Planned to do Heaps this weekend knowing that Friday was the longest day of the year. No Permits because Emerald Pools trail is closed. One of our group of 3 bailed, so we pressed the easy button. I hadn’t done Spry canyon, and My buddy had never been down Pine Creek. Coming down Pine Creek I had just pulled the rope from the 1st rap when Brent yelled back that a member of the group ahead of us had broke their ankle on the second rap. Bringing him back up was clearly the best option. We had a Sam splint and Brent put that on while I built a 3:1 to lift him up the second rap. The kid with the broken ankle was in a party of six, and his dad was with him. The rest of the party said they were capable of going down without them, so we had them continue on down while we started the process of getting him out. I could have thrown a sand bag and climbed up the first rap (pothole101) but luckily another group came and pulled my rope up and tied it off for me to ascend. The two ladies that pulled my rope up happened to be a doctor and a life flight nurse. I Ascended up and they rappelled down and checked the injured. All good so they continued on down canyon. I built a second raising system, Another group arrived and they helped as a haul team and went back to let a Park Ranger know there was an injured person coming up. We raised him up the first rap using a 2:1. Set up a another 2:1 to lift him out of the water and up the ledge at the very beginning. Members of the group above us supported him and began walking him back to the road. I went back and raised his dad up to go with him while the rest of their group continued on down the canyon. They headed to the road we headed off through the canyon. Took us just over an hour to get up the technical sections. I ended up with two biners that do not belong to me. Didn’t recognize it till I was half way down the canyon. If you were their on Saturday and are missing two biners let me know and I’ll send them to you. For those that helped us get him out, thank you. Hopefully he makes a full recovery and can return to complete the canyon. If anyone knows who it is, let him know we hope he is doing well.
Great SPAR story. Quite the lucky lad to have all that talent converging there: ppl with rescue skills, medical skills, haul-team-power, etc. Thanks for sharing that. Additional info from the Utah Canyoneering Explorers FB group: And from Tom Jones' website: === @Boilerman can you confirm that the accident occurred at R2, based on Tom's description above?
The so called "R2" just barely became a rap recently after it filled it with debris and sand. It was an easy downclimb under a rock for the last 10 years. Counting raps and relying heavily on beta generally isn't that safe. Last time I did Pine Creek that would be counted as rap 4 based upon the webbing placed on the bolts above the first downclimb and on the log below the first traditional rap
The PC gods were smiling or was it serendipitous fortune - either way this youngster picked perfect timing for an accident! Very nice applied skills and teamwork, Boilerman! Misfortune with happy resolution, simply Awesome!