There were two incidents for me in this canyon, one a near miss where nothing happened and another where I fell, but wasn’t seriously injured. The first was right at the very start of the canyon. This was my first time in water this high and while I knew in my head it would be dangerous I didn’t really understand its power thus didn’t give it the full respect it deserved. The first incident was immediately after the first rappel I was standing just outside the flow of water on a flat but somewhat slippery piece of rock. I was being careful, but not careful enough, tried turning a little too quickly, and slipped right into the flow of water where the rocks were already polished smooth from years of water flowing over them and then slimy to boot. There was zero traction available and with the force of the water pushing me I couldn’t control myself as I was carried towards the next drop of 40′ just a few yards downstream. Fortunately I kept my head about me even as I saw the inevitable coming and was able to get and arm and a leg out into a small eddy that had enough friction to stop myself and very slowly inch my way out of the water and onto dry land. With a renewed respect for the power of water we continued the canyon.
The next incident I’m not entirely sure what happened, but it could have something to do with our inspection of the anchor we used. We gave a slight inspection to the webbing and it looked good as we set up the rappel, but we didn’t evaluate it beyond that and really it was “only” a 12-15′ rappel. Not completely careless, but certainly asking for trouble eventually. My buddy made it down safe and sound and then I went on rappel, which was undercut just a little bit. I made it over the edge ok and was about half way down when I stopped to try and stabilize myself. The start of the rappel, the slimy rock, and the pounding water was very disorienting and had me spinning around and banging into stuff. The next thing I know I start moving again even though I still had my brake firmly on, I never really felt like I was falling though. There was a moment where I blanked out and then I was on the ground trying to figure out how I got there. First I decided to get out of the water pelting me in the face and as I started to move that’s when it started to hurt, not a sharp pain so I didn’t think anything was broken, but it was a powerful ache that made moving rather uncomfortable. We looked at the webbing that came down and it was intact so we hadn’t missed any rips or tears in our cursory inspection of the anchor. The only thing we can think of is that either the anchor shifted while I was on it or else the webbing simply slipped off of the anchor. I think the later is the most likely as the anchor didn’t shift at all while my friend was on it going first. I don’t know if I would have noticed the potential for slippage if I had performed a closer inspection of the anchor, but maybe it would have prevented the accident.
We certainly were more cautious after this incident though which is good because the next drop right around the corner was the 170′ rappel and rodents had chewed part way through the webbing. It’s complacency and the fact that most of the time the anchors do hold that get us into problems. We get used to the anchors being in good condition and so we start cutting corners and assuming that they are instead of looking to confirm it. Or in this case even though the webbing was in good condition, checking to make sure the anchor placement was good as well.
Carlos O
I will post a youtube link to the video of this trip on the trip’s description post
Tom Collins
I know that the upper and middle were descended recently, but this was in the lower section and I don’t know if that one had been descended yet or not. Most likely not since the anchor for the big waterfall had been chewed about halfway through, so unless that had happened in the last few days then no one had been there. For some reason I can’t remember exactly what the anchor was, I wan’t to say the webbing was wrapped around a thick log, but I’m not 100% certain on that. As for shifting, I guess its possible, but the anchor was close to the drop and the only thing that came down was the webbing and I would expect some debris to come down in that high water if the anchor had shifted and knocked stuff loose. One of the things I did after the fall was to look around for a few seconds and see if there was any way to get back up and see what had happened. Unfortunately even though it was a short drop there was no easy way back up and we didn’t want to compound the problem by having my buddy fall just to sate my curiosity.
Ram
a couple of thoughts….What was the anchor? You are very early season and I wonder if you essential the first folks going through this year? That would make all anchors more suspect. Also if the anchor is connected to sticks in the flow, directly or indirectly, shifting, especially early season, could happen easily enough. I wonder…glad it worked out OK
Kuenn
Major kudos here – staying engaged mentally. The use of time between mistake and ultimate consequences, although often very brief, can make a huge difference in the outcome and turn an almost certain tragedy into a valuable learning experience.
Redrockhikerboy
Tom, thanks for sharing this. Often folks don’t publicize their accidents and mishaps. I applaud you for doing so here, though…and, of course, I am glad you are okay and okay enough to tell about it. Fact is, most of us know what you learned–but then again, so did you! Its no new thing to check out those anchors very thoroughly, and your party knew that. But like you, I have, and I am sure others have, complacently used pre existing anchors which on the face of it looked good. You are right, no matter what, you have to inspect the full length of the webbing, or the hardware in place, or whatever your anchoring materials are, because not doing so may lead to very serious consequences. Bottom line, though, its a lot better to have this lesson reinforced throughout the community via stories like yours, which are frightening to read but have reasonable endings. This is not a lesson anyone wants to learn from a publication like Accidents in North American Mountaineering where the end results are usually far less pleasant and much longer lasting (read: eternity). Glad you are well, or getting well, and thanks much for sharing.