4/12/14 - Family Rescued from Sandthrax after 3 Days
Jason,
As you well know, a big part of canyoneering is learning from the mistakes of others and not repeating them. I think we are all glad that you and your kids are safe. Definitely a scary situation - especially not being in contact with your boys for 2 days!! And sometimes we can pretty insulting and downright rude, especially to beginners as we learn of these accidents/situations/rescues. In just the last two years alone has seen a sizeable increase in rescues!
People are going in ill-prepared; making big navigation errors; being hasty in planning; rushing to do canyons when a little more time should be spent on checking gear and maps and routes; not preparing for contingencies (IE bringing a headlamp should always be a no-brainer regardless of the canyon and length); not having back-up plans (IE "if we get stuck in this canyon - who will call SAR and let them know which canyon we are in"), etc. And that results in a black-eye on the canyoneering community, with access to canyons being restricted, permit systems being instituted, and other notions inhibiting access.
ANYWAYS, If I may solicit my advice to you in reference to the above and that would be to do a full write-up (no details spared) and allow Shane (www.climb-utah.com) and Tom (www.canyoneeringusa.com) to host it or at least reference it on their website. That way the community benefits (and hopefully, hopefully, others can avoid that mistake in navigation, etc.) as well as getting your side out without the media editing it. ;)
I would hope Tom or Shane wouldn't have any objections to it?
Well, something to think about.