Hostel Bunk Room Reaches New Decibel Record as Seven Thru-Hikers Snore Simultaneously

A trail hostel in Hot Springs, North Carolina, set what staff believe is an unofficial noise record on Friday night when seven thru-hikers in a twelve-bunk room produced a combined snoring volume of 87 decibels, equivalent to a food blender or a sustained car horn. The measurement was taken by the only non-snoring occupant of the room, trail name 'Insomnia,' who held up her phone's decibel meter at 2:17 AM and documented what she described as 'a wall of sound that should not be possible from sleeping humans.' 'It wasn't just volume,' Insomnia explained. 'It was the harmonics. Seven people snoring at different frequencies creates a chord. Not a pleasant chord. A chord that vibrates your organs.' The seven snorers, all northbound thru-hikers who had completed a 22-mile day, were reportedly unconscious within minutes of lying down and remained so despite what Insomnia characterized as 'three hours of noise that would constitute a Geneva Convention violation if it were intentional.' Hostel owner Martha Ridgerunner said the event, while extreme, was 'not unusual by thru-hiker standards.' She noted that the hostel provides complimentary earplugs rated at 33 decibels of noise reduction, which Insomnia confirmed were 'completely inadequate.' 'Thirty-three decibels of reduction against eighty-seven decibels of snoring still leaves you with fifty-four decibels,' Insomnia calculated. 'That is the volume of a normal conversation. I was essentially lying in a room where seven unconscious people were talking to me at conversational volume, all at once, in a language that consisted entirely of the letter Z.' Insomnia has since purchased industrial-grade ear protection rated at 40 decibels. She reports it has reduced the hostel experience to 'merely unpleasant.'