Incidents:Canyoneer stuck in recirculating slot Seven Teacups
| Canyoneer stuck in recirculating slot Seven Teacups | |
|---|---|
| Date | 2017/08/05 |
| Location | Seven Teacups |
| Severity | No loss |
| Canyoneering-related | Yes |
| SAR involvement | No |
| Navigation problem | No |
| Environmental problem | Yes |
| Communication problem | No |
| Planning problem | Yes |
| Skills problem | Yes |
| Body movement problem | Yes |
| Rigging problem | No |
| Rappel problem | No |
| Insufficient gear | No |
| Gear failure | No |
Summary
Canyoneering group had one member slip and fall into recirculating current in the end slot section of Seven Teacups. Said member was unable to free herself from current. Required intervention from our group who passed them some time back.
Accounts
We saw this group traversing from the toilet bowl rap to the tree DCR with one person on belay. They were all in tee's, shorts, and/or bathing suits.
Equipment they had: Climbing rope One ATC Each had their own harness and helmet Assorted climbing gear
Prior to our meeting they had just finished jugging out of the toilet bowl due to too high flow. I walk up to the tree DCR and aid the person who's traversing the waterfall as she seemed to be nervous about the traverse whiel on belay. Her belay point was the rap station of the toilet bowl, which would've been a pendulum fall into the shallow pool below/rock wall next to toilet bowl exit. Anyways. We fix their line across the water so they can confidently cross to the tree. I use one of my ropes to set up a rappel for them to use on said DCR tree and go set up the toilet bowl rap for my group. As my group finishes the toilet bowl, we discover that they're very slow on rappel. They're using double strand technique using the center of the rope as THE spot to set it. Once someone rappels down, they tie a knot below the ATC and someone at top pulls it up. With the toilet bowl rap cleaned I walk over to my set rope on the tree they're using. I offered my rope to them again but they insisted on using their rope. I asked how they think they can cross the river, their leader said they hope so.
I rap down, clean my rope and work our way to the redirect rappel. As my group finishes clean rope from the redirect rap, one of the members approaches the redirect but doesn't use it. Stephen tells him to tell his team mates to use the redirect next time so they don't risk falling into the slot. On our way to the most most upstream portion of the teacups bank side we hear a loud scream. We backtrack a bit and run into someone in our group who said he was just yelling "Hello." We hit the most up stream part of the bank and Rachel comes running telling us the other group needs help—someone was stuck in a waterfall. Stephen and Kyle, some of our strong swimmers, head back while the rest of us work on the guide line.
From what I was told Stephen and Kyle needed each other to get her off her device. The water's recirculating and added to the danger of rope entanglement. I was told person stuck on rope in the water had a backpack full of water pulling her down as well. After setting up part of the guideline I realize none of them have lights, dusk was already upon us. So I head on over to them with the only light in our group. By the time I arrive I find the stuck canyoneer was shivering on slab half way out of the canyon slot. We comfort her and I give her my canyoning pack to help her float to the river bank. We get her in my wetsuit to warm up and use a inflatable to minimize wind chill while seeking shelter in a cut away of the rock. Kristine and Rachel bring dry clothes from our packs upstream and we get our victim some food and water. My group heads up and crosses the river while I talked the other group into taking the Brennan approach exit. They're not familiar with the route so I take them out and we finish around 1am under a full moon.
It was a pretty hike
On the way out I asked what happened:
•The stuck canyoneer slipped and fell. She was in tennis shoes. Any approach/canyoneering shoe would've probably been a lot better. •Their leader had lots of out door experience but not so much rope work experience. They were uncertain of what to do in that situation to aid. Having another rope to rappel down to help the person could have helped. Maybe even rappel down to the redirect to throw the stuck person a rope to pull out. •Wetsuits weren't utilized and this could've ended sadly should she be stuck in the water longer. A wetsuit could buy her more time and energy on trying to get out by keeping her warm and providing some floatation. •Lack of remember the beta ended in not utilizing the redirect possibly causing the slip if she traversed lower than needed
