GWI Rescue 8/21/17

Monday, August 21, 2017 Eclipse day

Search and Rescue team leaders had just finished meeting working on the Curriculum/requirements for Rope Rescue 2 certification.

The full team had just gathered for a scheduled training on ascending and descending ropes.

This call out came:
RESCUE: Two 17 year old aspiring canyoneers with new equipment but no helmets were trapped with no rope on a nice flat pillar on the east side of The Great White Icicle. The subsequent rappel was 160 feet.
CALL OUT TIME: 7:00 PM
DURATION: 4 hours 2 minutes
WEATHER: Warm and Clear
OTHER RESOURCES INVOLVED:
UPD

WHAT HAPPENED: Salt Lake County Search and Rescue responded to a callout for two teenage canyoneers whose rope management skills has left them stranded on a pillar 400 feet above the canyon highway on Great White Icicle in Little Cottonwood Canyon. They had rappelled down the first 500 feet of waterfalls. One rescue team ascended the 900 feet of elevation to the top of the route arriving in the dark. Another team attempted to locate a way up from the bottom. The Department of Public Safety helicopter crew was able to skid load two rescue team members onto the pillar. These rescuers gave the victims instructions and then one person per trip at a time assisted them to skid load into the fully powered up helicopter which flew them to a valley parking lot.

So...hmmm.

My guess is that one of the sub-adults let go of the rappel lines and they bounced out of the way across the falls (to the west?)?

Yikes. "No helmets"....interesting comment. Did that somehow contribute?

"...aspiring canyoneers with new equipment but no helmets..."

:roflol::roflol::roflol:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Brian in SLC

So...hmmm.

My guess is that one of the sub-adults let go of the rappel lines and they bounced out of the way across the falls (to the west?)?

Yikes. "No helmets"....interesting comment. Did that somehow contribute?

---

Evidently they were rappelling single strand and using a pull cord. The knot came untied as they were pulling, leaving their shiny new rope hanging from the anchor. So, free rope on the Icicle if anyone's inclined to run up there and get it.

The "no helmets" comment probably reflects our jaded opinion of the type we typically rescue. A couple of weeks ago it was the midnight run to Lake Blanche for a guy having a bad trip on some shrooms he got from "not his normal dealer". Sunday afternoon (95 deg) it was a guy with heat exhaustion near the Mt O saddle who "hadn't eaten much, only drank a little water and smoked (weed) every day last week". Once in a while we get to work with the best and brightest who recreate in the Wasatch. But not often.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Taylor

Evidently they were rappelling single strand and using a pull cord. The knot came untied as they were pulling, leaving their shiny new rope hanging from the anchor. So, free rope on the Icicle if anyone's inclined to run up there and get it.

The "no helmets" comment probably reflects our jaded opinion of the type we typically rescue. A couple of weeks ago it was the midnight run to Lake Blanche for a guy having a bad trip on some shrooms he got from "not his normal dealer". Sunday afternoon (95 deg) it was a guy with heat exhaustion near the Mt O saddle who "hadn't eaten much, only drank a little water and smoked (weed) every day last week". Once in a while we get to work with the best and brightest who recreate in the Wasatch. But not often.

---

Need more posts like this.

Any chance you could just regale us with storytime about your SAR adventures?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rockgremlin

Need more posts like this.

---

^^^What he said.^^^

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Iceaxe

^^^What he said.^^^

---

So a few years before 'shroom man we had another call out to Lake Blanche. UPD had started to get some calls from campers at the lake about a guy running around screaming that people were chasing him ~8pm. Nobody thought they were in danger, so they didn't respond at that time. Around midnight someone called in and said they had heard a loud crash, and running man was flopping around on the ground screaming he was hurt. Me and another team member hiked up after a quick safety talk (we concluded we would just turn off our headlamps and scatter if our patient turned violent). We beat it up there, and found a limp semi-conscious male at the bottom of a small cliff. Some poor high school campers up there with their girl friends's had built a small fire to the patient warm (probably not how they thought the evening was going to play out). Due to the condition of the patient, manpower, etc. we decided to have Life Flight come in and pick him up. Lake Blanche has a great landing zone on the rock domes to the N-NW of the dam. I flipped my head light over to pulse and guided the heli into the LZ. As they were coming in,I looked over and noticed a tent pretty close to the LZ. I ran over to it as the helicopter was coming in all 'Close Encounters' style. The door to the tent unzipped when I was about 50 feet away and I saw two young campers stick their heads out all wide eyed - they must have thought they were being abducted, because they shot out of the tent half naked in full sprint in the opposite direction of the heli. I jumped on the tent so it didn't fly away in the rotor wash. We flew Marcus out, and we started our hike back to the trail head. I got a call from the flight nurse when we got to the trail head around dawn and found out Marcus has fractured his C4/5/6 vertebrate, and 5 was obliterated. Unified Police found his parents car/buddy the next morning at the trail head, his friend had some outstanding drug warrants and went to jail.

I love this thread

Went to go recover the rope last evening around 3 PM, but some another group was headed down with it. Kind of glad too because a nasty storm was blowing in. Anyway, if anybody knows who the rope belongs to I told the group they could check this thread to try and return it (that is if we trust them with ropes again). The group I met appeared unaware of the situation.

I know the names of the boys who left the rope and would try to get it back to them if it ends up in my hands. Thanks yall.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Taylor

I know the names of the boys who left the rope and would try to get it back to them if it ends up in my hands. Thanks yall.

---

Maybe you could ask them to post their story here on Bogley???

Tom

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ratagonia

Maybe you could ask them to post their story here on Bogley???

Tom

---

If they're concerned about anonymity they could use a pseudonym -- like Shane B, or T.J. :mrgreen:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rockgremlin

If they're concerned about anonymity they could use a pseudonym -- like Shane B, or T.J. :mrgreen:

---

Nice... whenever I visit the strip club I tell them my name is rockgremlin, but at the whore house I go with Sumbeech.

:roflol:



https://s3-media3.fl.yelpcdn.com/bph...GQ859QqQ/o.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Iceaxe

Nice... whenever I visit the strip club I tell them my name is rockgremlin, but at the whore house I go with Sumbeech.

:roflol:

---

I suppose it's better than Dixie Normous.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Taylor

I know the names of the boys who left the rope and would try to get it back to them if it ends up in my hands. Thanks yall.

---

Hey folks, I did the GWI yesterday with my friend. I recovered their gear off the 2nd rap station (60m rap from the ledge). It seems that they used a figure eight descender, carabiner, and a rather unorthodox knot between the two pieces of gear in order to block the rope for the rap (sorry I didn't take a picture). I didn't see a pull cord, so clearly that came apart and went down with them. If you know the feel free to have them contact me directly at my forum username @ gmail and I can get it back to them. I'll be off the grid for the next 2 weeks, so it may take me a bit to respond, but will certainly do when I return.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kanaan2

Hey folks, I did the GWI yesterday with my friend. I recovered their gear off the 2nd rap station (60m rap from the ledge). It seems that they used a figure eight descender, carabiner, and a rather unorthodox knot between the two pieces of gear in order to block the rope for the rap (sorry I didn't take a picture). I didn't see a pull cord, so clearly that came apart and went down with them. If you know the feel free to have them contact me directly at my forum username @ gmail and I can get it back to them. I'll be off the grid for the next 2 weeks, so it may take me a bit to respond, but will certainly do when I return.

---

Good guys for the win. :) Thanks for posting and being kind to return it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Iceaxe

Nice... whenever I visit the strip club I tell them my name is rockgremlin, but at the whore house I go with Sumbeech.

:roflol:

---

So that's why they started refusing me all of a sudden

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kanaan2

Hey folks, I did the GWI yesterday with my friend. I recovered their gear off the 2nd rap station (60m rap from the ledge). It seems that they used a figure eight descender, carabiner, and a rather unorthodox knot between the two pieces of gear in order to block the rope for the rap (sorry I didn't take a picture). I didn't see a pull cord, so clearly that came apart and went down with them. If you know the feel free to have them contact me directly at my forum username @ gmail and I can get it back to them. I'll be off the grid for the next 2 weeks, so it may take me a bit to respond, but will certainly do when I return.

---

Your contact info has been sent to the kid who lost the rope.