SILT HAPPENS #00-3
Content by Bego Gerhart (1T836) --- HTML by Frank Mendonca (1T805) using Microsoft FrontPage
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| Semi-Rough Posting of Silt | ||
GCSAR Meeting 4- 11- 00 Featuring the Sheriff (as himself) After discussions between the Sheriff and GCSAR Officers, it was decided to make our By-Laws become part of the Sheriff's Office Personnel Management Policy and Procedure Manual. This was done for a number of reasons, mostly having to do with attorneys and liability (duh). It is still OK for any member of the organization to suggest changing the Policy and Procedures. The final say on any change is still The Sheriff. Him what's in charge. NPS on River Safety: www.nps.gov/cany/home.htm click on Index, click on River
Safety Grand County Emergency Medical Services: grandstar.state.ut.us/EMSweb/ems1.htm 00- 18 4- 13- 00 Ambulance Assist Rollover Kane Creek We were paged out to bring a Stokes and help carry a bunch of injured people up to the
waiting ambulances. Turns out, alot of various folks showed up to do just that. 00- 19 4- 15- 00 Mtn Biker Biff Lunar Canyon off Blue Hills Rd. A biker party had an accident in Lunar Canyon which is 4 miles out the Blue Hills Road and in the low hills to the south. Along came an ATV party that had a cell phone. 911 At first it was thot that the bikers were 1 1/2 miles from any vehicle access but it
turned out we could drive right to the subject. We packaged him up and carted him off on
the 6 wheeler Ranger until the road became smoother, whence he was put in 502. 00- 20 4- 15- 00 Biker too tired or injured ? Onion Creek Reported to be 4 miles from the top (?). We responded with ATVs toward Onion Creek and
were 10-22d when the RP decided they could handle it themselves. They were on Polar Mesa. 00- 21 4- 16- 00 YTD: 1 per month ave- 4th Base jumper biff Left Hand Mill Creek A 56 yr old base jumper with 350-odd jumps had an "off heading opening." He
was unable to correct before he hit the wall. Bystanders stated they thot his major
injuries happened when he hit the wall. But then he free-fell about 100 feet to the
ground. 1 T 1: > There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball. 00- 22 4- 19- 00 Go find a hurt person 3 miles out the easy way- SRBT 10-22'd as we arrived at the SRBT parking lot. Subject made it to AMH some other way. Comments: So Sam, Jim G., and Nancy did a bit of ATV training. Book Reviews: by the Editor Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson (via Michele Hill) Charlie Wells new jeeping guide book- Lee Bridgers new biking book- 4- 20 to 23- 00 Steve 419 Rugg flew the UHP helo N8UT in to Arches Helicopters airport. In 3 days, 7 patrols were flown with a Deputy and a GCSAR member on each. Brownell got 2 DUI's from the helo. Steve White, only son of Gizmo, got the front seat. Drat and fang. Comments: It has never been defined in print what the function of the GCSAR ride-along is supposed to be. So--Next year you must be a "Navigator" to ride on the UHP helo. Required abilities: Be able to take a GPS reading from the pilot and figure out where you are on a map AND be able to give the pilot GPS coordinates from a map so he can GO TO any specific place. In your lap, as Navigator, you have these aids: 1) Jeep Safari newspaper, for the Jeepers' names of the routes; 2) The East and West Bike Maps for easy Lat / Long readings and the bikers' names for most stuff; 3) Wells' book "Moab, UT Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails" for jeep trail descriptions with waypoints tabulated in Lat/Long and UTM and a killer index; 4) the Slickrock Bike Trail photo-map for its detail; 5) A GPS hand held unit that you can switch back and forth between Degrees and minutes and the UTM coordinate systems. In a sentence: Know where you are and be able to point the pilot exactly to anywhere else. Rotor Madness: Steve W & Bego, Louis & Jennie, Archie & Frankie, Kim & Jim, Steve B & Sam, Brian & Lee 00- 23 4- 21- 00 Hurt Biker Srbt The ambulance and our 6 wheeler responded to The Abyss area. So packaged and transported. Comments: Jeepers Creepers: Boy Scout BBQ Parking at The Arena The parking detail went better than ever cuz there were enuff folks this time. It was a good idea to keep 2 people in the upper lot to keep it stuffed full. The Exodus was easier cuz the bottom gate was open also. XXX: 836 kilt a signpost in a brazen hit and run affair. Details at the X-mas party. Valet Parkers: Brent Psycho Pace, Bego, Rex8, Frank, Mandy has Frankie pretty well tuned in, Dean, Steve Y., Michele, Kurt, Dave M, Steve L, Lee, George, Sam S Saturday Line Up- Rexif, Dave M, Lee, Lloyd, Kurt, George, Dean, Steve Y, Frank, Bego 00- 24 4- 25- 00 Dehydrated Biker way out Behind der Rocks A cell phone call reached us about a young biker gal down from the heat while riding the Behind the Rocks county road. Brad and Jeff responded with 4 wheelers and reached the subject moments before the ambulance. That gal and another young male, who was actually in worse shape, came out with the ambulance. Comments: 00- 25 4- 25- 00 Broken Wrist Pritchett Canyon Before the previous event was complete, another page came for a broken wrist up Pritchett Canyon. Initial reports had the subject walking out and he just wanted a ride. Again, sorry there cowboy, we are not a taxi service. So an ambulance was called and Sam went on down with the Ranger. He found the subject had hiked out and gotten a ride to AMH in a private car. 10- 22. Comments: 00- 26 4- 25- 00 Overdue Biker Klondike Bluffs The Dad waited out there until after dark and then reported to us that his son was overdue. We responded with our arsenal of ATVs out to the trailhead for a briefing by Rex. We also inspected his bike tire track and a probable shoe print. Some went up Little Valley, some drove in the Dalton Well road and some went up the bike/jeep route. After a while voice contact was made with the teen. We were on the marked jeep route, he was on the road that is on the 7 1/2 min map. But he was stopped by darkness. He did have matches and he had built a fire earlier. He had put the fire out and gone to sleep. Our ATV noise woke him up. And he had a little red blinking light which helped us. Comments: GCSAR Training; 4- 27- 00 Training- Land Navigation and Orienteering- To NASAR SAR tech II standards. Three stations: 1) Do any of the three compass courses that Frank and Kurt laid out earlier in the day. 2) Apply given coordinates to a map and get coordinates from a map. Orient a map to terrain. Orient a map to north with a compass. Take a compass bearing to some object. 3) Read coordinates in UTM and Lat/Long from a GPS. Rod Benders Car Show and Fund Raiser We displayed the 91 Mustang that the Moab City Police gave us (with "speed" chip) amongst the crowd and set up a table. At $1.00 per chance, 931 chances were bought. Sam Smith, in complete SAR uniform, went strolling thru the crowd selling chances by the dozen. Temple of Money Changers: Mandy, Frankie, Brad, Bego, Frank, Lee, Jim, Sam, Sam, Shawn, Matt Mc, Steve Y, Matt Moo and Alicia Cooper 00- 27 4- 29- 00 Moab Rim Trail, 1st hard spot ATV Rollover Two were injured, one not much, the other more so. We transported on our 6 wheeler. Comments: Lip Sync: Jason Parriott takes the Gold, Teri Ann 2nd, Grand County Alumni third. 00- 28 4- 29- 00 Sand Flats ATV Rollover Zane requested some help to carry a litter full of hip and back injuries over to the ambulance. Comments:
The Clinton Administration has taken Selective Availability (the scramble in the signal) out of the GPS system. Now your position fix is stable to within a meter or 5 instead of 30 to 100 meters. Track speed is more accurate and altitude is much better. Your hand-held GPS unit now follows you around to within a step or three. For example: Frank has always had trouble with his front porch moving around on him (see Flashbacks, op.cit.). Up to 30 April, his porch would wander 51 m easting and 63 m northing in 10 minutes. (Fast porch). On 1 May, his porch settled down to moving 3 m easting and 5 m northing. And his altitude varied less- from 425' to 41'. Cool. Hot. Wow. Zonkers. 00- 29 5- 2- 00 Heat Exhaustion on the Slickrock On the hottest day so far this year some bikers ran out of water and began to get overheated. One guy biked out to call 911. We responded with our usual SAP (Slickrock Aid Package). We found the folks hiking their bikes. They were shaded, watered.and looked after by Matt Mc. One of them rode out in the Ranger. The others hiked/rode out. Comments: They paid us double the bill and were quite appreciative. Ewa, the cute
Polish gal. 00- 30 5- 2- 00 Climber stuck on Tombstone Wall About dusk, some bikers were riding out the last part of the Kane Creek dirt when they heard "Help." They looked around in the rocks and then heard, "Up here." And they biked out to a phone. The Tombstone Wall and the hiking route to the top are quite familiar to me cuz of the camera platforms and rigging I help with during the Base jumper Comp held there each year. We divided up 10 loads of gear and hiked 45 minutes up, marking the important spots with light sticks. Meanwhile, Corky and crew had brought out a big light to shine up at the subject from the road. Story: Ken had spent some days soloing the route which is of moderate difficulty and gently overhanging in the upper part. He had summited earlier in the day and tried to find the trail down. Not finding it, he went back up to the summit to begin rappelling down the the route. He had intended to do this anyway to clear all his gear off the wall. Except by now it was nearly dark. He had not tied his top rope to the anchors 80' down so he found himself dangling in space unable to reach the next rope down just a few feet away. After trying for long time, he finally snagged it in the floodlight provided by Corky and crew. He was ready to finish rappelling the wall but the ground team told him to sit tight until we got to the top. Which we did moments later. His rope to the summit was looped thru the anchors so we simply tied that loop into a knot and up he jumared. And out we hiked. Nice hike, good company. Comments: So small but so big a mistake. He was plenty capable of climbing such a route, had a great time doing so and was appreciative of our efforts. But he didn't know much about self rescue. Said he'd pay the bill in installments. Responders: Michele, Frank, Brad, Mandy, Frankie, Sam S, Lee, Kent, Jim G, Aug, Kurt & Bego hiked up. Nancy, Sam L, Rox, Jeff, Josh as ground team. Format for Briefing Emergencies 1. Here's what I think we face. AIR AFFAIR 5- 6- 00 Larry Van Slyke- ground crew chief This is kinda a "you had to be there" thing but here goes: At the Air Show, the MC said that one of the pilots said, "You know you have landed with your landing gear UP when you have to taxi at full throttle." Everyone chuckled at that and then someone said, "Sounds like a description of 1T7." 1T7 said, "Yup (pause) I bet that winds up in Silt." Sam brought out the Win A Cop Car and we sold a bunch more drawing tickets. Plane People: Nancy, Jennie, Mandy, Rejx, Jeff, Sam L, Sam S, Bego, Lee, Frankie, Brad, Dean, Josh, Kurt, Lloyd 00- 31 5- 6- 00 Overdue Biker Dubinky Area "My husband is lost" is what this gal told Jennie. The husband was at Archview, telling us his wife was at Mineral or Spring Canyon / Hey Joe which are 2 different things. That got sorted out. 13B61 went out to the Dubinky / Spring Canyon connector road looking. Shortly after that, Jennie, who was coming in from Horsethief Ranch, found our subject on Hwy 313. All's well. Comments: GCSAR Training- Sand Flats Rd Tracking in real dirt with a stick, eyes and cunning. 00- 32 5- 12- 00 Mtn Biker oof SRBT Separated shoulder just beyond the Abyss. Comments: 00- 33 5- 12- 00 Dirt Biker oof Secret Spire A group of dirt bikers were messing about on the slickrock area near Secret Spire when one went bonk pretty hard. A cell phone call got 911 in Emery County, the usual for out thata way. Matt Mc, Navigator, jumped in with me and off we went. He had the Wells Jeep Book, the Dubinky Wash 7 1/2 minute map and a Garmin 12XL GPS unit. It goes like this: Look in the Index for Secret Spire, go to p 70, figure the way point number of where you need to go on his map, the map says to see p XX for GPS coords, enter coords into GPS, punch GO TO, drive down the Spring Canyon Point road til the GPS unit said hang a left. That's navigating. Comments: San Juan Search and Rescue Rock Rescue Training with Kyle Isenhart The guy is simply quite amazing. At precisely 12S 0638963 x 4214737 (Photograph Gap quad) is the cutest rock outcroping for basic rope management classes. Drive up, clean, one owner, low mileage. We did basic rappelling and ascending, Kyle's two rope method of lowering and our main line / belay line lowering and raising methods. All this with big 1/2" rope and rope grabs (cool). Lots of folks from the 2 San Juan groups and Frank and Captain Stone. Tip A Cop at 550: What a Blast. Maybe we should start Tip A SAR at La Hacienda. Overheard: "Higher caliber people for higher caliber responses. A good heart and 'want to help' is not quite good enuff anymore." Boating Accident in Cataract Canyon 15 May 2000 From: Steve Swanke On the afternoon on Friday, May 12, Samuel Johnson 74, from Jackson, Mississippi, a client on a North American Expeditions five boat commercial river trip, died as a result of a rafting accident in Cataract Canyon. A 18' row raft containing Johnson, three other passengers and a guide, flipped on a large wave at the entry to Big Drop Two. Johnson subsequently swam into Satan's Gut, a massive hydraulic in Big Drop Three, and was then immediately reached by a North American motorized raft and found to be in cardiac arrest. Resuscitation efforts were initiated as the motorized raft maneuvered through four additional rapids to the head waters of Lake Powell Reservoir where Johnson was pronounced dead by a North American client who was a physician. A 54 year old female passenger also nearly drowned and was evacuated by a Classic Aeromedical Helicopter to a hospital in Moab. Cataract Canyon was flowing at approximately 27,000 cubic feet per second with a water temperature of 58 degrees. Park Ranger/Paramedic Marc Yeston was assisted by Glen Canyon Rangers Haut and Kania and six North American guides in the recovery of Johnson, the investigation of the accident and the air evacuation of the near drowning victim from the remote accident location. Johnson was transported to Salt Lake City for an autopsy for which the results are unavailable at this time. This is the 13th river fatality in the history of the park and the 3rd fatality which has involved a park concessionaire. Comments: The crew is very complimentary as to the actions of the various NPS folks who helped the situation along. Jimmy Ferro conducted a CISD session attended by 11 of those involved. It was the daughter who stopped the CPR effort for obvious reasons at 35 minutes . Steve Swanke is still looking for 50,000 cfs Peak Flow Forecast 16 May 2000 The Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (www.cbrfc.gov) has recently issued their third (May) peak flow forecast for the upcoming runoff. The forecasted peak flow has decreased from the second (April) forecast. There is a 75% probability Cataract Canyon will exceed 32,000 cfs. There is a 50% probability Cataract Canyon will exceed 43,000 cfs. There is a 25% probability Cataract Canyon will exceed 54,000 cfs. There is a 10% probability Cataract Canyon will exceed 64,000 cfs. Cataract peaked twice, a bit over 30,000 cfs. 00- 34 5- 19- 00 Bartlett Wash Unconscious Biker We responded towards the shed when the victim apparently came to and the RPs stated they would self-transport to AMH. Air Life had been asked to launch but was canceled. Comments: RP called back to say, "Thanks for the trouble." Responders: Frank, Nancy, Kurt 00- 35 5- 22- 00 Bonk at the Abyss Kirk from Georgia banged up his head. We sent in the Ranger with 2 EMTs and a pair of 4 wheelers with Sar members. Kirk was patched up and transported in the Ranger out to the Ambulance in the parking lot. Comments: Perhaps, on most Slickrock Bike Trail callouts, EMS could send a road ambulance to the parking lot and we bring the patient all the way out on the Ranger. The Ranger is a smoother ride and probably goes faster in that terrain. The 4 wheel drive ambulance would see (much) less wear and tear. Responders: R_x, SamL, Lee, Steve Y, Jim G, Kevin, Sam S, 13B61 "Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world." 00- 36 5- 23- 00 Poison Spydor Shoulder & wrist We were 10-22d cuz the 4 wheel drive ambulance could easily get right to him. Some doctors in a jeep had come by and given the subject an ice bag and then left. Comments: ATV Instructor Certificates were earned by Sam Lewis and Lee Junge at a course in Blanding taught by State Parks. If you were around for the course that Tony White gave us 2 years ago, this one was similar. So- if you want ATV training see these two folks. Congrats. 5-25-00 GCSAR Training An excellent evening on the rocks. We are getting deliciously close to having a bona-fide Rock Rescue Team. This would negate my statement of but one year ago. Cool. 00- 37 5- 27- 00 Search The guy left his wife at the Bowen at 7 pm intending to drive the Loop Rood and down the Sand Flats Road. Didn't come home. Brownell got a call at oh-dark-thirty and went looking. He called Zane at 5 am to go other places to look. By 9 am, no dude, no clue. Brownell and Bego decided the best move was to call John Key to fly his airplane over the search area. Steve's plan had a primary search area (the Loop and Sand Flats roads and spurs) and a secondary search area which was "the rest of the mountains." Well, our subject missed the Loop Road turnoff and went to La Sal Jct, east to the sawmill and on up the La Sal Pass Road where he got stuck in a snowbank about dark. Spent the night in his car and walked down to the sawmill for help in the morning. He returned to the Bowen 30 minutes into the plane flight. Comments: Big thanks to John Key, the pilot. 00- 38 5- 27- 00 Horseback Rider feels faint Part way up Johnson's Up On Top She felt faint, got off her horse and began to vomit blood. We all hurried. By the time EMS and SAR got there she seemed OK and was transported to AMH. Her condition went downhill from there and she was AirLife'd to GJ. Comments: 00- 39 5- 27- 00 Man in River, Big Bend Duh. This guy entered the river just above Big Bend rapid without a lifejacket and soon found himself carried away by the current, down thru said rapid. We were paged from the 911 phone there and got the boat in the river at Moab Boat Dock pretty dang fast. Just then, a river raft floated thru the rapid and SAVED THE MAN'S LIFE. 10-22 for us. Comments: Had not that raft happened by, he would surely have drowned. We would have
been 15- 20 later and probably too late. Comments:
Boater Usage in Cataract Canyon- by JW ... a visit to Canyonlands NP headquarters for statistics on usage in Cataract. It was not what I expected to find--allow me to explain. First of all, the commercials and the privates, combined, have NEVER maxed out usage in CNP. For an average, I would say that 1200 days per year are never used. This might be useful information, since the the place does not have an allocation problem from either sector. The private and commercial graphs are totally different in appearance. For commercial, there was a steady climb to a plateau until 1982. From there it dropped dramatically to an all time low in 1984. As 1983 and 1984 were water years over 100,000 cfs, extreme high water is obviously not popular. After 1984, there is a quick climb to a plateau that spans low water till 1992. It appears very sustainable. So, low water is not a reason why people avoid Cataract Canyon. Here is the interesting part. The graph looks like a screen monitoring a heart rate. It jumps in 1993, in 1995 and 1997. All these years have something in common: peaks in the river around 70,000 cfs. This seems to demonstrate a yahoo factor in the market. The private graph looks entirely different. From 1984, it is a very slow upward gain with very little deviation. 00- 40 5- 28- 00 PorkyPine Rim Trail A person got dehydrated just 300 yds from trailhead. Oh? 10-22d after 10 minutes. Comments: 00- 41 5- 29- 00 Dehydrated biker La Sal Mtns This biker was way up by Dorry Creek on the TransMountain Trail south of Brumley Creek. Sent 1T8 and 805 and ambulance crew in with San Juan Deputies 1Z5 and 1Z8. Walked subject out to trailhead. Comments: There is water where this trail crosses Dorry Creek but this guy wasn't quite
there. 5- 30- 00 Ruth Gerhart, "The Happy Wanderer" passes on. She once wrote: "I'd rather be in the Subalpine Community of the Sierra Nevada Mountains than anywhere else in the world." Her "Mount Everest" was to complete hiking the John Muir Trail, 225 miles from Yosemite to Mt Whitney. So her and Dad chipped away at pieces of the Muir Trail by toting Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls around the mountains for 12 years. There was one dehydrated food company in the US. Most of their stuff was edible (Soak the eggs overnight!). Family vacations meant backpacking in all the western national parks. We used Tube Tents, white nylon climbing ropes, and camped and cooked over fires exactly as the Boy Scout Field Book said. What fun. The Seasons of Apprenticeship and the Acquisition of Technique for all of us. And, after the kids were gone, they completed the last segment John Muir Trail by themselves. Cool. 00- 42 5- 31- 00 Boy Scout Leaders fully blow it What is Be Prepared?? Matt McCune had to lock his car door to prevent dehydrated Boy Scouts from water frenzy. Their plan was to ride Gemini but they were found hiking with no bikes near Widow Maker on Metal Masher. The map was with the part of the group that stayed in camp. They had 2 water bottles each (long empty) and nothing else in the Be Prepared category. Dorkfish. Comments: Illustrating again that some leaders shouldn't be. 00- 43 6- 3- 00 Broken Clavicle SRBT Sent Ranger and 4 wheelers to SRBT. 10-22d. Walked out. Comments: Here's another big injury that walked out. How do they do it?? Responders: Frank, Sam L, Russel, Mark, SamS 00- 44 6- 3- 00 3 Lost Bikers Boren Mesa Moonlight Trail, Geyser Pass Riding this loop from Geyser Pass Road to Boren Mesa, down the single track to a lower point on the G Pass Rd and back up to the start is no easy undertaking and it's 8500 to 10,000 feet up. Good thing they weren't really lost cuz only 3 searchers responded. Subjects were down to the Geyser Pass Road when found. Comments: Three SAR members after THREE pages. NG. When riding down Boren from the Pass it is easy to miss the single track down off the ridge to the south and one could easily just continue down the obvious path toward Oowah Lake... and then where would you be? It's a beautiful ride tho, especially at sunset. Responders: Sam L, Shawn and Lee "Dr FourWheeler" Junge 00- 45 6- 6- 00 Body Recovery Colorado River Fish Ford A river death above Westwater a while back surfaced near Fish Ford. She was tied off by Kyakers who reported the find, then split. We put our boat in at Cisco Ramp, made the recovery. Comments: 1 T 7: Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious. 6- 10- 00 GCSAR River Rescue Training on the Colorado River That Steve T-Berry Young, professional river guide, welder and now River Ranger was instructor. Comments: Not so many showed up. 6- 13- 00 GCSAR meeting Training: River Rescue at the Moab Boat Dock Steve Young teaching River Rescue Boat, Jim Gostlin teaching Throw Bags to floater Michele. 00- 46 6- 15- 00 Dry biker up Pritchett Canyon Took 2 -4wheelers up Pritchett 2.1 miles to subject. Transported him seated in the Ranger out to Ambulance. Comments: 00- 47 6- 18- 00 Rescue of Rock Climber There are perhaps 400 short rock climbs in Mill and Horse Creek Canyons in the half mile below the bridge at the Oowah Lake turnoff. The few ways into the canyon thru the cliff band are steep and loose. If a climber got injured way down canyon, it would be one heck of a carry to an "up" place. Chris fell about 30 feet, landed on his feet but his lumbar took the shock. He was very near an up place. It was almost a straight shot from the road down the slope to the creek. We sent the litter and a bunch o dashing rescuers down to package him. Up on the road we rigged a directional off one truck and hitched the half inch haul rope to a tow vehicle (Ford F150 winch!). A 2nd half-inch belay rope was run thru a Rope Grab. Edge pro was put at the road edge and on a tree part way down. A directional was installed on a tree way down the slope for the initial up slope. Six litter tenders and the litter were then raised up the slope with the tow vehicle. It began to rain just as we finished. Comments: An EXCELLENT TEAM outing. Everyone had a job, everyone was a safety officer. Saved alot of time and energy using a tow vehicle (some frown on this tactic??) rather than dialing in a mechanical advantage rope system. Is it OK to use a Rope Grab instead of tandem prusiks on the 1/2" Belay Rope?? Why can't Load Releasers be made of, say, 10 feet of half inch rope instead of the ungainly zillion feet of 8mm?? How much movement (throw?) must a Load Releaser have?? Two feet most?? Responders: LouisT10, Reex, Jeff, Frank, Brad, Sam, Bego, Nancy, Josh, Dave M, Lee, Steve Y, Jim G, Dean, FLopez, Kevin and the veteran climber Dave Dawson. 00- 48 6- 20- 00 Search for Overdue Biker Porcupine Rim These 4 young 20's guys were from Kentucky (near Iowa); it was their first trip out west. They rented bikes and zoomed off into the wilderness. About Coffee Pot Rock, John (in shorts and shoes only) decided to go ahead so he could get back to the bike shop before closing. About 8pm, his 3 buddies straggle into GCSAR wondering where John might be. We sent 4 wheelers out the trail and hikers up the single track. The typical pattern for us. Awhile later, the 3 lads run Zane down on the River Rood and say they have found the missing John, high up near the rim, waving. The rescuers who were up there went to the rim where John was supposed to have been and found nobody or tracks. Huh? It was then thot that John might be stuck on a ledge below the rim so rock rescue was paged out. We loaded up the Bronco and 2 more wheelers and headed out. Also paged out was John Ruhl of Arches Helicopters to search by air. At 3 am we all started home empty handed. Josh and Frankie on their wheelers went to the roads west of Coffee Pot Rock while the rest of us traveled the main road out. In the same few moments, both teams found John's tracks and his bike. He was headed out. How had we missed him?? How had he missed us and the helo?? It is entirely possible that John never made it past Coffee Pot Rock, spending his evening west of it, no where near the rim. John was walking down the Sand Flats Road toward town at 5 am when Aug found him. He had made his way out (partly cross country?) and when he hit the main road by chance that's when we picked up his tracks. When he passed our vehicles he tried to find one that wasn't locked so he could drive to town (!). The 4 lads were lectured pretty hard about desert travel, staying together and being prepared. Comments: Night helo searches are high risk and have never produced results. Perhaps we should not do them for the risk involved. Helo searches in the daylight are less risky and much more likely to get results. Who was that waving from the rim? Don't know cuz John says he never saw the river or the river road. WAS there anybody waving from the rim?? Mystery. Responders: Jeff, Frank, Brad, Sam, Bego, Nancy, Josh, Shawn, Lee, Jim G, Dean, Aug, Frank L 00- 49 6- 22- 00 Broken Biker SRBT Fell down hard on her chest. JVD (Jugular Vein Distention). We transported EMTs to scene and Jennie immediately called for Air Life. Comments: Coordinates for LZ taken from the photomap of the SRBT, the one with Lat-Long
tics in the margin. The other SRBT photomap doesn't have coordinate tics of any kind.
Maptech software doesn't have the SRBT marked on it so coordinates taken from it will only
be approx.
6- 23- 00 Roxie and Glen get married. Wooooooo |
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| "Silt Happens" Back Issues |
| #00-1,2,&2.5 (Jan-Apr2000)
-- Nathan jumps, Matt splats, waiting for high water, confluence disappears, Mill Creek
wall strike #99-5 (Sept-Dec99)
-- The "Mari" incident, Westwater drowning, Jeeping off Gemini, Stuck on Fine
Jade #98-6 (Nov-Dec 98) -- Thanks Yous;
Tramway and rescue plans; Cellular Phonefinder; Practice Safe Response; Pipeline Go BOOM #97-6 (Nov-Dec 97) |