Near Terminal Carelessness

On March 14th this year, I was descending a canyon in Escalante with a group of 5 others. Rappels were intermittent and we had been taking harnesses on and off, to preserve them while navigating sharp rock scrambling. The final rap is anchored in a pothole, drops 6 feet into another pothole, before going a tad more than vertical for 23 feet to the rock groove below. I was 4th down of 6, negotiated the pothole and told our meat anchor that I was going vertical on rap. We fall fast. A second or two later, I was on the ground, having fortunately fallen off of fall line about 10-15 degrees to what proved a pretty flat landing. The fall line would have shattered my body. This made the fall more like 26 feet. I had spun 180 degrees, landed on my pack and back. I burned thru a new glove leaving a 2nd degree burn on my palm pad, just below the pointer finger and a chunk of skin off two fingers over. My harness was still attached to the rope 26 feet above me. I likely failed to double it back and out I came. Down I went and likely only survived because I never let go of the break hand and it never left my hip area.

Concerned with potential spinal injury etc., I stay immobile for a time to take inventory. Also I am on blood thinners from past blood clots and the potential for internal injuries....well lets say that seemed more likely than not. Do you call for a copter just in case? Reasonable concerns considering the bleeding and spine injury potential. I eventually got up and started to descend a boulder chocked descent of 3/4 of a mile down to flatter wash and 4 more miles of hiking to the vehicles. Staying loose allowed me to be ambulatory. Stopping longer, I would have become immobile I also upon reaching camp, choose to stay on the trip. I understand the huge risks that making that decision entailed. The long drive out sitting, likely 4 hours to medical care, with an hour of dirt road to start with, seemed daunting.

My back spasmed liberally overnight but within a day and a half, I felt OK again. Enough so, to foolishly try a big canyon day. The 1,800 vertical feet of class 3-4 uphill approach all went well, but when I put on a wet suit and tried a mantle exit of a pothole.....OUCH! I added to whatever injuries I had. I was able to exit this part of the canyon and work my way down to a canyon section that was mandatory to navigate, to get out. What I found was that if I only zipped my wet suit part way, I probably would have been fine. Being corseted definitely made the injury worse. I was relegated to Blarney and such the rest of the trip.

I went home and to the doctor. A broken traverse bone on the back at L3 and the #8 rib broken in two spots (back and side). Going canyoneering 2 days after the fall made the broken ribs worse. The hematoma that I did not notice (others did) absorbed back into my body. I was told that pain threshold should be my guide and limiter. So I was out April 14th, one month after the fall. Got in 3 explorations, off the good grace of my younger partners who allowed me to carry just my food and water. Then several days with children of friends I introduced into the wilderness 40 years ago, in North Wash and Arches.

In May, I returned to the scene of the crime and Taylor taped my observations from the accident site 54 days after the fall. See it below. I am healed now and had a wonderful May trip as well. It is 3 months to the day today. I should have either died or still be struggling in a rehab facility. I got very lucky. I was very careless and it almost cost everything. My decision to not seek medical care when I was back at the car, was as reckless as the fall. A reminder to check each other, don't let yourself get distracted and remain vigilant.

My apologies to everyone who I know and love and loves me.


A few pictures of the site from years past
The angle off fall line landed me at the middle of the sand, not the rock straight below






Ram

I am reminded of this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Menagerie_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series)
Reminder: We have yet to find Talos IV. Stay safe

Geez Ram. Take it easy out there.

I am very glad to hear that you are recovered. Don't ever do that again!

WTF! Ram.

That is terribly scary, and I am so glad you are doing better. About five years ago, one week before I was to leave to go to Northwash and take Jared's beginning canyoneering course, I for the first time ever fractured several of my left ribs. Ouch! I did make it through the course, with Ibuprofen.

As to the L3 tra(ns)verse process, here is a picture of it:


And yes, a fractured vertebra hurts mucho. Ram, you be careful. Okay? Take Jenny and Tom with ya -- they'll look out for ya!

So glad your okay. I'm still confused as to how in the world.

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Glad you are OK.

This is a good reminder that everyone makes mistakes. Being an experienced canyoneer does not make anyone, even the mighty RAM immune from mistakes. We're all human.

Thanks for the great story and I hope to see you again in the canyons sometime.

I've been waiting for the rest of the story. It was somewhat worse than I feared, but I'm delighted that you're okay now. I was driving down to meet you for that trip when my car broke down. Some things aren't meant to be. I can't believe you've pushed your body so hard even after the accident, but again the important thing is that you're still with us and I'm grateful.

The following isn't for you, but others. This is exactly why I run through a quick checklist before every rappel in an effort to catch my errors before they happen, and with any partners if they're comfortable with it. If a simple but costly oversight can eventually happen to a pro it can certainly happen to me.

S safety (autoblock or fireman's belay)
H harness, helmet, hang pack if long
A anchor inspection
R rappel device properly threaded? unlocked or crossloaded biners?
K knot end of rope unless it can be seen reaching the deck

Good job hanging onto that rope!

Well wishes and be safe, my friend!
I'm pretty confident your Waterloo will take more than 26'!!

Otra razón for wearing gloves.

Never too experienced to have your partners double check your rigging.

I feel like check a biner block 10 times before rapeling, but rarely double check mine or my partners harness. Glad you're okay and thanks for the reminder.

GLAD YOU ARE OK RAM!
Last year (as LAPAR) I started rappelling on the WRONG side of a biner block
fortunately it was a low angle start giving a second to stand back up on the slab before plummeting 40 feet.
Like Bryan I check ALL rigging about 10 times now-
And when we are in a really big hurry
I still check all rigging about 10 times.
Cuz no one is in THAT big a hurry!

A very scary day. Here are some photos of Ram taken seconds before the fall.

Ughh
A bit gnarly for 'jumping'
Ram is one tough dude.
I am sure you did NOT like having to witness that, Wes

He's human, but only sort of. We had a trip about a month after this that Ram was considering backing out on (as pretty much everyone else in this world would have). Instead he came and did 3 explorations including at least one 14 hour day. Pretty remarkable. Definitely glad you are alright Ram.

Glad you are ok my friend Ram...sorry for your post accident suffering. You are one tough guy! Thanks for your willingness to share your story... so much to learn when we openly identify our mistakes and put ourselves out there for potential critique and scrutiny. As a key figure in the canyoneering community it means even more...so again thanks for sharing and encouraging greater diligence and safety in our canyon teams.

Thanks too for the positivity and support of responses from the canyon collective community... goes along way to encourage others to share their lapses. Ultimately, being human, we probably all have skeletons in our "canyoneering closets" that we are too shy to share...when in reality the sharing could prevent an injury or save a life. Thanks to others who have shared their mishaps over the years as well here on the forum. (PS- when I can find a 1/2 hour I'll write up one of my skeletons from a past near miss)