Kayaker fatality

[hikeaz]

Grand Canyon, AZ. – On Monday, January 10, at approximately 11:40 a.m., the Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center received a report from a private river trip of CPR in progress.

Rangers were dispatched via helicopter to river mile 44.5 on the Colorado River just below President Harding Rapid. Upon arriving at the scene, rangers took over efforts to revive the 40 – 45 year-old male kayaker, but were unsuccessful.

Members of the party reported looking back after they had successfully navigated the rapid to see the man's kayak upside down in the water. They retrieved him as quickly as possible, then began CPR and called for assistance.

At approximately 4:30 p.m., the body was retrieved via helicopter and flown to the South Rim where it was met by the Coconino County Medical Examiner.

The kayaker's name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin. The National Park Service is conducting an investigation into the incident.

[imike]

As in many sports, there are old Kayakers, and there are bold Kayakers... but there are few, Old, Bold Kayakers!

[azbackpackr]

Scary stuff!

[big_load]

As in many sports, there are old Kayakers, and there are bold Kayakers... but there are few, Old, Bold Kayakers!

Yeah, my first exposure to kayaking was having a graduate school classmate drown in white water. My next was when a coworker's son drowned while sea kayaking. While I enjoy paddling, I'm definitely far from bold in a kayak. My condolences go out to the victim's family and friends.

[imike]

yep, I've lost many friends and fellow boaters in rafting and kayak mishaps. There is a very small window of opportunity to get to breathe once under water... and too often you are a bit distracted at the moment. White Water is amazingly forgiving, but, it is also water. You just can't breathe the stuff.

[Dschur]

Flood traps Valley man under 8-foot falls in remote stretch

A kayaking trip turned deadly for a group of friends Saturday when a veteran outdoorsman drowned in a remote stretch of the East Verde River below Doll Baby Ranch...

read all @ http://www.paysonroundup.com/news/2013/ ... ast-verde/

[big_load]

@Dschur
Yikes! I wonder if he was aware of the waterfall, or whether he thought he could run it.

[azbackpackr]

He had a longer boat, that's what it said. So, it may not have been one of those new short boats they use for waterfalls. Of course he knew it was there! An 8 foot waterfall is nothing for some of these guys. I would bet he had run it many times. But anyway, it is very, very sad.

[big_load]

Of course he knew it was there! An 8 foot waterfall is nothing for some of these guys. I would bet he had run it many times. But anyway, it is very, very sad.

I know a few people who run bigger falls, but they're the kind of folks who do first runs on mountain rivers and that type of thing. The only guy I know who did that big a drop unintentionally had nowhere near that level of skills I still don't understand how it happened.

I've only kayaked in flat water, and I've always been wary because the first two kayakers I met drowned in what are normally considered routine conditions.

[azbackpackr]

I took whitewater kayaking lessons at NAU, but didn't learn the roll. Learned to brace, wet exit, etc. I'd still like to learn the roll because it is useful in touring boats as well. I have been down Grand Canyon (mostly I was in a raft) with some of the worlds best boaters, including Dennis Huntley of North Carolina, who has been a kayaking and canoeing instructor for over 40 years and was an Olympics kayaking trials judge: https://www.youtube.com/user/dennishuntley?feature=watch

My trip is on Dennis's youtube page, Fall 2012--that was the trip where I was the permit holder for the group. I did a little kayaking down lower, starting at Separation Rapids, under Dennis's tutelage. I have also kayaked the Verde, White Bridge to Beasley, in a playboat, at 880 cfs. All that being said, I don't think it is something I am going to be doing a lot of. I would require several hundred hours of lessons, practice and guidance to be able to do much with it, and I can't afford that kind of time and expense. These East Coast guys talk about "boat days" the way we western backpackers talk about "bag nights." Conversations that go like this: "Dude, he was logging, like 90 boat days before summer even started."

I do enjoy kayaking, however, so I am looking for a touring boat at the moment.

[imike]

It is very common for injury and death in a kayak to result from lower level rapid conditions... what appears easy can rapidly develop into a major problem. Years ago one of the best boaters on the west coast died going over a simple three foot tall falls... I've pinned myself in class II rapids! The Big Water moments are usually survived.

Kayaking, like a number of sports holds to that old: "There are old kayakers... there are Bold Kayakers... there are few, Old, Bold Kayakers"

It is unfortunate that he got into trouble... bad luck.

[Azbackcountry]

Trip report from a member who was on that fateful trip:


The Loss of a Titan
>> Trip Report In Memory of our Friend Jim McComb
>> Saturday, March 9, 2013 around 3:30 pm
>> By Bill Langhofer
>>
>> On Friday it was raining and I did what I always do when it is raining, I called Jim to see what we might be able to kayak. I was heading to work , with my truck geared up, hoping that one of the rivers would kick with the storm. Jim arrived at the clinic and called my staff and told them that Dr. Langhofer’s cohort in crime was in the parking lot. I just finished my last call and ran out to the truck and threw my gear into Jim’s Grand Cherokee “THE BEAST” and we were off to the high country. We ended up paddling a section of West Clear creek that neither of us had previously paddled. We started boating in driving sheets of rain, then sleet, then snow. By the end of the run the rain had stopped and we went to a country store next to the river, where Jim asked for the phone book and looked up a client of his that lived in Camp Verde. He called the “best elk hunter in the Verde valley” and asked for a ride back to the truck, which he gladly provided. The elk hunter commented on the ride that his wife was still looking for a doctor like Dr. McComb, and she had not been satisfied with the selection of doctors since he retired. Jim demanded that the elk hunter take forty dollars for shuttling us and take his wife out for dinner.
>> While Jim was driving home, we evaluated the rainfall amounts, river levels, and snow levels on my I PAD as we debated what to paddle. Jim stated that this would be the perfect storm for the East Verde and fondly reminisced the last time that he ran this section 15 years earlier with his good buddy Rob. That was in the days before hourly water gauge updates, and you had to call a hydrologist at SRP to ask where the rain was going. Jim called his wife Joanne told her he loved her and he was on his way home, while I made a bunch of calls to set up shuttle and to notify the other likely members of our party.
>> The following morning Jim, Ryan, Spence, Matt myself and our shuttle driver met at the Denny’s in Fountain Hills. We loaded up and headed to Doll Baby Ranch next to the Verde wilderness. On the way we crossed American creek that had 18 inches of water running, and Jim reminisced of another time that Rob and him had paddled this creek down to the East Verde in similar conditions. When we arrived at the ranch it was lightly snowing, the trees on the mountains were covered in snow, and the sky was gloomy. Spence was having trouble loading his boat as this was his first overnight kayaking adventure, and as usual Jim jumped in to offer his years of experience in expedition packing a kayak.
>> We started down the river and almost immediately Jim upstream pinned under a log, I jumped into the water and pulled him out from under the log. We walked around the trees and continued on our way. Ryan was leading down the river, while I swept from the back. The river soon dropped into the first gorge and the walls of the wilderness started closing in around. The large amount of trees that have grown up in the river bed made the travel difficult. The rapids were overall class 4 and would have been enjoyable if not for the continuous trees. At one point Jim stated that the tree anxiety was exhausting. A juvenile bald eagle watched us from his perch as we passed deeper into the wilderness.
>> We arrived at an 8 foot waterfall that Ryan was scouting from his boat. He paused for a second while leaning on a rock at the top of the fall, which prompted me to paddle to the shore to scout the drop. I arrived at shore, and as I went to get out of my boat Ryan stated that the drop was good and paddled over the edge. I stood up and saw Ryan in the pool below. I motioned Matt, then Spence who both paddled over the edge and had uneventful runs. I then motioned to Jim who slowly paddled to the edge and leaned forward as he went over the drop. Due to the murky water of the East Verde, we had not noticed a piton rock (or log) at the bottom of the waterfall which the bow of Jim’s boat hit. The stern settled into the top of the waterfall, and water started spraying over the back deck of Jim’s boat. He was immediately pinned on the bow of his boat and covered with water. I ran to the edge of the waterfall and threw my throw rope across the river and hit the spot where he disappeared into the fall. There were no hands that came up and the rope was immediately washed off him into pool below. I made repeated attempts to throw the rope into the falls, while Ryan ran up the opposite side of the river. Matt joined and started throwing his rope into the falls. Each time the rope was washed off the falls into the pool below. I told Spence to get back in his boat and wait in the pool below in case Jim was freed. Ryan got to the top of the drop and swam out in the river, where he jumped on the rock next to where Jim was pinned. Ryan asked where Jim was and I frantically pointed into the waterfall. Ryan laid down on the rock and reached into the waterfall, but could not feel or see any sign of Jim or his boat. Ryan then threw a rope to me and I jumped into the water below the falls. He tried to pull me up to the boat, but the force of the water pulled me under and almost pulled Ryan off the rock. I let go of the rope and swam to Spence who paddled me to shore. I ran back up the shore to the falls were Matt was still throwing his rope. Matt snagged something in the falls and we started pulling but the rope just released and came out of the falls.
>> We noticed a black spot that came floating up behind a rock at the base of the falls, Ryan laid back down on the rock and reached out and grabbed Jim’s lifeless hand. He felt around in the water until he located Jim’s PFD, and he attached a carabineer and rescue rope under water. Matt and I repeatedly pulled on the rope and Jim’s body and boat remained in the falls. We set up anchors and pulleys to help with the extraction. Over the next 15 minutes with repeated attempts and with all of us pulling we were finally able to free his body from the waterfall. Jim’s boat and paddle remained in the waterfall. The entire extraction took over 30 minutes, and Jim was underwater the entire time. When he arrived at shore his eyes were fixed and dilated, he was unresponsive, his skin color was purple, but his eyes were still as blue as the sky. We carried his body up to the base of the cliff. I muttered a simple “I love you and I will miss you Jim”. I took off his cobalt blue helmet and set it on a tall dark, red rock out in the open so that the rescue personnel could easy spot it from the air. We were surrounded by 1,000 foot cliffs that disappeared into the clouds, and the only way out was down stream. Ryan and Matt checked their cell phones to verify that they had no service. I carried my boat down the shore, got in below Jim’s fall and we proceeded down the river. We paddled for 3 more miles until we passed the East Verde gauge station. We continued another mile until it was too dark to keep paddling, so we stopped and made camp under a grove of sycamore trees.
>> The following morning the sun was shining. We packed our boats and got back on the East Verde. We paddled for another hour and a half before we reached the Verde. The following 22 miles down the Verde was overall uneventful and we arrived at the boat dock at the edge of Horseshoe Lake around 6 pm on Sunday evening. We went up to the truck and drove around looking for a ranger or dam manager, and none could be found. We then loaded our gear, and drove into the city until we found reliable cell phone service to call the police. Jim’s body was removed by rescue personal from the canyon the following day.
>> Jim will be sorely missed by all who enjoyed his company. He is the type of person that made you want to start hunting, fishing, snowboarding, golfing, or paddle boarding, just so you could spend a little more time with him. In the end we are reminded to enjoy every minute, and celebrate life, because that’s what Jim did.

[big_load]

Thanks for sharing the details. It must have been a terrible experience for all involved.