The Tragic Summer of 1997
| The Tragic Summer of 1997 - Sidebar |
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| Thursday, 01 January 1998 11:15 | ||||
Page 2 of 2 Dugald BremnerOn June 3, 1997, well-known outdoor photographer, kayaker and Grand Canyon river guide Dugald Bremner and three companions found themselves on the Silver Fork of California's American River. By early afternoon they reached the most difficult rapid and stopped to scout it. High flows poured over a ledge, obscuring a sieve of faults siphoning much of the water through the bedrock. Dugald entered the current and lined up on what appeared to be simple turbulence at the head of the falls. In reality, the turbulence marked a submerged fissure cutting into the bedrock with water folding in from both sides. As he followed the flow, his nose hit a shallow piece of bedrock and stalled, causing his stern to snag in the crevice. The current dragged the boat down quickly, and Dugald asked Eric Brown, standing on shore, for help. While the other kayakers were downstream scouting, ready to assist on possible trouble encountered on a series of lower pourovers, Eric waded across the fast-moving water, expecting only to give the kayak a nudge. But the situation rapidly turned serious. A strong current ran beneath the surface, drawing the stern downward and jamming it tighter into the crevice. Eric straddled the crack and used his body to deflect the water while grabbing Dugald's boat and lifejacket. Ralph Michlisch came over to assist, but the river pulled him into the crevice and out through an opening in the rock. Bill Morse rescued him below and then both climbed back up to help rescue Dugald. As Dugald sank lower, the strong current pinned him forward against his boat, trapping his legs inside. The river then pulled the stern deeper into the crevice, causing the bow to rise higher. Dugald reached a hand out of the water and Eric grabbed it before feeling it relax. Seeing no other option, Bill jumped onto the stern of the kayak by bracing himself on the bedrock and yanked at Dugald's lifejacket, tearing it apart. Then he reached for Dugald's helmet, breaking the chinstrap, before he too was sucked under and eventually rescued by Eric. After they paddled out for help, word of the accident reached Dugald's close friends and family, who quickly descended on the Silver Fork. On June 8, an expert team gathered at the site under the direction of rigger Mike Weis, with Lars Holbek and Eric Magnuson handling the in-river work. Within a few hours they completed the recovery of Dugald and his boat. His friends brought the kayak home to Flagstaff, Ariz., and leaned it against the wall of Dugald's photography studio, where it still stands, bow skyward. --Adapted from a tribute by Scott Thibony that appeared in Boatman's Quarterly Review, Vol. 10, No. 3 Rich Weiss Editor's note:. The following is an abbreviated account of a report published in Paddler, Oct. 1997. Rich Weiss and John "Tre" Trujillo put in on Washington's Class V Upper White Salmon River on June 25. The river was running four feet (about 2,000 cfs), almost a foot above average. The two knew the river well, having run it at 4.5 feet two days earlier. After three quarters of a mile, they pulled over to scout Big Brother, a 30-foot waterfall with a small lead-in drop of about two feet, followed by a 28-foot waterfall. The falls are shallow on the left two-thirds, with most of the water going over the right one-third into a hydraulic. Mist rising from river right makes it difficult to see what is going on below. On river right about six to nine feet out from the base of the falls, but still in the backwash of the hydraulic, is an undercut cave visible at 3.5 feet, but not visible on the day of the accident. Below the hydraulic is a pool, followed by another 15-foot waterfall. The correct line is a wide peel-out from river left two-thirds of the way across the river, enabling you to move from river right back to river left following a seam away from the hydraulic. John went first, flipped at the bottom, rolled, and eddied out on the left. Rich did not get left soon enough, dropped into the hydraulic on river right and was immediately back-endered. When John saw that Rich was stuck in the hydraulic (although he couldn't tell whether Rich was still in the boat), he exited his boat on river right and proceeded upstream along a narrow bank jutting five feet out from the wall, getting as close to the hydraulic as possible. During this period Rich's boat washed out, but there was no sign of Rich. John started throwing his throw-rope into the falls and into the underwater cave, to no avail. When he saw this was not working, he hiked out to the road, hitch-hiked to town and called the sheriff. When the sheriff arrived, John led him and two rescue team members to the river, where they found Rich's body 100 feet downstream of the second falls, washed up on river right against a 10-inch-diameter log. His lifejacket and helmet were still on. He had a slight cut over his left eye, with a second small cut on the right temple. No other marks were noticed. The cause of death was ruled as drowning, but there is no way of telling whether a blow to the head caused unconsciousness first, or whether he drowned before the head injury. Henry Filip Colorado's Crystal River was running approximately 1,250 cfs (considered a medium-high level) on June 28, 1997. Local boater Henry Filip scouted Meatgrinder Rapid before putting-in, even though he probably had run this drop about 50 times during his lifetime. Meatgrinder is divided by a large boulder, known as the "Island," which splits the river into a right and left channel and marks the middle of the rapid. The upper half is the more technically demanding section, with pourovers, wood and the need to move right or left to avoid the rock island obstacle. Two kayakers and one other spectator were stationed along the river-left bank with a throw rope and a video camera. Henry ran the upper half of Meatgrinder without incident and eddied-out in the river-left channel. The lower half is not as technical, but includes three holes in succession before the rapid ends. Henry waited while long-time paddling partner Gordon Banks set-up to film the lower half of the drop. Henry peeled-out and then went over a pourover and another hole he didn't have momentum to penetrate. After getting windowshaded in the hole, he recovered, but was then knocked over by the next cluster of holes. He floated out of this second group of holes immediately but his roll attempts were disrupted by another pourover and rough water. Henry floated into the third group of holes, marked by a cliff on the river-left bank, still attempting to roll. He most likely took some head blows from underwater rocks in the process. Upon exiting the holes, Henry didn't show any more movement, nor did he attempt to roll. Slow-motion video replays vaguely show him letting go of his paddle after he drifts out of the holes next to the small cliff. On shore, only Gordon was positioned to see the lower part of Henry's run. His perspective was limited, however, because he was looking through the viewfinder. As a result, he could not tell where Henry was. He presumed Henry had finally swum from his boat. The three spectators, now rescuers, searched the bottom area of Meatgrinder unsuccessfully before regrouping. Two of them then searched the river-right side of the river while Gordon searched farther downstream. Gordon went down to Penny Hotsprings (one mile downstream), where he saw Henry's kayak floating upside-down in the middle of the river. He went down to the river to retrieve the boat. As he got closer, he realized Henry was still in the boat. Gordon and another rescuer could not get Henry out of the river before he slid into Narrows Rapid, just downstream of the hotspring. Henry floated through the Narrows section in his boat as well. Two miles later and after multiple attempts to get his boat to shore, Henry dislodged from the boat. Gordon reached him at an island and attempted resuscitation. By that time, Henry had been under his boat floating down the river for approximately 45 minutes. --Gordon Banks Chuck Kern On August 14, 1997, Chuck Kern, the western technical rep for Easley, S.C.'s Perception Inc. and member of the 1997 U.S. Rodeo Team, drowned while paddling a narrow section of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River in Colorado's Curecanti National Recreation Area. Paddling with a group of six experienced boaters, including his brothers Willie and John, Kern began his trip at East Portal early that morning. As the group entered a mile-long, generally portaged section of the canyon, they opted to run the more conservative drops. The accident took place just upstream of "Cruise Gully" on a five-foot sloping ramp of water. After everyone scouted and picked their respective lines, Kern opted for a run down a ramp on river left. What appeared to be a single rock just under the surface, however, turned out to be a rock bridge, creating a sieve not visible from the group's vantage point. As Kern paddled over the drop, his bow went under the bridge and became vertically pinned in the sieve, with the water pressure pushing his boat out of sight. The rest of the group reached his side of the river within three to five minutes and set up a rope through his stern grab loop. They set up a Z-drag and attempted to pull the boat out from various directions, breaking several prussiks in the process. After an hour of trying to move the boat with no success, the group paddled the remainder of the river to contact the National Park Service. Through the rescue efforts of a team headed by Vail, Colo.'s Mike Duffy, the Park Service arranged to drop the water level enough to enable rescuers to retrieve Kern and his boat. Private services were held Aug. 23 in Kern's hometown of Stowe, Vt., with a service for the paddling community held Sept. 3 at the Chutes des Plaisanc near Ottawa, Canada. --Veronica Griner, Perception Inc.
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