12 July 1997
By John 'Tree' Trujillo, Elliot Weintrob and Bill Endicott
The whitewater canoeing family was shocked to hear of the death of Rich
Weiss, one of its most talented members. A two-time Olympian, World
Silver
Medalist and a Ph.D. known for his calm judgment, Rich seemed a most
unlikely candidate for a boating mishap. We all want to understand what
happened because we fear, "if it could happen to him, it could happen to
any
of us."
Several people contributed to this document. First, is John Trujillo,
who is
the only witness to what happened. Second, is Elliot Weintrob who
interviewed John, hiked in to examine the accident site and talked to
pertinent persons. Lastly, is Bill Endicott who, working with Elliot,
wove
all the available information into a narrative. After this was done, it
was
sent to John to make sure it comported with what he knew.
Background
On Wednesday, June 25, 1997, John and Rich were running the Green Truss
section of the White Salmon River in Washington State, which is about 6
miles long. The accident itself occurred on the rapid known as "Big
Brother." John and Rich were preparing for a wildwater type of race
there,
to be held approximately 2 weeks later.
Rosi, Rich's wife, was running shuttle for Rich and John. After she
dropped
them off at the put-in she went to the bottom of the run and waited.
John
and Rich were both in plastic boats and were wearing lifejackets and
helmets. The air temperature was about 80 degrees and the water
temperature
50-55 degrees.
Description of the River
The river is creek-like, about 30 feet wide and contains about 2,000
cfs. It
is technical and pushy, a pool,drop, pool,drop situation. It is rated
class
5 in the local guide book. The water level on the day of the accident
was 4
feet. Average flow on this run is 3 - 3.5 feet. The river was high on
the
day of the accident but Rich and John had run it at 5 feet two weeks
earlier
and 4.5 feet two days earlier. They knew the river and the lines.
Big Brother is a 30-foot waterfall with a small lead-in drop of no more
than
2 feet which is not vertical, followed by an approximately 27-foot
vertical
falls. The falls is fairly shallow on the river left two-thirds of the
drop,
with a majority of the water going over the right one-third, and then
into a
big hydraulic at the base of the falls.
Although Big Brother is the largest vertical drop on the run, it is not
known as the most difficult section, nor does it have the most difficult
approach. It is about three-quarters of a mile into the run. John and
Rich
had done well on the run up to this point and they felt fine as they
approached Big Brother.
Big Brother is set within a lush, heavily-treed gorge. Right at the
rapid
there are 2 approximately 30-foot high vertical walls. The mist off the
right hand side of the river creates a moss-covered environment
encompassing
the entire right hand wall. There is a great deal of mist. From the top
of
the drop it is difficult to see what is going on below.
On river right about 6 to 9 feet out from the base of the falls but
still in
the backwash of the hydraulic there is an undercut cave that is visible
at
about 3.5 feet, but not visible on the day of the accident. In a
previous
trip on the river, John had had a mishap at this place and had been
pushed
into the cave, while still in his boat. He remained there for about 30
seconds before finally being released.
Below the hydraulic is a slow moving pool for about 40 feet. Below this
flat
pool, however, there is a 15-foot waterfall. It is run on river right
but it
is not an easy run. Below it is a large hydraulic in the center of the
river. After this drop the water pushes to river right. It was 100 feet
downstream of this falls where Rich's body was found on the river right,
washed up against a log about 10 inches in diameter, stripped of all
bark
and branches. The police report stated that Rich died after going over a
15-foot waterfall and while it is true that he washed over this falls,
it
was not where the original accident occurred.
The Accident
Standard practice for running Big Brother is to eddy out on river left,
get
out of the boat, scout the falls, review what is known as the
appropriate
line and proceed. This is what John and Rich did.
The correct line is a wide peel-out from river left, going two-thirds of
the
way across the narrow river, enabling one to make a move starting from
river
right back to river left. This enables one to follow a seam of water
over
the more shallow part of the falls and away from the hydraulic on river
right.
In the peel-out in setting up the maneuver, one travels over a slight
(18-24
inch, but not vertical) drop before hooking back left, banking off a
boil-line to do so.
In the past, the drop has been run numerous times successfully and
upright.
Other boaters have flipped at the bottom of the drop but then made easy
rolls.
On this day, John was the first over the drop. He was on line, flipped
at
the bottom, rolled and was pushed to river left where he eddied out.
Rich
came next. He was too far right; he did not get over to the left soon
enough. This resulted in him dropping into the hydraulic on the river
right.
He was immediately back-endered in the hydraulic. He was still in the
boat
at the time.
When John saw that Rich was not immediately spit out of the hydraulic,
he
noted the time on his wristwatch, 5:16 PM and about 30 seconds. He did
this
because he was well-versed in river safety procedures and knew that it
was
important to be aware of time passing in a dangerous situation. For
instance, it is known that at 2 minutes underwater, the subject is
likely to
be unconscious but able to be resuscitated. At 10 minutes it gets
marginal.
And after 15 minutes it is probably too late to do anything. John was
prepared for Rich to wash out either alone or in his boat, and to
perform a
boat rescue.
But the kayak continued to cartwheel. The mist was so severe John had
difficulty seeing whether Rich was still in the boat or not. But at 2
minutes, John saw that Rich was definitely not in the boat any more. At
this
point, John quickly exited his boat on river right and proceeded
upstream
along the narrow, slippery bank jutting 4-5 feet out from the vertical
wall,
getting as close to the hydraulic as possible. During this period Rich's
boat washed out of the hydraulic but there was still no sign of Rich.
John then started throwing his throw-rope into the falls, hoping that
Rich
might grab it, or that it might ensnare Rich. He did this for about 40
minutes. He threw the rope everywhere, including into the underwater
cave
that he knew was there.
When he could see that this was not working, he got back into his boat,
ran
the next drop, retrieved Rich's boat and got out below the drop on river
right. He then hiked out to the road, hitch-hiked to town and called the
Sheriff. He estimates that he made this call about 90 minutes after the
accident, or about 6:46 PM.
Rescue Team
The Sheriff came to where John was. John led him and 2 rescue team
members
into the river. They immediately found Rich on the log. He still had his
life jacket and helmet on. But it took about 5 hours (or until about
11:45
PM) to get him from the river and the gorge back to the road where Rosi
waited.
Rich had a slight cut over his left eye, too low down to be protected by
any
helmet. There was a second small cut on the right temple. There was a
third
cut, this one on his forehead, from an accident one week previously and
not
caused by this incident. No other marks were noticed by any one of
several
people who saw the body.
The Klickitat County District Attorney, Knute Rife, who investiated the
matter, says that the cause of death was drowning but there is no way of
telling whether a blow to the head caused Rich to go unconscious first
and
then drown, or whether he drowned without being knocked out.
Big Brother, Green Truss Section of the White Salmon