A group of students from Eastern Washington University encountered a river-wide strainer just below Tumbleweed Rapid on Montana’s Alberton Gorge. Strainers are quite rare on this section of the Clark Fork, but this one was deadly. In the ensuing collision Sara Varnum, 18, was killed. The Missaoulian reported that professional river guides spotted the hazard the day before. They brought tools to the site and tried to remove it. Failing to do so, they posted signs at the put-in, but the students apparently did not see the warnings.Non-Witness Narrative by Cody Harris on 2007-03-08 (okay to publish): I am a guide on the Alberton Gorge. The day of the accident my company had canceled its trips due to the strainer in question. I was contacted by Mineral County Search and Rescue at about 1pm. They had a report of a lost kayaker at Tumbleweed rapid and needed directions to the location. Myself and two other guides grabbed our gear and immediately left for the trailhead. SAR had, by this time (about 15 min), found the access point.
When we reached the river, Mineral County was on shore. They have little to no resources for river rescue and were waiting for Missoula County to arrive with their jet boat. After talking to the members of Sara’s crew, it became clear that Sara had fallen out of the boat 50 yds above the strainer. At this level there is a large lateral wave that forms at the bottom of Tumbleweed rapid on the river right side. It was in this wave that Sara, who was sitting in the front left side, washed out of the boat. She and her guides knew about the strainer (they had run the river the day before). Sara was in the second boat. The lead guide described his attempt to get a throwbag to Sara before the strainer and how she had tried to swim around the strainer. The strainer was on the river left and the majority of water was pushing into it. After missing the throwbag and realizing she was not going to make it around the strainer, the guide told me that she immediately began swimming towards the strainer. The guide described that when Sara went into the strainer, she was immediately pulled under. The last thing he saw was her hand reaching up.
At this point I asked if they had seen Sara flush through. Looking at the strainer from shore, there was no sign of Sara. Sara’s crew said that they had not seen here flush through. We decided to do a search for Sara, hoping that she had flushed through unnoticed. I paddled the river from the strainer to Tarkio, the raft take out, and the other guides I was with took the old railroad grade road down to Tarkio. We did not find any sign of Sara. We returned to the scene, at least an hour later, and Missoula County had arrived with their jet boat. Again, Missoula county was limited on resources and unable to access the strainer. Myself and my employer, offered to search the strainer. About ten feet from shore, there was a rock that the strainer was lodged on. We were able to access this rock and search a limited region of the log. The log was probably 50 feet long and extended a considerable distance out into the river. The volume of water limited our ability to search the distal ends of the strainer, so we searched the area we could.
It happened that Sara became lodged between the rock and log. Once we were certain we had found her (at least four hours after incident) we tried to dislodge her. This was not possible. Sara was not moving. After much effort, and the approaching night, we successfully attached a rope to Sara. It was decided that we should tie the rope off and try again the following day. During the night, Sara flushed through on her own. The log was then blown up by Missoula SAR.
In many ways I am still dealing with this event. I did not know Sara. My only contact with her was reaching through the water and attaching a carabiner to her life jacket. At times I feel responsible for her death. I live at the gorge in the summers and spend everyday on the water. Our company had done a trip on the Gorge the night before and had a close call with the very same strainer. That same night, a group of guides and myself went to the river to try and remove the strainer. There were four of us, and after an hour or two of varied attempts we gave up. Did we try hard enough, though? The next day we canceled our trips, posted signs and called as many outfitters as possible. Still, Sara died. I almost feel like I should have just sat at the put in and warned everyone. This could have been something. I was shaken a little by the lack of community. It was told to me that two other companies had passed the strainer shortly after Sara had gone into it. Why didn’t they stop? I have not talked directly to these outfitters to hear their side of the story, but I have always believed that the river community would always be there in an emergency. Now I am not so certain. I do hope that Sara’s family knows that we tried to help her. I can’t even imagine the loss they feel.