Incident:Stuck hiker airlifted in Rubio Canyon 2017/03/04
Incident:Stuck hiker airlifted in Rubio Canyon 2017/03/04 | |
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Date | 2017/03/04 |
Location | Rubio Canyon |
Severity | No loss |
Canyoneering-related | No |
SAR involvement | Yes |
Navigation problem | Yes |
Environmental problem | No |
Communication problem | No |
Planning problem | Yes |
Skills problem | Yes |
Body movement problem | No |
Rigging problem | No |
Rappel problem | No |
Insufficient gear | No |
Gear failure | No |
Summary
A non-canyoneering hiker was airlifted from near the Shortcut drop in when she was ledged out attempting to exit the canyon.
Accounts
From Ken Lee: On Saturday, March 4th, Chester, Carissa, Johnnie, and I decided to run Rubio with the Leontine extension. A “quick” canyon, just before Kim’s Party. We met up at the trailhead around 9:30 a.m. As we were getting ready to head on trail, the lady in question drove up and asked, “Do you guys know where the trailhead is?” That probably should have been a clue that she shouldn’t be hiking this trail. She got on trail before us as we were sorting out gears and we passed her near the ruins.
We had just rappelled below Diana’s Bath on our way to Thalehaha Fall, when from high up, down canyon left, we heard someone talking/yelling. It was difficult to make out what she was saying, so I made me way across the riverbed followed closely by Johnnie and Chester. I began to make my way up a loose gulley and saw that she was perched on a ledge. The hillside was so loose that I was kicking down rocks the size of baseballs to bowling balls with almost every step. I asked, “How did you get up there?” and she replied, “I came up the same way you’re coming up.” She had presumably dropped into the canyon before reaching the Leontine drop in. In her attempt to exit the canyon, she had climbed as high up as she could and became ledged out. As I approached her, she was on the phone with whom she said were “the rangers.” It turned out to be Sierra Madre Search and Rescue Team who was covering for Altadena Mountain Rescue Team according to the Altadena Sheriff’s Station post on FB. Apparently, SMSR was asking her for her location and she didn’t know it. She asked me, “Where are we?” I responded with “Rubio Canyon just below Diana’s Bath.” She repeated that information to the person on the other end of the phone. The three of us continued to make our way towards her with me reaching her first. She was on a ledge that was just wide enough for her to sit on and me to stand facing up canyon just behind her. I tried to step up on the cliff just behind her and the small rock ledge crumbled. I almost slid into her. It became completely clear to me why she got ledged out there. Johnnie made his way to the left of me and up canyon a little further in an attempt to locate the hiking trail above. I also made my way a few feet to the left of the ledge from where the lady was sitting to get on “firmer grounds,” so I would not knock her off the ledge. Chester positioned himself just to the right and below her.
Our plan was to have Johnnie get to the hiking trail that was above us, anchor the 80’ rope that he was carrying, have me bring the rope to her, sandwich her between Chester and me and use the rope as a hand line to get her back to the hiking trail. Not long after that we heard Air 5 approaching the top of the canyon and I knew then they were going to hoist her out of there. I told everyone to hang on when Air 5 approaches, because the rotor wash was going to be nuts. It flew right over us and then turned around and slowly made its way back up canyon. At one point it was at eye level only a couple of hundreds of yards out. I started waving at the Air 5 with my bright orange shell on and they quickly located us. As Air 5 moved closer, I pointed towards the lady and they inched the airship closer to the ledge. The noise coming off the rotor was deafening and the rotor wash bounced off the horseshoe shaped gulley almost pushing me off the cliff. I had to lean into the side of the cliff so not to be blown off. Soon after that they began lower the deputy out of Air 5 and he spun around a couple of times. It took 2 attempts for the deputy to finally land on the ledge and “horse collar” her. As they began hoisting her up the deputy looked over at me and mouthed “are you ok?” I gave him a thumbs up. Soon after securing her in the airship they departed the area setting her down at a nearby park. We then proceeded to make our way down to the riverbed one at a time so not to kick rocks down on each other. Since, Johnnie was the highest up canyon he was the last one to come back down. As Johnnie was about to reach the riverbed, Air 5 flew back up canyon to check on us, saw that we were all ok, then departed for Barley Flats. We talked about what had just happened as we made our way to Thalehaha Fall and I recalled someone saying, “We’re going to be late for Kim’s party now.”
LESSON LEARNED: I thought about the events that transpired and wondered if there was something else we could have done differently. For starters, I would have fashioned a chest harness from the webbing I had and placed it around her after I got to better footing. It was too precarious of a place where she was sitting to try and do that. We could have then carabinered the harness to the rope Johnnie had. It would have provided her added protection if the ledge she was sitting on gave, if she had slipped before the Air 5 was able to hoist her, and kept her from being blown off the ledge by the rotor wash. Fortunately, none of those events occurred.
In the a reply to a question by a reader of Altadena Sheriff’s Station FB post, Altadena Sheriff’s Station stated there were two hikers near her. Johnnie was high up canyon near a tree. They may not have seen him. There were no other hikers in the vicinity.