EISPIRATEN

Quote from Zach There was a weird back-current that was sucking him towards the waterfall.
That is a common phenomenom of falls. An eddy is created which can suck you under and or create a strong current back toward the falls. In some circumstances where water falls from a higher to lower level (low head dams) One method to try if you are unable to swim against the strong current is to swim to the bottom, and attempt to get under the eddy. In this circumstance though, it sounds like the pack was the biggest problem. I think you can google low head dams, and there is rescue footage of an incident that occurred in Delaware (i think) where rescuers attempted to save essentially dead victims tumbling in the current and they themselves ended up getting caught in the current tragically.

Bill wrote:Quote from Zach There was a weird back-current that was sucking him towards the waterfall.
That is a common phenomenom of falls. An eddy is created which can suck you under and or create a strong current back toward the falls. In some circumstances where water falls from a higher to lower level (low head dams) One method to try if you are unable to swim against the strong current is to swim to the bottom, and attempt to get under the eddy. In this circumstance though, it sounds like the pack was the biggest problem. I think you can google low head dams, and there is rescue footage of an incident that occurred in Delaware (i think) where rescuers attempted to save essentially dead victims tumbling in the current and they themselves ended up getting caught in the current tragically.

Low head dams are known, for very good reason, as "drowning machines". In many cases, the water cascading over the top falls all the way to the "riverbed" on the low side and creates a recirculating hydraulic that continuously sucks objects back toward the face - essentially trapping and recirculating the object. Get too close to the recirulating boil line and you can get sucked in from the low side. A PFD might not help much if there is a lot of water involved.

If the drop does not result in a top to bottom recirculation, diving to the bottom and attempting to swim out is an option.

It doesn't take much flow to create very powerful hydraulics. A sloping drop does not create the quite the same recirculating flow. Any time you have a vertical (or near vertical) drop from one pool to another and there is a circulating flow at the bottom - watch out!

Although the following wasn't the problem in Taco's case, the scenario raises an issue that people ought to be aware of when rappeling into water, especially water that might be over your head. Some people like to use a self-belay when they rappel like a prusik above their descent control device or an autoblock below the device. But you may have a major problem if you drop into a deep pool and are trying to unrig from your self-belay, especially if it's a hydraulic. Similarly, if you have to rap under a waterfall, you don't want to risk a prusik or autoblock getting stuck on you when you're under the waterfall. Anyway, something to think about for those who like to use a self-belay when rappeling.

Videos up:

Awesome vids!!

Now I have to go down that canyon a ways. I guess the first falls that you had to rap must be the one that I got down to. How far below Upper Fish Fork Camp was that first falls that you had to rap?

HJ

Not that far, an hour or maybe a little more.

TacoDelRio wrote:Not that far, an hour or maybe a little more.

OK, that sounds about right. Dang! I have to get out there again.

HJ

just read this kinda crazy.