I am the guy who broke his ankle and here is my take on all of this. Tom (ratagonia) stated that this was not a freak accident and he is correct. Calling it that would take my personal responsibility out of this situation, which does a disservice to anyone who can learn from my mistake. I had hesitations about this slide because of the exact obstacle that I fought and lost against. In fact, in the full video of this incident you can clearly hear me ask Daniel if this is a bad idea. Since Daniel was okay I assumed that I would also be okay and I just went for it against my better judgement. This incident occurred because I didn’t listen to myself.
As for the quote above which I believe calls into question my experience and/or training level in canyoneering, that statement does a disservice to anyone who can learn from this. I am a well trained and experienced canyoneer. I am also exceptionally cautious, sometimes to the point where I have annoyed other members of my team. My broken ankle is the result of a brief lapse in judgement that anyone is capable of from time to time. I am not saying this to defend myself. Instead it is so that those who read this can understand that it’s pretty easy to make the wrong decision and so it is best to be prepared and constantly keep yourself in check. The teams responsible for the deaths of eight climbers on Everest in 1996 were the undisputed best guide companies on the mountain that year, and they made some pretty terrible mistakes. I am not to canyoneering what Rob Hall was to mountaineering by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m good enough at this and routinely cautious enough that nobody should write off my mistake as that made by a rookie. Get a beacon and take a wilderness first responder class because even though this was not a freak accident, eventually this kind of thing could happen to anyone. Be safe, folks!
-Brian
Shane
BTW I have the Delorme Inreach and have used it on a few occasions to prevent a premature SAR call. But perhaps its best virtue is preventing worry of someone wondering if you are ok. It has its drawbacks, it needs a clear view of the sky. This wont be a problem in Lower Jump type canyons but it will be useless in tight canyons. A PLB supposedly carries a much more powerful radio that can work in tight canyons, of course the drawback is no 2 way communication.
Shane
Thanks Brian. I feel any decision you guys made was the right one based on your situation, im not trying to question the decision you made. I was more or less wondering if there are any hard lines, that when crossed, a generally accepted course of action becomes a given. But as Tom pointed out the situation will dictate the response, there is no clear answer. I think the best thing I can do is invest in some WFR training to help myself make the most appropriate decision in case something happens. Glad youre on the mend! Crazy looking xrays you had there!
Brian Swanson
Generally, you want to do whatever will enact a rescue the fastest and in the safest way possible. If you don’t know if the beacon is working you need plan B to be carried out as fast as possible. If we had waited 5 hours to see if the beacon was working and nobody showed up then Bronic would have been finishing the canyon in the dark or the next day. Given what we were working with I’m convinced we made the right decision about every aspect except that it would have been smarter to look at the topo map before sending Bronic ahead. Had we done that we probably would have sent him or Daniel up the canyon wall which would have been a much quicker route out (not sure if it would be safer since I didn’t do either).
I think these Delorme beacons that allow for two-way text communication would be a great asset if they are as reliable as mine. Then SAR can tell you what to do. If the beacon was definitely not working (smashed, lost, never bought one), then I think the important questions are:
1. How quickly/likely can someone get out for help?
2. How long will it be until we will be reported missing?
3. How stable is the victim and how long can everyone survive if we stick around?
4. Can the team extract the injured person themselves and how safe will it be compared to waiting for rescue?
In our case it was going to take Bronic about 10 hours to get out and we thought he was likely to pull it off. We wouldn’t have been reported missing until the next day. If my parents had called to report us missing SAR might have decided to wait a few hours or even a day to see if we showed up whereas Bronic could have definitively told them that we needed help. Also, Bronic’s info about our location and problem was much more accurate than the info my parents had, since they would just know we were missing. So Bronic’s info would remove the “search” part of “Search and Rescue.”
One thing to consider is that if we had 4 people with us then two could have proceeded down canyon while one stayed with me. This would obviously make travel down canyon much safer. For that reason when I go canyoneering in the future I’m going to try to make the teams at least 4 people.
Shane
Yeah I guess I did to some extent….
Tom Collins
I’m thinking you answered your own question there at the end, too many variables to say one way is best, you have to play it by ear as the situation unfolds.
Shane
Thanks Brian and Daniel for posting this so everyone can be aware and learn from this. I certainly will be more wary and caution around slides. One thing I was wondering as far as proper procedures after an injury. Is the general consensus that it is better for another individual to finish the route solo to get help vs. waiting for help or in the case the beacon failed waiting for someone to report the group late? I realize every situation is different and there are many variables such as how far into the route you are, whether an individual going for help has done the route before, severity of the injury, etc, etc.
Luca
Glad to hear you guys come out alive. Slides are usually more dangerous than jumps, because the friction with the rock makes the trajectory unpredictable. I know several canyon experts (professional guides) that got seriously injured with slides. They had done it many times before but one day they got in a little too skewed and bang… broken len/foot/arm. You can find some tips on swift water here http://ropewiki.com/index.php/Swift_water but the best advice is to always use your own judgement and if you don’t feel right jumping or sliding just rappel, regardless of what you are told by the beta or someone else. They used to demand people to jump 50′ to start the canyon. I know at least 1 person who broke a vertebrae in that jump. Don’t let people bully you… nobody should demands you take uncomfortable risks. That is how people gets hurt. If you don’t feel comfortable sliding/jumping just get out your rope, find a bush/tree/fat-person and rappel down from it.
Brian Swanson
P.S. Thanks to everyone for welcoming me to the forum and starting such a good conversation about safety!
AW~
No…..if you want to challenge my point, you can list your capabilities in sliding . Are saying you are well trained and experienced slider?
Brian Swanson
That’s a fair point, AW. I’ve done a decent amount of sliding but it’s not a highly refined move in my canyoneering playbook. I will certainly learn from this experience and be more cautious in the future!
ski free
Brian I by no means was questioning you experience or training and am very sorry if it came off that way. I was just trying to inform everyone about the danger of that slide (That I personally don’t send anyone down). I also am surprised and thankful those betas for this canyon Haven’t gotten more people injured. Would love to see everyone enjoy and make it safely down this and every other canyon.
hank moon
Well said, Brian. This kind of insight moves the discussion to a different level of understanding. Too often, we focus on the external and the superficial, where the real action is happening internally. I think most accidents/incidents are caused by this breakdown in communication between competing internal voices: mind, heart, ego, groupthink, it’s all there, invisible to all (except sometimes one), but plain to see if brought to light. Thanks for doing so.
hank
ratagonia
Thanks for your first-hand account Brian, and welcome to the Collective.
Our friend Koen, who used to own and operate Poco Loco guide service in the Pyrenees, tells a story of when he broke his ankle on a slide.
It was in a small canyon La Garganta de La Gloces, kinda like the Pine Creek of his area. He had 4 or 5 clients with him, and had guided the canyon perhaps 100 times. The canyon is delightful, a couple short rappels, lots of swims, beautiful flowing water. And a slide or two. Koen had done the slide 100 times with no problems, but this time… he says he hit it more perfectly than he had ever hit it before, perfectly lined up on the chute. It is a short slide and not all that steep, but with a nice rush of water flowing down it. Perfect right down the middle, the heel of his shoe picked up a tiny bit of rock sticking up maybe 1 cm; and the heel stopped, the rest of the body moving forward, breaking a couple things in the ankle. Ouch! The clients had a really good time engineering an escape and extraction under Koen’s jovial direction.
So I don’t think it is a “freak accident”. I don’t think it is lack of skill or experience. Koen is perhaps the most skilled and experienced canyoneer I have ever met. It is this: sliding is dangerous. Each time you slide, you are rolling the dice. The odds on some slides are worse than others, but each slide has the potential to get ya!
Mountaineer
Wow, thanks Brian for posting up and welcome. After reading your account, it has given me pause. I’ll certainly reflect on “sliding” in the future, and hopefully take a bit more caution.
I agree, each slide we do has risk. Heck, I will admit I did a few uncontrolled ones I wasn’t comfortable about this past weekend and believe I also threw the dice and got a bit lucky. Additional care, techniques, and simply taking the time to plan the execution a bit more is prudent. Good advice.