First-hand incident report
On Saturday, June 13, 2009 at approximately 11:45am, C-1 paddler Brian Stothart, 35, from Steamboat Springs and formerly Durango, drowned while running the upper Encampment River above Riverside/Encampment WY. A party of five: three people from CO, and two of us from WY, had met & merged together at the put-in parking lot and proceeded downriver. Prior to our meeting in the Commissary Park parking lot at the river put-in, I had never met Brian, nor Jim and Helen Dickey. I was traveling with and planning to paddle with Mike Varilone, also of Jackson WY.
This was a recreational kayaking trip, and no one person was guiding any of the other participants down the river for commercial remuneration. The flow on Saturday was ~700cfs at the put-in and rising, ~1,400cfs at the takeout and rising. By current standards and guidebook descriptions, this level was considered ‘high’ but very manageable. I had personally run the river before at this level, and at a little higher level and also a couple of times at lower levels in previous years.
The group traveled without incident into the drops directly above “Damnation Alley,” eddy-hopping and boat-scouting everything safely and successfully. The run was clean of any major wood. In the rapid directly above the last 50-60yds of ‘boogie water’ leading to the get-out eddy to scout the Class V rapid known as “Damnation Alley,” the party had stopped in various eddies. Brian entered this unnamed rapid above Damnation last, and flipped in the top of the drop, rolling upright successfully very quickly. As he rolled upright, he passed us by and became the lead boater going into the last steep tongue drop. The drop usually goes center, or left of center into a cycling eddy. Brian elected instead to attempt to make an apparent eddy behind the large rock on river right.
Previous parties have placed a rock cairn on this rock as an indicator that Damnation is coming up. Brian’s boat was completely perpendicular to the river as he went over the drop, facing right. He appeared to hit a large fan-rock and gain quite a bit of vertical height, then he dropped out of sight. No one saw Brian exit this eddy in his boat. One member of the group, probably the farthest upstream, saw Brian’s boat enter Damnation proper upside down after a considerable time delay (15-20 seconds, at most).
At this point, the rest of the party paddled the drop quickly in succession, either catching the dynamic eddy on the left and getting spun several times, or taking the center run and moving downstream quickly. There was no sign of Brian at all, nor any of his equipment. At this point, the time was noted by me (I have been trained to always keep a watch on my lifejacket): 11:45am on Saturday, June 13 2009, and an intense search was begun by the remaining 4 paddlers, from shore and in the water. At 45min elapsed search time and no sighting of Brian or any of his gear at the accident sight nor within ~1/2 mile + downriver, the decision was made to send two boaters (Jim and Helen Dickey) downriver while two remained (myself and Mike Varilone) to continue searching possible pin locations.
At 90min elapsed search time, Mike and I ended the shore line search of the immediate area and proceeded downstream, continually searching as we descended the river. After regrouping with the other paddlers and continuing downriver, Brian’s empty boat was located in the middle of the river and retrieved, approximately 5-6 miles downriver, and we brought it out of the river and placed it next to the horse / hiking trail that runs along the river right side. The group continued to the takeout and contacted local search and rescue personnel. Daylight constraints prevented more than a cursory ground search of the lower river.
On Sunday, a group of search and rescue personnel and two of the paddlers (Jim and Helen) proceeded upstream on foot and by horseback to the accident site with search tools. Additionally, a group of 5 paddlers, (3 of my very experienced paddling friends from Laramie) including myself and Mike Varilone, paddled downstream again from the put-in. At the accident site, intensive search measures were carried out, including using probe poles and grapple hooks, as well as a helicopter dispatched from a military base in Cheyenne. The party of five paddlers made the decision to continue on downstream, with the intent of trying to take as much time as we could to search possible pin locations.
Less than 300yds downriver from the right corner at the end of Damnation proper, I pulled in to an eddy at random and ran over an empty lifejacket and yellow float bag. Jim and Helen verified that it was Brian’s lifejacket, and in fact had Brian’s truck keys in the zippered pocket. * It is worth noting that a full 24hrs had passed, and the lifejacket and float bag had come loose and had traveled less than 1/2 mile downriver in very swift water from our last visual contact with Brian. This run is 16 miles long, and even with stops for lunch, etc, is usually kayaked from top to bottom in around 4-5 hours total. The buckles on the lifejacket were all still fastened fairly securely, which from my experience indicates it would have taken tremendous water force to push the lifejacket off of Brian.
1) The WaveSport Y-Boat appeared to have been very well converted for paddling as a C-1. The boat was equipped with full size stern float bags, properly inflated. One dry bag was retrieved outside of the boat on the same day the boat was retrieved (Saturday), several miles downriver from the accident site. The 2nd float bag was retrieved in the exact same eddy as the lifejacket at the same time, nearly 26 hours post-accident and less than ½ mile downriver from where Brian disappeared from sight. The water in this section is Class V at first, reducing to continuous solid Class IV for approximately 3-4 miles downriver, easily moving 6-7 mph in that section. Very continuous, not pool-drop.
2) Brian was an ‘expert’ C-1 paddler, having just completed a top-bottom open canoe descent of the Upper Animas the weekend prior to this accident.
3) Brian was wearing a good, Kevlar reinforced ‘creeking’ style helmet with good side, back, and forehead coverage.
4) Brian was wearing a Lotus “Sherman” style PFD of indeterminate age, but which seemed to be in good shape overall. When the lifejacket was recovered, all buckles were still fastened, but the adjustments all seemed slightly loosened (could have been forced loose by water pressure). The lifejacket exhibited no real signs of abrasion wear or any new tears, etc.
5) Brian was properly dressed for the conditions and temps: relatively new drytop with at least two upper body insulating layers. Splash pants/dry pants with at least one insulating layer underneath. Some sort of neoprene/nylon/synthetic leather paddling gloves/mittens. I cannot remember whether he had a helmet liner on. The water in the Encampment at this time of year is VERY cold, temps probably in the mid to high 40’s at best.
It is worth noting that this accident apparently had nothing to do with any visible wood or unusual debris in the drop. It is also worth noting that it is probably a good idea NOT to try and catch the eddy behind the large rock on the right side in the last drop above Damnation. The large boof/flake/fan rock is undercut and backed up by a large flat rock that could prove to be very harmful to any paddler landing sideways on it in an exposed manner. Landing just upstream of the flat rock could subject a sideways boat/paddler to the possibility of an immediate underwater pin in very swift and unreachable conditions at the higher water levels encountered on this weekend.
This trap was probed by search and rescue with much bigger and better tools than the paddling party possessed, and it looked like it was more than deep enough to submerge and trap a paddler who was out of his boat, and there would have been no visible signs on the surface to indicate the presence of a submerged human body. Members of the paddling group would have had to place themselves at ‘extreme’ personal risk to enter the river directly above a difficult Class V rapid to attempt to physically probe this location. If Brian was trapped there at the time of the accident, he was either still unreachable even with the search and rescue team’s better tools the next day, or he had come loose and had moved downriver and become re-pinned somewhere else during the night. )
Our deepest thoughts and prayers go out to Brian’s friends and family. I would have given anything for this to have turned out differently.
http://www.mountainbuzz.com/forums/f11/encampment-river-drowning-accident-report-25635.html
Encampment River drowning: Accident report
On Saturday, June 13, 2009 at approximately 11:45am, C-1 paddler Brian Stothart, 35, from Steamboat Springs and formerly Durango, drowned while running the upper Encampment River above Riverside/Encampment WY.
A party of five, three from CO and two from WY, had merged at the put-in parking lot and proceeded downriver. The flow on Saturday was ~700 at the put-in and rising, ~1,400 at the takeout and rising.
The group traveled without incident into the drops directly above Damnation Alley, eddy-hopping and boat-scouting everything. The run was clean of any major wood. In the rapid directly above the last 50-60yds of ‘boogie water’ leading to the get-out eddy to scout Damnation, the party had stopped in various eddies. Brian entered this rapid last, and flipped in the top of the drop, rolling successfully very quickly. As he rolled upright, he passed us by and became the lead boater going into the last steep tongue drop. The drop usually goes center, or left of center into a cycling eddy. Brian elected instead to attempt to make an apparent eddy behind the large rock on river right. Previous parties have placed a rock cairn on this rock as an indicator that Damnation is coming up.
Brian’s boat was completely perpendicular to the river as he went over the drop, facing right. He appeared to hit a large fan-rock and gain quite a bit of vertical height, then he dropped out of sight. No one saw Brian exit this eddy in his boat. One member of the group, probably the farthest upstream, saw Brian’s boat enter Damnation proper upside down after a considerable time delay (15-20 seconds). At this point, the rest of the party paddled the drop, either catching the dynamic eddy on the left and getting spun several times, or taking the center run and moving downstream quickly. There was no sign of Brian at all.
At this point, the time was noted, and an intense search was begun by the remaining 4 paddlers, from shore and in the water. At 45min elapsed search time and no sighting of Brian at the accident sight nor within ~1/2 mile downriver, the decision was made to send two boaters downriver while two remained to continue searching possible pin locations. At 90min elapsed search time, the two remaining boaters ended the shore line search and proceeded downstream.
After regrouping and continuing downriver, Brian’s boat was located and retrieved approximately 5-6 miles downriver and brought out of the river. The group continued to the takeout and contacted local search and rescue personnel. Daylight constraints prevented more than a cursory ground search of the lower river.
On Sunday, a group of search and rescue personnel and two of the paddlers proceeded upstream to the accident site with search tools. Additionally, a group of 5 paddlers, including myself, paddled downstream again from the put-in. At the accident site, intensive search measures were carried out, including probe poles and grapple hooks, as well as a helicopter dispatched from a military base in Cheyenne. The party of five paddlers made the decision to continue on downstream, with the intent of trying to take as much time as we could to search possible pin locations.
Less than 300yds downriver from the right corner at the end of Damnation proper, I pulled in to an eddy at random and ran over an empty lifejacket and yellow float bag.
A full 24hrs had passed, and the lifejacket and float bag had come loose and had traveled less than 1/2 mile downriver.
At this time, Monday 6/15 ~10pm, there has been no further reported recovery. Carbon County, WY officials plan to fly the river again on Tuesday, 6/16.
It is worth noting that this accident apparently had nothing to do with any visible wood in the drop. It is also worth noting that it is probably a good idea NOT to try and catch the eddy behind the large rock on the right side in the last drop above Damnation. The large boof/flake/fan rock is undercut and backed up by a large flat rock that could prove to be harmful to any paddler landing sideways on it in an exposed manner.
Our deepest thoughts and prayers go out to Brian’s friends and family. I would have given anything for this to have turned out differently.
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