arbor
06-10-2006, 08:32 PM
A few days ago a good friend of mine from high school lost a college friend on Vallecito Creek in Colorado. He emailed me this account and I just wanted to share it with everyone. David George
From a first-hand account of the accident:
My husband who was with Adam wrote this account of what happened
Saturday on the river. He wanted to get this out so that people would
know what happened and hopefully it might help somehow. This has been
a really hard period of time for us and our hearts go out to Adam's
family. I really want to thank everyone in Durango who helped we are
extremely thankful for your efforts. We really believe that if there
was any hope of changing the outcome of the situation the search and
rescue team in Durango would have been able to do it. Thanks also to
Kyle, Evan and Pete for looking after Pete until I could get there and
paddling the lower part of the river just to make sure there were no
stones unturned your presence really helped.
Adam was one of the most caring people I have ever met in my life.
Here is Pete's account of what happened:
The following is what I remember about the day leading up to Adam's
death. This has not yet been reviewed for accuracy by the third member
of our party.
After a good nights sleep at my friend Andrew's house in Durango, Adam
got up in the morning and made up some eggs for breakfast. We packed
up and made it to the Vallecito campground just before 11:00. Our
third boater was waiting for us and said that a group of 4 had already
headed up the trail. His girlfriend wasn't feeling good and decided
not to go, but we felt good about the group of 3 and started carrying
our boats up the trail. Our friend set a nice slow pace on the walk up
since he had just arrived from <3,000 ft. Adam had hiked the trail
before and we discussed how beautiful the place was while trying to
ignore our sore shoulders from carrying our boats 4 miles the day
before. When we reached the put-in the group of 4 was still hanging
out and we all introduced our-selves. We discussed how many times each
of us had been down the run and that it was Adam's first time. After
briefly discussing the run they started gearing up and we agreed to
give them a few minutes to ease congestion once in the canyon. We
watched their lines through the first two drops before entering the
gorge and then started gearing up ourselves. We put in and all had
good lies through the first two drops and joined in the last eddy
before entrance falls. Our friend decided to go first and we briefly
went over the line again. "You want to throw your boof stroke as late
as possible and land right on the right wall" was said several times.
Adam and I watched him enter and I told Adam that's where you want to
be and to remember the late boof stroke. I'm not sure what the last
words we exchanged in that eddy were, but it would be the last time I
spoke with Adam.
I watched Adam go over the falls and he appeared to be in the correct
place. I gave him 30 seconds or so, enough time to clear the hole, and
peeled out to run down. When I came over the lip I immediately saw
Adam swimming and his boat in the base of the falls on the left. I
landed where I wanted to be, but was flipped up against the right wall
and rolled up just clear of the falls. The base of the falls has a
very aerated hydraulic that feeds into a cave on the left and up
against the left wall. I got near Adam on the left wall where I
believe he grabbed my boat and I unsuccessfully attempted to paddle
out of the boil. We were both pulled back into the cave and very near
the base of the falls. I know I flipped over at least once and was
able to roll up and struggled to stay out of the base of the falls.
I'm not sure if I told Adam I couldn't get out of there with him on my
boat or he let go when I flipped, but I was able to roll up and fight
my way back out to river right where our other friend was standing
with a throw rope. He said my rope isn't long enough so I quickly
threw off the gloves I was wearing and grabbed his rope and paddled
back in, thinking if I could stay on the river right I'd be able to
paddle out once he got the rope. I threw the rope toward Adam and
tried to stay toward the river right side of the falls. I felt a
strong pull on the rope and quickly turned around to paddle out of the
boil. I was just being pulled back so I tried to hold the rope in my
mouth while paddling as best I could. In the aerated water I was
having difficulty just staying upright and was still being pulled back
into the falls. I don't recall if I flipped again, but somehow lost
the rope and fought my way back out to the river right. I quickly
exited my boat in a small eddy on the right and grabbed for my rope.
Our other friend yelled "where is he" and I looked up only to see his
boat still in the falls/cave. Adam was nowhere to be seen. I'm
guessing at this point Adam was swimming for nearly 2 minutes. He was
out of sight for what seemed to be hours, but was probably 10-15 sec.
He then surfaced about 10ft. past the boil line of the falls and less
than 10ft. from the entrance to the next drop "Trash Can". I don't
understand how he flushed so deep and so far out from the falls, it
seemed impossible to me. I made an unsuccessful throw of my rope as he
flushed into "Trash Can". From where he surfaced, even if we had
immediately gotten him a rope I don't think it was possible to get him
out before entering "Trash Can". Our other friend immediately got into
his boat and followed him down river. Adam passed through the first
part of "Trash Can" cleanly, and appeared to be swimming with his head
up. I saw him enter the second part of the drop just right of the
large rock with his head up and still moving, in the exact line where
you run the drop. Our friend followed him within 20-30 seconds and I
got back in my boat and followed in the next 30 seconds. When I got
through "Trash Can" I saw our other friend already out of his boat
about 10 feet up the bank looking downstream. I yelled "where is he"
and he signaled that he didn't see him. From that vantage point you
can see 100 ft. plus downriver and I expected to "worst case" be
chasing an unconscious body, but we saw nothing. We got back in our
boats in a state of panic and paddled downriver as quickly as
possible. Once we reached "Fuzzy Bunny" we quickly portaged river left
and discussed if we should attempt to hike out or continue down. With
the climb out being extremely long and the possibility of still having
a body in the water downstream we chose to paddle out as quickly and
safely as possible. We ran out the reminder of the run and I paddled a
fast as I could to the campground area. I exited my boat and ran up to
the campground host to contact search and rescue. The group of 4
boaters immediately in front of us was quickly located. The first
search and rescue personnel arrived within 5 minutes. Teams were
formed and entered the canyon on both river right and river left. A
helicopter arrived shortly and began searching the canyon top to
bottom, flying within feet of the river in places. I was asked to
remain in the campground to answer questions at first and attempted to
join a few of the later rescue parties to enter the canyon and was
held back by the sheriff since at that point was obviously not in
correct mental state to be in the canyon.
In the following days search and rescue personnel and other kayakers
have continuously searched the canyon. At the time I'm writing this,
his body has not been found. This is a very confusing and frustrating
situation. Water levels have dropped over 50% and there is still no
sign of Adam. Search efforts are still continuing. My wife flew to
Durango to help me and assist in the search. She is amazing and the
only way I have made it through these last few days without completely
loosing it. I love you Kate.
I can't believe I lost my friend and I can't believe I had a chance to
save him and I failed. Since the accident I've thought of hundreds of
things I should have tried differently and that may have worked. At
that time in those conditions I did what my instincts told me to do
and it didn't work. I lost my friend and that is something that I'm
going to have to live with for the rest of my life. This is the hard
reality of kayaking class V that everyone talks about but in the back
of my mind I didn't think it would happen to me or one of my close
friends. Kayakers at this level feel like we can handle almost
anything and on this day and this time, I couldn't. This was a
terrible tragedy and I hope others can learn something from the events
that occurred that day.
Adam, we love you and miss you and know wherever you are you've
already made it a better place just by being there.
--
"time, space, and causation are like the glass through which the
Absolute is seen; in the Absolute there is neither time, space, nor
causation."
-swami vivekananda
From a first-hand account of the accident:
My husband who was with Adam wrote this account of what happened
Saturday on the river. He wanted to get this out so that people would
know what happened and hopefully it might help somehow. This has been
a really hard period of time for us and our hearts go out to Adam's
family. I really want to thank everyone in Durango who helped we are
extremely thankful for your efforts. We really believe that if there
was any hope of changing the outcome of the situation the search and
rescue team in Durango would have been able to do it. Thanks also to
Kyle, Evan and Pete for looking after Pete until I could get there and
paddling the lower part of the river just to make sure there were no
stones unturned your presence really helped.
Adam was one of the most caring people I have ever met in my life.
Here is Pete's account of what happened:
The following is what I remember about the day leading up to Adam's
death. This has not yet been reviewed for accuracy by the third member
of our party.
After a good nights sleep at my friend Andrew's house in Durango, Adam
got up in the morning and made up some eggs for breakfast. We packed
up and made it to the Vallecito campground just before 11:00. Our
third boater was waiting for us and said that a group of 4 had already
headed up the trail. His girlfriend wasn't feeling good and decided
not to go, but we felt good about the group of 3 and started carrying
our boats up the trail. Our friend set a nice slow pace on the walk up
since he had just arrived from <3,000 ft. Adam had hiked the trail
before and we discussed how beautiful the place was while trying to
ignore our sore shoulders from carrying our boats 4 miles the day
before. When we reached the put-in the group of 4 was still hanging
out and we all introduced our-selves. We discussed how many times each
of us had been down the run and that it was Adam's first time. After
briefly discussing the run they started gearing up and we agreed to
give them a few minutes to ease congestion once in the canyon. We
watched their lines through the first two drops before entering the
gorge and then started gearing up ourselves. We put in and all had
good lies through the first two drops and joined in the last eddy
before entrance falls. Our friend decided to go first and we briefly
went over the line again. "You want to throw your boof stroke as late
as possible and land right on the right wall" was said several times.
Adam and I watched him enter and I told Adam that's where you want to
be and to remember the late boof stroke. I'm not sure what the last
words we exchanged in that eddy were, but it would be the last time I
spoke with Adam.
I watched Adam go over the falls and he appeared to be in the correct
place. I gave him 30 seconds or so, enough time to clear the hole, and
peeled out to run down. When I came over the lip I immediately saw
Adam swimming and his boat in the base of the falls on the left. I
landed where I wanted to be, but was flipped up against the right wall
and rolled up just clear of the falls. The base of the falls has a
very aerated hydraulic that feeds into a cave on the left and up
against the left wall. I got near Adam on the left wall where I
believe he grabbed my boat and I unsuccessfully attempted to paddle
out of the boil. We were both pulled back into the cave and very near
the base of the falls. I know I flipped over at least once and was
able to roll up and struggled to stay out of the base of the falls.
I'm not sure if I told Adam I couldn't get out of there with him on my
boat or he let go when I flipped, but I was able to roll up and fight
my way back out to river right where our other friend was standing
with a throw rope. He said my rope isn't long enough so I quickly
threw off the gloves I was wearing and grabbed his rope and paddled
back in, thinking if I could stay on the river right I'd be able to
paddle out once he got the rope. I threw the rope toward Adam and
tried to stay toward the river right side of the falls. I felt a
strong pull on the rope and quickly turned around to paddle out of the
boil. I was just being pulled back so I tried to hold the rope in my
mouth while paddling as best I could. In the aerated water I was
having difficulty just staying upright and was still being pulled back
into the falls. I don't recall if I flipped again, but somehow lost
the rope and fought my way back out to the river right. I quickly
exited my boat in a small eddy on the right and grabbed for my rope.
Our other friend yelled "where is he" and I looked up only to see his
boat still in the falls/cave. Adam was nowhere to be seen. I'm
guessing at this point Adam was swimming for nearly 2 minutes. He was
out of sight for what seemed to be hours, but was probably 10-15 sec.
He then surfaced about 10ft. past the boil line of the falls and less
than 10ft. from the entrance to the next drop "Trash Can". I don't
understand how he flushed so deep and so far out from the falls, it
seemed impossible to me. I made an unsuccessful throw of my rope as he
flushed into "Trash Can". From where he surfaced, even if we had
immediately gotten him a rope I don't think it was possible to get him
out before entering "Trash Can". Our other friend immediately got into
his boat and followed him down river. Adam passed through the first
part of "Trash Can" cleanly, and appeared to be swimming with his head
up. I saw him enter the second part of the drop just right of the
large rock with his head up and still moving, in the exact line where
you run the drop. Our friend followed him within 20-30 seconds and I
got back in my boat and followed in the next 30 seconds. When I got
through "Trash Can" I saw our other friend already out of his boat
about 10 feet up the bank looking downstream. I yelled "where is he"
and he signaled that he didn't see him. From that vantage point you
can see 100 ft. plus downriver and I expected to "worst case" be
chasing an unconscious body, but we saw nothing. We got back in our
boats in a state of panic and paddled downriver as quickly as
possible. Once we reached "Fuzzy Bunny" we quickly portaged river left
and discussed if we should attempt to hike out or continue down. With
the climb out being extremely long and the possibility of still having
a body in the water downstream we chose to paddle out as quickly and
safely as possible. We ran out the reminder of the run and I paddled a
fast as I could to the campground area. I exited my boat and ran up to
the campground host to contact search and rescue. The group of 4
boaters immediately in front of us was quickly located. The first
search and rescue personnel arrived within 5 minutes. Teams were
formed and entered the canyon on both river right and river left. A
helicopter arrived shortly and began searching the canyon top to
bottom, flying within feet of the river in places. I was asked to
remain in the campground to answer questions at first and attempted to
join a few of the later rescue parties to enter the canyon and was
held back by the sheriff since at that point was obviously not in
correct mental state to be in the canyon.
In the following days search and rescue personnel and other kayakers
have continuously searched the canyon. At the time I'm writing this,
his body has not been found. This is a very confusing and frustrating
situation. Water levels have dropped over 50% and there is still no
sign of Adam. Search efforts are still continuing. My wife flew to
Durango to help me and assist in the search. She is amazing and the
only way I have made it through these last few days without completely
loosing it. I love you Kate.
I can't believe I lost my friend and I can't believe I had a chance to
save him and I failed. Since the accident I've thought of hundreds of
things I should have tried differently and that may have worked. At
that time in those conditions I did what my instincts told me to do
and it didn't work. I lost my friend and that is something that I'm
going to have to live with for the rest of my life. This is the hard
reality of kayaking class V that everyone talks about but in the back
of my mind I didn't think it would happen to me or one of my close
friends. Kayakers at this level feel like we can handle almost
anything and on this day and this time, I couldn't. This was a
terrible tragedy and I hope others can learn something from the events
that occurred that day.
Adam, we love you and miss you and know wherever you are you've
already made it a better place just by being there.
--
"time, space, and causation are like the glass through which the
Absolute is seen; in the Absolute there is neither time, space, nor
causation."
-swami vivekananda