Zion park flooding

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sasha

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Feb 28, 2006
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http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/17/us/zion-national-park-fatalities/index.html

Well I just found that that I know the leader of the hike and one other person that died. Don-T and me we used to hike together as part of a meet up group. You guys would like him. Good guy always carried extra gear just in case. Easy and fun to talk with ready to help anyone. The kind of a guy that you would like to spend a day or a week in the woods with.
Good strong hiker never seemed to take too many chances on hikes. I wish I knew more details about what happened. I hope to get more details later on. I still cant believe that Don knowingly would take a risk like that. I still cant get it into my head what happened.
 
sasha said:
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/17/us/zion-national-park-fatalities/index.html

Well I just found that that I know the leader of the hike and one other person that died. Don-T and me we used to hike together as part of a meet up group. You guys would like him. Good guy always carried extra gear just in case. Easy and fun to talk with ready to help anyone. The kind of a guy that you would like to spend a day or a week in the woods with.
Good strong hiker never seemed to take too many chances on hikes. I wish I knew more details about what happened. I hope to get more details later on. I still cant believe that Don knowingly would take a risk like that. I still cant get it into my head what happened.
Click to expand...

That is a very sad and tragic story...the details will be interesting. Our road trip to my family in Washington had a return route to spend a couple days in Zion, but a family emergency came up. We promised our son we would head out during our spring break and tracking the larger, regional weather patterns are critical to me. We're looking forward to the trip, but this is a sobering reminder about how dangerous slot canyons and even dry river beds can become in very little time.

ROCK6
 
Dry canyons are deceptive as to their danger. If I had my guess, they probably felt that there were enough places that would be high and dry in the event of a flash flood to avoid the danger. They were likely caught just at the worst moment in time and seven have paid the ultimate price.
 
It seemed that it was bad luck on there part. A person who knew about the trip that was planned said they were ready and took all the precautions. Don researched the trip and planned on it for months. As bad to say it as it is, It was bad luck on there part. Its easy with hindsight to say what could have been done or what should have been done.
Even the best prepared people get hurt when mother nature throws a curve in your direction. You can only prepare and get ready so much. Its one thing to read a paper about someone that got hurt and another when you know the person.
 
sasha said:
I wish I knew more details about what happened. I hope to get more details later on. I still cant believe that Don knowingly would take a risk like that.
Click to expand...
If it helps understanding what and how this happened, Keyhole is a short, narrow canyoneering route, not a "hike". It's an easy beginner route as far as technical canyons go(people take their kids <10yrs old through it). Generally very low risk with just a couple of short rappels and downclimbs, but that has nothing to do with its danger in the event of a flash flood. It's narrow, and already has a corridor less than armspan wide that requires wading or swimming depending on the water level.
So...they were basically in an underground tunnel that filled up with water. Short of avoiding the canyon due to a storm being forecast(which it apparently was not), there was really nothing that could have been done to prevent this.

http://www.canyoneeringusa.com/utah/zion/technical/keyhole-canyon/
 
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