Undercover/MMI SAR

[Iceaxe]

The following is from MARK ROSEN and is posted with his permission:

This is the story from my perspective. There were 15 people on the trip. Each of them saw different aspects of the event and from different perspectives.

We left Murray and drove to Green River on 21 Jan 2011. We stayed in the Motel 6 and got up the next morning and left just after 7 AM.

There was more snow by the freeway than we were expecting and there was snow on both sides as we went down the frozen Yellow Cat road. The directions led us right to Winter Camp Ridge and the trailhead was located without problems. The ground was frozen solid which made driving easy.

We divided into two groups with Mark Rosen, Drue Kehl, Spencer Brown, Ben Neilson, Dan Turney and Randy Willes in doing Under Cover and Jeff Dredge, Jordan Dredge, Amy Hansen, Mike Wagstaff, Paul Morris, Jake Wiscomb, Ned Hacker, Darrin Miller, and Scott Jones doing MMI. We left the cars at about 8:44. It was a bright and wonderful day with a clear blue sky and sun. It was cold but not bad while hiking and going down the canyon. We were headed down our drainage when the MMI group appeared on the rocks above the drainage we were walking down. We teased them about their route finding skills and getting lost and being in the wrong drainage. Fact is that I was following the map and Drue had taken a GPS reading that was just a little off from what I expected so we had a little uncertainty. I was relieved when we arrived at the first rappel through the natural bridge and the correct drainage was confirmed. One had to be careful at the down climbs with the ice and snow so we set up a hand line at times. It was a gem of a canyon. We did the last rappel at _______.

We followed the directions down canyon to join with MMI and then up to the exit point. It looked like the right place and was confirmed by finding cairns. The sun was shining and warm, the sky was deep blue, and we were in high spirits. Soon we would be up by the cars having lunch and then down another canyon in the afternoon.

The crux of the shortcut out was snow covered. I tried a vertical section just to the right of it that much of the snow had melted off already. In warmer days with better shoes I might have been able to smear my way up but not today. I went up for a while, then came to a stop, and then started to slide down the slope. I slid right past everyone until I reached a flatter area and came to a stop. I had lost a little skin but no big deal. Poor Ben, this was his first canyon and he didn

[jman]

Those are very good questions that you asked to yourself while you were waiting by the fire...

Definitely a strong quality of a leader.

Good read by the way (if he is reason this)...at the very least. By the sounds of it-looks like he'll be just fine! lucky!

[Iceaxe]

FYI: For those that don't know, Mark Rosen is an orthopedic surgeon in Salt Lake City. He is the doc I take my family to when we break things.

[iceman]

Very interesting read. I was sketched climbing out that exit on a dry warm day. I cannot imagine trying to climb out of there on a wet, let alone icy day. The exit is steeper than the beta I used, led me to believe. Hope he heals quickly.

[ropelug]

From Bego (ropelug) the SAR guy-- awesome story. It's always interesting to hear what goes on at the actual scene when I'm coordinating lots of things from up on the rim of Lost Springs. Our dispatch log has the 911 call at 13:35. As soon as I heard radio traffic I started out there from town. GCSAR and the Ambulance were paged. CareFlight from Grand Jct was busy so we called Classic Lifeguard out of Page. The log says the helo got to yall at 15:33. I talked to the pilot who said the coordinates were perfect. We had folks on ATVs looking for the RP hiking group and your cars. We had EMTs hiking toward the scene in case the helo couldn't do the service. Mike, the NPS Ranger hiked in to make sure everyone got out. My whole desire was to have everyone in a warm car by dark. Made it. And then the mud. Your plan was good. The 3 people who put together our side of the plan all knew the area. Pretty cool when these things come together so well. A carry out in the night would have been quite the epic... but doable. Maybe it was better to have a small Bell Jet Ranger fly into the narrow canyon instead of a larger Bell 412. Also, there is a non-slickrock way out of the canyon to the south. It's a steep sand slide accessed from a narrow slot a bit upstream from published route out. I'll go check this for sure soon but I think the top of the sand slide is at 38d 46.737m x 109d 29.927m (NAD 27) on NGS Topo. We discovered this route while out hiking 2 years ago. The ability to light a fire anywhere, any time is a skill that must be practiced a lot. I carry lighters, waterproof matches, a blastmatch and wetfire. No problem with fire here. Next time you are down here please get in touch. Bego: 435-260-2200. It won't let me post my Email yet. If no one objects, I would like to cut and paste all this into my local SAR newsletter. Of note: Last January, we rescued a canyoneering broken ankle out of a slot near Park Avenue in Arches. That one went well into a cold night. Is this becoming a statistic?? We are also looking into the scouting/canyoneering/certification thing.

[Iceaxe]

I believe this would be the sand hill exit slot.

[moab mark]

Shane,
It may give those following along a better understanding of where Randy fell if you posted that picture you have of the exit with the red line drawn on it?

Mark

[Iceaxe]

The pic is below.... I assume Randy fell from somewhere above the arrow.

The first time through we scouted several different exits. Marc, Keith and myself spent a couple of hours trying to set it up so you exited by passing under/through Covert Arch but could never make it work in a reasonable manner that others could follow.

[Scott Card]

How did I miss this? Great write up! Lots to consider and learn from this. Thanks Mark.