Canyon

June 20 (UPI) — The National Parks Service announced that three people died this week in two separate heat-related incidents at Grand Canyon National Park.

Park rangers and emergency medical personnel responded to the two incidents, which occurred on June 12 and June 16, and both of which happened while hikers were on trails in the Inner Canyon, NPS said Friday in a press release.

All three of the people were deceased when officials arrived, and they were transported with aerial support to the Cococino County Medical Examiner’s office.

NPS said that trails in the Inner Canyon region, where all three were found, regularly top 109 degrees Fahrenheit during this time of year.

Earlier this month, an 18-year-old hiker experienced heat-related symptoms while hiking a different part of the park and, although park rangers and a helicopter rescue operations found him, life-saving measures were not successful.

“Hiking Grand Canyon can be a challenge for anyone, especially during the heat of summer,” NPS said in the release.

On June 12, a 72-year-old man was found on the South Kaibab Trail, and four days later, on June 16, a 67-year-old man and 68-year-old woman were found on the North Kaibab Trail.

On its website, NPS recommends that people planning to visit the park be aware that the Inner Canyon area of the park during the summer is “extremely strenuous and potentially dangerous due to intense heat, minimal shade and no water sources.”

As a result, Grand Canyon park officials recommend that hikers avoid trails in the area between 10 a.m and 4 p.m., when it is hottest there.

The agency also noted that because of a range of reasons, rescue efforts may not be immediately available.

In addition to carrying sufficient water, food and first aid supplies — and knowing their own physical limits — NPS also warns the hikers in many Inner Canyon locations be prepared to “self-rescue” and have a plan to do so.

“The recent increase in heat-related incidents comes as summer temperature in the Inner Canyon have reached dangerous levels, creating conditions that can quickly overwhelm hikers during the hottest parts of the day,” the agency said in Friday’s release.

A weekend BASE jumping accident in a Utah canyon killed two people, one of them a daredevil athlete best known for performing onstage with Madonna at the 2012 Super Bowl, authorities said.

The Sheriff’s Office in Grand County, Utah, confirmed one of the dead was Andy Lewis, an extreme athlete known for feats in BASE jumping, a dangerous sport that involves parachuting to the ground after jumping from a tall fixed object such as a building, a bridge or a desert cliff overlooking a deep canyon.

In BASE jumping circles, Lewis had a huge following and a reputation for pushing the envelope — leaping into tighter spaces or deploying his parachute later than his peers would dare, said John McEvoy, a BASE jumping instructor in Twin Falls, Idaho, who has jumped with Lewis.

“He had an incredible level of athleticism and skill that was developed over years of practice,” McEvoy said. “But then he would take an incredible amount of risk.”

Lewis’ other sport made him an overnight celebrity, thanks to Madonna

Lewis was also a prominent figure in the niche sports of slacklining and tricklining, which combine elements of high-wire walking with aerial acrobatics — sometimes at perilous heights.

Lewis went from obscure athlete to overnight celebrity when he appeared onstage in Madonna’s 2012 Super Bowl halftime show. Dressed in a Roman toga, Lewis bounced and executed tricks on his inch-wide line as though it was a trampoline while Madonna sang behind him.

“My phone actually rang itself to death three days in a row,” Lewis said soon afterward in an appearance on Conan O’Brien’s late-night show.

Emergency responders were dispatched Sunday to a report of people injured in a BASE jumping attempt at Mineral Bottom, a remote desert area near the Utah-Colorado line, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Lewis and an unidentified 50-year-old man died at the scene, the office said in a news release.

Sheriff’s Lt. Al Cymbaluk confirmed to the Associated Press that it was Lewis the extreme athlete who died. He said he had no further details on the fatal accident.

BASE jumping is far more dangerous than skydiving

Though there’s no official tally of BASE jumping deaths, a list compiled by the website BASEaddict.com shows 540 total fatalities worldwide since 1981 — including 30 people killed last year. Prominent deaths include BASE jumper Dean Potter and his climbing partner, Graham Hunt, who were killed in 2015 while attempting a wingsuit flight in Yosemite National Park.

A study focused on BASE jumping in Norway, published in a medical journal in 2007, estimated that BASE jumping carried risks of injury or death five to eight times greater than skydiving.

Lewis openly acknowledged the sport’s inherent danger.

“It’s weird to think about how many people are dead, because it’s like a normal thing,” Lewis told documentary filmmaker Ella Warnick in an interview published last year.

Lewis owned BASE Jump Moab, a business that offered excursions to inexperienced customers using tandem jumps, in which the customer was harnessed to a guide wearing the parachute.

Sheriff’s spokesperson Cymbaluk said he didn’t know whether Lewis and the other man killed were performing a tandem jump.

Tandem BASE jumping carries additional risk because it straps together two people, one of whom generally lacks experience, under a single parachute, McEvoy said. But because they involve novices, they also tend to be the most low-risk, basic types of jumps.

“Within BASE, it’s a very controversial topic,” McEvoy said. “There’s a lot of people who say it’s the stupidest thing in the world and others arguing, `No, we’re giving people the experience of their lives.’”

No one immediately returned phone, text and Facebook messages left Monday for BASE Jump Moab.

Lewis won four straight world championships in competitive slacklining from 2008 through 2011. Lewis set a Guinness World Record for slackline surfing, swaying his feet side to side in a rocking motion that mimics surfing, while keeping his balance above China’s Diaoshuilou waterfall in 2011.

In 2014, he walked a slackline suspended between two hot air balloons more than 4,000 feet above the Nevada desert.

Bynum writes for the Associated Press.

It’s not every day that umpires decide a player used an illegal bat in a high school baseball game, so Wednesday’s Mission League game between host Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and Sierra Canyon began with a bang. A Sierra Canyon batter in the first inning was declared out after the umpires inspected the aluminum bat following an appeal from Notre Dame.

Sierra Canyon coach Tom Meusborn had a brief discussion with the umpires but their decision was not reversed. The bat apparently had a crack, which caused a strange sound. So began a sometimes tense, nearly four-hour game for second place in the Mission League.

Sierra Canyon scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning to take a one-run lead, keyed by an RBI double from Brayden Goldstein and a bases loaded walk. In the bottom of the seventh, the Knights received two walks with one out. Sierra Canyon brought in sophomore pitcher Milo Benattar, who got a fly out and force play to save a 3-2 victory.

Sierra Canyon is 8-3 in league and Notre Dame 7-4.

Harvard-Westlake 12, St. Francis 1: The Wolverines, ranked No. 1 in the Southern Section power rankings, received home runs and four RBIs each from James Tronstein and Ira Rootman. Evan Alexander struck out 10 in 4 1/3 innings.

Chaminade 7, Crespi 0: Jackson Schroeder struck out 11 and gave up one hit. Isaiah Hearn and Robby Morgan each hit home runs.

Loyola 11, Bishop Alemany 4: Bobby Rapp had three hits to lead the Cubs.

Simi Valley 8, Royal 3: The Pioneers handed their rivals a first Coastal Canyon League defeat. Ryan Whiston had three hits, including two doubles.

Garfield 3, Bell 1: The Bulldogs improved to 7-0 in the Eastern League with a nine-inning win, possibly locking up a City Section Open Division playoff spot. Michael Santillan broke the 1-1 tie with an RBI single in the ninth.

Cypress 1, Foothill 0: Jake DeLaquil had the game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning. Drew Slevcove struck out 13 in eight scoreless innings. Landon Smith pitched the final two innings for Cypress. Caden Lauridsen threw nine scoreless innings for Foothill.

St. John Bosco 6, Servite 3: Brayden Krakowski threw four innings of scoreless relief. Aaron Garcia had two RBIs.

Mater Dei 8, JSerra 5: Jack Reis hit a home run and Ezekiel Lara, Jaxon Olmstead and Emilio Young each had two hits for Mater Dei.

King 4, Corona Centennial 1: Eli Lipson had a two-run double and Jason Jones threw a complete game.

Corona 17, Eastvale Roosevelt 5: Adrian Ruiz had three hits and four RBIs.

Norco 3, Corona Santiago 2: After a scoreless game for five innings, Norco broke through for three runs in the sixth. Marcus Blanton had a two-run single. Santiago scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh before Jordan Ayala got the final out on a strikeout.

El Dorado 1, La Habra 0: Juilian Rodriguez struck out five and walked none in throwing the shutout. Brady Abner drove in the winning run in the sixth.

Gahr 9, Warren 1: Bryce Morrison gave up one run in five innings with six strikeouts and Andres Gonzalez had two hits and three RBIs.

San Clemente 2, Aliso Niguel 1: Easton Muraira threw a complete game for the Tritons.

Huntington Beach 4, Los Alamitos 2: Jared Grindlinger struck out eight in five innings.

Rancho Christian 10, Hillcrest 0: Jake Brande struck out 12 in five innings and gave up one hit. Hudson Abbe and Sean Downs each hit home runs.

Bishop Amat 4, La Salle 2: The Lancers clinched the Del Rey League title. Joaquin Ortiz went three for three.

Ayala 13, Diamond Bar 3: Easton Sarmiento finished with three hits and Dylan Wood added two hits and two RBIs.

Oaks Christian 2, Agoura 1: Justin Baird struck out eight in six innings for Oaks Christian. Carson Sheffer had two hits.

Mira Costa 7, West Torrance 1: Caden Ceman finished with three hits.

Torrance 4, Palos Verdes 3: Tessei Magori delivered a walk-off hit in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Softball

Norco 15, Corona Centennial 0: Peyton May gave up one hit and struck out 10 with no walks and Camryn May contributed three RBIs.