| Summary: | My name is Marty Rood; I was paddling with Conrad Fourney on North Fork of the Payette River on Aug. 12 the day he was pinned. We were a group of 4 that put on at the top. We eddied out above Nutcracker and I asked Jesse Murphy, Rob Riederman, and Conrad what lines they were going to take. Rob expressed that he was going to walk so he proceed toward the shore to start the process. Jesse said he was going to take the right line. Conrad said he was going to try to start right and ferry above the "Nutcracker", the crux, and continue along the left line. This is a line that few people have attempted. I was going to take the left line and head for a large boof rock below the crux on river left.
If you can make the eddy, you can see others run the crux of Nutcracker and the lower boof. I was the first one to run, made my line, and made the eddy. I don't always make this eddy but the view of others running is great. Jesse ran next but didn't make the eddy thay I was in on the left side of the river. The road is on river right. Jesse made it to the next eddy on river left below me but out of sight of the rapid. I saw Conrad go over the Nutcracker rock backwards. He appeared to roll up immediately after, but his boat was moving very slowly. I believe his skirt popped and the boat pinned. Conrad has used a Perception Phat ever since I have known him. That day was his first in a Pyrahna H3 and I believe this was one contributing factor to the pin.
From this point, the gradient and boof rock obscured my view. I could see Conrad's head and I saw him go backwards into a seam slightly above and river right of this large boof rock. I didn't see him for several seconds and from my postion he should have gone by at that point in time. I saw a float bag and his paddle go by and I immediately got out of my boat for a better view.
At this time Jesse saw the paddle, ferried out to retrieve it, and was then forced downstream to another eddy on the opposite side (river right). He begain coming up the right shore to assit in the swim that we thought had ensued. I climbed up on the shore and I saw Conrad facing downstream with water going over his head. He had been pushed to the left of this vertical boof rock after he swam from his boat. He was approx 8 feet from shore on river left. I was not sure if he was in his boat. I had not brought my rope with me.
I yelled and Conrad pushed his arm up out of the water. He had an air pocket. I positioned myself slightly above Conrad and jumped in, grabbed the shoulder strap of his PFD. At this point he grabbed my forearms. I was going to try to get my feet down on his boat or the bottom and let him push up and out. I could not get my feet down on anything, and I had to let go and swim to shore. I ended up below my boat, ran back upstream, and grabbed my rope.
At this time Rob and Jesse could see Conrad's boat but not Conrad. I blew my whistle and they
started to my side of the river in their boats. I yelled Conrad's name and again he responded by sticking his arm out. I yelled "rope, rope!", threw the bag beyond him, and he grabbed the rope in both hands. I tried to position myself upsteam of him but the rope kept sliding through his hands.
I was hoping he could hold on until the end of the bag but his grip loosened and he eventually let go and his head was pushed under water.
I clipped the rope to my rescue harness and prepared for a strong swimmer rescue but had
to wait to get Rob in position with rope and Jesse in postion in his boat. I jumped in again, this time on tether. I grabbed his PFD again but couldn't make any headway on getting him out. I then put another rope in my right hand, clipped it to his PFD and pendulumed to shore. We then positioned ourselves (Rob and I) directly upstream and began pulling very hard with no luck. At this point it had not been very long since Conrad lost conscienceness. (Still hope) Jesse then aided us and Conrad came free.
We pulled him to shore, found no vital signs, and started CPR. Jesse had previously stopped a car on the road and told them to contact 911 / the County Sherriff before he had come back across the river. A group of boaters passed us, and they also had a driver go contact an Ambulance/Life
flight. We carried on with CPR for over an hour. The ambulance and Life Flight blocked the highway from traffic, but had no way to get to us across the river. We kept doing CPR. A boater brought us a bag to help with the CPR and Tom Long and his sons, from local river company Cascade Kayak &
Raft, showed up with a paddle raft and backboard and made it across to our side. We ferried Conrad back across, got him up to the Ambulance. At this point, I saw that the Life Flight helicopter was not mobilized, and I expected the worst for Conrad.
Inspecting the rapid, months later in the Fall, you could see the splitter rock where the stern of his boat was stuck and where he was pinned. There is a very old log wedged between the boof rock and the shore which is always covered with water and had never been noticed |
