HikeArizona.COM

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Kind of goes along with the recent posts

Really sad, I was lucky that when I broke my ankle I had Fan with me. And again for some reason my cell phone worked from that spot.
And from my experience when I am able to hike again I will have a Spot with me.
I will be back in the Superstitions but better prepared. When you hike alone can you really be prepared for anything?

This story is such a tragic one its a reminder of how easily things can go sideways. I worry less about me being hurt and more about the people who are going to end up having to look for me if I am hurt, lost, trapped, ect. I also owe it to my family to be prepared. The easier I can make it for them to find me and get information about my situation the less likely an accident will happen with that process. I carry a PLB in addition to some radio gear on anything other then my Usery hikes. The PLB and Ham Radio usually work were cellphones don't.

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@nonot
I don't know enough about climbing really, but I don't get it, in the article it said they did not estimate rope length properly, so if it was too short wouldn't he have just been suspended in air above ground? Why did he eventually fall to his death? They were not very clear in article with those details..

@friendofThundergod
If you don't tie a knot in the end of the rope (because you didn't know the rope was too short) and you can't stop or slow yourself down in time, the rope will slip through your descending device and you'll rappel right off the end.

@Dave1
thanks...I was not really following how the tragedy happened...I just kept picturing the rope being too short and was not following how that would lead to death..

I really don't know what happened. But I wonder if he just laid there and died or was it quick. I hope I was quick l can't imagine being on that ledge and not being able to help. A spot would have been handy here. The out come may not have been different other than spending lets time on that ledge and being helpless.

@nonot
Actually No Man's canyon is a side canyon of the Dirty Devil River and while considered in the Roost area is a different spot than Blue John which dumps eventually into Horseshoe canyon sector of Canyonlands Nat'l park.

Here's a link to a recent trip in the canyon that Ralston was trapped in. http://www.bogley.com/forum/showthread. ... ohn-Canyon


More detail from the survivor--http://www.bogley.com/forum/showthread. ... 27s+Canyon

This is a great but remote area, I've hiked up No Man's from the river but obviously not anything technical. I've been in Blue John too but didn't like some of the downclimbs ( I was solo) so didn't go far. This was many years before Aaron had his accident.

@RedRoxx44
Hmmm, when I first read the story a year or two ago, the accident was reported in Blue John. Googling shows most reports now place it in No Man's. The initial report must have been wrong, maybe to hype of the comparison to Ralston's accident.

Wow, the piece of tape marking the halfway point on their rope had come loose and moved, so the rappel was now on one short length and one long length of rope - high potential for disaster. Possible solutions: 1) mark the rope mid-point with a manufacturer-approved solvent-free ink (Beal makes one), 2) better yet, always feed the rope through the anchor keeping the ends and then the two strands together while pulling them through, making sure the rope's mid-point coincides with the anchor point.

Good lessons, unfortunately learned at a high price.

@friendofThundergod
@Dave1
If he had just Rappelled off the End, then the Rope would most likely have stayed put up above allowing the Survivor to retrieve the Rope and get down unless the other longer end was suspended with weight somehow when he went off the short end...I wonder if he grabbed the longer end and tried to rig it somehow so he could go off of it and just didn't get done what he wanted to do before he went off the short end, causing his weight on the longer end to blow the rope all the way back through the Rigging and Anchor. When you hear of these accidents, there can be so many possible Scenarios, it's hard to say....But apparently, according to the surviving brother, the brother on the Rope seemed to know what to do about it and was addressing it somehow and something just went wrong.....

If you rappel double strand and one strand is shorter than the other, when the shorter strand passes through your device, you fall and take the other (longer) strand with you. Usually the short strand will come all the way down but it could hang up on the anchor, depending on how much weight is left on it vs the weight of the longer side pulling it down. It's the same reason you usually only have to pull the pull side of a rope less than half way, at some point, gravity of the long rope side wins over friction plus the gravity of the short rope side.

Thread degradation but it's why I like SRT but then I'm a caver by training for rope work. Been on the short end of a rope twice while dropping mine shafts. No knot on the end. Generally I'm feeding rope out of a rope bag tho ( don't want to throw down a shaft usually as it is a great chance for getting the rope hung on something), and I'm a slow rappeler so I can see what's coming up. Also on those drops I was using a Petzel stop which I love, you're not supposed to but for a moment or so you can be hands free on that device if needed--handy in mine shafts where you might be dodging timber, wire etc. Another advantage as is unlikely will let the rope whip out of there. And lastly I wear my ascending harness and have my ascenders at hand if I need to reverse quickly on a drop, when the bottom is unknown. Such as going into a flooded shaft and you are above water . I know my set up is very bulky and not workable in canyoneering but I like it and it suits my needs.