Search on for Roy woman, Oregon man missing in Zion National Park

[Deathcricket]

SAR is an excercise in educated guesses given a set of information that is incomplete and often has incorrect information.

SAR is somewhat thwarted when people hide from potential rescue. The couple climbed up on a ledge out of sight of the canyon floor, was probably sleeping most of the time, and there was a lot of noise in the canyon from the water, therefore they missed people that went by. SAR would assume that they would put themselves in a place where anyone going through the canyon would notice them. The report was people had been through the canyon, and not seen the people. Therefore, the next place to look is in other places where they might be, such as Russell Gulch, Das Boot and past the exit - all places people have wandered into in the past.

So, while I agree it was a bad decision not to send Bo through the Subway with a loud whistle every fifty feet, that was not the IC's choice. That the Subway was in flood and hazardous to SAR personnel to travel probably played into the decision.

Tom

I agree! The problem with hindsight hehe. It seems perfectly logical to assume another party that completed Subway would have run into them. So there is no fault with SAR IMO. But then again I agree with the stranded party finding high ground and trying to stay warm and avoid hypothermia. Maybe taking pebbles and spelling "help" in the canyon with an arrow pointing to their cave?

What a great story though, and with a happy ending to boot. Thanks to all for sharing the information, it could even save a life in the future, we all learn from it.

[Sandyfeet]

Am I the only one to realize that he really is Hayduke? He stil lives you know....

[Bo_Beck]

Hey Bo-

I wasnt meaning to belittle the S&R, I actually just was wondering what the procedure IS for S&R stuff in the park. I suppose the question in my mind that still remains is: Why would the Park wait 4 days, already have had a S&R underway, but NOT have sent someone down the route that was on these people's permits?

Really I just want to understand how the S&R stuff is set up. If this is standard for S&R, the take-home message for me is: Self rescue, because S&R doesn't start off of the permit and waits quite a few days to follow up on it. Now obviously I don't know what the protocol is for S&R, which is why I'm trying to get some facts about it. The S&R effort of this situation doesnt strike me as what I normally hear about with S&R cases. Thanks for any info about this.

I know you meant no malice. Yeah it's a bit confusing how these things work, but as Tom put it "a lot of probabilities, risk assessment and investigation" come into play on any search. If you have some time on your hands you might take a look at these template "window's" for WINCASIE. It might make some sense to you? If you are truly intrigued, you can google wincasie and download the windows program wincasie3 for free and play with it a bit and it will give you some idea how searches are done.
http://math.arizona.edu/~dsl/casie/wc3/WinCASIE3.htm

[Ryebrye]

It's abundantly clear to me both where the two people were holed up and how the group got past the keyhole falls (I was originally wondering how they set up a highline / zipline without going through the arch part - but now it's clear that one guy went through and set it up and the rest of the group used it - makes perfect sense...)

What isn't clear to me is where the first guy who was stuck in the water was. Was he in the narrow bowling ball section? was he in the area that drops off suddenly (and I think it has bolts there) but there is a nice big flat ledge that's immediately to the right (looking downcanyon) that you can walk on and avoid that dropoff section?

If anyone has any pics of the section that guy was stuck in that would help me understand where he was.

[Angel]

My new tat.

[Sombeech]

Undoubtedly people will be trying to figure out who Canyonman is and maybe I provided too good of a description in my write up.

Where can I get the "Who is Canyonman?" tee shirt?

He will just have to be imortalized in this forum having vanished in the distance.

All he left was this silver carabiner...

T

Am I the only one to realize that he really is Hayduke? He stil lives you know....

The guy needs his own thread

[pfinjt]

I can't believe no one has posted this yet, but clearly, Canyonman is one of the Three Nephites. (Ask your Mormon friends if you don't know the Three Nephite story.)

[mattandersao]

I can't believe no one has posted this yet, but clearly, Canyonman is one of the Three Nephites. (Ask your Mormon friends if you don't know the Three Nephite story.)

Now that is funny and I am Mormon!!!

[hike2kolob]

The Canyonman story has to be the best story since, "A $#!++^ Day in Heaps," with the chihuahua (or whatever the dog was).

I must get back to the canyons and away from my stupid desk!

[Iceaxe]

The Canyonman story has to be the best story since, "A $#!++^ Day in Heaps,"

That story is a classic.... here is the link for those that have never heard it before:

A Sh***y Trip in Heaps

Its also fun to read again if its been a while...

[Brian in SLC]

All hail Canyonman!!

[Bo_Beck]

That story is a classic.... here is the link for those that have never heard it before:

A Sh***y Trip in Heaps

Its also fun to read again if its been a while...

Still one of my favorite reads!

[ghawk]

Here are some pics of the trip. It starts at the top where the couple took our picture and then jumps to the spot where we found David. then it skips to Jon and Jen on their perch above the canyon floor and our set up for the descent down keyhole falls. It shows us getting past the last few obstacles and then the last one shows how dark it was for the last two hours of our exit as we worked back and forth across the "river."

[Sombeech]

Nice pics, it really gives some great perspective.

[Sombeech]

On another note about Canyonman... here are some pictures from a few years back before he grew that gnarly beard. He even used to frequent bogley as @rockgremlin

http://www.bogley.com/forum/files/wtf100.jpg

[accadacca]

Thanks for posting the pictures. Awesome!

[ratagonia]

On another note about Canyonman... here are some pictures from a few years back before he grew that gnarly beard. He even used to frequent bogley as @rockgremlin

And, NOT thanks for posting THESE pictures, Sombeech!!!

T

[Brian in SLC]

Hey, its Canyonman...sometimes you gotta take the good with the bad...

Canyonman!

[ratagonia]

Hey, its Canyonman...sometimes you gotta take the good with the bad...

Canyonman!

THAT ain't no canyonman.

T

[Iceaxe]

I love the Canyonman edit.

WINNING!