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Full Moons: Jun 1 and blue 30, July 30, Aug 28, Sep 26
07- 44 5- 4- 07 ATV Rollover
Moab Rim Trail
An ATV rollover that put handlebars to head. The
EMTs hiked up to the subject.
We soon received word that a private jeeper was
bringing the subject downhill. This private jeeper turned out to be "Gray
Wolf," a retired guy from
Colorado who spends months in Moab each year. He has helped us before by
being in the right place at the right time. He says he likes to "Pay It
Forward."
Thank YOU to a Good guy.
Responders: Frank, Rex, Bego, Steve, Kris, Lee, James
07- 45 5- 5- 07 ATV Rollover
Behind the Rocks Trail
Just west of the Winding Sand Hill an ATV rolled
over, injuring the gal.
We responded with the 4 wheel drive ambulance and a San
Juan County deputy. By the time we arrived at the scene it was getting dark.
CareFlight had
been paged and we ran around looking for an LZ in the rugged, forested
landscape. There was a postage stamp LZ near the scene but Steve went
looking
for Plan B.
Joe the pilot, on night vision gear, got nearly to the
ground but backed off cuz it was too small. He landed about a mile away.
We packaged the subject in a litter on the Ranger and
drove her over to the helo.
Responders: Frank, Bego, Steve, Cody, Lee, John
07- 46 5- 5- 07 Agency Assist
Arches NP Carry Out
A tragic event by any definition. The leader of a
high school group hiking in Arches had a heart attack right there. Some of
the youth did CPR for an hour.
We were paged to help out, then 10-22 cuz there were
enuff NPS personnel.
Arches NP is to be commended on the CISD effort mounted
for the students immediately after learning the facts. The CISD included,
amongst others,
Margaret Hopkin, Dick Pacheco, Sharon Brussels.
Responders: Frank, Bego, Steve, Margy
07- 47 5- 5- 07 Mountain Biker
Hypothermia Porcupine Rim
Clouds and gray all morning, storm cells around the
area. In the afternoon, a fast moving snowstorm moved on to Porcupine Rim up
near the 6000 foot
level. There were maybe a dozen mountain bikers up there at the time.
This gal got too cold. No matches or spare clothes.
They called 911. It sounded like she was in pretty bad shape. They were
about half way thru the
whole trail.
Other bikers stopped to help by finding a bit of
shelter and getting her feet on to someone’s belly.
GCSAR responded by sending the rapid response team of
John on his motorcycle with some extra clothes and matches. We then sent 2
Broncos thru
the muck up to the jeep road in from the top. And 3 hikers with extra
clothes started up the single track from the river road.
The bikers that passed the hikers had little good to
say about the situation. A while later, Dispatch called saying they had
spoken on the phone to the
cold party again and they were on the move. And a while later still, the
cold party came by the rescuers, pushing their bikes down the trail. The
storm had
abated and the gal warmed up enuff to continue on.
Responders: Frank. Rex, Bego. Jim Webster, Steve, Lee, John
06- 48 5- 7- 06 Mountain Biker Head
Injury
The cell phone call was not very encouraging about
the injuries so CareFlight was launched immediately. The RP even provided
coordinates. Fortunately,
this area of the trail has few trees, hence, many landing zones.
GCSAR responded with a Ranger and ATVs in case the helo
had trouble. It would have been about dark by the time we reached the scene.
The helo
did its thing. 10-22.
Responders: Rex, Steve, Nancy S, Lee, John
07- 49 5- 11- 07 Motorcycle Knee
Injury Golden Spike trail
Oh good. A chance to see Gold Bar - Golden Spike in
the day time.
This guy wrenched his knee at the Steps, up hill from
The Golden Crack. As we were responding with ATVs and EMTs he hitched a ride
in a jeep. We
met him part way up Gold Bar and Rangered him back to the ambulance.
Responders: Rex, Bego, Lee, Barbara
07- 50 5- 11- 07 Mountain Biker Down
Porcupine Rim Singletrack
The location of this incident was hard to decipher
at first. Turns out this injured biker was just a half mile from the cars up
the Porcupine Singletrack.
A litter and wheel deal.
Responders: Rex was busy on 07- 49 so TBerry, Melissa, Barbara, Cody,
Jim, Shawn, TJ, Eric
07- 51 5- 12- 07 Plane Crash
Mineral Canyon Airstrip
The Pilot landed, didn’t like the soft spots in the
dirt runway and tried to take right back off. He didn’t have the airspeed to
clear the tamarisk at river’s
edge and nosed into a sand bar in 2 feet of water a hundred feet from shore.
Some canoeists rescued him and his camping gear. Kind of took care of his
camping trip.
Responders: Rex, Frank, Jim, Barbara, Murray, James, Kris, Melissa,
Steve, Nancy S, TBerry
07- 52 5- 13- 07 ATV Off Cliff
Onion Creek
He is said to have gone off a 50 foot cliff in
Onion Creek, a narrow canyon with just enuff room for a creek and a road.
The road crosses the creek
many times and is quite high above the creek in some places.
EMTs called for CareFlight so we landed the helo well
out of the narrow canyon and transported the medical team up to the scene by
vehicle. He was
stabilized and brought back to the helo.
Responders: Frank, Bego, Melissa, Kris, James, Steve, Bill Stone and his
kids.
07- 53 5- 20- 07 ATV Accident
West of the Potash Ponds
Woman injured in ATV rollover, just barely in San
Juan County. 1 Z 22 Tim Jones responded, called for CareFlight, asked us to
come help.
Responders: Bego, Nancy S, Barbara, Margy, Jim, Bill Stone, Joe Carlson
C525
07- 54 5- 23- 07 Boating Accident
Westwater Canyon Colorado River
This started out scary by a report of people
floating around in the Room of Doom, next to Skull Rapid. The report came
out via satellite phone. The guide
said they would park two boats downstream and try to hike up over to the
Room and fetch the people out.
Turns out, there were two boats in the Room with some
people in each AND some people in the water. All of a sudden, one boat gets
washed OUT of
the Room. How unusual. A nurse pulled an unconscious female out of the water
and gave her some rescue breaths- poof, conscious. Wow.
A local river company stopped to help. In about 2
hours, everything was OK and they all floated out to Cisco Boat Landing.
GCSAR and NPS arrived at the ramp moments later.
Responders: Bego, Lee, Steve, Barbara, Jon, John, Paula
NPS: Kyler, TBerry
and Paul and their big boat
07- 55 5- 27- 07 Rhino Tipover
Cotter Mine Road
The Rhino started to tip over so the passenger
female stuck her leg out. The Rhino fell on her leg. We were paged but 10-
22d cuz this accident happened
on a 2WD road.
Responders: Bego, Rex, Duckie, Lee, Steve, Kris
07- 56 5- 27- 07 Overdue PWC on the
Colorado River Potash Boat Ramp
This guy took off downstream from the Potash boat
ramp on his PWC. After his wife waited a long time, she called. Just after
we were paged, he appeared.
Responders: Nancy
07- 57 5- 28- 07 Hiker Broken Ankle
Negro Bill Canyon
A 48 year old female with a possible broken ankle.
We litter and wheeled her out to the road.
Responders: Nancy, Rex, Margy, Duckie, Lee, James, Kris, Jim, 13B61 and
13B62
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Upper Colorado River Basin Hydrology
Projections for April through July runoff to Lake Powell in 2007 remain
low. The water supply picture in the Colorado River Basin neither improved
nor
weakened in April. April was a month with periods of above average and below
average temperatures, with precipitation nearly average. The May final
unregulated inflow forecast for Lake Powell is 4.0 million acre-feet. This
is only 50 percent of average.
Unregulated inflow in April 2007 was 801,900 acre-feet, or 81 percent of
average. Above average temperatures the final two days of April and first
two
days of May produced has produced a surge in stream flows. This surge in
stream flows is just now reaching Lake Powell. Inflow to Lake Powell is
currently
16,000 cfs (May 4, 2007) and is increasing. The peak inflow to Lake Powell
for 2007 will probably occur within the next several days, with the
magnitude of
the peak likely near 25,000 cfs. However, Lake Powell inflow the second half
of May and all of June is projected to be much below the historic average.
Throughout the basin, snowpack diminished significantly as we exited April
and entered May.
Basinwide snowpack above Lake Powell is now only 46 percent of average
(May 4, 2007).
Water year 2007 (which began on October 1, 2006) started out "wet," with
October precipitation over 200 percent of average. Inflow to Lake Powell in
October 2007 was 184 percent of average. Unfortunately, the pattern quickly
changed. During the five-month period of November 2006 through March 2007,
basinwide precipitation was below average. March 2007 was a particularly dry
month, featuring above average temperatures and below average precipitation.
Normally, mountain snowpack increases in March. However, in March 2007, a
significant reduction in snowpack occurred, which in turn, substantially
weakened the water supply picture for 2007.
The current elevation of Lake Powell (May 4, 2007) is 3,600.6 feet, 99.4
feet from full pool elevation of 3,700 feet. The water surface elevation of
Lake
Powell reached a seasonal low of 3,597.4 feet on March 16, 2007. Under the
current inflow forecast, Lake Powell would reach a seasonal peak elevation
of
about 3,606 feet in late June 2007.
Upper Colorado River Basin Drought
The Upper Colorado River Basin is experiencing a protracted multi- year
drought. Since 1999, inflow to Lake Powell has been below average in every
year
except one.
In the summer of 1999, Lake Powell was essentially full with reservoir
storage at 23.5 million acre-feet, or 97 percent of capacity. Inflow to Lake
Powell in
1999 was 109 percent of average. The manifestation of drought conditions in
the Upper Colorado River Basin began in the fall months of 1999. A five year
period of extreme drought occurred in water years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
and 2004 with unregulated inflow to Lake Powell only 62, 59, 25, 51, and 49
percent of average, respectively. Lake Powell storage decreased through this
five-year period, with reservoir storage reaching a low of 8.0 million
acre-feet
(33 percent of capacity) on April 8, 2005.
Drought conditions eased in water year 2005 in the Upper Colorado River
Basin. Precipitation was above average in 2005 and unregulated inflow to
Lake
Powell was 105 percent of average. Lake Powell increased by 2.77 million
acre-feet (31 feet in elevation) during water year 2005. But as is often the
case,
one favorable year does not necessarily end a protracted drought. In 2006,
there was a return to drier conditions in the Colorado River Basin.
Unregulated
inflow to Lake Powell in water year 2006 was only 73 percent of average.
Water year 2007 will almost certainly be a year of below average inflow.
The current projection for spring runoff into Lake Powell is only 50 percent
of
average. Projected inflow to Lake Powell for the entire 2007 water year
is 68 percent of average. With 2007 projected to be a below average inflow
year,
one sees
that over the past 8 years (2000 through 2007, inclusive) inflow to Lake
Powell will have been below average in all but one year (2005).
Updated May 4, 2007 Tom Ryan
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With permission from the San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/06/03/MNG42Q685T1.DTL
Putting their lives on the line to keep others safe in Yosemite
by Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer
When Scott Clancy slipped on the wet granite and lost his grip on the
cable at the top of Half Dome, in Yosemite, he didn't have time to think
about death. He was sliding so fast toward the cliff that everything was a
blur.
Then, as if the hand of God had reached out, his sweatpants caught on a
rough patch of stone and arrested his fall at the edge of the abyss.
"The friction of my sweatpants against the rock was all that was holding me
up there," said Clancy, a 22-year-old helicopter instructor from
Fresno. "I was about 30 feet from the drop-off."
Clancy's harrowing ordeal in October ended three hours later when a search
and rescue team, dispatched after witnesses called 911, flew a helicopter
to the top of the famous 4,733-foot hunk of granite and pulled him to
safety.
He is one of a growing number of adventurers whom Yosemite's search and
rescue teams have saved from horrifying predicaments on the towering
cliffs and thundering waterfalls and in the vast wilderness that make the
area both beautiful and dangerous.
Once little more than a rag-tag group of climbers who volunteered to help
rangers in emergencies, a separate search and rescue program was established
by the park service in Yosemite in 1974. It is now a force of at least a
dozen highly trained technicians, with support from 20 expert rock climbers,
nearly
100 park rangers and dozens of specialists -- from scuba divers to search
dogs -- who are on call when circumstances demand.
There is plenty of demand. There were 219 search and rescue operations in
Yosemite National Park last year, 216 in 2005 and 207 in 2004. That's
approximately 40 more missions every year than a decade ago, park officials
said.
Clancy's seat-of-the-pants rescue was one of the more bizarre. Rock climber
Alexander Scola's ordeal on May 17 was arguably even more dramatic.
Scola, of Germany, was 1,700 feet up on the Nose route of El Capitan when he
fell and the cam device holding his climbing rope pulled loose. He fell
more than 100 feet, bouncing off a ledge before the anchored rope stopped
his fall. His femur was broken, three vertebrae were smashed and he was
knocked unconscious for about a minute. He somehow managed to climb back up
to the 18-inch-wide ledge as the search and rescue team launched
a helicopter.
"We saw right away that they were having trouble with the wind, so they had
to make several tries," Scola said Thursday from his hospital bed. "I was
hoping they would make it because I knew if they couldn't get to me with a
helicopter I would be up there for a long, long time."
Two rescuers were lowered by a rope onto the tiny ledge, where they placed
Scola in a litter that was hoisted into the helicopter.
"The helicopter pilot did a great job because the rotor blades were really
close to the wall," Scola said.
The search and rescue team practiced that type of rescue recently on a
colossal hunk of rock known as Fairview Dome, near Tuolumne Meadows.
"Sixty feet rotor clearance, 20 feet above the site," said a voice over the
headset inside helicopter pilot David Boden's helmet.
The voice was from a rescuer hanging 150 feet below Boden's craft, which was
rocking and swaying in the wind as he attempted to lower the man
onto a ledge some 500 feet up the sheer rock face.
"Fifty feet rotor clearance, 10 above. Five above," said the rescuer. Then,
a moment later, "I'm down."
The technique they were practicing is called "short hauling," which means
transporting a victim on a litter attached to the end of a rope.
On this day, Boden would make 26 passes, each time dropping off a rescuer,
who would then put a "victim" on a stretcher and await pickup. The
rescuers would hang 150 feet below the helicopter before it would drop them
off at a staging area.
"It's an exacting piece of work," said Boden, the chief pilot for Kachina
Aviation, which contracts out to the park service. "Every pickup is a
challenge."
Boden, a former Vietnam War helicopter pilot, said the rotor blades are the
biggest worry when flying close to a cliff. To pick up a climber on El
Capitan,
he said, the blades are sometimes only a few feet away from catastrophe.
"The key to this is the transition from the helicopter to the wall,"
explained Keith Lober, 53, the Yosemite search and rescue staging manager
and a veteran
of dozens of rescues. "You want to do it as fast as you possibly can because
having the helicopter tethered to the wall is a really bad position to be
in."
People have been tumbling off waterfalls and ledges, hurtling through
rapids and getting lost in Yosemite since long before Europeans arrived on
the
continent, but records began in 1851 when a California militia first
attempted to drive American Indians out of the valley.
Since then, 765 people have died accidentally in the park, according to the
book "Off The Wall: Death In Yosemite" by Michael Ghiglieri and
Charles Farabee Jr., former National Park rangers and members of search and
rescue teams.
Austin Pohil, a popular 21-year-old student at the University of California,
was the first known waterfall fatality. He flew off a 100-foot waterfall at
Snow Creek on May 13, 1913, after he tried to cross a swollen stream and
lost his footing.
Charles Bailey of Oakland was the first to die rock climbing. The
55-year-old slid off the west cliff of El Capitan on June 5, 1905, according
to the book.
Although death happens on a regular basis -- there are usually between 10
and 15 a year in Yosemite -- accidents and injuries are far more common.
There are now more rock climbers than ever scaling Yosemite's menacing
cliffs, but they account for only 15 percent of the rescues.
Ranger John Dill, who has been involved in almost every significant rescue
in the park over the past 35 years, said the vast majority of accidents,
about
60 to 70 percent, involve hikers.
"Hikers get themselves into the most ungodly places, " said the 69-year-old
search and rescue leader. Half Dome, which has seen a 30 percent increase
in weekend traffic since the mid-1990s, is one of those places.
A few weeks after the miraculous pants save on Half Dome, a woman slipped in
the same area and plunged off the edge to her death. In April, another
woman took the fatal slide off the side of Half Dome.
Dill said recovering a body for the family is sometimes all that can be
done.
"A person hit by a rock on a cliff may die because nobody could get there in
time," he said. "Mother Nature doesn't give you a discount just because you
are in a tough spot. Sometimes there is nothing we can do.
" Most rescues, according to Dill, involve such things as assisting a hiker
with a broken ankle. But there are between 10 and 15 short-haul rescues
off walls or out of otherwise inaccessible areas in Yosemite every year.
Helicopter rescues off cliff faces were extremely rare until the 1980s, when
Dill invented what is called "the bean bag technique" -- a system rescuers
ferry food and supplies to climbers by tossing victims a baseball-size bag
of sand attached to a thin nylon line that spools from a container.
Climbers use the line to reel in the supplies -- and ropes if they need to
be short-hauled off a face. Before Dill came up with the system, pilots had
to
rock their helicopters in an attempt to swing the rope to stranded climbers
or victims. On very steep cliffs or under overhanging ledges, it was
impossible.
The technique was used in October 2004 to help five climbers trapped on El
Capitan during a snowstorm, and in the recovery of the bodies of two
Japanese climbers on the face nearby.
"There was six to seven feet of snow on top of El Cap, and it was difficult
to get there, so people started a ground rescue, but it takes a lot of time
to
raise or lower rescuers," said Eric Small, a helicopter operations
specialist. "Like many rescues, it was a race against time."
Before helicopter rescue techniques were perfected, such a rescue would have
taken days. Even now, rappelling from the top to help an injured climber
on El Capitan can take six to eight hours in good weather. The helicopter
rescue of Scola last month took a little more than three hours.
Search and rescue operations can cost the government anywhere from $200 to
help an injured hiker get down a trail to several hundred thousand dollars
for a sustained search, said Adrienne Freeman, a Yosemite park ranger.
The epic search for 51-year-old Michael Ficery in June 2005 topped out at
$452,000, a record for the park. Ficery, an experienced backpacker from
Santa Barbara, went into the backcountry northeast of Hetch Hetchy and
vanished. His backpack was discovered on the side of a trail with a water
bottle missing, but despite weeks of searching, no sign of Ficery was ever
found.
Rangers speculate that he put his backpack down to get his bearings and then
lost the trail in the uncharacteristically deep snow or went to get water in
a swollen creek nearby and fell in.
A less costly rescue occurred last year when seven friends from Mariposa
hiked to the top of a glacier on Mount Ritter, just south of Yosemite. They
were caught in a storm, got turned around trying to hike down and ended up
spending a freezing night in an area where nobody had ever been lost before,
rescuers said.
Small said the group was located the next day after an intensive search and
short-hauled out.
"They were very cold and very hungry, and I don't think they wanted to spend
another night out there," said Small. "They were all roped together with
a clothesline or something and they had almost no gear except old wooden ice
axes like you see in museums."
Dill, who is often referred to as the guru of Yosemite's search and rescue
teams, believes that a little preparation and foresight can prevent most
accidents.
Rock climbing falls, he wrote in an essay called "Staying Alive," usually
occur because the victim "did not carefully ask himself, 'What if ...?' "
That is a question, albeit in a different context, that has been running
through the mind of Clancy.
"I am a first-hand account of a very, very lucky person, no two ways about
it," said Clancy, who is known to the rescue team simply as "wedgie man"
because his sweatpants -- not his underwear as some believe -- held him in
place for three hours in the compromising position well-known to
grade-school pranksters.
In a profession where death is always just a tiny slip-up away, it is
somehow comforting to know that there is a man who can thank a wedgie for
his life.
Keeping safe at Yosemite:
Yosemite hikers, backpackers and even park employees have over the years
gotten lost or hiked their way into trouble.
Experts said most accidents
aren't the result of one big error, but several small ones that add up. Many
of those killed or injured in Yosemite wandered from established
trails, underestimated the difficulty of their chosen route or simply
weren't adequately prepared.
Park rangers and wilderness safety experts offer the following safety tips:
-- Be prepared. Know your route, know the weather forecast, and outfit
yourself accordingly. Bring topographical maps and carry flashlights.
-- Tell someone where you are going and when you will be back. Leave an
itinerary at the ranger station, stick to established trails and avoid
going out into the wilderness alone.
-- Know your limitations. Consider how much you are carrying, the
altitude and the terrain. If the planned route turns out to be too much for
you, don't push it. Stop and readjust.
-- Adapt your plans to unexpected obstacles. Don't let your desire to get
to your destination keep you from turning back or bivouacking where
you are.
-- Allow ample time to return to camp or lodging before dark.
-- Recognize problems before they mount and take a minute to think things
through. If you get lost, stay put until you get your bearings. Wandering
aimlessly usually leads to bigger problems.
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07- 58 6- 6- 07 Boat Flip
Colorado River
This guy flipped in White’s Rapid and didn’t know
how to turn his small raft upright. So he was floating downstream, trying to
paddle his boat ashore.
We responded with our River Rescue Boat and helped him
out of the river.
Responders: Rex, Bego, Mike, Lee, Murray, Melissa
Rodeo Parking
TU: August put down white
stripes. The Big Wind took them away. Aug put them back.
TH: Nancy (sweeping arm
finger point), Bego, Dan, Lee, Mike, Barbara, James Pith Helmet, Dave
FR: Nancy, Kris, Lee,
Dave, Barbara, James
SA: Lee, Bego, Barbara,
James, Dave, Kris. Nancy was tardy cuz temperature challenged.
07- 59 6- 8- 07 Investigation
Colorado River
We launched the river rescue boat, went slowly
along the shoreline above Big Bend and looked for "something."
Nothing.
Responders: Bego, Melissa, Rex
Recovery 6- 11- 07
Steve White and Brent Pace took the River Rescue Boat up the Green River
to recover a heart attack victim at Rattlesnake Rapid. She was on a
commercial river trip and died in her sleep.
07- 60 6- 11- 07 Lost and Out of Gas
Golden Spike Trail
From Wisconsin, like 1 T 824. They drove and drove,
for a day and a half, and ran out of gas. They had a CB radio so they called
out and were heard
by a guy across the valley on Hells Revenge Trail. The 3rd party called
dispatch.
We sent 3 ATVs and guided them out.
Responders: Rex, Bego, Nancy, Barbara, James, Lee
6- 16- 07
Utah’s first recorded fatal bear attack. An 11 year
old boy was dragged from his tent and killed in a campground down by
American Fork, near the
urban stuff. The bear had been in the campground the previous day getting
into trash and threatening campers. It was tracked down and killed.
07- 61 6- 11- 07
Agency Assist Major Fire
This fire started in or near the Creek bottomlands
and spread in several directions. At least 2 houses were nearby. Everyone
responded: MFD, BLM,
NPS and a bunch of people in town that have big water trucks.
GCSAR did the usual, taking water and gatorade around
to the fire fighters.
Responders: Nancy M, Margy, Lee, Kris, Mike, Barbara, Rex, John, Duckie
07- 62 6- 29- 07
Wipeout Hill
"It was just a little... you know..." Nancy S.
Two guys on dirt bikes out for the evening. One bike
breaks. They started hiking "out" but not back the way they came.
Using our ATVs we found them well after midnight.
Responders: Rex, Nancy S, Mike, Barbara, Lee, Margy, Aug, a Sheriff’s
Deputy and two Moab City Police officers.
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