Two whitewater kayaking deaths were reported to American Whitewater. On September 17th a large group from a college outing club encountered trouble at Little Falls, the last drop on the Potomac River near Washington, DC. According to Mike Mather, who debriefed the group, 8 instructors and 15 participants broke into 4 pods, each with an experienced lead and sweep boater. The group had done flatwater training the day before and most of the experienced paddlers in the group were trained in swiftwater rescue. The water level, 2.65’, is low for this Class III drop, and many rocks were exposed.
At the start of the trip several people in the first group flipped and swam while crossing a fast chute at the top of the rapid. Ella Mills, 25, got hung up on a downstream pourover. When she bailed out, her sprayskirt snagged on the undercut upstream face of the rock, and she was held underwater. This this spot was very difficult to reach. A local paddler was able to paddle up to the pin spot, but the water was too fast and deep to put hands on. The Cabin John Rescue Squad arrived and used a telfer lower to put a man in a raft right above the pin. He was able to reach down, make contact, and pull her free.
After these tragedies people often ask how to prevent this accident. This type of “equipment trap” is very unusual; we have only a few other examples in the Accident Database. There was a lot of bad luck involved and no single clear preventative step. But there are things you can do to reduce risks overall. Charlie Duffy, who often runs this section with Team River Runner and other novice groups, says that with inexperienced people you want to move slowly and take extra precautions. Given the group’s inexperience, it might have made sense to choose an easier stretch of river, like Mather Gorge, just upstream. If they decide to run Little Falls with novices, as similar groups have done in the past, scouting is recommended, especially since their trip leaders were not familiar with the river.
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Spoke with Mike Mather, who had the opportunity to debrief the Columbia University Kayak Club leaders who were involved in the fatality at Little Falls on the Potomac River. The group of 23 with 8 instructors and 15 participants was divided into 4 pods, each with an experienced leader and sweep boater. The group had done a flatwater training session the day before, and many of the key people had taken a swiftwater rescue course this past spring. Once the accident occurred, the groups came together, so we can understand how some people may have thought it was one big group. The pin was complex, and may have involved a sieve in addition to a sprayskirt.
From Phil Jacoby: My understanding is that Ella Mills swam out of her boat and was caught because her sprayskirt wedged in the rocks and she was face down. I was told this by one of the paddlers attempting to rescue her as it happened, whom I met while volunteering to assist teaching one of Calleva’s free SWR classes in the aftermath. It shook our community pretty hard.
From Little Falls Beta on FB:
A paddler died on Little Falls today. First off, I want to stress the need to treat this situation with reverence for the young life lost, and respect for the family and friends. I'm posting here to help avoid further tragedy and not to promote gossip. Safety focused discussions are welcome. Blame is profoundly hurtful.
As many of you have noticed, the river's been low, and we've got rocks exposed in LF that human eyes haven't seen in decades. All of these are hazardous and LF, upstream of the island, is a definite no-swim-zone at present levels. This happened at mid-tide out-bound, when the flow is probably a little swifter than some other times of day. The waves were well defined, and rock strikes/pin on or around Cleaver were likely.
A group of 25 college students from Columbia College Whitewater Club made the trip. Apparently most were quite novice (some had never been in a boat prior to yesterday). The one who drowned had apparently run LF before, but IMHO these kids were playing with fire and not fully respecting the hazards of the river (I'm surely guilty of the same). Without scouting from shore, about seven of them descended down Little Falls while the rest waited in an upstream eddy near Sidewinder. Their intent was to go right of Welcome Wave and cut left to the MD side. Three of the first group flipped and swam trying to cross the main flow near the Rooster Tail. I don't remember who got hung up on rocks or who just caught an edge in the current and flipped, but three swam and one got stuck on the top of the small pour-over that forms just downstream and river right of Cleaver. (The pic shows the location, but the conditions were different and it was about a 2 foot pour-over. I got side-surfed a couple of times while trying to get close enough to pull her out.)
I jumped in my boat (from the scouting rock area) and called to the group, waiting in the eddy upstream, for help. One more experienced member of the group and I raced down to assist (an extra couple of experienced boaters would have been invaluable). We were there within seconds. He was tugging on her legs as she struggled to free herself. According to the RiverEMS guys, it appears that her skirt was snagged on an undercut rock forming a boofy pillow/launch pad at the top of the pour over. It was a bad scene. I was close enough to get my bow under her legs/pelvis but not in a position to actually pull or cut her free. She drowned right in front of me, only about a foot from the surface.
I love the Potomac, as I know all of you do. I like the folks who paddle here at least enough to not want to see anyone get hurt. I'm gonna start keeping a rope and knife on me every time and I invite all of you to do the same. (It probably wouldn't have helped this time, but still...). Stay safe out there. Scout before you run. There's no shame in portaging. If you see a group or person within a group and your spidey-sence is tingling, go ahead and position yourself to act effectively. Don't think this low water is all sweet. The hazards are out and none of us are stronger than the River.
Difficulty Rating Changed After Little Falls Fatality,
as Safety Discussions Continue
By Larry Lempert
The local paddling community is reeling after a kayaking fatality Sept. 17 at Little Falls, with concern homing in on a difficulty rating whose range included Class II at the lower end. The rating has now been changed to eliminate the Class II part of the designation.
Ella Mills, a junior at Columbia University, drowned on the Virginia side of the Little Falls rapid. Having been parted from her kayak, she was held underwater—by a snagged sprayskirt, it is believed—on a rock just downstream and river right of Cleaver Rock. She was participating in an outing of the school's whitewater kayaking club in a group of 25 paddlers. The Little Falls gage was at 2.67; the tide was midway between high and low, heading toward low.
News of the accident spread quickly that day among paddlers after a Facebook private group posting by a boater who had attempted to rescue her. The same account was soon published in the publicly available AW Accident Database.
Above all, there was an outpouring of sorrow for Ella Mills, her family, and friends. And inevitably, immediately, paddlers were asking what could be learned to prevent such a tragedy. ittle Falls is the most frequently paddled intermediate-to-advanced whitewater run in the Washington area. Shock and concern were magnified by the precise location being so familiar to so many paddlers, including CCA members who go there often during the year and regularly in dry times when few other options are available. Virtually every boater who has run Little Falls knows Cleaver.
Difficulty Rating Debate
The AW rating for the Little Falls run has been Class II-III(IV). In the wake of postings and email discussion about the accident, a local contributor to AW's Little Falls page revised the rating Sept. 28 to III+(IV), an interim step because the site's programming does not provide the more on-target III(IV) as an option. AW staff has agreed to provide for III(IV) as part of the next programming revision, expected to be this fall, and that rating will be invoked then.
A rating of Class II-III(IV) on americanwhitewater.com means that a run overall has Class II to III rapids with one or two rapids that are Class IV at least under some circumstances. There is some fuzziness in how the parentheses are used—they can also be interpreted to say Class II to III at normal flows but Class IV at higher water levels. Variables within a difficulty range typically include gage level and alternate lines through rapids. In the case of Little Falls, there are complicating, somewhat unusual factors not at all obvious to the uninitiated—these are the strong impacts of even a 1/10 change in gage level and of low and high tide.
The concern is that by saying Class II, even as part of a rating that also says III and IV, the rating could encourage inexperienced paddlers to dangerously overextend themselves. Class II = easy in the minds of most, an equation that is exactly in line with what the International Scale of River Difficulty states. This six-class scale gives Class II rapids a "Novice" designation, describing them as "Straightforward rapids with wide, clear channels which are evident without scouting. Occasional maneuvering may be required, but rocks and medium-sized waves are easily missed by trained paddlers."
That doesn't sound like the Little Falls rapid—at any level. It would be natural to assume that II-III(IV) means II at low levels with low consequences for mishaps, which for Little Falls would be erroneous. A low level there (and 2.67 is quite low) brings rocks into play that can make swims worse; the rocks and waves can be missed but not all that easily; and scouting is strongly advised for paddlers unfamiliar with the rapid—and even those who paddle it frequently often scout because the rapid is so different at various combinations of level and tide. Hugging the far left (Maryland) side of the rapid is the easiest line, but sticking to it is no trivial matter.
The AW Little Falls page actually has very informative descriptions of the main alternative lines for running the rapid, all of which are stated as Class III or III+ (and IV above 4.5 feet on the gage). These descriptions are a much better indicator of the skill needed than the rating for the run overall.
Accident Prevention
The focus on the rating stemmed largely from the widespread impression that the university group did not have the experience needed to run the Little Falls rapid. In time this may be established firmly one way or the other, but so far details of the group members' experience levels have not been confirmed. The boater who attempted rescue wrote, "Apparently most were quite novice (some had never been in a boat prior to yesterday)," while Ella Mills herself "had apparently run LF before." Of an initial seven who started down the rapid, he said, three flipped and swam. There was at least one "more experienced member of the group" who joined in the failed rescue attempt.
In an update to the Accident Database report based on further information, AW added, "After a day's flatwater training, the group elected to run Little Falls. They broke into 4 pods, each with an experienced lead and sweep boat. Once the accident happened, all the groups came together."
In the original Facebook posting, the boater who had been there set the tone thoughtfully, saying, "Safety focused discussions are welcome. Blame is profoundly hurtful." In that spirit, local paddlers in their postings, emails, and conversations have offered some good observations from the perspective of accident prevention.
Other than simply not going there, and because there is no clear line between too little experience and enough for any given rapid, what can make a challenging run safer for relatively new paddlers, assuming at least some degree of experience and competence?
The difficulty rating is one piece of information, but the best information (whether online or in person) comes from those who know the run first-hand. Risk also can be mitigated, although not eliminated, by having some strong paddlers along, leading the way and staying close enough to help. But too large a group makes "close enough" impossible. The fact that the Sept. 17 group had 25 paddlers was a red flag to many observers.
Scouting mitigates risk, although it is something of a Catch 22. Scouting helps if you know what to look for, but what to look for is exactly what those who most need help don't know. Scouting with a strong paddler, and especially one who knows the rapid well—that's significant mitigation.
The question whether Little Falls should be regarded as a safe venue for instruction began to be debated after the Sept. 17 tragedy. Calleva River School tackled the question in a Potomac Paddlers Facebook Group posting Sept. 22, calling the incident heartbreaking but saying that Calleva would not stop using Little Falls as a training location. "Little Falls itself is not more dangerous than other rapids, instead this is a reminder that all whitewater is inherently dangerous," Calleva said. "As an instructor team and members of the broader community, Calleva believes that proper planning, local knowledge, and low student to staff ratios enable groups to better anticipate and reduce risks."
Of course, safety training—even one class—can be invaluable. In response to the Sept. 17 tragedy, several local organizations that offer instruction announced free or reduced-cost rescue training sessions—Calleva, Kayak DC, Potomac Paddlesports Kayak School, and All Out Adventures.
Chair David (Cotton) Cottingham, on behalf of the CCA, sent a note of condolence to the Columbia paddling club, noting that 14 CCA paddlers left flowers on the rocks near the incident location Sept. 21 in memory of Ella Mills.
A Columbia University student has died while whitewater kayaking on the Potomac River
September 19, 2023
Rolando Arrieta, NPR
A student at Columbia University has died during a whitewater kayaking trip on the Potomac River along Washington, D.C.
Ella Mills, a junior at Columbia, drowned on Sunday while kayaking with a group of two dozen members of the university's whitewater kayak club, according to the Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service. The death is under investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department of D.C. She and three others in the group capsized while descending down the Little Falls rapid, said local whitewater kayaker Tim Atwell, who frequently runs this section of the river and attempted to help rescue Mills.
"I saw all three of them flip one after the other. And with the speed of the current, they just didn't see it coming when they flipped," he said. Atwell saw the boaters capsize while he was positioned in an eddy above Little Falls rapid, talking to a fisherman friend there — concerned about the group's level of expertise and unfamiliarity with that section of the river.
The Little Falls rapid is a commonly run section of the Potomac River by many kayakers in the Washington area. According to American Whitewater — the national organization that promotes paddling safety on rivers — Little Falls is is a Class II/III (IV) rapid, meaning that it's typically suitable for everyone from novices to experts.
"We think of it as fairly safe although not without hazards," said Washington-area kayak instructor, Ashley McEwan, who has guided many novice boaters down this stretch of the river. It is an ideal training ground to teach whitewater navigation and swift water recue techniques, McEwan said.
What's most unusual in this case, including for the local kayakers, is the lower-than-normal water flow these past few weeks due to lack of rain. Washington-area kayakers who paddle Little Falls nearly everyday have not seen the river this low in decades. The low water flow has surfaced rocks, jammed logs and other unknown hazards even experienced paddlers have never seen.
When Mills flipped and came out of her kayak, her spray skirt — an essential piece of gear used to seal oneself in the kayak — got wedged between rocks that are normally deep under water. She was stuck face-down, according to Atwell. He paddled to her rescue as quickly as he could and summoned the others to help him unsnag her from the rocks and pour over. "We got to her within seconds. But her head was submerged under water," he said. "It was a futile effort. She was really stuck." Atwell and other boaters did what they could while the Montgomery County Potomac swift water rescue squad arrived at the scene. The MOCO Fire & Rescue issued a statement that Mills had "presumably drowned" by the time they got to her.
The president of Columbia University, Minouche Shafik, issued a statement to the university community saying Mills was a third-year student who had moved from Dublin to New York earlier this month to begin her studies at Columbia. Shafik said Mills is survived by her parents, brother and sister.
The Washington-area whitewater community has come together to reflect on the tragic drowning and learn from it. Some local area instructors are looking at revamping their training and knowledge base of the Potomac while the waters remain low. "When the river is this low, you can see new dangers and add that experience to your toolbox of river knowledge and geology," McEwan said. "This is also a time to remember to practice swift water rescue skills and not to get complacent. And practicing your skills for entrapment and for rescue and self-rescue over and over again,"
