Incident: Canyonner swept over drop in Seven Teacups 2025/06/14
| Incident: Canyonner swept over drop in Seven Teacups 2025/06/14 | |
|---|---|
| Date | 2025/06/14 |
| Location | Seven Teacups |
| Severity | No loss |
| Canyoneering-related | Yes
|
| SAR involvement | No
|
| Navigation problem | Yes
|
| Swift water problem | Yes
|
| Environmental problem | No
|
| Communication problem | Yes
|
| Planning problem | No
|
| Skills problem | Yes
|
| Body movement problem | No
|
| Rigging problem | No
|
| Rappel problem | No
|
| Insufficient gear | No
|
| Gear failure | No
|
Summary[edit]
Canyoneer gets caught up in the flow and ends up over the lip of the spillover between the “tall” rappel with the Washing Machine and the “nuisance” rappel.
Teammate dives in to grab him, then 2 others assist with a human chain. Within 10 seconds, he is swept over the edge. He somewhat let go to avoid putting teammates at risk, but also somewhat lost grip due to the funneling of flow. He fell ~20′, very luckily, into a deep but narrow pothole below.
As he escapes the hydraulic pothole, he recognizes that he will next be pushed over a ~60-80′ waterfall, and attempts to stay mostly in the pothole.
Another canyoneer is down below out of view, as she completed a side bypass to avoid the washing machine. She hears the commotion and grabs the rope. She tosses the middle of the rope twice, and the deployment fails. Then she tosses the rope bag, removes slack, and pendulums him out of the pothole and fights the current to get him back to dry land.
The fallen canyonwer wraps the rope around his arm to make sure he can not let go and be swept over the next ~60-80′ drop. No injury, but a near miss.
Analysis[edit]
- Complacency - fallen canyoneer reflects that he was not diligent enough to avoid getting swept towards the lip. He’s experienced and competent, but he reflects that he got too comfortable and distracted
- Unbagged rope - fallen canyoneer reflects that dragging rope from one rappel to the next bogged down the fallen canyoneer’s swimming efficiency
- Prioritizing rope - fallen canyoneer reflects that he should have abandoned the rope to be able to swim more effectively once the situation unfolded (Note: sweep turned into a fall within 9 seconds)
- Lack of sequencing - (outsider feedback from V7 Academy founder) 5 teammates all crossing exposed pool at the same time, would have been easier to manage the safety of each teammate if only crossing 1 at a time
- Lack of pool exit awareness - (outsider feedback from V7 Academy founder)
- Lack of mitigation of risk - (outsider feedback from Dusty Gold). Diver also reflects that a handline could have mitigated exposure at this crossing. Tosser reflects that some mitigation was completed, but not collectively (i.e., bypass washing machine together without splitting up). Bypass rigger reflects that “canyon GAR risk” would have kept us out of the canyon altogether. Tosser tried to convince the group to bail at the beginning of the teacup, but the group had some element of summit fever (long travel, lots of rescheduling, etc).
- Rope scarcity - tosser reflects that when the bypass team rigged their line, they took all of the ropes (except 1 line) away from the other half of the team. The fallen canyoneer had that 1 rope. The fallen canyoneer was the only person on the washer machine team who had a designated throw bag. Tosser reflects that every teammate should have an easily accessible toss bag at all times in class C (same way we all have a knife at all times).
- Toss technique - Tosser reflects that the first flake caught a loop, the second flake either got caught on the descender, or Tosser was too gripped to deploy the rope properly. Tossing the rope bag allowed for much better accuracy
- Successful rope hold -Tosser and fallen canyoneer reflect on how he held on. He wrapped the rope around his arm and had heavy-duty rubber gardening gloves, which helped his grip. (Note: using rope bag handles without wrapping rope could create another possible point for failure if the handles tear off, if the rescuee loses grip, or if the rope is not properly tied to the bag.)
- Communication - Tosser reflects that nobody whistled to her, and she approached the scene in response to indirect communication. Urgency was not understood until she saw/heard the fallen canyoneer.
- Hydraulic technique - the team reflects that the fallen canyoneer was comfortable enough with the hydraulic to be in control despite the conditions of the pool below
- “Wrong thing at the right time” - fallen canyoneer reflects on how 1 teammate dove after him before he got to the spillover lip. Although it put more people at risk, ultimately, it’s what projected the fallen canyoneer into the deep (although narrow) pothole below
- Community response - Tosser reflects on over 100 comments on the Facebook forum. The majority of comments are constructive, curious, and compassionate. This helps us discuss and discover lessons to make the community collectively safer.