Date of Event: 7/16/2012
Canyon involved: Imlay
Region: Zion National Park, Utah
Country: USA
Submitted by: Dave Nally
Source: “Deaths & Rescues in Zion National Park” by Dave Nally
Injury: Ankle fracture, leg fracture
Cause: Anchor failure, Rappel on retrieval side of blocked single rope
Description of Event: The incident involved seven canyoneers in Imlay Canyon, who requested help for two people in their group who had taken separate falls.
Members of this group began their descent of Imlay Canyon on July 16. It’s one of the park’s most technical canyoneering routes. Imlay requires over 20 rappels, extremely cold water swims, and numerous potholes requiring specialized techniques in order to escape.
As members of this group were completing a 10-foot rappel, using a log that was jammed crosswise in the canyon as an anchor, the log anchor failed, and a 20-year-old man who was on the rope, fell, and appeared to have suffered a lower leg fracture. The injured man was moved a short distance down canyon to a wide area known as the Crossroads, and the group spent the night there with him. The next morning (Sunday, July 17), one party member stayed with the injured man, while the remaining five canyoneers continued on the route down Imlay, promising to send help.
Late in the afternoon, this group of five arrived at Imlay’s last rappel―which is a 140-foot free-hanging rappel into the middle part of the Zion Narrows. The first canyoneer completed the rappel, and then without waiting for anyone else in his party to come down, he sprinted ahead of his group towards the Temple of Sinawava trailhead―two miles downstream―in order to report the previous day’s incident.
The group was using a carabiner-block technique at this last anchor―allowing party members to rappel on one strand of rope, while using a second strand of rope (tied to the first rope), that functions as a pull-cord. When the second-to-last member went to rappel the drop, she mistakenly attached her rappel device on the wrong side of the rope―the pull-cord side. When she leaned back over the edge and put weight on the rope, she fell the entire distance into the shallow rushing river of the Narrows below―a distance of 140 feet. Her life was most likely saved by the friction from the bunching and twisting of the rope as it whipped through the rap-ring anchor―slowing her fall just enough at the last second, to prevent her from landing at full speed.
While a ranger at the trailhead was taking information from the group’s runner concerning the lower leg fracture incident, a tourist rushed to the trailhead to give the report of the woman from the same group, who had fallen 140 feet. Rangers quickly organized a carryout via raft litter, and evacuated the woman to the trailhead. They got her out shortly after midnight. Miraculously, her most serious injury was a shattered ankle.
The next morning, Monday, July 18, Grand Canyon National Park’s contract helicopter and short-haul team was used again―this time for evacuating the man with the initial lower leg fracture out of the center of Imlay Canyon. The use of the helicopter’s short-haul prevented the need for a long, difficult technical rope rescue.
Analysis: Lacking details on the log-anchor failure, it can only be said that this anchor was probably not properly assessed before use, or perhaps was misused. As to the other accident, rappelling on the retrieval side of a blocked single rope is a potentially deadly mistake. A good way to reduce the risk: attach the retrieval side of the rope to the anchor with a locking carabiner, ideally with the retrieval rope packed in a rope bag that is also clipped to the anchor.
It should also be noted that the group size limit for Imlay Canyon is 6 people. Two affiliated groups are not permitted in the same canyon or drainage the same day.