Latest news with #Yosemite
Daily Mail
9 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Sickening discovery at Yosemite's most iconic hotel throws summer trips into chaos
Yosemite's most iconic hotel, known for its scenic views and high-profile guests, has been thrown into a chaotic scandal after several sickening and 'decrepit' discoveries were made. California 's Ahwahnee Hotel has long been known as a destination hot spot in the Yosemite Valley, and an oasis in the middle of a beautiful nature-filled setting - but its reputation has changed. A recent report by the National Park Service, detailing the hotel's 2024 annual performance review of Yosemite Hospitality, found that rodents, improper food storage, and overdue facility maintenance, have taken over the property. Yosemite Hospitality, a subsidiary of the Aramark Corporation, received an 'unsatisfactory' rating - the lowest it has gotten in previous years, the report, obtained by SFGATE, detailed. Officials found both food safety issues and rodent infestations in the hotel's bar and kitchen, and just last month, employees reported food contamination issues stemming from rodents living in the ceiling above the preparation area, per the report. Rodents were also found lingering in the Ahwahnee Bar, which was shut down multiple times last year for that very reason, the report stated. A number of staffers also got sick from the chemicals used to help control the pest problem at the bar, it continued. By June 14, the bar was back up and running, but just six weeks later, health inspectors discovered a Food and Drug Administration violation caused by a leak in the kitchen in the Ahwahnee Bar. The kitchen was then shut down by Yosemite Hospitality for some of the day to fix the pressing issue, according to the performance review. On September 4, the bar was closed yet again after a video surfaced showing 'ongoing rodent activity within the facility,' the review documented. By September 20, the bar was reopened for drink service only. Food was not served again until November 14, per the report. Rodent infestations can bring on a serious and sometimes deadly disease known as hantavirus - the same illness that killed Gene Hackman's wife Betsy Arakawa in their New Mexico home earlier this year. Humans can be exposed to the disease through rodent droppings, urine or saliva. In 2012 - before Yosemite Hospitality took over the contract - hantavirus infected 10 people and tragically killed three, SFGATE reported. Just last year, a store worker, who lived in on-site employee housing, was said to have contracted the disease, according to Bloomberg. The report said Yosemite Hospitality has gone on to develop a 'hantavirus risk reduction program,' but even with the initiative, employees were not consistently trained. For instance, workers at the Crane Flat Store - located on the property - did not receive the training until health officials visited the store during a routine safety inspection, the report said. In response to the frequent rodent incidents, the hospitality company hired new pest management professionals and doubled the number of weekly visits to inspect properties in the park in October 2024, the annual report stated. Several Yelp reviews also provide first-hand accounts from guests who dealt with similar situations during their stay there. One person posted images of cracked and peeling ceilings and walls, adding that the 'hotel is inferior to the $10 youth hostels one may find in Europe. 'What a sad, decrepit facility this once great hotel has become... It's full of mold, leaks, broken walls and failed or failing appliances,' the user added. 'I really wanted to give this place a higher rating because of the long history etc of the Ahwahnee. But for over $600 a night you should get more. I think the overall problem is the result of decades of neglect,' another posted. Other than rodent activity and deteriorating aspects in the hotel, Michael McEvoy, a recent guest who stayed there, said the hotel did not have electricity after a tree fell during a storm, cutting off power in the Yosemite Valley. 'The whole place was dark,' McEvoy told the outlet. He had checked into the hotel to attend the Bracebridge Dinner, but when he entered his room, the light switches didn't work. 'I don't know how you put on a tux without light,' he added. The highly anticipated dinner, which had just come back after a five year hiatus, was canceled due to the power outage. McEvoy said a backup generator ended up powering a temporary kitchen but not the hotel itself. During that time, he said he witnessed several people falling in the dark and an elderly woman struggling to navigate the stairs since the elevator was down. The recent report flagged electrical issues throughout the park, including an employee tent that went up in flames and loose electrical wires on a thermostat in a hotel room. Despite shelling out $1,100 for the dinner, plus $700 for the hotel room, McEvoy left and booked a room somewhere else, he said. 'We're looking forward to seeing it, and then to find all of the catastrophic, the cascade failures that occurred really pointed out to me that they've got a problem.' Customers were reimbursed for both their tickets and hotel stays, Aramark spokesperson Weinstein told the outlet. In response to the low rating, Debbie Albert, Aramark's senior vice president of corporate affairs, said the company is taking it 'seriously.' 'We take this rating seriously, and in working closely with the NPS, we have and continue to make improvements at Yosemite to ensure high standards are met for park guests,' Albert said. A park spokesperson said: 'We work closely with our concessionaires to identify and address issues, and we expect them to take prompt action to resolve any problems.' Despite their responses, hotel and park employees still don't feel safe or heard. 'At what point do you say, "This isn't right for the guests?" Someone could get sick. This isn't right,' an unnamed worker said. 'There has to be a limit where profit doesn't matter. Humanity matters more.'
San Francisco Chronicle
a day ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Yosemite contractor slammed for hospitality failings, including rodents at Ahwahnee bar
The company that manages the hotels, restaurants and other enterprises at Yosemite National Park has long struggled to provide decent accommodations for park visitors, with a record of shoddy food service, unkempt facilities and dangerously overdue repair work This past year, things only got worse, according to the 2024 performance review of Philadelphia-based Aramark, obtained by the Chronicle. On multiple occasions documented last year, the bar at the prestigious Ahwahnee Hotel had to be shut down because of rodents. At another time, faulty kitchen equipment spread foodborne illness at the park's food court, Base Camp Eatery. In another incident, an employee was injured at Yosemite Valley Lodge after tripping on stairs that had been tagged for fixing. On several occasions, the Curry Village Store was ransacked by squirrels and ringtails. Aramark, which operates as Yosemite Hospitality at the park, was given a rating of 'unsatisfactory' in the 2024 review. It's the lowest mark the company has received in nine mostly unfavorable evaluations since being awarded Yosemite's multi-billion-dollar concessions contract nearly a decade ago. A recent change in how the reviews are done ensured that poor performance would result in an unsatisfactory rating. The score, according to the review, is grounds for the park to terminate the contract with Aramark. Yet, as problematic as the company has been, Aramark is unlikely to lose the job. Prior evaluations found similar faults that justified termination, and still little has changed. In a letter accompanying the latest review, park officials say they'll continue doing business with the company: 'We value the partnership with Yosemite Hospitality and look forward to working together… to continue improving the visitor experience at Yosemite National Park,' wrote the park's then acting superintendent. Aramark's tenure at the park has also been colored by a handful of startling incidents with employees, including at least two workers charged with sexual assaults on colleagues. This spring, an employee died of an injury at an Aramark-run staff dormitory that authorities have described as 'suspicious' and that remains under investigation. Additionally, the company, which runs concessions in more than a dozen national parks, has been plagued by stumbles elsewhere. Last year, it lost its contract at Crater Lake National Park because of performance problems. Aramark officials declined a request for an interview with the Chronicle but emailed a statement, vowing to do better at Yosemite, as they've done after past reviews. 'We take this rating seriously, and in working closely with the NPS (National Park Service), we have and continue to make improvements at Yosemite to ensure high standards are met for park guests,' said Debbie Albert, a company spokeswoman. The National Park Service said in a statement it was hoping Aramark would turn things around. 'Yosemite Hospitality has shown a commitment to improve its operations,' the emailed statement said. 'We are committed to closely monitoring performance and working with our business partner to meet the high expectations of quality services our visitors expect.' While lucrative, the concessions contract at Yosemite is not an easy one to execute. The agreement, which is the biggest money-making contract in the National Park Service, requires the concessionaire to perform a range of often niche duties, from maintaining and operating a dozen lodging properties and 14 food and beverage sites to running bus service, backcountry camps and a ski slope. More than 1,000 workers are part of the effort. The difficulty finding another company qualified for the job could be part of the reason that Yosemite hasn't made any changes. 'If the park service says we're going to kick Aramark out and they can't find anyone to do it, what are we going to do?' said Jonathan Jarvis, a former director of the National Park Service. 'The concessionaire has the park service over the barrel.' Furthermore, Jarvis said, there's little motivation for the concessionaire to make improvements since it has a built-in customer base at the park. 'If Aramark gets a bad rating, it doesn't mean they're going to have fewer people staying in the hotels or eating in the restaurants,' he said. Another reason that Yosemite might be sticking with Aramark is vacancies at several top jobs within the park service, meaning there are fewer people to make tough decisions. Yosemite is currently without a permanent superintendent, and the Trump administration has yet to appoint the agency's permanent nationwide director. In California, Yosemite is the only national park that Aramark operates in, but the company has contracts with state parks and last year took over concessions at San Francisco's Oracle Park. Aramark provides services at sports stadiums, universities and hospitals globally. The company's 2024 review at Yosemite, which was obtained by the Chronicle through a public records request, details a pattern of contract breaches and blunders, similar to prior reviews. According to the document, the upscale bar at the Ahwahnee Hotel was closed at three different points last year, two because of rodent infestations and one because of a persistent leak in the kitchen. The first closure in June followed reports of an employee getting sick because of 'issues with chemical safety and unaddressed rodent contamination.' The Ahwahnee is the most venerated of the park's properties, having hosted U.S. presidents and British royalty. Rooms can run for $1,000 a night. The hotel is currently wrapping up extensive seismic work. The dining room at the historic Wawona Hotel and Base Camp Eatery were also shut down at various times last year to address 'imminent health hazards,' which included rodents. Park officials, in their review, drew special attention to a complaint that was filed with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration about Aramark. The filing said Aramark employees were removing dead rodents and roaches without being properly trained. The workers, according to the review, were exposed to 'various health hazards.' Park officials said they had not been notified of the complaint, as required by the contract. Yosemite has sought to take extra precautions around rodents since three people died at the park from the mouse-driven hantavirus in 2012. The performance review cited other problems with wildlife, too, including improper storage of food and trash at several sites, drawing in hungry bears, as well as the invasions of squirrels and ringtails at Curry Village. Another repeated complaint was Aramark's failure to maintain park structures. Problems ranged from frayed carpet at the Ahwahnee to loose electrical wires at the Yosemite Valley Lodge, where on one occasion a wire sparked and generated smoke. The guests staying in the smoky room were moved elsewhere. Park officials said the concessionaire too often responded 'reactively' to maintenance issues rather than doing routine upkeep. In addition to performance problems, part of the reason for Aramark's low rating last year is a change in the way concessionaires are scored. Under the new terms, the concessionaire can't receive an overall mark above 'unsatisfactory' if it is found to be below "satisfactory" in three of the six categories that the review is based on. The rating system consists of four tiers: superior, satisfactory, marginal and unsatisfactory. Aramark's overall score the prior two years was 'marginal. The company has been below 'satisfactory' five of its nine years at the park. Aramark got the concessions contract in 2016. The contract was initially for 15 years but has since been extended by at least two years because of the Covid pandemic. The company replaced Delaware North, which failed to win another contract after a high-profile trademark dispute with the National Park Service over who owned such place names as 'Ahwahnee' and 'Curry Village.' The concessions contract generates revenues of well over $100 million a year. The park service receives a percentage of the receipts.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
4 ways women are physically stronger than men
In September, Tara Dower became the fastest person ever to complete the Appalachian Trail. Her record - 40 days, 18 hours and 6 minutes - was 13 hours faster than the previous record holder, a man. That same year, 18-year-old Audrey Jimenez made history in Arizona as the first girl to win a Division 1 high school state wrestling title - competing against boys. Across a variety of sports, women are not just catching up after generations of exclusion from athletics - they're setting the pace. In ultramarathons, women regularly outperform men, especially as distances stretch toward the extreme. Jasmin Paris, who in 2024 became one of only 20 people ever to finish the brutal 100-mile Barkley Marathons race in under 60 hours - while pumping breast milk. Advertisement Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. In long-distance swimming, female athletes now so routinely excel that within the community, their records are just part of the sport. In climbing last year, Barbara 'Babsi' Zangerl became the first person, man or woman, ever to 'flash' - climb without prior practice and sans falls - the towering Yosemite rock formation El Capitan in under three days. These aren't just athletic feats. They're cultural resets. Experts say we're finally waking up to what women's bodies are capable of. And it's not just young women blazing new physical trails. Advertisement 'In the Masters 70-plus, they just set a record for the women's deadlift,' says exercise physiologist Stacy Sims, who teaches at Stanford University and the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. 'Older women are demonstrating that 'I am strong and I can do this.'' - - - Built to endure Generally, discussions of 'strength' have meant brute force and speed over short distances - qualities historically associated with male physiology. But stamina, recovery, resilience and adaptability are as essential to athletic performance. And in those areas, female physiology holds real advantages, experts in sports science, human physiology, and biological anthropology have found. Advertisement The myth of female fragility is relatively modern. For most of human history, women were hauling gear, tracking prey, and walking eight to 10 miles a day - often while pregnant, menstruating, nursing or carrying children (one estimate found that hunter-gatherer women covered more than 3,000 miles in a child's first four years of life). That evolutionary foundation undergirds today's feats, experts say. 'Female bodies have superior fatigue resistance,' says Sophia Nimphius, pro-vice-chancellor of sport at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia. In test after test, female muscles outlast men's when doing repetitive, if lower-weight, work, according to the pioneering research of Sandra Hunter, an exercise physiologist at the University of Michigan. Hunter's research - and others since - has shown that women's muscles fatigue more slowly than men's, so they can knock out more reps, more consistently. Men might start strong with heavier lifts, but when the workout gets long? Women can keep going, sometimes twice as long, or longer, outlasting even the most jacked guys. That endurance capacity is likely due to female bodies preferentially using slow-burning fat over quickly exhausted carbohydrates, in both athletes and less sporty people, studies have shown. Advertisement In addition to using fat for staying power, fatigue-resistant slow-twitch muscle fibers are generally more common in women's bodies (though all bodies vary in their proportion of muscle fibers according to individual genetics). This muscle type is also more efficient than fast-twitch, which are generally higher in men's muscles. 'Our muscles do more with less,' Nimphius says. - - - Recovery and resilience Beyond endurance, several small studies on sprinting and heavy weightlifting have shown that women also recover from hard workouts more quickly. Slow-twitch muscles inherently have a higher capacity to recover, but the female advantage may also be explained by faster healing: A study shows two times faster muscle repair rates for female mice (though mice studies don't always translate to humans). The reason? There's strong evidence that estrogen reduces inflammation and supports muscle repair (one reason that Sims recommends postmenopausal women get targeted training support and recovery time). Advertisement However, some studies show that women are more prone to other kinds of sports injuries, especially certain kinds of knee and ACL injuries, but it's not yet known whether that's explained by biomechanical differences in bodies, hormones, or poor training. Some researchers say the greater injury rates in women are because existing research is based on men's bodies: 'Female bodies are different - I tell [women] the protocols you're applying aren't meant for your body,' says Sims. Feats of bodily strength - in both ordinary women and trained athletes - are more than just purely physical. Many experts on competitive strength remark on this mental aspect of female endurance: 'I do think that there is a mental grit, a resilience factor that helps women go to a place in their mind - a state that allows them to continue to push to the limit,' says Emily Kraus, director of the Female Athlete Science and Translational Research (FASTR) Program at Stanford University. - - - A changing future Advertisement Men have usually defined strength by what their bodies tend to be good at, but max bench presses or fastest sprint times, both of which men tend to excel at, are just a few ways to test the human body. If we instead focused on endurance, resilience, longevity and recovery, the narrative of who is 'strong' would probably have a female form, many experts say. Currently, young female athletes still don't receive the same level of encouragement, training, and scientific attention as boys, Nimphius says. Research into girl's and women's health, while slowly improving, still lags - just 6 percent of sports and exercise research has looked exclusively at female bodies, according to a 2021 study. Considering all the wins for women already, what would the landscape look like if we designed sports science around female physiology - rather than downsizing routines created for men? The current generation of women athletes is challenging the very architecture of athleticism. Soon, experts say, they will have better information to help female athletes understand and train, and that will be true for weekend warriors and 5k racing types as well. Ongoing and anticipated sports science studies will be 'a game changer for girls and women - not just now, but in five, ten, fifteen years from now,' Kraus says. 'And that's really exciting.' - - - Advertisement Four things women's bodies do exceptionally well - Pain tolerance Human bodies endure all kinds of pain - from menstrual cramps and childbirth to back injuries and broken bones. Pain is subjective, so difficult to measure, but most research agrees with your grandma - women seem to handle pain better. Athletes are pain experts, and numerous studies show that they have higher pain tolerance than non-athletes - and when you break it down by sex, the limited research shows that female athletes don't differ from their male counterparts' pain tolerance despite higher pain sensitivity and that women are more likely to play through injuries. This is probably due to both biology and experience, says Sophia Nimphius, pro-vice-chancellor of sport at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia. A 1981 study put it plainly: 'Female athletes had the highest pain tolerance and threshold.' - Immunity Advertisement Among mammals, including humans, it is widely accepted that females have stronger immune systems than males. That's due to the power of estrogen, and also of the XX chromosome carried by women but not men, which provides more variability in immune function. As the University of Minnesota evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk wrote in a 2009 article, 'There is no contest about the identity of the sicker sex - it is males, almost every time. Everyone knows that old age homes have more widows than widowers, but the disparity extends far beyond the elderly.' (There is a downside though; the majority of autoimmune disease patients are female. It's the cost that women bear for an aggressive immune system.) - Resilience Women's bodies seem better built for the long haul - less wear and tear, more staying power, according to the limited research. The data on long-term exercise suggests women may also pay a lower price for physical strain. For instance, the British Heart Foundation studied the vascular condition of 300 Masters' athletes (meaning over age 40), that included a mix of long-distance runners, cyclists, rowers and swimmers. In men, vascular aging increased among the athletes - by some markers up to 10 years, increasing their risk of cardiovascular issues. Among the female athletes, the reverse was true, they had biologically younger vascular systems, lowering their risk of heart problems. - Longevity Advertisement Arguably, the truest test of any body is longevity. And with rare exceptions, no matter the species or culture, women live longer. That's partly behavioral - men tend to take more risks that can kill them - but it's also biological. Women tend to survive disease, starvation and injury at higher rates than men do. Studies have shown that the Y chromosome, which is unique to men, can degrade over time - a phenomenon known as mosaic loss of Y. This degradation has been linked to a range of health issues in men, including increased risks of heart disease and cancer. Related Content Joy, tension collide as WorldPride arrives in Trump's Washington Kari Lake won awards for overseas reporting. Now she has the job of cutting it. Harvard celebrates graduation in the shadow of its fight with Trump
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
4 ways women are physically stronger than men
In September, Tara Dower became the fastest person ever to complete the Appalachian Trail. Her record - 40 days, 18 hours and 6 minutes - was 13 hours faster than the previous record holder, a man. That same year, 18-year-old Audrey Jimenez made history in Arizona as the first girl to win a Division 1 high school state wrestling title - competing against boys. Across a variety of sports, women are not just catching up after generations of exclusion from athletics - they're setting the pace. In ultramarathons, women regularly outperform men, especially as distances stretch toward the extreme. Jasmin Paris, who in 2024 became one of only 20 people ever to finish the brutal 100-mile Barkley Marathons race in under 60 hours - while pumping breast milk. Advertisement Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. In long-distance swimming, female athletes now so routinely excel that within the community, their records are just part of the sport. In climbing last year, Barbara 'Babsi' Zangerl became the first person, man or woman, ever to 'flash' - climb without prior practice and sans falls - the towering Yosemite rock formation El Capitan in under three days. These aren't just athletic feats. They're cultural resets. Experts say we're finally waking up to what women's bodies are capable of. And it's not just young women blazing new physical trails. Advertisement 'In the Masters 70-plus, they just set a record for the women's deadlift,' says exercise physiologist Stacy Sims, who teaches at Stanford University and the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. 'Older women are demonstrating that 'I am strong and I can do this.'' - - - Built to endure Generally, discussions of 'strength' have meant brute force and speed over short distances - qualities historically associated with male physiology. But stamina, recovery, resilience and adaptability are as essential to athletic performance. And in those areas, female physiology holds real advantages, experts in sports science, human physiology, and biological anthropology have found. Advertisement The myth of female fragility is relatively modern. For most of human history, women were hauling gear, tracking prey, and walking eight to 10 miles a day - often while pregnant, menstruating, nursing or carrying children (one estimate found that hunter-gatherer women covered more than 3,000 miles in a child's first four years of life). That evolutionary foundation undergirds today's feats, experts say. 'Female bodies have superior fatigue resistance,' says Sophia Nimphius, pro-vice-chancellor of sport at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia. In test after test, female muscles outlast men's when doing repetitive, if lower-weight, work, according to the pioneering research of Sandra Hunter, an exercise physiologist at the University of Michigan. Hunter's research - and others since - has shown that women's muscles fatigue more slowly than men's, so they can knock out more reps, more consistently. Men might start strong with heavier lifts, but when the workout gets long? Women can keep going, sometimes twice as long, or longer, outlasting even the most jacked guys. That endurance capacity is likely due to female bodies preferentially using slow-burning fat over quickly exhausted carbohydrates, in both athletes and less sporty people, studies have shown. Advertisement In addition to using fat for staying power, fatigue-resistant slow-twitch muscle fibers are generally more common in women's bodies (though all bodies vary in their proportion of muscle fibers according to individual genetics). This muscle type is also more efficient than fast-twitch, which are generally higher in men's muscles. 'Our muscles do more with less,' Nimphius says. - - - Recovery and resilience Beyond endurance, several small studies on sprinting and heavy weightlifting have shown that women also recover from hard workouts more quickly. Slow-twitch muscles inherently have a higher capacity to recover, but the female advantage may also be explained by faster healing: A study shows two times faster muscle repair rates for female mice (though mice studies don't always translate to humans). The reason? There's strong evidence that estrogen reduces inflammation and supports muscle repair (one reason that Sims recommends postmenopausal women get targeted training support and recovery time). Advertisement However, some studies show that women are more prone to other kinds of sports injuries, especially certain kinds of knee and ACL injuries, but it's not yet known whether that's explained by biomechanical differences in bodies, hormones, or poor training. Some researchers say the greater injury rates in women are because existing research is based on men's bodies: 'Female bodies are different - I tell [women] the protocols you're applying aren't meant for your body,' says Sims. Feats of bodily strength - in both ordinary women and trained athletes - are more than just purely physical. Many experts on competitive strength remark on this mental aspect of female endurance: 'I do think that there is a mental grit, a resilience factor that helps women go to a place in their mind - a state that allows them to continue to push to the limit,' says Emily Kraus, director of the Female Athlete Science and Translational Research (FASTR) Program at Stanford University. - - - A changing future Advertisement Men have usually defined strength by what their bodies tend to be good at, but max bench presses or fastest sprint times, both of which men tend to excel at, are just a few ways to test the human body. If we instead focused on endurance, resilience, longevity and recovery, the narrative of who is 'strong' would probably have a female form, many experts say. Currently, young female athletes still don't receive the same level of encouragement, training, and scientific attention as boys, Nimphius says. Research into girl's and women's health, while slowly improving, still lags - just 6 percent of sports and exercise research has looked exclusively at female bodies, according to a 2021 study. Considering all the wins for women already, what would the landscape look like if we designed sports science around female physiology - rather than downsizing routines created for men? The current generation of women athletes is challenging the very architecture of athleticism. Soon, experts say, they will have better information to help female athletes understand and train, and that will be true for weekend warriors and 5k racing types as well. Ongoing and anticipated sports science studies will be 'a game changer for girls and women - not just now, but in five, ten, fifteen years from now,' Kraus says. 'And that's really exciting.' - - - Advertisement Four things women's bodies do exceptionally well - Pain tolerance Human bodies endure all kinds of pain - from menstrual cramps and childbirth to back injuries and broken bones. Pain is subjective, so difficult to measure, but most research agrees with your grandma - women seem to handle pain better. Athletes are pain experts, and numerous studies show that they have higher pain tolerance than non-athletes - and when you break it down by sex, the limited research shows that female athletes don't differ from their male counterparts' pain tolerance despite higher pain sensitivity and that women are more likely to play through injuries. This is probably due to both biology and experience, says Sophia Nimphius, pro-vice-chancellor of sport at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia. A 1981 study put it plainly: 'Female athletes had the highest pain tolerance and threshold.' - Immunity Advertisement Among mammals, including humans, it is widely accepted that females have stronger immune systems than males. That's due to the power of estrogen, and also of the XX chromosome carried by women but not men, which provides more variability in immune function. As the University of Minnesota evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk wrote in a 2009 article, 'There is no contest about the identity of the sicker sex - it is males, almost every time. Everyone knows that old age homes have more widows than widowers, but the disparity extends far beyond the elderly.' (There is a downside though; the majority of autoimmune disease patients are female. It's the cost that women bear for an aggressive immune system.) - Resilience Women's bodies seem better built for the long haul - less wear and tear, more staying power, according to the limited research. The data on long-term exercise suggests women may also pay a lower price for physical strain. For instance, the British Heart Foundation studied the vascular condition of 300 Masters' athletes (meaning over age 40), that included a mix of long-distance runners, cyclists, rowers and swimmers. In men, vascular aging increased among the athletes - by some markers up to 10 years, increasing their risk of cardiovascular issues. Among the female athletes, the reverse was true, they had biologically younger vascular systems, lowering their risk of heart problems. - Longevity Advertisement Arguably, the truest test of any body is longevity. And with rare exceptions, no matter the species or culture, women live longer. That's partly behavioral - men tend to take more risks that can kill them - but it's also biological. Women tend to survive disease, starvation and injury at higher rates than men do. Studies have shown that the Y chromosome, which is unique to men, can degrade over time - a phenomenon known as mosaic loss of Y. This degradation has been linked to a range of health issues in men, including increased risks of heart disease and cancer. Related Content Joy, tension collide as WorldPride arrives in Trump's Washington Kari Lake won awards for overseas reporting. Now she has the job of cutting it. Harvard celebrates graduation in the shadow of its fight with Trump
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
National Parks Battle For Bragging Rights
The National Park Service provides the most authoritative rankings through raw visitation data it collects across its more than 400 sites, including 63 national parks. (Photo credit BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images) The U.S. National Park Service has been in the crosshairs due to President Donald Trump's budget proposal to cut more than $1.2 billion from the agency, along with the firing of 1,000 Park Service employees. Following the backlash, the administration announced an increase in the number of seasonal workers. But can those temporary workers handle the attention kicked up by competition between the parks? Ranking America's national parks has become something of a cottage industry. Travel websites, magazines and organizations have taken to publishing lists ranking parks from best to worst, and touting niche aspects. Winter at El Capitan in California's Yosemite National Park. (Photo) The National Park Service provides the most authoritative rankings through raw visitation data it collects from more than 400 sites, including 63 national parks. What's the most visited park? That continues to be the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It had 12,191,834 visits in 2024. Next is Zion National Park with 4,946,592 visits and Grand Canyon National Park with 4,919,163 visits. The top ten list also includes Yellowstone (4,744,353), Rocky Mountain National Park (4,154,349), Yosemite (4,121,807), Acadia (3,961,661), Olympic (3,717,267), Grand Teton (3,628,222) and Glacier National Park (3,208,755). Travel publications create their own rankings by factoring in criteria that appeal to visitors. Those rankings include such considerations as accessibility, natural beauty, scenic diversity, hiking opportunities, the best wildlife viewing (and what kind of wildlife) and an overall range of activities offered. Social media has largely fueled the ranking trend. Parks that are 'Instagrammable' often get inordinate attention because of their striking beauty alone, when other variables can figure into what can make a national park desirable. Backpacker hiking across a river in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Numerous travel blogs rank national parks. The blog, 'Trip Of A Lifestyle' figured in three factors: 'Wow Factor,' 'Fun Factor' and 'Crowd Factor.' Lauren and Steven Keys visited and photographed all the national parks before ranking them. After 'months of nonstop travel and dozens of hours of debate,' according to their blog, they came up with a definitive personal list. The Keys concluded that seven national parks tie for first place: Death Valley (the hottest place on Earth, but otherworldly in feel), Yosemite, Hawai'i Volcanoes, Yellowstone, American Samoa (one drawback mentioned: 'there are feral dogs everywhere on the island'), Carlsbad Caverns (noted for its massive underground caves and magnificent formations) and Canyonlands, which the couple term, 'one of the best-kept secrets of the National Park system.' Travel blogger Lee Abbamonte has ranked all 63 of the parks based on his tastes and experience. Yosemite tops his list. 'Yosemite is big, it has iconic hikes like Half Dome, and it has amazing waterfalls, trees and vistas,' writes Abbamonte on his blog. 'Tunnel View at sunset is the single most beautiful view in America when Half Dome turns orange at the top.' Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, with its thermal springs, hiking trails and nine historical bathhouses, was at the bottom of Abbamonte's list. He found the park 'really boring, uninteresting and I don't understand why it's a national park in the first place.' The Quapaw Baths on Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs National Park, in Hot Springs, Ark. (AP Photo/Beth Harpaz) What's the least-visited national park? Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve recorded only 11,907 visits in 2024, no doubt partly because of its remote north Alaska location. Such remote parks, however, are ranked higher by wilderness groups, which value their unspoiled nature, no matter how hard it might be to actually reach them. Forbes has ranked national parks based on crowd size, an increasingly crucial factor given rising popularity. Writer Joe Yogerst compiled ten parks that aren't crushed by urban throngs: Black Canyon of the Gunnison (Colorado), Channel Islands (California), Congaree (South Carolina), Dry Tortugas (Florida), Great Basin (Nevada), Guadalupe Mountains (Texas), Isle Royale (Michigan), Lassen Volcanic (California), North Cascades (Washington State) and Voyageurs (Minnesota). A female leopard relaxes in the branches of a dead tree in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. (Photo by) The race to be the best has recently gone global. In March, the non-profit National Parks Association launched its 'World's Best National Parks,' a year-long campaign that allows the public to vote on favorites. Campaign dates are March 18, 2025, through June 11, 2028. Website visitors can vote for one park per country per day. There are three phases to the campaign: Yosemite National Park currently leads the race, followed by Mkomazi National Park in northeastern Tanzania and Kruger National Park in northeastern South Africa.
