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Thread: SAR - Oak Creek Canyon AZ

  1. #1

    SAR - Oak Creek Canyon AZ

    Rescuers rappel eight times and swim three crossings to reach fallen canyoneer
    Stacey Wittig, Hiking Examiner
    August 15, 2011

    All 2400-feet of rappelling rope in service for higgh-profile rescue near Sedona, AZ

    Rescuers had to rappel eight times and swim three crossings to reach a fallen canyoneer in the West Fork area of Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona, AZ. The Canyoneer was critically injured after falling 450 feet while rappelling on the afternoon of Saturday August 13, 2011.

    Although Coconino County Sheriff

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  3. #2
    Climber falls in West Fork, tough rescue follows
    Cyndy Cole - azdailysun.com
    Tuesday, August 16, 2011

    A climber suffered serious head and internal injuries and possibly a pelvic fracture in two falls totaling 140 feet on Saturday afternoon in the West Fork region of Oak Creek Canyon.

    The man, a 36-year-old from Payson, is in critical condition at John C. Lincoln North Mountain Hospital in Phoenix.

    The climber was on a 350-foot rappel with friends, canyoneering.

    He was on the final 150 feet of that rappel when he failed to maintain control and speed, according to information from the Coconino County Sheriff's Office.

    He fell about 100 feet, struck a rock, then fell about another 40 feet, ending up about 1,800 feet below the rim of the canyon with injuries deemed "critical."

    Some friends went for emergency help, in addition to activating a rescue beacon.

    More than 25 rescuers and medical personnel were sent to rescue the climber in a technically difficult part of the canyon. Rescuers used about 2,400 feet of rope to make eight rappels and took three swims to reach the climber, according to the sheriff's office.

    Rescuers stayed with the man overnight until he was extricated at 1 p.m. Sunday.

    A helicopter was called to the scene but could not reach the man remotely (using long lines and basket-type devices), due to the terrain.

    Rescuers spent several hours raising the climber 400 or 500 feet back up the canyon, to where a Department of Public Safety helicopter could evacuate him using a long lines and baskets. The patient was then flown to the hospital.

    Because of the terrain and the situation, some of the rescuers were also then evacuated from the area by helicopter into Sunday evening.

    Coconino County Search and Rescue, Sedona Fire District, Flagstaff Fire Department, Guardian Medical Transport, Flagstaff Medical Center, Department of Public Safety helicopters out of Kingman and Phoenix, and Native Air were all involved in the operation.

    http://azdailysun.com/news/local/cli...#ixzz1VDbi94ZV

  4. #3
    Moderator jman's Avatar
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    Wow, that would be an exhausting rescue! Great job Arizona SAR!
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  5. #4
    Climber miraculously survives 140-foot fall
    By Alexis Bechman - Payson Roundup
    August 23, 2011

    A Payson man who miraculously survived a 140-foot fall thanks to a grueling and dramatic rescue this week battled to recover after several operations, including one to reattach his pelvis to his spine on Friday.

    Mike McEntire, 36, nearly died Aug. 13 in a Sedona canyon after losing control of a climbing rope and plummeting down a rocky ledge.

    McEntire battled intense pain from internal bleeding and broken bones for more than 24 hours and later told his wife Amber that only the determination to return to his wife and four children kept him alive.

    Even that would not have been enough without the heroic efforts of rescue personnel and six climbing friends — one who ran miles up and down the canyon looking for a cell signal and others who stayed with him throughout the night.

    After breaking both heels, several vertebrae and shattering his pelvis in six places, McEntire has an agonizing recovery ahead. Doctors say he may be walking again in three months, but will likely never canyoneer again.

    And all it took was one split-second bad decision. McEntire told his wife he was “showing off” as doctors wheeled him into the hospital. McEntire, a veteran of more than 100 canyoneering trips, said he went too fast down a rappel.

    A phone interview with Amber shed new light on what happened in that dark, damp canyon.

    McEntire, a retired Payson dentist, and six friends, including a pharmacist, physical therapist and several engineers, loaded up their gear and headed to Sedona’s Insomnia Canyon, an advanced technical canyon leading into the West Fork of Oak Creek.

    The group planned a day trip through the canyon. They successfully rappelled down several sections and swam through various pools to reach the final, 300-foot rappel.

    McEntire’s friend Christian Alexander went down first and captured several photographs of McEntire as he descended — a dot high above on the towering cliff.

    As McEntire went down, he gained speed as he dropped through mid air, without the friction of his contact with the wall to slow him down. The most experienced climber in the group, McEntire liked to descend quickly and knew how to stop by throwing the rope over the rappel device.

    However, McEntire missed when he threw the rope and didn’t have enough time to recover. He fell 100 feet before bouncing off a ledge and tumbling another 40 feet, landing in a pool of water.

    When McEntire’s friends made it to him, they couldn’t find a pulse and all feared he had died, Amber said.

    Luckily, he came to and had told them to move him out of the water, she said

    With his body crushed and bleeding, McEntire hovered on the verge of death, but he knew he had to stay awake.

    “He has such a high tolerance for pain that probably no one else would have been able to take it,” Amber said. “But that is one thing that saved him. With his medical background, he knows in an emergency situation if you don’t keep your wits, you die.”

    Although McEntire carried with him an emergency location device that could send a distress signal, only he knew how to use it.

    So one friend ran seven miles up the canyon for a cell signal.

    At 9:30 p.m., Amber got a call that McEntire had been hurt, but few other details.

    Given his love of extreme sports from kayaking to power paragliding, Amber said she had long braced herself for such a call. Still, she was shocked and agonized.

    For hours, McEntire waited for rescue. The first paramedics made it to him by midnight, but they could only sit with him until daylight made a rescue possible.

    By morning, rescuers put McEntire into a basket and used a series of ropes to haul him back up the roughly 400-foot wall.

    It took two hours to get him up the cliff. From there, a helicopter airlifted McEntire five miles and transferred him to a medical helicopter for the trip to the Valley.

    “Search and rescue later said they didn’t think he would make it out alive,” Amber said.

    At the hospital, McEntire’s doctors rushed him into surgery.

    On Friday, he underwent surgery to put metal plates into his pelvis, which had been shattered and dislocated from his spine.

    Through it all, Amber says she still believes canyoneering is a safe sport, as long as you exercise caution.

    http://www.paysonroundup.com/news/20...140-foot-fall/


  6. #5
    Yikes. It boggles my mind how people can survive falls like that. Thanks for the articles.

  7. #6
    Wow, respect for the SAR-team!

    A big warning to stay safe for everybody else I think.
    It is for me anyway, for my upcoming holiday.

  8. #7
    Content Provider Emeritus ratagonia's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Krrristi View Post
    Yikes. It boggles my mind how people can survive falls like that. Thanks for the articles.
    Being attached to the rope, however tenuously, helps. Orients the body generally to land flat, slows the speed considerably.

    And, he almost did not. Pelvis broken in 5 places - Yikes. Broken pelvis often leads to bleeding out, especially if an immediate evac cannot be made. Maybe the EMT had blood going in, maybe just fluid.

    Tom

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Iceaxe View Post
    McEntire told his wife he was “showing off” ..........

    As McEntire went down, he gained speed as he dropped through mid air, without the friction of his contact with the wall to slow him down. The most experienced climber in the group, McEntire liked to descend quickly and knew how to stop by throwing the rope over the rappel device.
    Just curious.... Does anyone know this "trick".... what type of rappel device is used and how is the feat preformed correctly (I've just read how not to do it).

    Inquiring minds want to know....

  10. #9
    Bogley BigShot oldno7's Avatar
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    Kinda depends on "what" rappel device............

  11. #10
    Content Provider Emeritus ratagonia's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Iceaxe View Post
    Just curious.... Does anyone know this "trick".... what type of rappel device is used and how is the feat performed correctly (I've just read how not to do it).

    Inquiring minds want to know....
    Pirana or ATS allows shifting the rope to "up over" the horn. However, it requires going through a "less friction" zone to get there, and on the Pirana, the horn is not very big. Some racks also have this feature.

    Quote Originally Posted by Newspaper
    As McEntire went down, he gained speed as he dropped through mid air, without the friction of his contact with the wall to slow him down. The most experienced climber in the group, McEntire liked to descend quickly and knew how to stop by throwing the rope over the rappel device.
    I wouldn't put too much stock in what the newpaper reports. "Throwing" is a bit of an exaggeration, is it more like "placing". And it would be very hard to do, without stopping first.

    Tom

  12. #11
    Gotcha... I've use a pirana a few times.

    I had visions of some new trick to impress the ladies........

    Silly me.... I should know better then to read too much into a news article.

  13. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by ratagonia View Post
    Being attached to the rope, however tenuously, helps. Orients the body generally to land flat, slows the speed considerably.

    And, he almost did not. Pelvis broken in 5 places - Yikes. Broken pelvis often leads to bleeding out, especially if an immediate evac cannot be made. Maybe the EMT had blood going in, maybe just fluid.

    Tom
    I am Mike's sister and justed wanted to let you know that he says his sky diving training is what saved him. They train them to land in an emergency situation. He landed on his feet the first time and shattered both feet and his pelvis in six places. He also broke his back in two places and actually dislocated his spine from his pelvis. He did have internal bleeding and perforated his intestine so now he has in infection. It still amazes us that he survived at all. I think his daredevil days are over. It will be great if he can even walk.

  14. #13
    Here is an article on the Insomnia Canyon rescue by Sgt. Aaron Dick, Search and Rescue coordinator with the Coconio County Sheriff's Office. The article is in PDF format.

    http://mountainrescueassociation.org...ridian1110.pdf

  15. #14
    Payson man walks again after surviving fall
    by Fields Moseley
    azfamily.com
    January 21, 2012

    PAYSON, Ariz. -- Mike McEntire has always loved adventure and extreme activities, but everything changed after the Payson man fell 140 feet during a canyoneering trip.

    By all accounts, it is a miracle he is even alive. McEntire broke his back and pelvis and he couldn't feel his legs for months. But never one to turn down a challenge, he is on his feet again.

    "You're limping today," Jared Tenney told McEntire as he walked into Payson Physical Therapy.

    "It's the end of the day," McEntire responded.

    Tenney is helping his friend through the pains of physical therapy.

    "I called him a physical terrorist when I first came here," McEntire said with a laugh.

    A few short months ago, Mcentire wasn't sure he would ever walk into that room or any other room for that matter.

    "The adventure was going great," Ryan Hooper said. "We were up in Insomnia Canyon."

    Aug. 13, McEntire was with Hooper, Tenney and four other men for a day of canyoneering near Sedona. They made their way to a 375-foot rappel and McEntire was the second one to go down.

    "I hooked my rappel device up wrong," he said, thinking back to that day. "I was going insanely fast, so fast I could not add the friction."

    McEntire hit one ledge after 100 feet, then fell another 40.

    "I just heard this awful crash followed by another crash," said another friend, Dallin Durfee.

    "The thing I remember was the sound," Tenney said. "It was two sharp cracks."

    "My legs were paralyzed and I was lying on my side so I couldn't move my arm," McEntire said.

    When they learned he was alive, three stayed with him while the other three went for help.

    "At that point, we honestly thought we're going to be in a hospital in a matter of hours," Tenney said.

    "Helicopters came and we thoughtm oh they're here,” Christian Alexander said. "And they left."

    "When we found out he had to stay the night in there, we started to really worry," Durfee said.

    Pictures show how Mcentire's friends wrapped him up and kept him warm. Paramedics arrived by midnight, but an elaborate rescue couldn't happen until the sun came up. McEntire had to survive through the night.

    "They set up all kinds, hundreds of feet of rope to get him up to get to where the helicopter could reach him," Tenney said.

    "The ride up was four and a half hours from the time they put me in the basket," McEntire said.

    Twenty-four hours after his fall, Mcentire was in the hospital, his heels crushed, back and pelvis broken.

    Recovery for McEntire is not just about getting past the physical pain. He was a local dentist and had to sell his practice. He also has a family with four kids at home.

    "It was hard for them," he said. "It's still hard. They ask me to do the things I used to do."

    McEntire was the adventurer, the man who would try anything. Before the fall, they never would have thought to celebrate the simple act of standing. But that is exactly what they did.

    Many things came together to make that moment possible. The devotion of friends, the will to live and Amber McEntire says the power of prayer

    "Who falls over a hundred feet and lives to tell about it?" she asked. "He shouldn't be here and he shouldn't be alive and walking and he is, and it's a miracle."

    McEntire likely has two years of physical therapy left, if not more. He will never rappel or climb again, but his family is already coming up with new ideas for new adventures.

    http://www.azfamily.com/news/Payson-...137809623.html

  16. #15
    Wow! Glad he is on the road to recovery. The sport obviously has inherent dangers, but the fact that you are so remote and hard to reach might be the biggest vulnerability.


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