” That’s the reply I stored listening to from each coworkers and readers after we wrote about backpacker Austin Dirks’s rescue from a quicksand pit in Arches Nationwide Park in December 2025. Dirks was climbing a piece of the Hayduke Path when he stepped into what regarded like regular sand, sinking his left foot as much as the ankle. He managed to tug it out, however within the course of his proper leg grew to become trapped as much as the knee and wouldn’t budge. A ranger’s preliminary try to dig him out with a shovel failed; Grand County Search and Rescue lastly managed to extricate Dirks after making a protected path to him utilizing ladders and restoration boards.
Like many individuals who’ve survived being trapped in quicksand, Dirks famous that there was nothing uncommon in regards to the sand to counsel hazard. As he advised author Mary Beth “Mouse” Skylis: “I’ve hiked in circumstances virtually similar to that…There have been no rapid pink flags that caught out.”
Quicksand, because it seems, may be very actual, and greater than a bit of harmful. No, it will not be “the third largest factor it’s a must to fear about in grownup life, behind actual sticks of dynamite and large anvils falling on you from the sky,” as John Mulaney famously stated, and regardless of what cartoons and Golden Age Hollywood films counsel, it could’t swallow you entire, leaving simply your pith helmet floating on prime. However getting caught in quicksand can pose real dangers from hypothermia and lack of circulation, and might even endanger lives in uncommon events, corresponding to in 2023, when a 20-year-old man drowned after turning into trapped in quicksand-like mud flats close to Hope, Alaska. As our colleagues at Exterior wrote final week, the Nationwide Park Service warned guests that it had obtained studies of the hazard in components of Glen Canyon Nationwide Recreation Space in Utah and Arizona.
Seeking to brush up on one of many path’s weirdest hazards? We’ve collected our greatest recommendation on quicksand right here, together with real-life tales from hikers who needed to escape from it.
What’s quicksand and the way do you escape from it?
Should you want a primer on quicksand, this overview on it’s a good place to begin. The substance varieties when simply the correct quantity of water mixes with superb sand, lowering the friction that particular person grains of sand exert on one another and lowering its capacity to bear weight. Hazard zones for it embrace the within curves of rivers and dry washes. Flooding—and, oddly sufficient, salt—can exacerbate the issue.
Quicksand is “one thing to concentrate on if you’re climbing, however perhaps not one thing that ought to be outright feared,” Zion Nationwide Park Chief Ranger Daniel Fagergren advised us once we talked to him in 2022. Whereas Hollywood might depict quicksand pits as a hazard you’d principally discover within the jungle, within the US, the desert southwest is floor zero for it, although it could happen elsewhere as nicely. Fagergren defined what hikers ought to be careful for and the way they’ll keep away from getting caught in it.
Quicksand Survival Tales
As we’ve written, quicksand isn’t often harmful by itself. However add in chilly temperatures and precipitation, and trapped, sodden hikers might be at actual danger of hypothermia. That was Ryan Osmun’s largest concern when he grew to become caught in quicksand throughout a hike in Zion Nationwide Park. As he associated to Backpacker‘s Out Alive podcast, he would find yourself spending 10 hours unable to maneuver whereas his girlfriend, with whom he had been climbing, went searching for cell reception to name for assist.
Dirks’s story, which he initially associated on Reddit earlier than talking with Backpacker, is vital studying for any solo hikers headed to the desert as nicely. Whereas he was in a position to get in contact with rescuers by way of a satellite tv for pc communicator, he would in the end spend two hours ready for assist to reach, his knee bent at a painful angle that total time. “I nervous in regards to the knee greater than the chilly,” he wrote. “I didn’t know the way lengthy it might keep bent like that earlier than one thing tore or dislocated.”
