Poudre Falls west of Fort Collins, CO is a set of three 15 to 25 foot waterfalls located above the highest conventional run on this popular river. They are rated Class VI at low flows because the third drop develops unavoidable undercut obstructions becomes unrunnable. By mid-September the river was at a runnable level. Dan Stotz, 32, was a strong local boater who knew the falls well and had run them successfully earlier that week. Like anyone contemplating running the falls, he had scouted and studied each drop in great detail and knew full well the dangers involved. What follows is taken from a rec.boats.paddle post written by Kevin Hammonds, who was there on September 16, 1999,when the accident occurred.

“I met Dan about a week before the accident. I told him that wanted to paddle and to give me a call. Our schedules never meshed until the day we planned to run the falls. After arriving there, we spent the better part of an hour scouting every last detail of the run. We had it all laid out: "run the first two drops, eddy out on river left, ferry across to a small micro-eddy on river right, then slide backwards to the guy at the bottom who then clips in to the grab loop of your kayak.

“Now, I will admit, taking out directly above the unrunnable third drop in a small and awkward micro-eddy seemed a bit sketchy, but it could be done and had been done before. We decided to go for it. I was planning on going first but before I could say anything, Dan said he would like to go first and I should wait at the small micro-eddy to pull him out. I agreed and we took our places.

“A friend of mine was up top to video, I was down on the rocks, and Dan was at the top of the first drop. I couldn't see Dan run the first drop from where I was sitting but I had a perfect view of the second one. When he came over it looked like he was in a video. He was right on line, took a good boof stroke, and came up smiling. He eddied out on river left in a small cove of flat water as me and my friend cheered. He had the biggest grin on his face and was giving us a thumbs up. We thought it was over.

“All he had to do now was ferry across to river right and catch the small micro-eddy, then slide back a few feet to me so I could grab him. This is where things really went wrong. He caught the eddy perfectly, but as he slid back to me stern first and I reached out to clip into his grab loop, he began to slip out into the current. I yelled at him to bring it back, but it was to late. He was already committed to running the third drop.

“We aren't talking about much of an error here, but there was absolutely no room for mistakes. I had my foot on a small rock, less than a foot wide, just under the surface. If Dan had been to the right of that rock he would have been safely in between my legs; instead he drifted off to the left side just out of my reach. Maybe if he could have taken one more paddle stroke, or if I could have reached just an inch or two further, things would have been different.

“He made one last ditch effort to paddle up onto a flat shelf coming down off the cliffside to the immediate right of the drop. He only got about half-way up onto it when the current grabbed his stern and spun him off the rock backwards over the third drop. I watched him disappear over the horizon line. My friend and I raced over to the falls looking for him, but he’d simply vanished. My friend went for help and I stood over the falls, throwing a throw bag down there time and time again, screaming, praying, and begging that he could grab it. I never saw him again. Ambulances and sheriff's deputies. showed up about an hour later but they had already written him off. There really wasn't much anyone could do.

SOURCE: by Kevin Hammonds

ANALYSIS:

1. ( Hammonds ) I still don't  know what to say or to think. I want everyone to know that Dan was not in over his head. He studied every aspect of the run. He ran those first two drops like a pro. This  was a true accident that could have happened to any of us. Dan had no last words, but the look of panic on his face, the second before he disappeared over the last drop, will be engraved in my mind forever.

2. ( Hammonds ) Local paddlers believe that Dan is probably stuck in an undercut on river left at the bottom of the third drop or lodged between boulders directly beneath it. Although Search and Rescue was able to get the authorities to shut off some of the water, the flow was still too great for them to probe the rocks effectively or to deploy a diver into the water. They could not locate, much less recover, the body by nightfall.

3. (Walbridge) This accident shows clearly the stakes involved in running difficult whitewater. In Class V and VI rapids there is little margin for error. Rescue is always difficult and sometimes impossible. Paddlers cannot afford to make a mistake, and if they do, it may cost them their life.