4 Hikers Lost over the Weekend

[qedcook]

Anyone else here able the 4 hikers lost in the Robbers Roost this weekend?

It wasn't an injury problem (like Larry this same time last year) or a getting stuck in a canyon because it's too tight or you don't have enough rope. It was a navigational problem.

Here's the article:

By Emiley Morgan

Deseret News

HANKSVILLE, Wayne County — Four men were found Monday after being stranded overnight in a remote slot canyon near Robbers Roost.

Family members of the four men alerted officials in Wayne County around 12:30 p.m.

Sunday after the men didn’t return from their planned outing, said Wayne County Search and Rescue public information officer Tal Ehlers. He said searchers were unable to locate the men before nightfall and had to wait to resume the search until the morning given the “extreme terrain and freezing weather condition.”

With the help of a Department of Public Safety helicop*ter, rescuers were able to locate the four men around 9 a.m. and airlifted them from the area. Ehlers said the four men were in good condition and were “lucky” to have survived the night given the weather conditions and the men’s apparent lack of preparation.

“We get too many people that come to this area, which is just absolutely rugged and they don’t have experience, they don’t have equipment,” Ehlers said. “In these canyons, if you don’t know that area you are going to get lost.”

He said the men were found miles from where they were supposed to be and that while the area is a popular one, it also causes the most problems. He said the majority of the search and rescue opera*tions are located there, where the terrain is difficult to navigate even for those who know the area well.

“You’re down in these slot canyons and there’s no radio communication,” Ehlers said.

“We have a number of guys who know the area but there are so many slot canyons that even search and rescue have a hard time.”

He said many of the rescuers live in the northern part of the county, making it so that it routinely takes them about three hours to respond to the Angel Point Trailhead area, where many of these excur*sions begin. He encouraged those who believe someone they know may be lost in this region to notify officials sooner than later to allow them more time to search in the daylight hours.

Though the Robbers Roost area was recently highlighted in the film “127 Hours” about a stranded American canyoneer, Ehlers was unsure if these men were inspired by that film to make the trip.

He said they had “average” outdoor experience, but were not wearing the proper attire for the weather conditions.

[Scott Card]

Yeah, I heard about it. Spidey called me yesterday morning to see if I was game to go help find them. Apparently a friend/family member sent out the word for volunteers due to the lack of rope skills of the SAR folks in the area. I was prepared to run rim crew with Spidey and others of the Mapleton boys (younger and faster) running the canyon. But then we got word, thankfully, that they had been spoted and all was well. Some crazy thoughts were going through my head for a couple of hours as I was driving back from Fillmore yesterday wondering if we would be going. All the planning, mental list making, what we may find, etc. I am glad all was OK.

[tanya]

Though the Robbers Roost area was recently highlighted in the film “127 Hours” about a stranded American cany*oneer, Ehlers was unsure if these men were inspired by that film to make the trip.



That comment is just a plea for media attention. Right?

[Udink]

I was actually invited to go on this trip, but I wasn't feeling up to being cold and possibly wet, so I declined. One of my best friends was there, however. Here is the story as I've heard bits and pieces of it (this may not be 100% correct, but pretty close). They (a party of four guys) planned to do No Man's Canyon from the top-down. They drove their vehicle to Angel Point Friday evening, dropping their tech gear near the head of No Man's along the way. They camped at Angel Point, then Saturday morning walked along the road back to the head of the canyon, picked up their gear, and dropped into the canyon at around 8:00AM. There was a lot more water in the canyon than they expected, and they weren't prepared to deal with it (no wetsuits/drysuits, etc.). They spent a LOT of time carefully trying to avoid the water, stripping down when they absolutely had to and using a dry bag for their clothes so that they could put dry clothes on after wading through pools, etc.

One person in the party had told his wife that if she hadn't heard from them by 1:00AM early Sunday morning, that's when she should call SAR. The guys in the canyon had made such slow time and they knew it was likely that SAR would be called. They completed the canyon and made it to the Dirty Devil River, but by then it was dark, and they didn't want to go searching for the exit route back up to Angel Point in the dark. They found shelter of some sort (a small alcove or some such) and huddled together for the night to conserve body heat (I've been told that it wasn't man-cuddling :lol8:). When daylight came Sunday morning, they knew SAR would be out looking for them. The one guy's wife knew that one of their main reasons for going was to find a geocache at the bottom of the last rappel in No Man's Canyon, so instead of completing the exit hike upstream along the Dirty Devil and up to Angel Point (and possibly keeping the SAR guys out there searching longer than necessary), they decided to return to the geocache location. It was the one place where they were known to have planned on being, and the guy's wife had the GPS coordinates.

Unknown to the canyoneers, the guy's wife had waited until closer to 1:00PM Sunday to call SAR. I'm still unclear on why that happened. So while the canyoneers hiked back up the canyon to the bottom of the last rappel, SAR had not yet even been called. If they had completed the exit hike they probably would have been met by the first SAR guys to arrive and everything would have been fine. Instead, SAR found their vehicle later Sunday afternoon and began searching on foot (apparently near the Dirty Devil), but stopped when it got dark. The canyoneers huddled up for a second night near the end of the last rap.

On Monday morning around 9:00AM, the Utah DPS helicopter broke off from the manhunt near Moab and flew over No Man's Canyon and located the group within minutes. By 9:30 they were all out of the canyon.

I think the biggest issue was not being prepared for the wet conditions, and not allowing enough time to complete the route and the long hike out (basically, an all-around poor route choice for this time of year). The problem with the wife not calling SAR on time sucked too, causing them to spend an extra night in the canyon. They were fairly well prepared for the cold conditions (despite what the article said). My friend was down to his last granola bar when the helicopter picked them up. They were all low on water, but they'd found water in the canyon that they could drink if they had to.

[Iceaxe]

Thanks Udink.... :2thumbs:

It's always interesting to hear the actual story and compare it to the reported story.

As for the wife calling out SAR.... I've talked with several people who have had to trigger a SAR and its a difficult experience for many.... first many are not certain how firm the check in time actually is.... is that the time to begin to worry or is that the time to call out the National Guard? I always give my check in person two times.... 1st is the begin to get concerned time.... and the second is the do everything you can to save my ass time.... next item is many check in people have no clue what to do if you fail to show up.... I always leave a highlighted copy of the map I'm using with waypoints and the telephone numbers of the local SAR team and others I want notified. I'm guessing the delay in SAR in the story above can be contributed to one or more of these items.

[qedcook]

I did the North and South Forks of No Man's Canyon last Thanksgiving weekend and it seemed like the perfect time of year, but last year was drier. We still found water but were able to avoid it. Even with an excellent map and detailed instructions, the North Fork was the hardest canyon I've ever had to navigate out of. (Burro from the bottom was the hardest I've ever navigated into.)