Written by: Gavin Hawkley
Photo's courtesy: Anthony Dunster
In the spring of 2011 the snowpack in Utah was at 200% of normal. The
month of March was colder than normal and when things warmed up the
runoff came down in a hurry. This is an epic tale of canyoneering the
famous "Subway" of Zion National Park during this period.
The Story:
Four
friends (Mckell Crandall, Dustin Cammack, Cliff Chandler, Anthony Dunster)
and I decided that we were going to head down to Zion and run
Das Boot
through the Subway. We were pumped to be getting into a new season of
canyoneering. We did Keyhole, on Monday, the day before we were planning on
the Subway and ran into some other canyoneers. They had recently done the
Subway and told us that there was a lot of water and hydraulics that could
potentially pull you back into dangerous water if you weren't a strong
swimmer. We thought that sounded pretty cool so we were excited to do the
Subway the next day. However, when we went to get our permits we were told
that a couple of hikers, Evgenia (Jenny) Buzulukova and Jon Wilson, were
missing and that they may have tried to do Das Boot or Russell Gulch. We
reevaluated and decided we would definitely take a good look at Das Boot
before we committed to that route.
The next day we left
early, excited and ready for some adventure. We got a little more than we
had bargained for. When we arrived at the Wildcat Trailhead it was crawling
with rangers. They told us that some rangers had been down to Das Boot
looking for the couple that had gone missing and that the water looked very
dangerous. These rangers looked fairly on top of things so we believed them
and told them we would just do the regular Subway route. They also told us
that another canyoneer, David Balkcom, who had headed out the day before at
3 pm, had not yet returned either. We told them we would keep an eye out for
any of these people and headed down.
When we arrived at the entrance to the Subway there was a lot of water
coming down from Russell Gulch. This section of the subway was usually dry
with a few pools but now it was flowing with water from edge to edge. It was
a river. We got into our 7mm wet suits, climbed into our neoprene booties
and strapped on our helmets and harnesses. We were ready for some
interesting stuff. As we were about to head down canyon a couple came down
the trail that were going to do it too. We had them to take a picture of us
together and then we started down canyon. As we began I looked back at the
couple and wondered if they could possibly have enough gear to safely get
down the route; they only had one backpack that the guy was wearing and it
didn't seem full enough to have enough protection from the very cold water.
"But this is just the subway we're doing" I thought, "they'll probably get a
little cold and realize next time they should bring a little better gear.
Some natural consequences might get people to prepare a little better. It's
just the Subway, they'll be fine."
We
started down the canyon, which was a very different beast from what I'd seen
the previous times I'd done the subway. The water was flowing very rapidly
and anywhere the walls came together tightly it created hydraulic effects
that would pull you back into the whitewater falls. We used various methods
to get past these including handlines after the strongest person was across.
We had been going about 1.5-2 hours when we heard a whistle as we approached
a particularly narrow section. As I moved closer to the point where it
narrowed up and the water became very strong I could see around the corner a
man stuck in a nook on the side of the canyon. He yelled to us, "don't come
down here, I've been here since yesterday". I started thinking hard then.
Hypothermic guy
down canyon who could be next to useless or even dangerous to himself or us,
gotta get him out of there, got to keep my team safe, have to assume that if
he is stuck there then the water could be really bad here and I don't want
us getting stuck too. Luckily there was a ledge system above us that was
more than large enough to walk on. One guy from my team, Dustin, was able to
get up on the ledge and anchor himself down. I had him toss me a rope from
above and I was able to stem/chimney/swing over to where David was stuck. He
was in bad shape but wasn't spouting nonsense. Mild Hypothermia I decided.
He repeated himself and worried about his sling and rope that didn't matter
at all but he did what I told him to and seemed to understand he wasn't
quite on top of things. I had my other friend Anthony come across too and we
made sure he ate some food and drank some water, which he hadn't done in
awhile. Meanwhile Cliff and Mckell had been able to get on the ledge up by
Dustin. I hooked back on rope and climbed/was pulled up out of the section
of canyon onto the ledge system above. We then pulled out David followed by
Anthony. After doing a more thorough assessment of David I decided that he
was in good enough shape to move down canyon with us. As we moved he became
more and more aware and competent as his hypothermic symptoms disappeared.
We went down the ledge a little way and found an easy descent back into the
main section of the canyon, thus avoiding the spot where David had become
stuck.
I realized things
were a little more serious now and went into - get down canyon mode - as
opposed to just having a fun time. But David was doing well, we would be
okay I thought. Around a few more bends we came across our next surprise.
There in the curve of the canyon was a bunch of clothes, some food, and a
pair of nice shoes just sitting there. I thought, "Oh crap. I've read about
this stuff before. Somebody got stuck here, went crazy hypothermic and is
running around in the nude singing chants to the canyon gods and kissing
rocks." We started yelling and searched the surrounding slopes for anyone
who might be there. I still do not know where those clothes came from or why
they were there but I'm grateful that we stopped and yelled because from way
down canyon my friend Cliff heard a faint reply.
We moved down canyon and
continued to call out. Replies came and eventually I was able to spot a girl
up on a ledge about 100 feet up above the canyon floor. I climbed up as
close as I could safely and she said her name was Jen and she had been there
since Saturday! It was now Tuesday and I realized that this was not going to
be anything close to a normal day in a canyon. She told me they hadn't had
food for a day and half but that they did have water. The slope was too
dangerous for me to climb up, about 30 feet of exposed climbing, so I
grabbed the dry bag out of my pack and told them to get a rope and we would
tie the bag to it so they could get some food. I had Dustin stay there to
tie it on the rope and then I moved down canyon a bit with Anthony to try
and find a safer way up to them. We found a way up a little further down
canyon and got up to their ledge. It was a little out of the way and not
terribly visible which is why I think other groups that had come down Sunday
didn't spot them. They had a fire going and had Iodine drops so they were
not in terrible shape. They were tired, exhausted, and Jon seemed kind of
shaky but doing remarkably well all things considered. Honestly I had
figured they were dead when I heard from search and rescue that they had
been missing for 4 days. But now I had a real situation on my hands. There
was no way they were going to be able to recover quickly and to the level
that David had. They were going to be moving slow, have bad reflexes,
probably impaired decision making abilities, and who knew what else. The
reason they had stopped was that the next section looked even worse than
what we had already done and they didn't think they could do it. I decided
that the best option we had was to split my team up and leave two of them
with the now three people who needed rescuing and take myself and two of the
most competent from my team and head down canyon as quickly as I could and
give search and rescue the specific location of the group. It crossed my
mind as to what had happened to the first couple we had seen as we entered
the canyon and who had seemed so ill prepared for this dangerous canyon. I
didn't wonder long though.
Just as I had
finished deciding what we would do this guy popped up from the other side of
the ledge and said "is everything okay here?" I looked at him and thought,
"What the heck is going on?" The guy looked tough with a full beard and long
hair, sinewy muscles and a capable look about him. I'm pretty sure the first
thing I said was "did you just climb up that cliff over there?" and he
simply replied "yes." We talked a bit and he told me he'd picked up the
couple we'd left at the beginning of the canyon. They had been trying to do
the canyon in only dry pants with no upper body protection. Awesome. I
should note now that this guy does not want to be known or mentioned by name
so I will refer to him as simply Canyonman. He is a trained guide and has
been doing canyons for about 13 years I think he said. I thought... this is
good.
He had medical training
and did another evaluation of Jen and Jon and decided that they were doing
okay. I then talked with Canyonman about my plan and he said it would be
better to get these people out of the canyon if we could and that he didn't
have a lot of confidence in park search and rescue. I decided I would trust
him and so we rounded up the group and told them our options. Either divide
up and send a team ahead to get help, or go as one big group (11 people now)
and get through the rest of the way. We took a vote and it was decided to go
together. We reached to the next obstacle and Canyonman set up at the
anchor. I then dropped down through a natural arch there and swam as hard as
I could through the hydraulic section and tied my end of a rope to a fallen
tree in the watercourse. We rigged up a zip-line type of traverse with
Canyonman belaying them from the top as they passed over and past the
dangerous water section to me. Anthony and Cliff also helped at strategic
points to make sure people were always clipped in and always on belay.
Everyone made it safely down but it became apparent the person with the most
issues then was Jon. He was very unsure of his feet and would fall down
constantly in the water. As we moved down canyon we had to keep one person
with him always to keep him from falling and hurting himself. We made sure
each of the people we were concerned about had someone watching them and
next to them the whole time. We had to get past another waterfall and down
another rappel but those went without too much incident, just very slowly
because we had to make sure that these people were on belay at all times
even for minor stuff, otherwise a slip could get them pulled into some
dangerous stuff.
We were past the
technical section! But it was about 6:30 pm already and I knew there as no
way we were making our way out of this before nightfall. Helicopters had
passed over a few times but hadn't seen us and we hadn't run into anyone as
we came out and I didn't hold out much hope of seeing anyone helpful. We
were on our own. We started moving very slowly; 1-2 mph is where I would put
our pace. Jen was tired but moving well. David was fully recovered. The
couple, Brooke and another Jon (I'll call him Jon 2), Canyonman had picked
up were doing fine. Brooke had her nerves hit a bit; I don't think this was
quite the adventure they'd envisioned, but didn't let that stop her from
moving on. After about a half hour and as the canyon became easier Brooke
and Jon 2 decided that they would go on ahead and try and send back help
since it was obvious were moving too slowly to get to the cars anytime soon.
Jon was moving very slowly and was very unsure of his feet. We kept moving.
As darkness approached we
were still a few hours away from the cars. I worried about sprained ankles
and other falls that would come as it became very dark. Helicopters
continued to pass over from time to time; but we didn't count on any help.
It got dark, we kept our headlamps off for as long as we could and I kicked
myself for not remembering mine. Luckily we had about 4 or 5 headlamps that
worked and we made due. We had to do a few more river crossings (and it
really was a river) so I went first and we set up a handline for the others
as they came along as I anchored my side and Cliff on his side. Here
Canyonman made a big difference again. I had only done subway a few times
and knew more or less where the exit was, but it was dark and I was worried.
He knew exactly where it was though. After we crossed the river a few times
with more handlines we were able to find the exit trail. We hiked up it with
breaks fairly often for Jon who was very tired at this point. We kept on
moving and reached the canyon rim.
Helicopters were
now passing over more frequently, they could see our headlamps, but we
didn't really care because we were almost to the lower trailhead. But about
5 minutes out this helicopter came screaming over really close to us, shot
dust into our eyes, and passed over a little ways. We kind of looked at each
other confused, couldn't figure out what that was about and so we just kept
on hiking. About two minutes later we hear shouts from behind us and see
headlamps shining. At this point Canyonman said "rangers... see ya" and took
off up the trail because he didn't want to be known or talked to when the
reports were put together. The men coming out of the woods weren't actually
rangers but were Air Force Parajumpers and had rappelled out of their
Blackhawk helicopter. They came up asking where Jon was and wanted to give
medical attention. Apparently Brooke and Jon 2 had gotten out earlier and
phoned in that we were still down there. But the message that Jon was having
difficulty walking got turned into, "we heard Jon can't walk and you guys
were carrying him". We told them this was not the case and that we would
just like to walk the rest of the way to the cars. They looked at each other
and said, "Okay... why don't you lead the way." So now we had two Air Force
guys join the back of our party and we continued hiking to the trailhead. We
got to the parking lot, gave some hugs, handshakes and high fives. About 10
minutes after arriving at the parking lot a ranger showed up who asked us if
we needed water. We had Gatorade and water in our cars. The ranger asked me
for an explanation of what had happened and I gave a brief explanation while
he recorded audio of it. He got our names and numbers and that was it. My
group went and picked up our car from the Wildcat Trailhead and headed back
to Mosquito Cove for a much needed warm sleeping bag.
Video: This entire epic was captured on video by Anthony Dunster. He did
an amazing job of putting this video together and editing it. Watching the
video will place you right in the middle of all the action. The complete
high definition (HD) video is just over 20 minutes long.
Local News Report:
Hikers Walk Out Of Zion Canyon On Their Own
By Mark Havnes - The Salt Lake Tribune
April 20, 2011
Zion National Park •
Hikers love the narrow canyons and towering rock walls of the popular hike
known as the Subway in Zion National Park. But those same features,
complemented by a torrent of icy cold water, are what caused several
adventurers to become briefly stranded.
Park officials began
searching Sunday for Evgenia Buzulukova, 25, of Roy, and her friend Jonathan
Wilson, 28, of Portland, Ore., after they failed to return from the hike
they had planned to complete on Saturday.
Andrew Fitzgerald, a Zion
ranger who coordinated the investigation, said Wednesday that the pair
stalled at an area of the hike known as the Keyhole, along with seven other
hikers.
Fitzgerald said
Buzulukova and Wilson initially planned to enter the canyon by hiking and
rappeling into the Subway from an area known as Russell Gulch. He described
the route as “technical” and said it involved at least three rappels of up
to 95 feet.
Fitzgerald said the pair
changed course when their original plan appeared too difficult and took the
traditional route down Wildcat Canyon. But they lost valuable time as the
Left Fork of North Creek, which runs through the Subway, kept rising due to
melting snowpack in surrounding mountains.
The couple built a fire
for the night, even though park rules forbid backcountry fires, and hoped to
finish their adventure on Sunday.
Fitzgerald said they had
little food but were well equipped, including wetsuits. “They did have
plenty of water and iodine pills to purify it,” he said.
On Sunday, the two
reached the Keyhole, a narrow part of the canyon that forces the water
higher up the walls and required a rappel in the middle of the stream, which
was rushing so fast it blocked their way.
“They wisely decided that
they could not go through safely,” said Fitzgerald. “They figured it would
have been suicidal to go on, so they stopped to wait for the water to go
down.”
Fitzgerald said that once
hikers begin their descent, which requires a series of rappels, there is no
going back.
While waiting, the two
hikers trekked up the side of the canyon about 100 feet, unsuccessfully
looking for a way out.
“There’s no getting out
at that spot but down the canyon,” Fitzgerald said.
Attempts to reach the
pair on Wednesday were not immediately successful.
Buzulukova and Wilson
spent another unplanned night in the park and on Monday were joined by about
seven other hikers whose progress was also halted by high, swift water.
Fitzgerald said one of
the hikers was an experienced guide and was able to set up a “high wire”
rope that the hikers used to cross the fast moving water and continue
hiking.
“It [high wire] allowed
them to get through the most treacherous portions,” he said.
Two of the hikers went
out ahead of the others and contacted authorities at about 9:30 p.m.
Tuesday.
Fitzgerald said a
military helicopter from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada had just begun
looking for the hikers using infrared technology and spotted them less than
a mile from the trailhead.
Two paramedics were
lowered from the helicopter to examine the hikers, but none required medical
help and all were able to hike the rest of the way out on their own.
Park spokesman David
Eaker said Wednesday that the search involved 25 park rangers, workers and
volunteers. Dog teams were also used.
Searches are generally
uncommon in the park because of limitations on where people can go,
according to Eaker. He said rescues are more frequent when people have
accidents. He said the couple did the right thing by getting the necessary
backcountry permits for the Subway hike, so popular they are distributed
through a lottery.
He said Buzulukova and
Wilson also demonstrated good judgment. “They made the right choice when
they realized they were in a situation beyond their capabilities,” said
Eaker. “It’s always good when they turn out like this.”
NPS Morning Report:
Zion National Park (UT)
Nine Hikers Rescued From Backcountry
On Sunday, April 17th,
rangers received several calls regarding overdue parties who were on the
Subway Route. All were located by 2 a.m. the following morning. While
investigating the reports, though, ranger Ray O'Neil noted that one vehicle
was still parked at the Left Fork trailhead with a day permit for April
16th. Backcountry permit checks revealed that a party of two had planned to
hike the Subway Route via the Russell Gulch technical entrance and that they
had not been reported overdue. Initial investigations revealed they were not
due to return to work until Tuesday. The Subway Route and all technical
access routes had extremely high water flows over the weekend due to the
high country snow melt, and several parties travelling top down were
experiencing difficulties. A hasty search was accordingly begun that
afternoon. The search continued into Monday, with air support and additional
SAR personnel joining in. By Tuesday, a full ICS operation had been
established that included 25 NPS ground searchers, air support and two dog
teams. During this time, the Subway Route remained open to visitors under
the required permit system. Every exiting party was interviewed, but none
reported seeing the two missing hikers. A separate report of a single
overdue hiker was also received during this time. A request was put into the
military for an infrared flight over the Russell Gulch and Subway area on
Tuesday evening, and two helicopters were dispatched from Nellis AFB. Before
they could arrive, a party exiting the Subway Route received a 911 call,
with the caller reporting that a group of nine hikers remained in the canyon
due to difficulties in getting through the technical section of the route.
The group included all three of the missing hikers. The helicopters were
redirected to the Subway Route, where they employed infrared and night
vision equipment to locate the group. Two parajumpers descended to them to
determine their condition and traveled with them to the trailhead. All
missing persons were accounted for, and none required medical attention.
They said they'd had serious trouble getting through the water and the
narrowest sections of the canyon. The Subway Route has been temporarily
closed for safety reasons until further notice. [Submitted by Cindy J.
Purcell, Chief Ranger]