An employee at the Panamint Springs Resort inside California’s Death Valley National Park was rescued this week after passing out from lack of water while hiking.

The man, unnamed by DVNP officials, left the resort at around 4 a.m. Tuesday, crossed the Panamint Valley and ascended the western face of the Panamint Butte. He reached the summit at noon, having walked 8.5 miles and climbed 4,600 feet.

Although he initially planned to climb down via a canyon, he didn’t have the right equipment and ultimately climbed back on the way to the resort. The man wound up running out of water by 4:30 p.m., park officials said in a release Friday.

After that, he grew dehydrated. He told his rescuers that at some point he lost consciousness, slid down an unstable slope and woke up with bruises before using an SOS function on his Garmin device to request help at 6 p.m.

Park officials and local law enforcement received the signal at around 7:40 p.m., and the man was finally rescued by a U.S. Navy helicopter dispatched from Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake at 11:15 p.m.

In a statement in the DVNP release, the man warned fellow hikers to “carry more water than you think you need. Have a plan and tell someone where you’re going. Carry a Garmin or some sort of communication device if you’re not staying close to a road.”

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.