11/28/2021 Death in Heaps Canyon Zion

• SPRINGDALE, Utah – This weekend, the Zion National Park Technical Search and Rescue Team responded to an emergency call at the exit of Heaps Canyon. Rescuers found two canyoneers stranded on a rock perch about 280 feet above Upper Emerald Pools. They also found one canyoneer suspended from a rope about 260 feet above the pool (20 feet below the perch). The canyoneer who was suspended, 31-year-old Andrew Arvig of Chesapeake, Virginia was lowered to the ground and later pronounced deceased by a doctor. The Zion Technical Search and Rescue Team assisted the other two canyoneers with rappelling safely to the ground.
  
  The group started their trip early on the morning of Saturday, Nov. 27 and had been following their permitted itinerary through Heaps Canyon. They had difficulty negotiating the last few rappels in the canyon which delayed their exit.
  
  Mr. Arvig, the first to exit Heaps Canyon, rappelled past a small rock ledge where he needed to land and re-anchor his rope in order to then rappel the remaining distance to the ground. The other members of the group used their “pull line” to rappel to the perch. Mr. Arvig was unable to ascend the 20 feet back to the perch. Rangers began rescue operations early Sunday morning when the canyoneers on the perch contacted Washington County Dispatch by cell phone after several failed attempts to connect because of poor reception.The Washington County Sheriff’s Department and the National Park Service are still investigating the cause of Mr. Arvig’s death.
  
  “All of us at Zion National Park extend our sympathy to the Arvig family for their tragic loss,” said Superintendent Jeff Bradybaugh.
  
  The park’s response involved more than 30 rescuers including a technical rescue team, a helicopter dispatched from Grand Canyon National Park and a Life Flight helicopter and crew from St. George, Utah.
  
  The Upper and Middle Emerald Pools Trails, which had been closed due to rescue operations, are now open.
• https://www.nps.gov/zion/learn/news...xit-of-heaps-canyon-in-zion-national-park.htm

Comments: I comment largely to clarify a few points. If you would like to DISCUSS, there is a separate thread for that. Please do not 'discuss' on this thread.

I have a few observations, that are probably clear to people familiar with the canyon, but perhaps bewildering to people who are not:

A. Heaps is a long and cold canyon. By the time most people get to the final rappel sequence, they are tired and hungry and their brain is not firing on all cylinders. The packs are heavy at this point.
B. The penultimate rappel is 145 feet and deceptively steep. The rappeller ends up at the outer edge of the Bird Perch. It takes a small effort to get onto the Bird Perch.
C. The rappel line from the Bird Perch anchor goes through a tight crack in the floor. Below the Bird Perch, the rappel is entirely free to the ground. To start the final rappel, a person rappels outside the crack, then swings underneath about 5 feet below the Perch. Ascending the rope from below the Bird Perch to the Bird Perch anchor is virtually impossible for all but 5.12 climbers.
D. I do not know where Mr. Arvig's rappel rope ended up, but it was likely in the crack, making ascending to the anchor impossible.

We may or may not be blessed with more information regarding this tragedy. I think we have all experienced times when we were tired and made mistakes - certainly I have. I think we know enough about this accident that more information is not useful. Any of us could have found ourselves in this situation, and some of us could maybe of figured out how to do a self-rescue... but I think many of us would not have.

Condolences to the family and to the companions.

Tom