: Icicle creek is a small, steep stream draining the west slope of Washington ’s Cascades near Leavenworth, Washington . It is steep and technical even at moderate flows, and some drops are routinely portaged. On April 16, 1999 water levels were moderate. The weather was clear and in the 60’s; the water temp was standard snowmelt – very cold!

Scott Richards, 36, had recently moved to the area from Pennsylvania . It was his first run of the season and the first in Washington since moving there. Of the ten kayakers making the Friday evening run, only three had not already run Icicle Creek several times this year. Scott had walked downstream and scouted the rapid before getting into his boat, and he knew the line.

Bob Pfannenstiel, a member of the group, describes what happened:

We put in half way down a Class V-V+ rapid called "Bridge Creek. Drop”. The toughest part is above where we put in; the section immediately below is a Class V  boulder garden containing several sieves and logs to avoid. Seasonal snowmelt was just beginning to bring the creek up. It was at a good level to run this particular rapid.

Seven of us put in at this point and three others were launching below the drop.  The route through the upper part was straightforward: catch a relatively large eddy on the right after the second drop, then make a right to left ferry over the next drop to avoiding an undercut rock and a log. The log was about 2 feet in diameter and 12-15 feet long..

The first three boaters ran the drop with no difficulties. As I ran the first drop I saw that a boater had broached against the rock and the log.  I eddied out and scrambled down the bank to assist. Then Scott Richards lost control while running the second drop and failed to catch the eddy. He was high bracing upstream and attempting to recover when he broached into the other pinned boater at the sieve.

Another kayaker exited his boat when the first kayaker broached was working to free both boats. The first pinned boater grabbed onto Scott immediately, but was unable to hold his head above water. About 20 seconds later Scott flipped. The rescuer, after trying to free the boat, reached under to grab Scott's sprayskirt and found that he had already bailed out. As I got to the scene they’d freed the both kayaks. Scott was nowhere to be seen, and we feared that he was caught in the sieve.

Because no one actually saw Scott leave his boat, we scouted the rest of the rapid and sent two boaters downstream to search for him. We first tried, without success, to approach the sieve from downstream.  Then four of us attempted to shift or move the log. After 20 minutes a dive booty appeared and flushed downstream. We continued our work, hoping that immersion in cold water might allow us to resuscitate Scott if we could free him. But further efforts were unsuccessful. 

We called the Sheriff. A rescue team arrived but could do little in the short amount of daylight remaining.  We used a 12 foot boat hook to probe the sieve just before dark without success. The following morning several of us returned. We searched the banks downstream and tried to assist the rescue squad as they looked at ways to move the log.  Finally, at 11:00 a.m., a steel cable was hooked to the log and attached to a chainsaw winch.  They did not pull the log out but were able to move it. Because the cable was fraying, they let it go slack and stopped pulling.  Twenty minutes later the log shifted down into the sieve, and after another thirty minutes it disappeared entirely. Several minutes later I observed Scott's body momentarily float to the surface before broaching again on an underwater section of log. I showed the recovery team where the body was, and after about another hour they were able to recover it.

SOURCE: Written by Bob Pfannenstiel

ANALYSIS: (Pfannenstiel)

1. Scott had just moved to Washington State from Pennsylvania . This was his first boating trip of the year, and starting off with a difficult and dangerous rapid when not in practice may not have been wise.

2. There’s been debate on the effect of boat design on recent fatalities with much attention focusing on boat length. This is a case where boat length did not appear to be important. However, running a steep creek in a playboat with a low volume stern might have contributed. Scott was not in control after coming over the drop above the sieve. He missed a relatively large eddy and was attempting to recover by bracing hard upstream when he broached his Sleek on the Overflow.  If the Overflow had not been broached the outcome might have been no different, since the low volume stern of the Sleek could have dropped into the sieve more easily than the Overflow did.

3. After the broach occurred and Scott exited there was little that could have been done.  Apparently he was pinned on the log immediately after exiting his boat.  Shifting the log, hoping that he could be freed and then revived was our only chance. But without a winch we couldn’t shift the log much.

4. It is sad to lose someone while boating, but it  is also important for us to reflect on the risks inherent in whitewater kayaking and make sure that we do everything possible to minimize them. Given the number of deaths among experienced kayakers in the last year or two, only a truly naive paddler could think that it couldn't happen to them.