With permission from Christian Felger:
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https://www.facebook.com/groups/canyoneeringutah/permalink/534583160342202/
Christian Felger posted to ACA Canyoneering Utah
TECHNICAL CANYON RESCUE LATE LAST NIGHT – HILDALE, UT
At 3am this morning some close friends were lifted out of Dothraki Canyon near Hildale, Utah by the U.S Airforce. Dothraki Canyon is near Water Canyon and is NOT a well traveled canyon. It is a difficult approach, 14 rappels, and many downclimbs. There were some downclimbs that my friends felt uncomfortable doing and were forced to build anchors adding to the rappel count. This added time to the already long canyon. At about 3pm an anchor failed on the third person causing them to fall 15-20 feet. They hit a rock and broke 8 ribs, and fractured the processes in 2 lumbar vertebrae. They spent the next few hours rappelling, stemming, and downclimbing through the canyon. Finally they couldn’t go any further due to the pain. They found an more open spot of the canyon and sent out an SOS. At about 10pm a helicopter circled overhead and saw them. Due to the difficulty of the canyon rescue SAR had to use the Air Force and one of their helicopters to complete the rescue.
Everyone was air lifted from the canyon around 3am.
A few things:
1. Always add time and needed webbing to an unfamiliar canyon especially if you have those with you that are not comfortable doing technical downclimbs.
2. They left 2 200′ ropes in the canyon: 1 – 8.3mm Imlay Canyon Fire, and 1 – 9.2 Imlay Canyonero. If you happen to do this canyon this week grab them and contact me.
3. Because they had a garmin inreach, they were able to get help. But this doesn’t mean it will always work. They had to get to a more open part of the canyon before the SOS message could send.
4. Let people know exactly what canyon you are going to be in. We didn’t know if they were in Water Canyon or Dothraki. Their original plan was to be Dothraki on Friday, so we thought they were in Water Canyon for awhile. Although they could text out, the location sent from the GPS was not perfect because it takes 3 satellites to triangulate your location.
They were lucky. Not everyone is. Be careful out there.
I’m planning on doing this canyon this Saturday to pick up the ropes if no one has by then. If interested in joining me, let me know.
Evan Christensen
Hank, I will join you Saturday to get those ropes. It turns out to be a friend of mine.
ratagonia
As Captain Obvious let me say: seems like a poor choice of canyon for the skill level of the group.
But isn’t it great that so many canyons get posted so quickly!!!!
Tom
Evan Christensen
Funny thing, at work this morning I ran into a colleague and discovered it was him who was rescued from the canyon. He is a seasoned canyoneer and says he will post the story online. I will let him share the details..
ratagonia
He is seasoned NOW, or he was seasoned BEFORE this incident?
Tom
Evan Christensen
If I am understanding your question correctly, yes – he was experienced at the time of the Engelstead incident also. His group arrived just after the man speedily descended to the bottom of the rappel. He rappelled down to help the victim and surprisingly his Garmin inReach transmitter was able to send out an SOS signal from the bottom and get confirmation that they received it and that help was summoned. He said that no one at the top knew how to rig a 3:1 system to get him back up until SAR arrived. I would imagine that hoisting a badly broken person in their harness up 300 feet is a dangerous/deadly feat also. I think I will get a satellite communicator as well.
What about you Tom, do you pack a communicator?
ratagonia
Absolutely. Moving a badly broken person more than necessary is a bad idea. period.
No, I do not carry a communicator, and I know I should. On the Christmas list.
But…
All above is interesting, but does not answer the question… which is kind of a snarky question. The question was whether he, your friend, was a seasoned canyoneer BEFORE the Dothraki incident. From the little information available, the cynical reader (me) assumes that a bunch of beginners found a new canyon on the interwebs that sounded interesting, went and did it, lacked the skills to succeed.
There may or may not be a full report in the future. It would be nice if there was.
Tom
Evan Christensen
I will share some of the details that he told me about the accident in Dothraki. He said the quality of the canyon is very good. The approach that Bluugnome explains can be improved upon. Some of the downclimbs are very long and difficult with much risk. He felt that several of them should be rappels. Their group built natural anchors on some of these downclimbs for rappels. On one of these long exposed downclimbs they felt it would be safer to rappel so they secured webbing around a midsize boulder for the anchor. The first two descended and the anchor held fine/didn’t move. He was that last to rappel and half way down the anchor failed. He was lucky his injuries were not worse.
I will try and answer your question as to his experience. I have never been through a canyon with him. I think Dan has been doing this for a decade or two. He has a long resume of canyons.
I contacted Christian Felger who is heading up a rope retrieval mission this weekend. It sounds like a large group has formed to go through.
Brian in SLC
Maybe there’ll be a report in the future…especially if there was a skosh less snark in the air…
Canyonero
Cool. Always good to get the details first hand. As well all know, they’re usually VERY different from the reports in the press.
I’m also curious how many people are carrying emergency transmitters. I don’t think I’ve ever canyoneered with someone carrying one.
Evan Christensen
This is the same person who was carrying an emergency transmitter who used it during the incident/fatality in Engelstead to summon emergency help.
hank moon
@Evan Christensen is that THIS incident?
Unfortunately, I won’t be joining the rope-recovery party this Saturday; you might check with Christian Felger on that as he seems to be heading up that effort.
Evan Christensen
Will you be at X Fest?
hank moon
My body is more Ex than X at the moment…
Evan Christensen
Yes, he is the doctor who attended to the person who fell.
hank moon
http://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/ar…vQ-hiymkiJhW67ScvgI3_6m7AE4cIs_M#.W83nshNKg6u
ST. GEORGE — Three hikers, one with fractured ribs, were rescued from a slot canyon in the Canaan Mountain wilderness early Sunday morning during an all-night rescue operation that included ground teams and two helicopters.
Search and Rescue teams were called out to rescue a hiker who was injured while rappelling
The incident began at 5:30 p.m. Saturday when Washington County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue teams were called out to rescue a hiker who was injured while rappelling down a slot canyon in Water Canyon, an 11-mile backcountry trail near Hildale.
The hiker was equipped with a personal emergency alert device, which sent an alert along with the hiker’s GPS coordinates to authorities and triggered the call to search and rescue, Washington County Emergency Operations Manager Jason Whipple said.
Two teams headed out, with the first team making the three-hour hike through the remote wilderness to reach the injured man and the second team going around the back way on all-terrain vehicles.
An Intermountain Life Flight crew was also called in to assist. The helicopter flew over the area with a rescuer on board to locate a possible landing area and to find a suitable place for rescuers to render aid to the injured hiker.
Winds picked up significantly and the weather continued to worsen
The winds picked up significantly and the weather continued to worsen, Whipple said, which made it difficult for Life Flight to safely fly in the area, requiring the helicopter to go back to its base.
In the meantime, Whipple contacted Nellis Air Force Base and requested assistance, since the military has larger helicopters that can fly in inclement weather, as well as night vision technology and hoisting capabilities that would allow for a night rescue.
Within two hours, a Black Hawk helicopter arrived along with a trained team capable of performing hoists and short-haul flights, and the ground teams began arriving at the site of the stranded hikers.
Washington County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue teams work with military pilots from Nellis Air Force Base during rescue of three hikers from Water Canyon, Washington County, Utah, Oct. 21, 2018 | Photo courtesy of Glyn Jones, St. George News
The team found the injured hiker, who suffered what appeared to be fractured ribs, Whipple said. While the injury was not life-threatening, Whipple said that if a patient is exposed to the elements or there is a significant delay in obtaining medical treatment, a less-than-serious injury can become a life-threatening situation.
Additionally, a storm moving into the region projected rain, which could have created a dangerous situation for the three hikers stranded in the slot canyon should a flash flood take place.
“They were out there in a slot canyon with a storm moving in, and it was getting cold,” Whipple said. “So we wanted to get them out of there and the hiker to the hospital before anything else happened.”
The injured hiker was hoisted into the helicopter and flown to Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George for evaluation and treatment. The helicopter then returned to the two remaining hikers and flew them away from the canyon to safety.
Meanwhile, the rescue teams made the three-hour trek back to the staging area and arrived back in St. George by 8:30 a.m., making it a 15-hour rescue operation that was successfully completed with everyone safe, Whipple said.
The crews from Nellis helped greatly, Whipple said, explaining that they responded quickly and assisted in getting the injured hiker to the hospital much sooner than ground crews would have been capable.
As for the two rescue teams, Whipple said, “they are a great group of people that are dedicated to what they do, and they hang in there no matter what.”
Ram
Here is a good tip. IF some of a group are not comfortable with some downclimbs and other, more seasoned folks are, meat anchors are way faster than building anchors and in certain canyons two meat anchors can be deployed at the same time. BIG time safer and smaller footprint.
Canyonero
Thanks for sharing as always. Always good lessons to learn from the errors and mishaps of others.
Exactly. Part of the crew not being comfortable downclimbing is not a reason to spend time building anchors. Have those folks rap down off meat and have the comfortable person do the downclimb. I had this experience just this weekend. Some in the party rappelled or downclimbed with a handline 6 or 8 times. I rappelled twice. Thus only two anchors had to be set up. The only person that ever might need an anchor is the last, and even that anchor need not stay behind in the canyon. Also be advised that just having webbing doesn’t mean you can always build an anchor. There are places where you may need something more than webbing like a sandtrap or waterpocket or (extremely rarely) a bolt kit.
Similarly, no reason for an anchor to ever fail on anyone but the last person. They can always be backed up with meat.
And another great reason for less experienced people to do canyons with more experienced people. Not only does that give you options like last person downclimbing or being captured, but the more advanced skills can be very readily transmitted and spread throughout the canyoneering community. The more people that have them the safer we all are.
Of course, having people who can’t move through a long complicated canyon quickly and efficiently is a GREAT reason not to do that canyon, that day, with that crew.
Tom Collins
Not sure there were more experienced people in the group, it sounds to me like the OP wasn’t on the trip with his friends.
ratagonia
Thanks Christian, and Hank.
(sigh)
Rain overnight, and hard rain this morning. Sure woulda complicated things if they had not gotten out.
Tom