Grand County (Utah) Search and Rescue: Silt Happens, Mar.-Apr., 2001

Winter Rescue Team and LaSal Avalanche Forecast Center: www.avalanche.org/ lsafc

2001- J-0 F-2 M- 5   A-11
2000- J-2 F-4 M- 9   A-13   M- 14 J- 7 [49]   J- 3 A-2   S-9   O- 7 N-0 D-0 [70]
1999- J-1 F-1 M-15   A- 4   M- 11 J- 8 [40]   J- 6 A-9   S-9   O-13 N- 7 D-2 [86]
1998- J-0 F-1 M- 5   A-18   M- 15 J- 3 [42]   J-10 A-2   S-4   O- 9 N-3 D-1 [71]
1997- J-4 F-6 M-10   A- 8   M- 16 J- 9 [53]   J- 4 A-6   S-5   O- 9 N-8 D-0 [85]

Of course it was after dark when the RP called us that her husband was overdue from a long ride that he started too late. We mobilized ATVs to go in the top end and stationed a SAR member at the bottom of the single track on Hwy 128.

Comments: A late start on a long ride, not prepared to be out at night.
Responders: Frank, Sam, Nancy, Shawn, Dick, Kevin, Mark, Chris

On March 7th, a large rock fall occurred during a technical rock rescue training session being conducted in the park. Seventeen people were attending the training. The rock, estimated to be between 30 and 40 feet long and weighing over one ton, fell nearly 300 feet from the top of a sandstone cliff. It struck a small protrusion near the beginning of its fall, causing a loud noise, then broke up on its way down. The noise alerted six people who were directly below, sitting down to take a lunch break. They scattered just before the rock hit the ground a few yards behind the lunch location and exploded.

Two park employees were injured. Andrew Fitzgerald was knocked to the ground by flying debris and suffered a head injury and multiple lacerations; Lee Kaiser, who was not among the six, injured his legs lightly while trying to get away from the flying rock.

Fitzgerald was treated for his injuries, secured to a litter, lowered over the side of a 100-foot cliff to a second team, then transported a quarter-mile cross-country to a waiting ambulance. His injuries turned out to be relatively minor, and he was released from the hospital later that afternoon.

Rain had fallen off and on for several days prior to the training session. Examination of the release site at the top of the cliff revealed that a large sandstone flake had simply let go of the surrounding rock. The rain-weakened condition of the sandstone, an existing crack in the rock, and freeze-thaw conditions typical of late winter in the area are thought to have been the primary reasons for the natural release.

The high-angle rock rescue training is a joint NPS - Grand County SAR session conducted annually before the visitor season begins. Those who were directly below the falling rock with Fitzgerald and therefore had a "near death experience" were Murray Shoemaker and Nathan Plants from Arches NP, Dan Habig from Canyonlands NP, and Bego Gerhart and Frank Mendonca of Grand County SAR. [Jim Webster, CR, ARCH, 3/10]

Comments: Pretty dang scarey.
Responders: All NPS participants in the class and Frank, Dave, Chris, Bego from GCSAR.

Additional description of the incident added by the webmaster...excerpt from an email to a friend...

Six of us were relaxing for lunch Wednesday...sitting in our usual spot near the back of the ledge...three or four were sitting about 100 feet away...the rest were at the base of the wall. Suddenly, there was a noise that I'll never forget...I've heard it before...but never so close...and never directly above me. A sizeable rockfall had started at the top of the cliff. I heard someone yell "ROCK!"...we probably had 3 seconds to get up from our seated and reclining positions...and get a safe distance away. How far can you be from a seated position in 3 seconds? (surprisingly far)...or as long as it takes tons of rock to fall about 300 feet...actually about 250...because we did not hear the fall until it hit a ledge about 40 feet from the top. That hit on a very narrow lip was our warning.

The other five guys looked up...I did not. Each one of them later said the same thing..."The sky was black." For me, the sky was filled with that sound...the world was filled with that sound...the universe was filled with that sound. Some people said they thought it was thunder. You know...the ear-splitting crack thunder makes when it hits within a hundred yards or so of you.

The rock hit extremely close to us as we were running...we were each hit with a lot of flying rocks from that explosive impact. I didn't look back until a few seconds after the noise stopped...kept expecting another hit...kept expecting to be hit. But when I looked back, I saw Andrew lying there...face down...motionless...in a small depression...with his feet toward me.

Two NPS Rangers/EMT's started assessing Andrew and the rest of us went into auto-rescue mode...started putting everything together to do a technical litter lower off the wall. The ambulance was called. We hauled a litter up the wall and packaged our friend...then sent him over the side with an attendant. He was at the ambulance within about an hour of the rockfall. But he's fine...he was back at Arches by 4 that afternoon...face and head covered with bandages...a dinosaur bandage across his nose...and a big smile. And he was back in the class the next day.

After the rescue...we went back into the rockfall area to retrieve packs, waterbottles, etc...several were smashed and our packs were full of rocks and sand. The main portion of the rockfall had hit just behind where we had all been sitting. About 100 feet of the ledge was covered with debris and a fine dust.

The Colorado Basin River Forecast (www.cbrfc.gov) has recently issued their first (March) forecast for the upcoming runoff.

There is a 90% probability Cataract Canyon will exceed 15,000 cubic feet per second.
There is a 75% probability Cataract Canyon will exceed 27,000 cubic feet per second.
There is a 50% probability Cataract Canyon will exceed 40,000 cubic feet per second.
There is a 25% probability Cataract Canyon will exceed 54,000 cubic feet per second.
There is a 10% probability Cataract Canyon will exceed 60,000 cubic feet per second.

Just before GCSAR officer’s meeting, we were paged to a broken ankle on the SRBT, 3.5 miles out. This location is best accessed from Lion’s Back rather than the parking lot. In went the Ranger with an EMT aboard, 2 ATVs and Josh in his Bronco. The OIC moved up to the parking lot for better communications.

The ATV “task force” looked around the given area and then a larger area but couldn’t find the subject. A bit later, bikers finishing the trail at the parking lot reported that the subject was limping out and was east of the Abyss. The problem here is that there is a section of trail we can’t get to except on foot. Josh, on foot, found this guy right in the middle of this “black hole.”

So the task force came out, drove around and got as close to the subject as possible on the east side. We sent in the wheel for the Litter and more man power. It all worked out from there.

Except Josh got his Bronco way stuck. Brad had to go rescue him. Josh is very embarassed.

Comments: -Expect the unexpected. This incident expanded by over 2 hours cuz the subject didn’t stay where he was reported to be. We had to go find him.
                    -All SAR members in the field should have a GPS so Command can keep track of exactly where everyone is. Especially important if units split up to search.
                   -Always take cold weather gear, EMTs included.
                   - The wheel always goes out with the Litter.
                   -The Bronco always goes out.
Responders: Mandy, Rex, Bego, Kent, Sam, Brad, Josh, Lee, Dean, Aug, Jeff, Mark, Kevin, Steve, Frankie, Jeremy, Dick, Chris

Comments:
Responders: Mandy, Frank, Sam, Nancy, Bego, Shawn, Chris, Lee, Dick, Jennie, Dean, Aug, Frankie, Dave

Dispatch called me at about 20:15 (?) hours after being unable to reach 1T801, who was the OIC. Dispatcher Matt patched me through to the dad who was at mile marker 1 on the Slickrock Trail...he said his son was at Shrimp Rock and walking toward the trailhead. They were communicating via handheld CB.

I told him to have his son stay put and not try to walk the Slickrock Trail without lighting. (You may remember we had someone walk off a small cliff in the dark near Shrimp Rock a few years

ago.) I gave the dad directions to Shrimp Rock following the main bike trail...made sure he had adequate lighting...and told him I'd call back in 30 minutes or so.

He indicated he did not want SAR to respond yet. About 30 minutes later, they were reunited...so the dad was either a very fast walker, or the son was not at Shrimp Rock.

Comments: The son had set out to do the practice loop at 6 pm. He completely missed it and kept going. I asked him why he set out on a ride when it was about to get dark. He said, “It wasn’t dark when I left.” I asked why he didn’t turn back. He said, “I didn’t know if it was farther to turn back or keep going.” A short lecture followed. The dad did good tho.

In the middle of a series of Honey-do’s, Steve White slices his gas line. “Blue Stake?”

well...the 10 o'clock display turned out to be just a prelude...like Chump Change warming up the crowd for Iron Butterfly...hope you've been out. Shortly after 11, a few red streaks started to extend over the high point on Adobe Mesa. They got brighter ...spreading...elongating...multiplying. In just a few minutes, half of the sky was filled with bright red undulating streaks...glowing...like light from countless red-gelled celestial spotlights. And I do mean half of the sky...from east to west...and to directly overhead ...streaks pointing south. They would travel across the sky in waves. it was like the sun was setting in the north...though I don't think I've ever seen such a deep red in a sunset. And I just stood there muttering "oh my god...oh my god..." over and over again. At one point, a small blue-green blob appeared...like a hole in the sky...a door to a parallel universe...and it grew...and grew...a glowing, amorphous blob crawling across the northwestern sky...devouring the red streaks...and then fading...making me wonder if I'd just seen what I thought I saw.

“ A FEW GOOD WOMEN “ From an article the Salt Lake Tribune, Sunday, 1 April 01:

Cadet Veronica Bullock, a self-described “adrenaline junkie” from Moab who hopes to work with police dogs for the Grand County Sheriff’s Office, considers the differing standards an opening for those who think physical frailty should keep women from police jobs.

“If we are going to do the same job as the men, then we should have to do the same things in the gym,” she said.

Whatever she may lack in brute strength is compensated by her tenacity and training, which she looks forward to using.

“I can’t wait to take down my first bad guy and cuff him,” she said. “I didn’t get into this to be gentle.” {And several pictures too}

Rangers were notified around 1 a.m. on March 21st that a search was underway for a downed aircraft and that the ELT fixes indicated that it might have crashed in the park. The Piper Cherokee 140 had been reported missing on the previous afternoon. A unified command was set up with the Greenwater VFD, and search teams from the park, Seattle Mountain Rescue and Tacoma Mountain Rescue began searching for the plane in the Lost Creek drainage. An Army Chinook helicopter conducted an aerial search of the drainage, checking out ELT hits picked up by a CAP aircraft. The wreck was found at the 4,250-foot elevation of Slide Mountain on a steep, heavily timbered slope. The plane was not visible from the air, but searchers spotted flames issuing from the wreckage. A search team was flown to a landing site in the upper Lost Creek drainage by the Chinook. They traversed the mountain along the 4,400-foot elevation until they reached the site. Two fatalities were confirmed. The remains were flown from the crash site by long line from a contract helicopter. Aircraft recovery efforts have been suspended until late spring or summer. An investigation into the accident continues.

Comments:
Responders: Mandy, Rex, Frank, Sam, Nancy, Shawn, Chris, Lee, Dick, Jim, Dean,Frank, Levi, Jeremy, Bob, Dave

The RP said the subject was at mile 1.2 on the SRBT. So we went in the Yellow route. Nope. The subject was at Mile 1.6 so we switched to the Blue Route. It is not possible to take ATVs on the bike trail between those two locations (the Black Hole).

01- 10 4- 5- 01 On a cold rainy night, he had matches. Lost biker on Poison Spider.

Mike became separeted from his buddies about an hour before sunset. They had just left Little Arch on the Poison Spider Mesa to return to their camp on Hwy 279. His buddies looked for him a bit, then descended to the cars before dark. One pal drove his jeep part way back up while others hiked up the Portal Trail to the top. After midnight, they decided to get some help.

We were paged at 0030 or so. Raining. Pretty chilly but not weird cold. We took 5 ATVs and Jeep de Rex. Concurrently, Dave and Bob hiked up the Portal Trail and looked around up on top. Lots of searching for rained on tracks and yelling into the night by all of us. Turns out he heard us once and yelled back but..... At 6 am Chris (who knows the area pretty well) and Shawn found his bike and at 6:30 am the rest of us found him. This was at first grey, rainy light and just 45 minutes before we were to call Arches Helicopters.

The good news was that he had matches even tho his pals swore he didn’t. He was standing next to his small campfire, built on the Poison Spider Loop Road. Good thing: he was not prepared in any other way to spend that kind of night out. His first question: “What animals are out here?” We assured him that all the animals in Grand County but the 9 of us were home, warm and dry.

Comments: Mike at 0621739 x 4270113. Bike at 0621869 x 4270569
Responders: Rex Frank, Sam, Bego, Shawn, Chris, Dave, Bob

Way over on the other side of Hurrah Pass in Jackson Hole, this gal was flying down hill and then flying over her handlebars. Big crash. Her friends went to the outpost home called Camelot to call for help. At first it was thot to be a San Juan County response but friends of GCSAR Don and Jude Tuft got on the phone with dispatch and said it should be a Grand County response. Good call.

The 4 wheel drive ambulance driven by that one R. Ace Collins took off followed by GCSAR with the Ranger and 2 ATVs. Brad thot it best to set up a communications relay on Hurrah Pass cuz where we were headed is radio dead. It’s a ways back in there. We treated Sarah and put her on the Ranger.

As we were responding T Berry and Steve Swanke came up with the idea to transport our subject by boat from Camelot to the Potash Boat Ramp, thereby saving Sarah much and much bumpy vehicle riding. Extra credit idea, that one.

Comments: Alot of good ideas came together nicely. Thanks to Don and Jude Tuft for getting dispatch straightened out about who, where.

Responders: Mandy, Brad, Levi, Jeremy, Frankie (too many Mallory’s ??), Sam, Bego, Aug, Frank, Chris, Dave, Lee, TBerry and the very famous Steve Swanke C520

It just occured to me yesterday that the outdoor sports scene today is WAY different from what it was in the 1970's. Now, this is obvious, but a new angle popped up that has me a bit bummin'.

Back in the 70's, almost every biker, boater, skier, climber I knew was also way into Ed Abbey and Carlos Castenada, say. It seems like the cosmic influence on outdoor sports has dropped off to about zero these days.

But by cosmic I don't just mean 'groovy.' Basically, it seemed like outdoor sports people back then all had active cross-cultural connections going on between their sports and art and literature and music and politics. Hey, and I might as well confess that sex and drugs weren't strangers neither. At the same time, these scenes were also closely connected with tradition! People from the *several* previous generations were always around. Grey-haired climbers and skiers were never very far away. The WW2 crowd of men and women were the teachers and leaders. They had a strong influence. Even though maybe they were conservative. Maybe conservation was simply a good enough middle ground to let old and new cohabit wonderfully.

Now, the youngsters were just as extreme, did just as much shredding. Yet they seemed to be into broadening their minds and fully into learning from their elders and hanging with them. (The mountain hut scene with old and young hikers lodging in the boonies was a fine one.)

So they were hardcore back then. Actually, maybe more hardcore. They were happy to do without, to make do. Of course there was tons of hitchhiking and teepee living---adventurers did a lot of squatting, not just the 'homeless.' My Brit pals tell me about dirtbag climbing trips to Scandanavia living only on potatoes and sugar.

Anyway, today they're hardcore, but don't seem to have much else going on. The cyclists look and act like RoboCops, showing up to events with their armor then splitting right afterward.

I just saw an old photo I took at the finish of the Vasa XC Ski Marathon (when it was 2nd in N. Am. to the Birkie). The picture is one of the leaders coming thru. A spectator is passing him a pitcher of beer and he's taking it with a big chug.

Furthermore, there are no culture books about our sports anymore. No alternative,underground style books. OK, there are some. --William Neely with his kayak and mtbike comic books. Is that it? Sure, roadbiking has some race history literature now, which it never had. But that's not it. There's a fancy scene book on mtbiking. Not it. Some critical overviews of millionaire mountaineering--not it.

I'm talking about folk literature. Books on the outdoor scene with crusty opinions that are connected to the lead elements in the rest of the culture (if they can be found). Books like this would emphasize homebrew do-it-yourself approaches. Remember the old Mountain Gazette? That was the forebear to Mariah and Outside Magazine. Has anything been lost in the transition?

The Colorado Basin River Forecast (www.cbrfc.gov) has recently issued their second (April) forecast for the upcoming runoff. The normal time of the peak is between May 15 and June 17.

There is a 90% probability Cataract Canyon will exceed 18,000 cubic feet per second.
There is a 75% probability Cataract Canyon will exceed 28,000 cubic feet per second.
There is a 50% probability Cataract Canyon will exceed 39,000 cubic feet per second.
There is a 25% probability Cataract Canyon will exceed 50,000 cubic feet per second.
There is a 10% probability Cataract Canyon will exceed 60,000 cubic feet per second.

Parking the Boy Scouts:   Frank, TBerry, Dick, Jim, Rex, Bob, Dave, Chris, Aug, Levi, Mandy, George.
Lining Up the Parade:   Frank, Rex, Jeff, Dave, Lee, Jennie, George, Jim
Dump Bump traffic jam:   Sam, Bego, TBerry, Lee, Dick, Dave, Jim
Bego wrangled the UHP helicopter, fuel and pilot for 3 days.
Sam was all over the place helping City and County units numerous times all week.

Comments: Excellent response.
Responders: Frank, Sam, Bego, Jeff, Chris, Lee, TBerry, Dick, Aug, Kevin, Dave, Matt

With some handy help from Steve White we mobilized. We arrived with EMTs. We transported.

Comments: Bego had to be rescued by some bikers when he got his ATV stuck in a tree. Oh?
Responders: Frank, Bego, Lee, Dave, Sam

Comments:
Responders: Frank, Sam, Nancy, Bego, Jeff, Lee, TBerry, Dick, Jim, Mandy, Frankie, Dave, Dean

We went up with the wheeled litter and EMTs. He walked down with an inner tube sling thingy.

Comments: Ready Pack everybody !!!!!
Responders: Frank, Sam, Bego, Jeff, Dave, Chris, Lee, TBerry, Dick, Jim, Jennie, Aug, Lee

Willard Anderson, 44, of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, was killed while mountain biking on the remote White Rim Road in the park's Island in the Sky District on the evening of April 24th. Anderson was on a four-day mountain-biking trip with a group of eleven people, including his wife and two children. He was going downhill on Hardscrabble Hill when he evidently ran into a large boulder adjacent to a curve. There were no witnesses. When he was discovered by visitors, he was not breathing and had no pulse. Rangers and a county deputy recovered his body. An autopsy is being conducted, and an investigation is underway. Ranger Paul Downey was IC. Steve Swanke, DR, CANY

Mountain biker down with head injuries. Sent in breakapart Stokes, KED and wheel. Subject wheeled down the trail to ambulance.

Comments:
Responders: Frank, Sam, Nancy, Jeff, Matt, Chris, Lee, Dick, Jim, Dean, Aug, Mandy, Frankie, 134B62

Three overdue hikers between the radio tower on the Sand Flats Road and Negro Bill at Hwy 128. Said they were going via the rappel at Morning Glory Arch. Time of callout was midnight: 30. Subjects located by 1 T 12 at trailhead shortly thereafter.

Comments: Not enuff daylight time to do what they intended.
Responders: Brad, Sam, Lee, Frankie, Jeremy