Wayne County Search and Rescue

[Iceaxe]

My take is that what we do is just beyond the comprehension of Wayne Counties upper management... more like.... "you guys go down in little slot canyons? You guys do that intentionally? Why would anyone want to do that? That's just crazy talk...."

[trackrunner]

Maybe it is time to build our own SAR system. The Hanksville area is especially poor in SAR resources, largely because no one lives out there, including none of us. We are all 5-6 hours away. Makes it more difficult.

thoughts??

Tom

I would offer go and help out when needed.

[ratagonia]

My take is that what we do is just beyond the comprehension of Wayne Counties upper management... more like.... "you guys go down in little slot canyons? You guys do that intentionally? Why would anyone want to do that? That's just crazy talk...."

Practically word for word from one of the deputy's I met with.

T

[chabidiah]

Thats really funny! We heard the same comment a few times from a few individuals. But everything is ok, they pulled the the brother and 6 SAR members out by heli and we booked it out of there. Jaxx is much better at posting up and I'm sure he and his family will post up the complete story. That was exciting and I tip my hats to proficient night canyon navigators, it is a lot harder than one might think...not to mention that it was hard to communicate with SAR with a dead radio...
But all in all we just needed a good excuse to head out and do some exploring.

Kurt this might be a good opportunity to market to Wanye County for some training

[oldno7]

Glad you guys were there to be of service, it was probably a huge comfort to Nick's Dad and brother. What's Nick doing, taking a nap?? He should be doing a write-up.
Very glad to hear all is well.

[dbaxter]

Really, Really happy to hear everyone is safe! I can only imagine what family members were going through, waiting for news.
Hope everyone has good memories for this holiday season. Take care and be safe.

[Brewhaha]

Glad things turned out okay. I'm also glad that there is such a great community of experienced and caring individuals who look out for each other.

[ScoutColorado]

I always thought that SPOT was a great idea, at least better than nothing. But it lacks in the information you can give.
I've been playing around with an information page idea. In the spot message you put a link to a webpage where there is a wealth of information on your trip - of course, you have to set it up ahead of time for each trip. SPOT can send emails/text to up to 10 people beyond the emergency folks.
Sample page - http://web.mac.com/rickrock/PlanetRi...2007/SPOT.html

This is just a quick sample, but you can leave detailed coordinates, info on members so SAR has an idea of who they are looking for and their possible health concerns, what vehicles they may encounter, gear needed, etc.
Also, contacts to various agencies in the area, and instructions for friends and loved ones on who to contact (these are made up ones) so you don't have to depend on SPOT to reach the right authorities.
Any comments or additions you guyz would think could be valuable would be appreciated.
RR

[blueeyes]

I love my SPOT. Only problem is my mother would have no idea how to come find me. She and my sister are the only ones on my SPOT. Thanks for the idea Scout. At the very least they could she could point someone in the right direction if I have a web link that talks about the area I am camping or riding in. Maybe even a blog that gives a brief description of my plans. Not that I use my SPOT much but plan to next summer.

[Iceaxe]

The emergency contact info I leave always includes the name and phone number of a couple canyoneering friends that have the skill and knowledge to drag my ass out of most problems.

[Alex]

Great idea Scout, I usually tell my wife that info, but putting it on a website would be very nice.

Also, putting a password on that site and putting personal information on there might be a good idea. And then including the password in the SOS message. Include a couple of pictures of yourself, your vehicle. etc.

[Scott P]

It's really great to hear that they are OK!

[bruce from bryce]

Glad everything worked out ok.

One thing to keep in mind when wanting to go into a canyon and help:

1. While we have some expertise in descending/ascending canyons and have lots of equipment, do we really have the expertise to safely extract someone who is injured from a canyon.
2. SAR personnel, no matter what their level of expertise, have built in safety measures to cover those contingencies that might occur during a rescue.
3. Is our expertise enough that we know how to set up a system that will handle passing a knot, resetting the rope, using a belay line that would safely protect the injured during a raise or lower should the main raise line break, or a myriad of other possible scenarios that could occur during this event? IMHO, honestly I think not.

I commend everyone who offered their services but let's step back and take a hard look at what we were saying. Yes, we could go into the canyon and get to the injured, bringing with us more equipment to make them comfortable but could we really effect that rescue?

bruce from bryce
P.S. I had 5 years of SAR training at Bryce and while I do remember some of it, the repetitive training is the key to getting it correct. I would not feel confident in being in charge of a rescue today!!

[Jaxx]

First let me start by saying my wife had some incorrect info given to her and that is why she was so mad at the Wayne county SAR guys. They are great guys and did great work but had a couple unexpected things turn, and not in their favor. They were level headed and it worked out in the end.

I was working on putting up drywall in my basement when I got a call from SPOT that the 911 button had been pushed and they were wondering if I was ok. I told them my dad had the spot. I gave them some basic info to give SAR like the name of the canyon. I knew it was Larry because my dad told me his itinerary and also the coors that the SPOT guy had from the 911 message. I called my mom and told her. That was tough. We decided to head down there ourselves and see what, if anything, we could do.

Here are the coords that the SPOT guy gave me for my dads location. They were right on. 38.28968, -110.40189

Chad (chabidiah) was there with me and he agreed to come with and help out. What a great brother-in-law. Thanks dude. My mom and sister also came down.

We threw all our stuff together and headed for the Roost. We hit some pretty nasty snow on highway 6 but made pretty good time. We left Lehi at about 6 pm. On the dirt road in we past a couple deputies on their way out. They said they went to the trail head and didn't see a car but saw a few foot prints. I told them the probably parked near the car shuttle at the end and we were going to camp the night. The deputy said they couldn't do anything in the dark and they would be back at about 6 am on Sunday.

We found their camp spot on the way to the car shuttle exit. We parked there and started organizing gear. Everything was just thrown in the back of my suburban so it took some time to get it organized. Chad and I both packed a bunch of warm clothes, water, first aid stuff, and we both carried a 200 ft rope. I would guess our packs weighed about 55-60 lbs. We also put on a few extra layers in case they really needed more clothes.

We started hiking around 12:30 am to walk the rim to where the coords from the spot were. We dropped into a drainage and yelled and whistled as we walked. We were both sweating about 10 min. in due to the heavy packs and all the warm clothes. At about 1:15 AM Chad heard a whistle. He made voice contact with my little brother. They were surprised that it was Chad and I and not SAR. They weren't even sure if the messages had made it out of the canyon for sure.

In total we had 88 911 messages on the SPOT account. Every time they pushed the button it sends 4 911 messages to the SPOT HQ.

We asked what happened and how they were. My dad said that he fell on a down climb and he thought his ACL was torn all the way through. He made a splint out of the braces in his internal fram backpack and some webbing but it wasn't holding together real well. They were above the last 2 rappels in a more open spot in the canyon. Just after the narrows let up. He had injured his knee on a down climb above the part of the canyon with the slanted wall. He guess it was mabey a mile that he had walked. They said they had a couple liters of water left and food to last the night. They were in an alcove and protected from any weather that may come up. they had built a fire and were comfortable.

After looking in the dark for a route down we decided we couldn't get anything to them and told them we were at their camp and SAR said they would be there in the morning. We left them in the canyon and went back to camp.

Here is a link showing where we hiked from their camp on the road to where we could talk to them in the canyon. Extremely approximate.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3358364

We got back to camp at about 2:15 AM and called Wayne county dispatch to give them an update. I let them know who I was and told them I was calling about the search in Larry canyon. I was informed that the search had been called of because they got a call from SPOT and were told they recieved an "OK" message. I told them the situation and asked to get the search going in the morning as planned. The dispatch said he would have the Sherriff contact me.

We spent a cold night in the car. I layed by the fire we had and stayed cozy. I woke up at 7 am and hadn't gotten contacted by anyone. I called dispatch and was informed that everyone was gearing up and they should be leaving Loa in a few minutes. ETA for SAR was 10 am.

Chad and I went back to check on them. I told them the mixup with SAR and they said they never pushed to OK button. They had actually pushed the 911 button on the SPOT a few times in the morning to make sure a message with the right coords got to SAR. They said they were comfortable but running low on water. We talked about Chad and I hiking up from the exit crack and having them rap to us and helping carry dad out. He said his leg hurt worse than the night before and he couldn't put any weight at all on it. We decided to have him stay put and let SAR decide what to do. We didn't want to have him rap deeper in the canyon and make it harder to hoist him out if that is what was decided.

SAR found us around 10 am like predicted and we pointed out where Dad and Kyle were on a map. We decided to drive cross country to the top of the canyon so as to not have to carry all the gear for a 1/2 mile from camp to their location. We got to the top of the canyon around 10:30.

The rappel team and a couple EMTs rapped into the canyon. There were 4 stages to rappel. A total of about 300 feet broken up. I think there were 7 total guys that rapped in. They were dressed in jackets and only carried equipment in their backpacks. They had drills, ropes and the usual rack you would expect. They also lowered down a basket that had a wheel on the bottom so they could lay dad in it and lower him down the raps then wheel him down the riverbed to the exit.

They decided they couldn't get him out that way and called for a helicopter. The first helicopter was delayed and then cancelled. They had to call a heli in that had a winch on it and so life flight was the only option. Life flight was late and got to the area around 4:30 and wanted to drop their own EMT in to assess. They wasted about 30 min doing that and then got the word to come get dad. They pulled him out of the canyon at about 5:15.

After dad was on top and safe they told the Sherriff, who was still up top with 2 other SAR guys that they couldn't get anyone else out of the canyon. We had pulled the ropes and packed them back to the top. I don't know if someone made the decision to just go on and hope that they made it out before dark or if it just didn't come up. The only option was for the SAR members and my brother to go out the bottom, in the dark.

Dad was flown to UVRMC and they had a couple specialists look at his knee. He had fractured a bone, not sure what one, and had a chip in there. He had also most likely torn his acl but they scheduled an appt. to come back on Tuesday for a more detailed diagnosis. He was home in a couple of hours.

The Sherriff asked Chad and I to stay and help since we had experience canyoneering and could mabey help get them out of the canyon. Chad and I were the only ones who knew anything about ropework that hadn't gone in the canyon. I am not sure why they sent all the rope guys in and not atleast one up top incase they needed to set up a haul system to get guys out. That is one reason they had to hike down. Chad and I could have set up a system but they didn't trust us.

We explained the exit was a crack somewhere in the cliff wall with 4th class scrambling and it would be difficult to find in the dark. That is when we learned than non of the SAR guys took any water, food, or headlamps into the canyon. They didn't expect to be hiking. They were thinking they were probably going to have to call in a heli anyway and that is how they would get out as well. One EMT had docker loafer type shoes on!

We grouped back up at the exit and went in to find the exit we have never seen before. I had been meaning to go down Larry canyon this year and it didn't work out. It would have made life alot easier if I had. The group of SAR guys stayed at the top and they sent Chad, me, and the Sherriffs son in to find the crack and lead the guys back up. We took a bunch of water, granola bars and every light we could find. We didn't pack any water, food, or gear for us because we wanted to stay light and fast. We suck at reading maps and that really slowed us down. We went way to far southish and after praying decided to walk the rim to the north more. By this time it was about 8 PM. We had been down searching for the exit crack for over an hour. We back tracked and got cliffed out. It was deep enough that we couldn't get our brightest light to shine on the canyon floor. It was really getting frustrating and disheartening being cliffed out over and over. We decided to head back up and start over and go back down but farther north.

We made it about half way back up the slickrock and saw headlamps in the drainage. We finally made radio contact with the guys in the canyon after about 2-3 hours of not being able to get them on the radio. We still hadn't found the exit so it was decided to bail on the exit crack and find the horse trail that was about a mile or two farther down canyon. The tired group continued down. Chad saw a possible spot to get down and followed it. He said he found what he thought was the exit crack. The guys in the bottom couldn't really communicate with them and Chad had run down to find the crack without the radio. The Sherriffs son and I had stayed higher. Chad tried to yell down to them to check it out and see what it looked like from the bottom. Chad yelled down and they said "Do you have a radio?" Chad said no and they wouldn't communicate with him after that. It was pretty hard to hear and they probably didn't feel like fussing with whatever Chad was trying to say. It was also decided that it would be easier to get up the horse trail because it was alot less steep, but it was longer.

This is when things really started going down hill on getting the guys out of the canyon. The Sherriff and the other two SAR guys went about 1/2 mile down the road to the trailhead for the horse trail. The two SAR guys started down while we came back up out of the canyon and met up with the Sherriff.

We started down the equestrian trail to try and catch up with the other SAR guys. The plan was to meet up and get them food and water and rotate carrying their packs and give them a break. We got a way down and we lost the trail. We tried locating it and backtracking for a bout 30 minutes and then decided to wait there and see if we could tell where they would come up and we could route find to them. We were way south of the Sherriff and he couldn't see around a mountain and that made some confusion. The group of SAR guys and my brother stopped and built a fire to warm up and rest. There were due south of the Sherriff's car. The SAR guys were a way south, down river, from that. The map showed that the horse trail zig-zagged almost exactly to where the big group was. He could get the group with my brother in it on the radio and let them know what the map showed and to look for the other SAR guys that were on the way down to find them. Then we spotted a fire way south from the 2 SAR guys and relayed that info up to the Sherriff. He told the big group to keep moving to meet up and get out.

The big group got to a small cliff and there was water below them. They had no way around due to the high cliff walls. They turned around and let the Sherriff know the situation.

The DPS helicopter pilot relayed a message to the Sherriff through radio that he could come down and use infrared to find and pickup the guys in the canyon. He said he was coming down the next day and he could just come down early if needed. The Sherriff asked him to come down. He was turned around by weather and landed in Spanish fork. He tried again and had to land in Nephi. It was a big letdown for the guys in the bottom.

We (Chad, me, and the Sherriff's son) were getting pretty cold and we couldn't have a fire for the three of us because it was blocking the other groups fire from the Sherriff's night vision. We decided to just come back up and decide if there was anything else we could do.
Here is our very approximate route. http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3358382

Mabey go back and find the exit crack again and go down and find the big group. The Sherriff told us that a storm was moving in that was supposed to dump 2-4 inches.

The guys at the bottom were in pretty bad shape. One had a sprained ankle. Another SAR guy didn't have his medicine and was in danger of suffering a seizure. If he had a seizure he would also dislocate his shoulder from the seizure. Things were going bad. It was really, really cold around 20 degrees. The guys were in no condition to stay in the canyon due to their clothing if it snowed. We also learned that they had been hauling down the rescue litter that had the wheel on it. I later asked my brother and he said they would take turns with it and they had to carry it alot because of the rough terrain in the canyon floor.

The Sherriff made the decision to call a heli from Page, AZ to come get the guys out. The awesome dudes at Classic air ambulance came in and lifted out the guys and gear out of the canyon. This was around 1 AM on 12/7/09. The two guys that were at the bottom made it back up about 10 min before the helicopter got there.

We made it to green rive and crashed at about 5 am. Then the drive home was in killer snowy conditions but I made it back in time for my wife's ultra sound so she was happy!

The SAR kindof got hosed by the first heli. He was so late and didn't want to wait to pull others out of the canyon. We pulled all the ropes and it didn't cross my mind to lower stuff to the guys at the bottom. Even if we had tried I don't know if we could have gotten it down. The last rap is in two stages with about a 30 ft ledge.
Little things added up and compounded on each other. The dark and cold made everything 10x worse. It all ended happy and the SAR guys in Wayne county are tough as nails. They did an outstanding job in my opinion. They did more as volunteers to help my family than anyone ever has, paid or otherwise. Nothing but respect and love for Wayne county SAR from me.

[Jaxx]

Do I get the longest post EVAR award?

PS My sis took a bunch of pics and I will post them when I get them.

[Cirrus2000]

Fascinating! Excellent report, Jaxx! Looking forward to pics.

Interesting how some seemingly innocuous decisions can really escalate a situation.

Glad everyone is safe!

[jman]

holy crap! that's quite the story, to say the least.. Now i'm just thinking, what would of happened if they didn't have a SPOT locator...scary! I mean, I'm sure someone would of continued on and hopefully out the next day, but, a major storm was coming in and would of made things a lot worse. I'm grateful things turned out ok.

But you, Jaxx, did the smartest thing, by giving your dad that Spot. And then next smartest decision was, obviously, going down there fully prepared.

I'm with Davis County SAR, and it's amazing that when people get lost and we get the call, sometimes the missing person's family can make the situation worse by themselves not planning ahead (like with gear/clothes/food/provisions/etc). So again, great job with staying sharp and planning ahead to the best of your ability.

Your family should be eternally grateful for your efforts and knowledge.

[hank moon]

Do I get the longest post EVAR award?

PS My sis took a bunch of pics and I will post them when I get them.

AWEsome writeup, Jaxx. What a fantastic epic!

Keep us updated on the dad, eh? Hope that ACL's not completely severed.

[CarpeyBiggs]

Thanks for the comprehensive write-up Jaxx. What an EPIC couple of days. Glad it all ended well.

You owe your wife a vacation, by the way.

[Deeps]

Great read. Thanks for writing it up.

You owe your wife a vacation, by the way.

I agree. Maybe bring her to Freeze Fest? How pregnant is she?