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The Alpine
climber
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Sep 24, 2012 - 10:06am PT
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Cut the rope?
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Anxious Melancholy
Mountain climber
Between the Depths of Despair & Heights of Folly
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Sep 24, 2012 - 10:45am PT
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In this case, yes, cut the rope would have been the right immediate answer (from my pictures you might be able to see that the drop is short and ends on a sandy and flat area). Remember though that the individual inverted and did not have the strength to get himself upright. Contrary to some of the descriptions above, once he was inverted, and had cut both himself and his harness, he was left dangling even further by a leg loop and was unable to reach the sling with his blade. Of course he could have continued cutting, but I imagine that with rising panic and quickly waning energy levels, and baring an intervening force, at that point he was at Mother Nature’s mercy.
We that risk, risk the loss of life. Yet without risk, would we experience even half of what life has to offer? I choose risk, and celebrate those who also have the courage to adventure.
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Sep 24, 2012 - 10:57am PT
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Very sad news. I've always thought that an autoblock knot is either a prusik or a kleimheist or other, autoblock being a generic term referring to the action of several different knots in automatically blocking the rope from sliding until you manually release it.
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cencalclimber
climber
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Sep 24, 2012 - 11:53am PT
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An autoblock bought me some more time on this planet once. Years ago when I was new to climbing, my friend and I were rapping in Yosemite. I unclipped my daisy, leaned back over the edge, and felt a weird tug on my leg loop instead of the belay loop where you should. Turned out that I had threaded the rope through the device but never clipped the rope into the biner. The only thing holding me on the rope was the autoblock prussic attached to my leg loop. So stupid!!!
A few years ago, my wife and I did the Subway canyon in Zion as our first canyoneering trip. Thankfully by that point, I had enough experience to know when I don't know things and to not be fooled into complacency by the canyon's popularity. I had backups for backups, a 60 meter rope for the 20 foot mandatory rappel, extensive route beta, thick wetsuits, rappel slings, leaver biners, etc. Relative to others, I felt like we override it a bit. But that's only beacuse nothing went wrong...
If only we could internalize critical knowledge without near-death experiences.
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Don Paul
Big Wall climber
Colombia, South America
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Sep 24, 2012 - 12:06pm PT
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Thanks for education about autoblocks. BTW when I learned to tie prusik knots I remember there were two ways to do it, both shown above. I dont think it matters either way for ascending, although I think the "prusik" variation bites more and the spiral one a little less. I am wondering what the cause of death will be on the autopsy. Probably suffocated in the water or had a heart attack. He was 74 years old.
I remember once I went off hiking, in either arches or canyonlands, in this place called the firey furnace. I thought I was following a trail but got totally lost in the canyon maze. After not figuring it out for a while I got worried about being benighted in the cold utah desert with no protection, and started jogging instead of walking, following one wall the whole time. Eventually got to a climbable chimney, ascended about 40 feet to I could look around, then figured out the compass directions, and got myself out of the canyon using rock climbing skills. I can only imagine what this person's wife went through.
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Sagebrusher
Sport climber
Iowa
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Sep 27, 2012 - 12:14am PT
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Wednesday, September 26, 2012
INCIDENTS
Zion National Park (UT)
Man Dies In Canyoneering Accident
On Wednesday, September 19th, 2012 park rangers determined that Yoshio Hosobuchi, age 74, had died while descending the Left Fork of the North Creek, a popular canyoneering route known as The Subway. Rangers began to look for Hosobuchi and his wife, based on a report from another hiker who was concerned the couple might be caught by darkness. Rangers made contact with Hosobuchi’s wife on the trail who reported Hosobuchi had flipped upside down while rappelling the previous evening and she had been unable to free him. The couple was at the last obstacle of the technical portion of the canyon, a 15-foot rappel, and chose to use an anchor different from the one listed in the route description. The anchor they chose increased the difficulty of the rappel as the location is overhung, free-hanging and in an active waterfall. Hosobuchi’s wife completed the rappel first. Hosobuchi was using a Blue Water VT below his rappel device and attached to his leg loop as a backup. Hosobuchi began his rappel when he flipped upside down, possibly due to the weight of his pack. It appears that when Hosobuchi inverted, the VT slid into the rappel device and jammed it. Due to the overhung and free-hanging nature of the location, Hosobuchi had no leverage to assist in righting himself even after he dropped his pack and his wife pulled on the rope to attempt to move him sideways, towards a wall. Hosobuchi then attempted to free himself by cutting the waist belt of his harness. When he cut through the waist belt, the leg loops of his harness slid down and caught around his ankles and canyoneering boots. Hosobuchi was now hanging upside down from his ankles in an active waterfall approximately 6 feet off the ground. Hosobuchi’s wife repeatedly attempted to pull him free from his harness by pulling on his hands, but was unable to free him from the harness before leaving him to seek help. Rangers reached Hosobuchi in the late afternoon of September 19 and confirmed that he had not survived. A helicopter from the Grand Canyon recovered his body the following morning. Rangers worked closely with Washington County Sheriff’s office and the local medical examiner on the investigation.
[Submitted by Therese Picard, Canyon District Ranger]
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A.J.
Mountain climber
Boulder, CO
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Oct 10, 2012 - 12:30am PT
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Hey all,
A couple things.
1) An autoblock is anything that will automatically stop the rope; a device or a friction hitch. A prusik is likely the most common, but other friction hitches such as a Bachmann or Klemheist can be used.
2) If using an autoblock, I'd recommend using it from your leg loop (and keep it pretty tight), and extend your rappel device from a sling, to add significant distance between your device and your autoblock. However, using a firemans belay from below is preferred as it's much quicker and easier, and if something were to happen, the person from below could actually lower the person; eliminating the need for a more complex pick-off.
3) It was asked what is the difference of putting your autoblock above and below your rappel device, and was mentioned that above your device, it had to hold more weight. While this is true, the more important fact is that if your autoblock stops you, if it is above the rappel device, you will very likely have to unweight the rope to loosen it and get moving again.
If it's below the device, you can usually loosen it without unweighting the rope (as it has to hold less weight to stop you.)
4) Most importantly of all, NEVER use an autoblock when doing class C rappels (through moving water.) Mister Murphy will visit at the most inopportune moment, and things can get bad really quickly...
Hope that helps, and as an avid canyoneer, was very sad to hear of this tragic accident. Especially because, as several have already pointed out, it could have been avoided by some basic knowledge (either of the proper route/anchors, or some basic techniques or rescue knowledge...)
Very sad, and my condolences to all those affected...
Take care,
A.J.
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