The group launched at 12k CFS and were on day 4 of a great trip. The level at the time of the incident was roughly 19k. This was the at or near the high water mark for the season and caused massive wood to be moving downstream. The group was taking the day very serious, and a plan was made to set safety to and portage ladle with anyone that felt funny about it. There was an in depth safety talk and plans were in place to respond to any incident including the use of radios, garmin in reach’s, med kits, providers. The 3 Kayakers were also staged strategically throughout the group. After scouting double drop through Ladle the group left an eddy above double drop with a plan to link up again (large group) in the eddy above lapoots and or Ladle. One of the small rafts (minimax) was being R2’d, they ran double drop smoothly and later flipped on an eddyline river-right in an un-named runout rapid. One of the swimmers Matt Lane was not swimming normally and was struggling to break the eddyline. A kayaker then towed him further into the eddy when he let go of the kayak. He then went unconscious a few feet away from his original raft, which his partner had already uprighted and was paddling to shore just downstream of Matt. He was pulled into his raft and found pulseless. CPR was inititated immediately in the boat, (another rafter jumping on) as it was manuevered into an eddy, and he was pulled on shore. CPR EPI and after getting to it an AED was in use. This was later confirmed to be a heart attack in the autopsy report. The group was spread out amongst 3-4 eddys and most of the group was unaware of the full situation. One of the boats had eddied into a cliffed out section of an eddy that was cycling upsteam. One group member was attempting to hold the boat in place when other boats grabbed onto their boat in an effort to get into the eddy and get more providers to the scene of the arrest asap. When CPR was noticed the group used a rope to swing a cat boat further down in the eddy being manned by a nurse with a large med kit. Additional group members joined the effort which left the weight of three boats in a small current on the rope that was being held by a group member without any real purchase on the shore. The team member on shore was drug into the water and had to release the boat which had two other boats attached. This was being manned by Dan, who was in a oar-rig 14 raft loaded with gear, and had a passenger. As they washed dowstream they released one of the boats which was conveniently caught in a strainer. A downstream kayaker on shore threw them a rope but it was unable to be grabbed in time, of note 55 ft of rope was used and was just long enough to get there but not long enough to give them time to grab it. The oar rig and passenger then ran lapoots successfully on the right side avoiding the massive logpile running from the left shore to center river. They then were able to release the other empty boat they had attached to them and attempted to ferry to the right above ladle to make the eddy. They flipped (unknown to the group) on a guard rock/pourover at the top of the rapid. The kayaker paddled down to above ladle and could not see the raft and was not aware of the CPR on going upstream. Torn bewtween setting saferty there to catch boats or chase the raft downstream, he got on shore in an attempt to get a better vantage and could not see any boats coming nor the raft downstream. He ran the scout trail dowstrean in an attempt to locate the raft. 4 kayakers from another group were scouting ladle when they saw the raft round the corner and flip. They immediately followed downstream to help the swimmers. The first swimmer was reached somwhere around puzzle creek rapid and was taken to shore with no injuries. The kayaker then immediatley went for the other swimmer and found him an additional mile or so downstream floating facedown. The kayakers in his group (random party) caught up and they were able to make it to the shore with Dan where it was noted that the he had a noticeable head injury, and his helmet was not in place. The kayakers attempted CPR unsuccessfully. A garmin In-reach had been activated within ten minutes. Flight for life arrived on scene after landing at Selway lodge and hiking in roughly 2 hours post incident. They continued efforts and ultimately called it after seeing no change to the patient after 2 hours of CPR had been performed and EPI had been given. The group also had sent a runner upstream to get an AED and it had been in place with no schock advised for the last hour. The medics then made their way down the trail and confirmed the death of the other victim Dan. The group then camped at ladle formulating a plan to get the deceased out. Initially we were told rafting was the only option and everyone was on board with walking out as the river was still rising and the group was not psychologically ready to boat and wanted to support the rest of the group getting out together. The following day a private helicopter service two bear air was able to respond with a hoist and extract the deceased. The group then cached all gear taking what was necessary to complete the 25 river miles of trail to the takeout. Of note contrary to other stories and accounts even within the group Dan was not attempting to retrieve gear as it was stated in safety talks that morning several times that no gear was worth the risk of life and that all efforts would be put toward the safety of the group. Dan known as rescue was no doubt someone that would make every attempt to help the situation in any way he could and did not make a decision (to chase gear as some have thought) that could be seen as reckless/trivial. He would have never chosen to leave a situation with CPR being performed on a friend to go recover gear. He was simply pulled into the current on a high runnning river. Also of note a group of Cat boaters who were just behind the group and portaging ladle were instrumental in helping the remaining team members in any way that they could, including shuttling gear down to a campsite for the now hikers and feeding them. Also of note the park service was wanting to have the cached gear removed ASAP as it was a danger to wildlife etc on the shore. A group of very generous guides/locals with ties to 3 Rivers Rafting were able to recover the gear as soon the water had become a more manangeable level. Enough thanks cannot be said for understanding the situation and supporting in the way they did. This allowed most of the group to attend a memorial and took a huge burden off the team. The river community has shown outstanding support in every way. We hope the river community can continue loving wild places like the beautiful Selway, but remain aware of the factors of high water/large group size/ Murphy’s law, that can turn a great trip/plan into a trajedy.