Fatality on Middle Fork of the Salmon

[Roger]

Found this on BT even though it was last week. Seems too close to home for some of the members in the club.

Fatality on the Middle Fork

"On June 16, 2011, Brad Davis of Shreveport La. died after falling out of his raft at Murphs Hole on the Middle Fork Salmon River in Idaho. The river was flowing at apx. 6.5 feet, which is considered a high level and difficult rafting. Murphs hole is about a mile downstream of the starting point at Boundary Creek. Davis was part of an experienced private group of rafters and kayakers from Idaho and the other parts of the US. Three rafts from the group had trouble in Murphs Hole: one flipped, one was damaged and another dumped the oarsman and continued downstream unmanned. Kayakers and rafters from another private group from Boise assisted in the rescue."

http://www.kayakidaho.com/news/latest-n ... iddle-fork" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Be careful out there.

[davidbob]

Boater drowns in Middle Fork, another suffers heart attack

BY TODD ADAMS

Seven people out of a 16-member private party decided to continue floating down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River after one in their party drowned on the first afternoon of their trip last week and another suffered a heart attack and was flown out to a hospital the second day.

The others flew out from the private Morgan Ranch airstrip on Sulphur Creek.

Bradley Davis, 47, of Shreveport, Louisiana drowned after he fell out of his raft in Murph's Hole about 1:15 p.m. on Thursday, June 16, said Launna Gunderson, marine deputy with the Custer County Sheriff's Office.

A second man in his mid-60s suffered an apparent heart attack Friday morning while the group was camped at the confluence of the Middle Fork and Sulphur Creek, repairing their boats. He was flown out via air ambulance from the Morgan Ranch airstrip, said Middle Fork District Ranger Chris Grove.

Authorities did not know the heart attack victim's name or his condition by The Challis Messenger's press time on Wednesday.

"They had a whole string of bad luck," said Grove, "with boat wrecks and problems from the start." In addition to the casualties, another boater in the group flipped in a rapid and a pontoon on a cataraft was torn open, all on the group's first day.

Davis was rowing a passenger in his 15 ½ foot self-bailing raft when he hit Murph's Hole about 0.7 miles below the Boundary Creek boat launch ramp, just above the confluence of Sulphur Creek, Gunderson said. A fellow member of the party told Gunderson that Bradley took a bad line going into the rapid and was partially sideways.

Davis fell out and was underwater for about 20 seconds before he popped up, according to the witness. His passenger took the oars and got caught in a back eddy. Another boater in the group tried to grab Davis, but missed. Someone threw a rescue rope to him but he didn't react. Within 5 minutes, a second grab succeeded and Davis was pulled from the water.

They got him to shore and started CPR. After 45 minutes of life-saving efforts failed, a doctor in the group declared Davis as dead.

Davis didn't try to swim, so it's possible that the shock of hitting the 38-degree water caused him to gasp, inhale water and drown, said Gunderson.

Coroner Vicki Armbruster listed his official cause of death as probable accidental drowning. She flew in to the Morgan Ranch airstrip on Sulphur Creek with a Forest Service representative. Middle Fork Aviation was contacted via satellite phone and Davis' body was flown out the same evening, Grove said.

"The Forest Service played a big role in getting Mr. Davis out of the wilderness," Armbruster said, adding that Middle Fork Aviation was also very helpful. "I don't know how we would have done it without them."

The victim was wearing a wetsuit, spray jacket and had a properly fitting life preserver on.

The gauge at Middle Fork Lodge read 6.6 feet the day Davis drowned, said Gunderson, adding the river was flowing at 9,000 cubic feet per second.

Any time the Middle Fork rises above 6 feet, the Forest Service considers running it to be an extremely hazardous risk, said Grove. Agency employees never advise boaters whether or not to run the river, he said; instead, they provide people with all the latest information on flows and hazards and let them make the decision based on their ability level.

Members of this group decided not to put in at upper Marsh Creek, which was raging, said Grove, or to fly into Indian Creek airstrip farther downstream, where the Middle Fork becomes less technical. Instead, they joined others in driving in to the Boundary Creek boat ramp. Private boaters, either in Davis' group or another, reportedly shoveled snowdrifts to open the road.

"If you don't feel comfortable or confident that you can do Marsh Creek, you ought to be thinking really hard about doing the upper river and maybe it's better to put in at Indian Creek," said Grove, since the upper Middle Fork is just about as technical and hazardous to float at high water as Marsh Creek.

Gunderson, who was a guide on the Middle Fork for 12 ½ years, agreed. "At this water level, you've got to be an expert."

Murph's Hole is not a noticeable rapid at low water, but at about six feet it's known to flip rafts, Gunderson said.

Davis was an experienced boater, had new equipment and had been floating rivers since he was 15 years old, witnesses in his group told Gunderson. People in the 16-member group were from Texas, Louisiana and Idaho, and had a total of eight boats: four catarafts, two rafts and two kayaks."

http://www.challismessenger.com/index.p ... 7-20110623" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Roger is right. Be careful.

[RAYZR]

thats really sad. Lots of SWR RESCUE PHILOSOPHY and ACCIDENT TIMELINE to be tied into this...

[KimL]

Watching the snow depth reports from this winter, I was kind of glad we turned down our permit invitations to go west this year. I know lots of you get off on huge water, but I fully admit to being a bit of a coward about it, especially when a relatively familiar river like the Middle Fork is running high. I feel for the whole party. I don't think I would have been up for continuing.

Ray, it sounds like the cluster with the rafts makes a really good argument for having strong kayak safety boaters on the trip, to maneuver more quickly to reach swimmers. I really appreciate having those boaters, like Billy on our Middle Fork trip.

And, of course, I'm reminded how important it is for every person on an oar rig to have experience on the oars. You never know when you're going to have to jump on.

[okieboater]

Having had a total hypothermia swim experience on the grand canyon, I can say that in water that cold (prolly same temp as MFS) unless you have a hi float (which I had) and a dry suit (I was rowing in shorts and tee shirt having just had a good run on Hance and took off my good stuff as it was a hot sunny day) that passing out from hypothermia does not take long. My remembrance is after getting bucked off the cat boat, I went thru some big waves then swam over to the cat boat, grabbed the front rails and thought that I would just climb in over the rocket boxes - then I woke up on Walter's aircraft carrier in Doc Jim's fleece outfit. With Robin looking me square in the face saying "Dave, talk to me". I never made it into my big cat boat!

Bottom line swimming in water that cold, it does not take long to pass out, when I went out it was instant with no warning to me and then self rescue is next to impossible. And, yes we had safety kayakers along who were key to me being here today. Having extremely skilled rowers and kayakers on this trip turned a bad deal into river experience to tell around the camp fire or on this message board. IE learn from my experience!

When things go bad, they do it in triple fast time. Middle Fork even in the lower CFS range is always cold and swimming is full of hazards. Make the right decisions when you are out there especially in hi water and cold to boot.

[Crane]

We almost lost an oarsman just below there last year... at 5'3"... and he did the same thing: long swim where he became imobile. If Catherine Tollson hadn't hit a perfect throw just above Velvet we are fairly confident he would not have survived. Murphy's Hole has become pretty darned vicious over the last few years and is haaaard to miss! We all need to be in dry-suits at higher levels, for sure!!

[Fish]

Dress to swim. Especially on big Western rivers, where the current is flying, the eddies are uncertain, the banks are far away, and the water is very, very cold. After watching two people strip down to t-shirts and shorts on the Middle Fork and then get tossed in the water and end up barely able to feebly hold onto a rope, I'm a believer. Dress to swim, even if you're sure you'll never have to.

Very sad news from this year's high water season.

- Fish

[maggiepowell]

We decided to cancel our Middlefork permit in favor of the Payette, but there were still fatalities on the North Fork, which we did not do... or at the least those 15 miles of class IV and V.

http://www.nwcn.com/home/?fId=124680699 ... main=10227" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The river was definitely raging.

Maggie