Paddlers in the Northwest were shocked to learn that Ben Manfredi, a well-known paddler, skier, and mountaineer, died while paddling the Grand Canyon of the Elwha River in Olympic National Park. Mr. Manfredi, 24, had made a solo run earlier in the year and knew the river. He and his three friends planned to complete the entire run in a single long day. After an 8 mile hike to the put-in they would run 8.5 miles of Class IV-V rapids in a steep-walled gorge. The flow on November 9th was 1024 cfs, a perfect level.
The group reached the put in at about 10:30 am, and their run through the Upper Canyon went smoothly. They reached the entrance to the Lower Canyon, Goblin’s Gate, at 2:45 pm. After scouting, the first paddler ran through and set safety. Mr. Manfredi came next. He flipped in a small pourover and made four roll attempts before washing over a big drop into a Class I runout. He flushed through a short stretch of easy whitewater and then around a bend.
The safety boater gave chase, and caught sight of a kayak floating upside-down in an eddy. He could see that Mr. Manfredi was still inside as he approached. He quickly righted the kayak; Mr. Manfredi’s sprayskirt was still in place and his paddle was still in his hands. The other paddlers arrived and helped get Mr. Manfredi out of his boat and onto a rock. Two of the men did CPR while a third went for help. After continuing resuscitation efforts for an hour without success, the pair followed wilderness protocols and discontinued their efforts. They secured his body and scrambled out of the canyon. Olympic Mountain Rescue hiked in and recovered his body the next day.
Mr. Manfredi was a very strong paddler who had not bailed out of his kayak in over two years. There was no sign of a head injury, and his friends speculated that he probably kept trying to roll back up until he lost consciousness. This would not have been the first time it has happened to someone, and this reminds us all that although rolling is important, we must always leave a reserve so we can bail out and swim. Someone also suggested that a new pair of neoprene gloves may have made orienting the paddle blade more difficult than anticipated, and that this is what caused his rolls to fail.