Escaping the Subway - Video

[Jammer]

Awesome video!

Thanks for posting.

- Jamal

[Iceaxe]

This is Jenny, one of the two who spent 4 days in the canyon.

Hey Jenny, welcome to Bogley.

I always tell people there are two types of canyoneers in the world.... those that have experienced a forced bivouac and those that are going to experience a forced bivouac.

I'd love to hear your account of all this. One thing that has been bugging me about this is apparently a couple groups of canyoneers came through Sunday and you didn't see them and they didn't see you... I'm sure the noise of the canyon had a lot to do with that. What's your thoughts?

[goofball]

FANTASTIC.

thanks to all who helped out others in a time of need. good for you all.

[MSchasch]

I felt like I was watching the blair witch project. Very eerie.

diggin the hardhats! hahaha

[MSchasch]

by the way I don't blame the park service AT ALL for closing the thing. How much time and money needs to be wasted on getting people rescued from the place? Besides this is ideal feed doritos to squirrels at the vistor center season.

[Scott Card]

by the way I don't blame the park service AT ALL for closing the thing. How much time and money needs to be wasted on getting people rescued from the place? Besides this is ideal feed doritos to squirrels at the vistor center season.

I think 'none' is the answer to your question. The park service didn't rescue the people in the Subway. It was this group and CANYON MAN!!! Da da dum......

I don't like to be told what to do by the park service or what I am capable of.

[ilipichicuma]

diggin the hardhats! hahaha

Regular helmets don't fit me very well. Also, hard hats are awesome.

[jennybzl]

Hey Jenny, welcome to Bogley.

I always tell people there are two types of canyoneers in the world.... those that have experienced a forced bivouac and those that are going to experience a forced bivouac.

I love that !

Thanks for posting the whole story on climb-utah, it has always been my favorite reference website !

We were very close to the waterfall and about 150 feet up on a ledge. A couple of times we thought we heard voices, we yelled and whistled every time. I believe the water was just too loud for us to hear the other groups.
Someone left a whole bunch of stuff just around the corner from us. There were containers with food, shoes, a drybag, some clothes laying by the water. We figured if someone would come looking for us those items will give them a clue. That’s what alarmed Gavin and his team, they started yelling and we heard them. I don’t think there was a better way to mark our location. Plus we had fire going the entire time - day and night. My guess is that the Sunday group was too quiet for us to hear them and we were not easy to spot from the bottom of the canyon.
I do appreciate the efforts of SAR, but I am still wondering why weren't they looking for us in the Subway? I had both the Subway and Russell Gulch listed on the permit (originally we planned to do that but missed the drop off and decided not to come back) and from what I understand they were only looking in Russell Gulch. If they knew that the melting snow was causing the problem it seemed pretty obvious that we would be trapped somewhere in the narrowest sections of the canyon.
Also I am very suprised we were not spotted by the helicopters. We were in the open, had the fire going, the inside of our wetsuits are baby blue we waved them and still nothing. Three times we had helicopters flighing right above our heads below the rim of the canyon ! Don't they have a heat sensor ?

[erial]

I don't think Nelsoncc was putting you in that category. More likely folks like these:

Yellowstone National Park (ID,MT,WY)
Visitors Ticketed For Walking On Old Faithful Geyser Cone


Members of a tour group were issued citations Wednesday evening for walking on the cone of the world's most famous geyser. An individual from Wisconsin called to tip off park rangers after watching the situation unfold on the Old Faithful live streaming web cam. When the first park ranger arrived on scene, she found approximately 30 people off the boardwalk, standing around the cone of the geyser taking photographs. After getting them safely back on the boardwalk, members of the group told the ranger they had not seen any of the numerous and prominent signs they walked past which warn visitors of the dangers found in thermal areas and of the requirement to stay on boardwalks and designated trails. The tour group leader, the bus driver, and one member of the first group of four visitors who walked off the boardwalk were cited for being off trail in a thermal area, a violation of federal law with a $125 fine. Articles in the free park newspaper, on the park web site, podcasts, and on signs posted throughout the park, all remind visitors to stay on boardwalks and established trails when visiting Yellowstone National Park. For their safety and the safety of others, visitors are told to keep children close and not to run on boardwalks or on trails in thermal areas. Pets are not allowed in or near thermal areas. Swimming in the hot pools is prohibited. Unfortunately, almost every year one or more visitors who ignore all these warnings fall through the fragile, thin crust in a thermal area and are burned by the boiling water beneath. There are more than 10,000 geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and steam vents in Yellowstone National Park, the largest collection of hydrothermal features anywhere in the world. Old Faithful erupts about every 90 minutes, shooting a column of boiling water and steam 130 feet or more into the air. This is not the first time a web cam viewer has notified park rangers about visitors off boardwalk and on the cone of Old Faithful. The most famous prior incident occurred in May 2009, when six visitors were spotted urinating in the geyser cone. They were found guilty of a variety of charges, with one of the six fined $750, placed on three years of probation, and banned from the park for two years.
[Submitted by Al Nash, Public Affairs Officer]

[Bo_Beck]

I love that !

I do appreciate the efforts of SAR, but I am still wondering why weren't they looking for us in the Subway? I had both the Subway and Russell Gulch listed on the permit (originally we planned to do that but missed the drop off and decided not to come back) and from what I understand they were only looking in Russell Gulch. If they knew that the melting snow was causing the problem it seemed pretty obvious that we would be trapped somewhere in the narrowest sections of the canyon.
Also I am very suprised we were not spotted by the helicopters. We were in the open, had the fire going, the inside of our wetsuits are baby blue we waved them and still nothing. Three times we had helicopters flighing right above our heads below the rim of the canyon ! Don't they have a heat sensor ?

Hi Jenny. I spent monday and tuesday looking for you under the direction of Zion SAR. Generally I do just what I'm told to do by the Park. My understanding at the Monday morning briefing was that several parties had been contacted that were exiting The Left Fork of North Creek, stating that they'd hiked from top down, and had not seen or heard anyone in "The Subway". On a search using wincasie (computer aided search) the "Subway" contacts then made the area a lesser degree of probability. Search on monday then focused on higher probability areas; Das Boot and North Guardian, Northgate Peaks and western slopes of Russell Gulch. After I had concluded no evidence on North Guardian, Northgate Peaks and western slopes of Russell Gulch, I was sent to look at Russell Gulch from the intersection down. I did locate 2 sets of footprints in Russell Gulch (one small and one larger) and a helicopter was used to search Russell Gulch on Monday. Nothing was found. Later that day I was sent to hike from Lower Left Fork TH to Sunset Ranch...nothing again. The Das Boot team found few leads as well on Monday, but nothing concrete. Tuesday I was sent in to hike Russell Gulch until the confluence with the Left Fork. The set of footprints left the wash after the second rappel, but we continued down. We were not instructed to hike the Subway. On tuesday a helicopter spent a fair amount of time searching the Subway. Why they didn't see you I don't know?on Tuesday Nellis was contacted and brought in a Blackhawk that does have night and heat sensitive vision. I had gone home at 6pm and didn't know the rest of the results. Dog teams were also used on tuesday. This map is a bit cluttered, but it will show you the extent of the search. Glad you guys made it out safely.

[ghawk]

Anthony is always, and I mean ALWAYS recording things. That's why it's fun to bring him on these trips. He always takes awesome pictures and records video of everything. Sometimes we look at him and say, "Really, Anthony?" But we're always happy to have it when we're done. He takes pictures and shoots video when no one else wants to.

Yeah Anthony is always on top of that. I was pretty focussed after we found David and didn't notice him filming it, but Anthony really did do an excellent job.

Also, Jen, I appreciated your comments. I think it was a wise decision to wait in a potentially dangerous situation where you were not sure of how keyhole falls would be. It sure looked ugly.

To the guy who had an easier way down keyhole- I'd like to know about it too. I lowered down the keyhole arch thing itself and swam through the hydraulic section sticking to the left. The current pushed me into the wall a bit but I was able to push through. Then we set up the guideline and belay for the others because we didn't know about swimming ability and some of the people were pretty weak at that point (4 days cold and 1.5 days without food can do that to you). That solution worked well for us and we didn't see any other options. We had checked above on the ledge about 75 feet above the falls but it was pretty exposed and the only suitable anchor point was a tree located almost directly above the falls so it would have dumped us in more or less the same spot without any added safety really. Anyway if there is a better way around I'd like to know too. - gavin

[Brian in SLC]

And thanks everyone else! It is sad the Subway is closed, which is partially my fault :( . I believe we (canyoneers) are the ones who should to decide to go throught the canyon or not, especially right now when everyone is aware of the current conditions. I would definatly do this trip all over again even with more water, this time with experienced people like Gavin!

Super glad you're ok. And, 'preciate you comment above about folks making their own decisions, especially given your experience.

Give the Bogley folks a shout out for some canyon fun!

[ghawk]

Wow...great footage!

Nice editing, too.

As an aside...the comment, "lucky we had 4-5 headlamps", uhh, isn't a headlamp standard in everyone's kit for these kinda gigs, no matter how long the day hike?

Great video!

yeah they should be. I left mine in the car because I'd used it the night before and forgot to put it back in the dry bag. my bad. A few others forgot or didn't think to bring headlamps. So I was glad we had what we had because it got really dark. If there is anything I've learned from this trip it is that I've got a lot I need to improve on as far as preparedness and safety go. Our group is getting together this Saturday to go over knots, prusiks, pothole escape stuff so we are sure everyone is capable and will know what to do when situations arise unexpectedly. We had enough knowledge and skill to get our group out, but I didn't know how to set stuff up safely enough to feel comfortable getting the people we found out safely. If Canyonman hadn't shown up it would have been a very different story. He was excellent.

[iceman]

Great footage. Excellent job by the rescuers. What an experience that must have been.

[nelsonccc]

This is Jenny, one of the two who spent 4 days in the canyon.

Mr. nelsonccc, I am glad you enjoy calling people retards... and maybe some do deserve to be called that. I have done quite a few canyons you'd be surprised, don't put me in "some unprepared tourist" category. Yes I didn't expect that much water and didn't have enought experience to get myself and my boyfriend (it was his first canyoneering trip) across keyhole falls. Unplanned things happen ... I made the right decision to discontinue and wait for help. How awesome, we were prepared enough to spend 4 days in the canyon and still have enough energy to complete a 9 hour hike out on the fourth day, get in our car and drive away.

I wasn't calling you a retard, but the kid who was jumping into the 3' pool. That's retarded. My post was more posted more towards the typical 'tourist' one finds in the subway (one of the reasons I never do it anymore) that runs into trouble and is unprepared for the conditions.

You guys just got in over your head. I'm glad you had enough foresight to stop and wait for rescue and I'm happy that a group came along that was prepared for the conditions with the right equipment and a strong party. Who here can say they've never been in over their heads and spent an unplanned night in the backcountry? Not many I wager. I'm glad you guys made it out safe and sound. Better luck next time. There are lots of us who are in Zion on a regular basis this time of year, just give a shout out and you can come with any of us.

[jennybzl]

Hi Jenny. I spent monday and tuesday looking for you under the direction of Zion SAR. Generally I do just what I'm told to do by the Park. My understanding at the Monday morning briefing was that several parties had been contacted that were exiting The Left Fork of North Creek, stating that they'd hiked from top down, and had not seen or heard anyone in "The Subway". On a search using wincasie (computer aided search) the "Subway" contacts then made the area a lesser degree of probability. Search on monday then focused on higher probability areas; Das Boot and North Guardian, Northgate Peaks and western slopes of Russell Gulch. After I had concluded no evidence on North Guardian, Northgate Peaks and western slopes of Russell Gulch, I was sent to look at Russell Gulch from the intersection down. I did locate 2 sets of footprints in Russell Gulch (one small and one larger) and a helicopter was used to search Russell Gulch on Monday. Nothing was found. Later that day I was sent to hike from Lower Left Fork TH to Sunset Ranch...nothing again. The Das Boot team found few leads as well on Monday, but nothing concrete. Tuesday I was sent in to hike Russell Gulch until the confluence with the Left Fork. The set of footprints left the wash after the second rappel, but we continued down. We were not instructed to hike the Subway. On tuesday a helicopter spent a fair amount of time searching the Subway. Why they didn't see you I don't know?on Tuesday Nellis was contacted and brought in a Blackhawk that does have night and heat sensitive vision. I had gone home at 6pm and didn't know the rest of the results. Dog teams were also used on tuesday. This map is a bit cluttered, but it will show you the extent of the search. Glad you guys made it out safely.

Thanks Bo_Beck for this information. It makes more sense now. Still hard to believe that more than one group passed right by us and we didn't hear or see them. And I soooo appreciate you looking for us ! thank you very much

[jennybzl]

Nelsonccc, my bad i misunderstood. Maybe i ll see you in one of zion's canyons this summer !

[mattandersao]

zion's canyons this summer !

Shwoo, I read ZIONS and thought poor Jenny first she gets stranded, then thinks someone called her a retard and now she has dropped the ZionS bomb and is going to face the wrath of all those who have a ZionS pet peeve. Fortunately she was grammatically correct :)

[jennybzl]

Ha ha Zion NP's canyons .... Sounds way off when people call Zion Zions. Which turns out to be 50/50 among general public. There are 400 employees at the company i work for, when i was missing they announced it there. I came back and half the time I was asked "Are you the one who got stuck in a canyon in Zions "

[oldno7]

Imagine the horror of being stuck in a bank for 4 days

By the way--truly glad you guys did the right thing and are here to tell the story.