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Accident Database: Accident #2178
| River: | Wilson Creek |
| Section: | C) The Gorge: National Forest sign to parking area above Brown Mtn. Beach |
| Location: | |
| Gauge: | 0.0 |
| Water Level: | Medium |
| Difficulty: | IV |
| Accident Code(s): | Bad Hydraulic |
| Injury Code(s): | Near Drowning |
| Age: | 21 |
| Experienced/Inexperienced: | Experienced |
| Years Paddling: | 1-3 |
| Private/Commercial: | Private |
| Boat Type: | Kayak - Unknown |
| Boat Manufacturer: | |
| Boat Model: | |
| Number of Occupants: | 1 |
| Number in Group: | 6 |
| Number of Victims: | 1 |
| Other Victim Names: | |
| Hazard Codes: | |
| Initial Report: | On Sunday, Jan 7, 2007, myself along with 4 other boaters headed to Wilson Creek. The level was about 0" on the gauge. We had not paddled this section before but had previous experience on the Watuaga and other creeks and felt confident we could handle Wilson creek. We got an early start to give us plenty of time to scout the major rapids and work our way down.
At the put in, we met Ethan, who had paddled this section a couple times and was looking to join a group. Our group, now with 6 paddlers, worked our way down to 10 foot falls, scouted and then ran the falls, with no problems. We then began working down to Boatbuster. After some minor drops, we came to about a 6 ft ledge with a sticky looking hole at the bottom (I'd guess class III/III+), probably about mile 0.4. It's not a named rapid on AW. Our options were to punch the left side of the hole, punch the center of the hole, a boof on the right of the ledge or run a far right rocky sneak route. I was leading and opted for the boof and two others in our group followed. With 3 boaters below and 3 above, the next paddler, Jamie, ran the boof, penciled in and got back endered into the ledge hole. After a few attempts to roll up he pulled his skirt and while his paddle and boat floated free, he did not.
He tried to swim free but could not, then tried balling up to get flushed but was also unsuccessful. While this was going on, the rest of our group was getting out of their boats to throw ropes. After some falied attempts to grap the ropes, Jamies head stopped resurfacing for air but we kept throwin our lines into the hole. By a miracle, our lines wrapped around his legs and we were able to pull him out. At this point he had probably been in the hole about 2 minutes and unconcious for 1 minute. Our hands were too cold to check for a pulse but he was not breathing and his face was blue.
Luckily we were all trained in CPR and 4 members stayed with him to administer rescue breathing while I ran up the bank to the road to flag down help. After 4 cycles of rescue breaths and being unconcious for about 2 minutes, he began to cough up water and breath on his own, thank God. After about 15 minutes of coughing up water, he was strong enough sit up but he was now hypotherminc. With the help of other boaters on the river and ones I had flagged down we were able to get him across the creek and up the hill to my car where we then took him to the local hospital. He has since made a full recovery.
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| Summary: | |
| Detailed Description: | |
| Conclusions: | |
| Report Status: | On Going |
