Date of Event: 6/24/2016
Canyon involved: Davis Creek
Region: Oregon
Country: United States
Submitted by: Dan Halim
Source: www.ropewiki.com, self-report by Tiffanie Lin
Injury: Trapped in hydraulic, near drowning.
Cause: Fall or slip. Equipment setup error (pack on side). High water flow.
Description of Event: I fell 40′ down a waterfall into the most dangerous hydraulic of Davis Canyon with a pack on my back and a bag clipped to my side. I’m writing this partly because I think it’ll be therapeutic but also because I hope people can learn something from it as well.
We went into Davis Canyon in the Pacific North West at extreme levels. This is a canyon I’d run 4 times prior (in high flow) gone first or last on all the dangerous sections, and was able to escape the potholes/hydraulics. There was at least 30-40% more water when we went in. The canyon has changed significantly since the last season – logs that were anchors had been flushed away, rappels are now jumps, logs used as footholds are buried 2 feet underneath the water, downclimbs became slides, and the swirling potholes weren’t just swirling, they were swirling and all white water. The last technical rappel is the most dangerous. It’s 80 feet and all the water lands in a hole about 3×4 wide (and very deep). Even in high flow, we normally rappel directly into the flow and land in the hydraulic and escape it. It’ll bob you up and down for a while…but with a couple good kicks and diving down, you can catch the current out. With the current flow, our group decided it would be safer to avoid this hydraulic. This required rappelling down some very slippery rock Down Canyon Right, crossing the waterfall, getting onto a ledge, traversing to a ledge, getting off rope and jumping 30 ft from the chaos. Once you start crossing the waterfall, you run the risk of penduluming. Two people had gone down before me. We needed to deploy the pull line so as to set up a guided rappel. The anchor is on a slippery slope Down Canyon Right and Luca had attached two rope bags to my side before I got on rappel. In order to get around him, I had to go below him and step over the rappel line (it was tensioned by the force of the water). As I started rappelling, I realized the lines were crossed and that some of the ropes had started to come out of the bag. I struggled to fix the issue as I was slipping on slippery rock, had problems pulling up the rope bags and moving them since they were getting pulled down by the water, and had problems lifting the rappel line since that too was getting pulled by the water. Luca saw the issue and told me to ascend back up. He thankfully made the call that I was too frazzled to deploy the two rope bags and instead gave me a bag to take down instead. With the bag clipped to my side and my own pack on me, I rappelled down a couple feet. I slipped, but no problem, I’ve done that before and got back up. Now I had to cross the slippery waterfall. Once you start crossing the waterfall, you are out of the fall line and risk penduluming. I could tell the pack on my side was getting pushed by the water and was throwing me off balance. When I crossed the waterfall, I slipped again. But this time, I was in the full force of the water, and I struggled and kicked to get back on my knees and feet. I should have locked off to free my hands to get myself upright, but I death gripped the rappel line with both hands below the descender. When I was back up on my feet, I was 2 feet away from a ledge; I took a step, and all I remember after that is that I was falling, being engulfed in water, having a tremendous amount of water pushing me down.
I hit a few things on the way down but before I knew it, I was deep inside a hydraulic and took a few good spins. I attempted to swim to the surface, but even with a few strides, I still wasn’t at the surface. I remember thinking “shit, I didn’t breathe before I landed.” I wanted to take a breath but still hadn’t broken the surface. I kept kicking and eventually made it to the surface. I remember feeling relieved but then immediately felt the pack at my side dragging me down. Immediately I knew I was not in a good situation but all I could think to do was to just keep my head above water so I could breathe. I tried swimming out but the pack kept pulling me back. The entire waterfall was also crashing down on my head. I just remember trying to swim out (more like flailing my arms) and suddenly I was getting pulled out.
Thor had thrown a rescue rope and though I had no clue that he had thrown it, I had somehow managed to grab it and Logan and Thor pulled me out. The first words out of my mouth (and I think I repeated it a few times) was: “I couldn’t get out, the pack kept pulling me down.” I luckily came out with a few bruises and a whole bunch of new things I’ve learned.
ICAD Analysis:
-Minimal friction should be used to avoid inverting or entrapment. One must keep the body bent forward (not look up); tilting the head forward can provide a small pocket of breathable air, but if water flows are too dangerous, they should be avoided. Creative anchoring may be necessary to build rappel stations out of the flow of highly dangerous, fast-flowing, water sections.
-A large surface area item such as a pack or rope bag can result in much more force acting on the rappeler. Packs and rope bags should be thrown, zipped or attached only over one shoulder while on rappel in moving water. Chest straps should be unbuckled, as should hip belts to ensure that packs can be jettisoned in the event of an emergency.
-Attempts should be made to stay out of the stream of fast moving water. Slowly rappel in order to carefully place the feet, and keep a good rappelling posture to ensure proper balance and reduce angular forces on the wall to ensure maximum grip. The maximum friction your feet will provide is when you are perpendicular to the surface, with as much weight as possible in this vector.
-Hydraulics can be very dangerous and in this unique case, flotation can be a danger rather than a help, as the key to escaping hydraulics is to get below the circulating current. Packs should be removed beforehand to ensure maximum swimming potential, and loose gear attached to the harness can get caught in cracks and trees in the water and should be secured as best as possible (eg. loose slings, open carabiners, etc).
-In swift water, throw ropes can be life-saving safety devices. Ensure that the proper rope (floating) is used in the throw bag, that it is properly packed and ready for deployment, and that the thrower is trained and proficient in the use of throw ropes. Oftentimes, inexperienced rescuers throw the wrong (loose) end of the rescue rope, resulting in extremely poor effect. Swiftwater training courses will demonstrate how to properly throw rescue ropes, and additional training is highly recommended for those exploring more dangerous class C canyons.