Kolob Tragedy Book Reading, SLC, King's English Friday Aug 26 7 pm

[ratagonia]

Noel DeNevers and I will be doing a book reading at the King's English Book Shoppe in SLC this coming Friday.

Hope to see some of you there.

Tom

http://www.kingsenglish.com/event/noel-de-nevers-kolob-tragedy-lost-tale-canyoneering-calamity

[goofball]

that ought to be interesting... gonna stand by those remarks you posted here that the one scout leader was "lucky his kid wasn't there to see him die like an idiot" ?

Or is it the new, less self aggrandizing/righteous tom these days ?

naaaww, i'm sure the family TOTALLY understood what you really meant in disparaging someone who paid for their error with their life.

[kiwi_outdoors]

A dead idiot is still an idiot. More to the point, if we do not point out severe stupidity in approaching canyoneering, do we encourage more misfortune by our inaction?

[ratagonia]

that ought to be interesting... gonna stand by those remarks you posted here that the one scout leader was "lucky his kid wasn't there to see him die like an idiot" ?

Or is it the new, less self aggrandizing/righteous tom these days ?

naaaww, i'm sure the family TOTALLY understood what you really meant in disparaging someone who paid for their error with their life.

I am unclear on how these words got attributed to me.

Tom

[DeanS]

I have always wondered, could a modern expert group have done the canyon? Deadly or easy? Or asked another way, in how high a flow has Kolob been done?


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Dean S

[Scott P]

I have always wondered, could a modern expert group have done the canyon? Deadly or easy? Or asked another way, in how high a flow has Kolob been done?


----
Dean S

That would be a hard question to answer since all or most experienced parties wouldn't even consider trying it around such water levels.

[Brian in SLC]

I have always wondered, could a modern expert group have done the canyon? Deadly or easy? Or asked another way, in how high a flow has Kolob been done?

An expert group, very experienced in swift water, who was also very familiar with the layout of the canyon and each of the drops?

Maybe.

There's a fair amount of high-ish flow canyoning in Europe. But that narrow a slot, with that precipitous a drop in that short a distance? Dunno.

Risky game to say the least.

[Slot Machine]

I have always wondered, could a modern expert group have done the canyon? Deadly or easy?

Deadly. The flow was 29 cfs the day of the disaster. Rowdy conditions are considered to be above 5 cfs.

There are several spots in Kolob that pinch down at a drop. 29 cfs of water would blast through those constrictions like a cannon, making the anchors unusable. Plus the risk of the hydraulics at the bottom of those drops... fuggedaboutit, anyone bold enough to try would probably die.

Here are some photos at 15cfs. Picture that flow going through a hallway 3 feet wide. :eek2:

http://www.canyoneeringusa.com/rave/kolob-canyon-water-level-check/

[Brian in SLC]

Interesting...Noel must have done a calculation the flow. Said was equivalent to a Volkswagon every second.

Photo's in the book from that day show an immense amount of water. They only made it around a 3rd of the way (or less) into the technical section.

[Brian in SLC]

Wow...from Tom's page:

84891

That photo is from the same spot as the cover art and photo from the book! The flow in the 1993 photo looks like its double or triple from Tom's trip. Yikers!!