Flash Flood deaths in Escalante

[Reedus]

California couple drowns in slot canyon flood
September 11th, 2008 @ 9:54am
ESCALANTE, Utah (AP) -- Garfield County officials say a California couple drowned after being caught in a flash flood while hiking in a slot canyon.

Gordon and Kathy Chapple of Walnut Creek, Calif., were hiking in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument when the flood hit about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. Six others were also in the group, including the couple's son and daughter and a pair of hiking guides from Wayne County.

Garfield County spokeswoman Becki Bronson says guides Elizabeth Kleiman and Cody Clapp have said that the Chapples, both 60, were swept away when the flood hit. The rest of the group clung to canyon walls and was able to climb out.

Searchers found the bodies late Wednesday in a downstream drainage. A state helicopter is expected to fly into the area to recover the bodies Thursday.

Bronson says two people in the group also were flown to Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George to be treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[Reedus]

WOnder which canyon? One of the Egypt slots? Another claim for Chop?

[stefan]

from information posted from ram on the Canyons Group ...

EGYPT 3

[stefan]

looks like the guides are from Backcountry Outfitters in torrey


sad incident.

[trackrunner]

Bruce stared this post earlier today
http://www.bogley.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13786

[skianddive]

Gordon and Kathy Chapple of Walnut Creek, Calif., were hiking in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument when the flood hit about 2:30 p.m.
What a tragedy and loss!

I believe this is the same Gordon Chapple:

http://www.gordonchapple.com/ (http://www.gordonchapple.com/)

[Iceaxe]

Flash flood in Escalante slot canyon claims 2 hikers

By Lindsay Whitehurst and Mark Havnes
The Salt Lake Tribune

PANGUITCH - A California couple drowned in a slot canyon southeast of Escalante in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument after being caught by a flash flood.

Kathy and Gordon Chapple, both 60, of Walnut Creek, Calif., were on a guided hike with family members in a narrow canyon in the Egypt trailhead area when they were hit by the floodwaters about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, said Garfield County spokeswoman Becki Bronson.

It was raining lightly and the group of eight was hiking out when the water hit them about a quarter-mile from the upper mouth of the canyon known as Egypt Three.

"Literally, it was a matter of minutes from the time it started raining to the time it began to flood," Bronson said.

The hikers were swept down the narrow canyon until it widened out to about 50 feet. There, the banged-up survivors were able to escape by clinging to the walls of the slot canyon, according to Bronson.

But Kathy and Gordon Chapple had been swept away.

The survivors included the couple's adult son, Chris Chapple, and daughter-in-law, Liz Fries, 30, who suffered an injured ankle; and the couple's daughter, Katie Chapple, 32, and son-in-law Tom Schrupp, 33, whose shoulder was injured.

While Katie stayed with the two injured people, Chris Chapple hiked out of the canyon to summon help, along with hiking guides Cody Clapp and Elizabeth Kleiman, of Capitol Reef Backcountry Outfitters, based in Torrey in Wayne County.

Garfield County Sheriff's Deputy Ray Gardner said the 911 call came about 5:30 p.m.

At about 7 p.m. Wednesday, one of the guides and a sheriff's deputy were flown by a Classic Helicopter operator back to the canyon, where they located the bodies.

Garfield County Dan Perkins said the two victims were declared dead Wednesday evening, but the bodies could not be recovered at that time.

The two injured family members were flown to Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George, where they were treated and released, Bronson said.

By noon Thursday, the bodies had been recovered with the help of a Utah Highway Patrol helicopter, Bronson said.

The slot canyon hiking trip culminated three days of activities in which Backcountry Outfitters had taken the family horseback riding, all-terrain vehicle riding and on other outdoor activities, Clapp told The Salt Lake Tribune Thursday morning. But Clapp declined to say more about the fatal flash flood.

Clapp, a guide since 1994, is the founder of the company and guides tourists every season, according to its Web site.

Kleiman has been guiding for about 10 years, the site says, and is also a registered nurse.

Sheriff Perkins noted that even experienced hikers can be caught by flash floods in slickrock country.

"This is some of the roughest terrain in the world," added Bronson.

Larry Crutchfield, spokesman for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, said: "Flash flood is a warning we give over and over again. A very quick storm can happen miles from where you are, and the sun is shining, and all of a sudden here comes this wall of water."

Fast-moving thunderstorms passed above the Egypt trails about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, said Randy Graham, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. The storms deposited 0.2 inch to 0.5 inch of rain.

The Egypt Three area is located about 26 miles south of State Route 12 off the Hole-in-the-Rock Road, which is a dirt-and-gravel track that begins about 5 miles east of Escalante.

In April 2005, the bodies of two Brigham Young University students were found in the south fork of Choprock Canyon, a deep slot canyon accessible from the Egypt trailhead.

The two men were wearing wet suits and had gear for rappelling.

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site297/2008/0911/20080911_122029_Escalante-Slot-Drowning-091208.gif

[Don]

Always sorry to hear something like this.

[Scott Card]

This is sad. I just don't get it. That canyon is full of easy escapes and widens and narrows frequently. Crazy that .2 to .5 in. of rain could cause a flash. Yes I know the terrain and lack of dirt/vegitation. Still looking for answers. Hope the guide service has insurance.

[stefan]

E3 got a good steeply-dropping drainage atop it. i don't know exactly how much water you need, but if you figure .2-.5 inches over a large area, pooled together collecting into a very narrow slot canyon, it's not hard to imagine that a rapidly moving storm could make a deep enough flood. nat and i watched a hard downpour of rain send a raging flash flood over mindbender falls after 20-minutes.

[Scott Card]

Interesting post on the Yahoo Canyons group. Rick Green, one of the SAR guys made some great points. I don't have permission to cut and past so you'll have to check it out.

[skianddive]

Interesting post on the Yahoo Canyons group. Rick Green, one of the SAR guys made some great points. I don't have permission to cut and past so you'll have to check it out.
Thanks for posting this, Scott - a very important topic, IMHO.

Slight correction...Rick Green is not a member of SAR - he is the owner of "Excursions of Escalante" (http://excursionsofescalante.com/), an Escalante-based guiding service. He accompanied 2 SAR members to find and extricate the bodies since he was familiar with the canyon.

I don't have permission either, but I'm sure he won't mind the free advertising. Here's a direct link to it so you don't have to wade through the other messages and a copy of it if you are not a member of the Yahoo group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canyons/message/47112 (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canyons/message/47112)



Hello to the group. I rarely post myself, usually my reports are
sent in via Ram.......however the latest incident has prompted me to
get a little more involved.

I have been living and guiding in Escalante for 10 years and was the
first to arrive to the surviving hikers last Wed night. The scene
was emotional and unpleasant to say the least. The following morning
myself and two SAR team members performed the final task of victim
recovery, extremely unpleasant as well.

When you find a person/people in that state, you cannot help but ask
how the hell did these people end up here, at the bottom of the
canyon waiting to be placed in a bag? Freak storm? I don't think
so. It was completely obvious that this was no day to be in E3.
The sky was BLACK over area. ANYONE claiming that this storm was
unpredictable or that the skies "didn't look that bad" over Escalante
is kidding themselves into a false sense security. Can you really
look from Bryce and tell me what the flood potential is in
Escalante? And does the monsoon season end on the last day of
August? I will answer both questions for you. NO. Regarding
monsoons and floods, have a look at the video from a few years back
of a flood during one of my trips....a March monsoon? Risks for
flooding exists ALL YEAR LONG. Was it they're age that put them
there? They were the oldest members of the guided tour, yet in my
experience guiding folks, I've found that mature guests are by far
the easiest and safest to work with. They generally listen, follow
instructions, work hard and stay focused. They are also likely to
make a more mature decision on whether or not to enter sketchy
situations. So, IMO age is not a problem. Physical conditioning
plays more of a role than age. If your butt don't fit, it's hard to
pick up the pace. For the record, both victims looked to me to be
in pretty good shape for being 60.

IMO, people portraying this incident (from loosely gathered facts) as
a freak accident or as something unpredictable are being incredibly
disrespectful to the deceased and to they're families. What if some
of your family members had hired a guide and ended up in the same
position as the deceased? Would accept people describing it as an
unavoidable accident? I don't think so.

This has been the busiest season, by far, regarding SAR down here.
Boy Scouts without compasses/maps climbing out of the wrong side of
Coyote Gulch (totally stupid), "experienced hikers" huddled under a
bush (30 plus hrs) in Egypt with no food or water, wearing flip flops
and lots of blisters, "canyoneers" in E2 taking 40 hrs to complete
because "they know what they are doing" and "don't need any help",
lost guide service vans, people heading into technical canyons without
ANY equipment,etc, etc, etc. And now this. IMO this is total
Bull@#$% and completely unacceptable. This is not my town and this
is not my desert, however myself and a few others are the ones who
have volunteered to to come out and assist the folks who are getting
themselves in trouble here, so I feel my opinion here bears a little
weight here.

Penalty points are high here in Escalante. If you have not seen the
Egypt canyons flood, you should, before you start leading people in there.
Bring a compass and map to accompany your Kelsey's guide to
canyoneering for dummies. Bring a shovel to dig out your stuck
vehicle. Seek out and accept advise and information on the
conditions down here. Don't blindly trust your "leader", use your
natural instincts and don't be afraid to verbalize them to your
group (most times people report "not feeling right" about the
decision that put them in the predicament). And don't believe
the "facts" that show up on websites. For instance, ALL of the
Egypt canyons flooded during the last event, not just E3. What if someone
starts down in there thinking its dry? Tease out beta from as many
sources as possible to try and get the clearest picture of the
situation.

If this message upsets you, then it is designed for you. If you are
an experienced canyoneer then I am just beating a dead horse, but it
won't bother you much. If your one of the many "experts" I am
running into down here in trouble, then I'm sure your ego must defend
itself.

I'm not here to assign blame to the latest tragedy, despite KSL's
attempt to make it sound that way. The lawyers can fight that one
out. What I am trying to do is send a STRONG signal to the
canyoneers with a few years of experience who may be visiting
Escalante in the future.......have your sh#$ in a pile when you get
here. Ram and I have been talking for months about the dramatic
increase in visitors/problems down here. Please lets do our best to
inform family and friends of the risks of canyoneering here. We
love visitors and there's plenty of room for everybody, just respect
the remote nature and potential risks of these canyons.

Pardon the typo's as well as the "off color" language, recent events
have heightened the emotions here a bit.

Regards, Rick Green

PS We are glad to provide current information on the canyons to
anyone who has the need, just call 1800 UEXPLORE and ask for me.

[trackrunner]

Slight correction...Rick Green is not a member of SAR - he is the owner of "Excursions of Escalante" (http://excursionsofescalante.com/), an Escalante-based guiding service. He accompanied 2 SAR members to find and extricate the bodies since he was familiar with the canyon.

this is listed under Rick's bio on his webpage
Member of Escalante Search and Rescue

[skianddive]

this is listed under Rick's bio on his webpage
Member of Escalante Search and Rescue

Bios get outdated, but maybe I'll have to stand corrected and eat some crow. http://www.ghostchatter.com/img/smiley/eating.gif However, I would have thought that Rick might include an additional word, as noted below, to indicate that he is also a member of the SAR team.


The following morning myself and two OTHER SAR team members performed the final task of victim recovery, extremely unpleasant as well.

[stefan]

rick is often one of the first people out on canyon emergencies/SAR in the escalante region.

[rockgremlin]

Well written article Rick.

The tragedy about this situation is that the more deaths/disasters that occur in that area, the more press it receives, and the more people are attracted to it - which in turn results in more inexperienced folks ending up in bad situations, which leads to more deaths/disasters. Its a vicious never-ending cycle. I call it the Ralston Cycle...for obvious reasons - Blue John never received so many visitors as it did after AR's epic disaster.