Glen Canyon NRA/Grand Canyon NP Staff from Two Parks Join in Major Rescue Effort
On March 23rd, personnel from Glen Canyon NRA and Grand Canyon NP provided assistance to the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department in the rescue of a 41-year-old man from Water Holes Canyon, which is located seven miles south of Page. Water Holes Canyon is a deeply sculpted slot canyon which normally requires significant canyoneering skills to descend.
William Elmore had been located the day before by two hikers who were traveling along the canyon rim and heard yells for help. Coconino County SAR and Sacred Mountain EMS responded that night, reaching the victim at midnight. With a storm system approaching, NPS personnel worked with Coconino County SAR to relieve the initial responders and immediately begin rigging for a possible rope-based raising operation that would require a 400-foot guiding line to the canyon rim. Meanwhile, NPS Helicopter 368 was dispatched from Grand Canyon to conduct a short-haul extraction. A snowstorm on the South Rim abated enough to permit a response.
Elmore was extracted via helicopter short-haul by late morning and transferred to Classic Lifeguard air ambulance, which was staged at the scene. Elmore was suffering from multiple lower extremity fractures, a pelvic fracture, severe dehydration and advanced stages of hypothermia. During an interview, Elmore told rangers that he had been stranded in the canyon for sixteen days, but the staff at Flagstaff Medical Center, who evaluated Elmore, felt that he had more likely been in the canyon for four to eight days.
Elmore said that he’d gotten into an argument with his ex-wife in Ohio a month-and-a-half earlier and had been hitchhiking cross country since then. He said that he’d been attacked and robbed of his backpack near Kayenta in early March, so decided not to walk along the highway in order to avoid getting attacked again. He became disoriented at nightfall and apparently descended down a route into Water Holes Canyon. In the darkness, he suffered multiple falls, finally landing at the bottom of a narrow slot canyon. He was unable to climb out of the canyon due to his injuries and weakened state. Six rescuers from Glen Canyon NRA and four from Grand Canyon NP assisted with the joint agency operation. [Submitted by Ken Phillips, Chief, Emergency Services, Grand Canyon NP]
John Hart
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “adkramoo” wrote:
This story leaves me with so many quewstions, one doesn’t know where > to begin. I bet the filling in of the details would give the substance > needed to write a very tawdry novel. Sooo, does anyone know? I want to > be a voyeur on this one. Multiple fractures? He tryin to jump down the > canyon? > R
I hope it stands more or less like he said – the idiot just fell in by accident.
Otherwise, canyoneering w/o a permit and leading to a big fancy expensive rescue is just the meat the Nation might need to close that canyon off to all visits too.
John
adkramoo
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, neil wilkinson wrote: > Mark that one up for a possible Darwin award. See what fighting with your ex-wife will get you.
Hey Neil….you talkin from experience? Just when ya think ya know a guy!! 😉 This story leaves me with so many quewstions, one doesn’t know where to begin. I bet the filling in of the details would give the substance needed to write a very tawdry novel. Sooo, does anyone know? I want to be a voyeur on this one. Multiple fractures? He tryin to jump down the canyon? R
neil wilkinson
Mark that one up for a possible Darwin award. See what fighting with your ex-wife will get you. I suppose he got divorced in the first place to stop fighting with her and then he ends up canyoneering the hard way.
He’s either very lucky or unlucky not to be dead. I wonder what his ex’s opinion on that subject would be?
Neil
Tom Jones ratagoni@xmission.com> wrote:
Glen Canyon NRA/Grand Canyon NP Staff from Two Parks Join in Major Rescue Effort
On March 23rd, personnel from Glen Canyon NRA and Grand Canyon NP provided assistance to the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department in the rescue of a 41-year-old man from Water Holes Canyon, which is located seven miles south of Page. Water Holes Canyon is a deeply sculpted slot canyon which normally requires significant canyoneering skills to descend.
William Elmore had been located the day before by two hikers who were traveling along the canyon rim and heard yells for help. Coconino County SAR and Sacred Mountain EMS responded that night, reaching the victim at midnight. With a storm system approaching, NPS personnel worked with Coconino County SAR to relieve the initial responders and immediately begin rigging for a possible rope-based raising operation that would require a 400-foot guiding line to the canyon rim. Meanwhile, NPS Helicopter 368 was dispatched from Grand Canyon to conduct a short-haul extraction. A snowstorm on the South Rim abated enough to permit a response.
Elmore was extracted via helicopter short-haul by late morning and transferred to Classic Lifeguard air ambulance, which was staged at the scene. Elmore was suffering from multiple lower extremity fractures, a pelvic fracture, severe dehydration and advanced stages of hypothermia. During an interview, Elmore told rangers that he had been stranded in the canyon for sixteen days, but the staff at Flagstaff Medical Center, who evaluated Elmore, felt that he had more likely been in the canyon for four to eight days.
Elmore said that he’d gotten into an argument with his ex-wife in Ohio a month-and-a-half earlier and had been hitchhiking cross country since then. He said that he’d been attacked and robbed of his backpack near Kayenta in early March, so decided not to walk along the highway in order to avoid getting attacked again. He became disoriented at nightfall and apparently descended down a route into Water Holes Canyon. In the darkness, he suffered multiple falls, finally landing at the bottom of a narrow slot canyon. He was unable to climb out of the canyon due to his injuries and weakened state. Six rescuers from Glen Canyon NRA and four from Grand Canyon NP assisted with the joint agency operation. [Submitted by Ken Phillips, Chief, Emergency Services, Grand Canyon NP]
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