Blossom Bar Rescue July 2014
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- Опубликовано: 27 авг 2014
- Blossom Bar rescue July 2014, about 1500CFS
During our private trip on the Rouge River we came upon another group that had wrapped a raft on a rock at the top of Blossom Bar. My friend and I hatched a plan to free the boat from the rock. Here is the rescue.
Before starting this rescue we set up safety upstream to stop anyone else from running the rapid while the rescue was going on. We also sent a couple of boats from our party to talk with the group to make sure everyone was ok and to tell them what our plan was. It was our original plan to cut the rope after it had been freed from the rock. We knew that the yellow webbing isn't redundant and that the angle in which the load was put on it was very steep. We had some concerns of it failing and knew it was not ideal but we had to work with what we had. The webbing was secured on the other side of the rock by two climbing nuts to ensure that the webbing wouldn't ride up and slid off. The inflatable kayak live bait was key to getting the rope on the wrapped boat. 
Хобби
Absolutely out standing!
I can't tell you how many people have laughed at me when I have 200 ft of 1/2 static line and 4 50 kN pulleys layed out the day before all my trips....nice work dudes
Great work gents!
You guys did a great job and like the other comments that was a slick move with the IK. I had a buddy get his boat hung up on that rock one May. I'd just went through when I looked back and his boat was high up on it sideways and he was hanging off it on the down stream side. Lucky it came off on its own. But he and his passenger swam the whole thing. We flipped it back over in the same eddy you guys were headed for. Again good job.
I need a beer after watching this
Very nicely done!
Nice work! I'm going to link this video to the Mt. Buzz, so expect your views to bump up.
Just saw this today 1/25/17. Very impressive work. You guys are awesome. Hope you are behind me the next time I run Blossom. Must have been Spectra in your rigging. I agree the IK live bait was key. Hope whoever's rig that was they bought you beer at Paradise
The "Picket Fence" in Blossom Bar is a nasty place and has earned a place in infamy for eating a lot of wood and rubber. If there is ONE move you just HAVE to do on any river it is the move right at this point on the Rogue. The deep water area surrounding the wrap site makes rescue quite difficult, and this tiny crew did a fantastic job...twice! Their use of the IK was brilliant, and it was keen to "do" that clip vicariously. KUDOS, and I trust the beers were flowing your way in that big eddy!
Thanks Gyntster, we were just happy to be able to help these folks out.
John Bain
Just sharin the love, Bro! Hey, I'd wager to say it may have been your sunken pulley system that got snagged downriver after you freed the raft. IF POSSIBLE, do that rope release by cutting just past your prussik...and beware of that "rifle back shot" when all that energy gets released, right? Great save, and way to stay with the effort all the way down to the shore line eddy.
That's what we thought was snagged down in the water. Our original plan was to cut the rope past the prussik after we freed the raft, but you know how plans go most of the time. In hindsight we should have used a spare PFD to dampen the shock when we cut it... next time. Good runs!
Indeed John, That PFD on the load line serves two functions: float the rope end, and suppress the shock. Your situation was rather unique, and a study in a special situation, because you were doing the rescue from an island in deep water, so your position to haul from was extremely tight. Knowing what I do about force vectors on loaded anchors, I was most worried about the ability of your green 1" webbing to sustain the forces that had to be applied to it.
You did what you had to do, and I have little doubt that you used all you had to get an anchor set on that big-ass rounded boulder...but that green sling was in my radar, and I was thinking -the whole time- "Don't Pop....Don't Pop!....DO NOT BLOW!!"...and it held! You guys did a remarkable job there, and it was a real-life scenario that could be preserved and shown to swift-water rescue classes.
John, I was a professional river guide for 18 different seasons, and from 1974-76 I rowed the Rogue River, doing 5-day trips all summer long...did close to 50 trips, and I'd always remind fellow guides & privates that Blossom Bar was "3 hard strokes right"...I always backed into that entrance eddy with those three strokes, avoided the bump rock and spun it around for the center chute, and I often played the nose of my raft directly into the right hand boulder at the top of that center chute because the left-bounce it gave me made the next move easier to pull in a fully loaded commercial rig.
From the Rogue I went up to the Middle Fork of the Salmon ad did about 75 trips there over the course of the next 25 years. I ran that river at every water level, from 1.0 ft to 9.2 ft, and for my very last commercial trip in 2002 I took Tom Hanks and his family down in my raft for a 6-day trip...it was a great time with a really cool guy. I have posted a RUclips movie of me running Rubber Rapid on the MF at 9+ feet, so check that out at
Middle Fork, High Water (9.2ft) Rubber Rapid, 1984
Sitting in my raft on that trip are three Playboy Playmates who were there making an adventure film for Playboy...and I was their guide in the movie. No sex -that was clearly written in their contract- and because of the severe flood conditions, the trip turned out to be epic. The four of us ended up more like siblings by the end...another memorable trip, and the movie, "The Playmate Rafting Adventure" is out there...somewhere... in the "cloud."
Two years ago I was diagnosed with a terminal lung disease: Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. I was a class room teacher for 28 years, and I had to leave my post... on medical disability... because kids come to school sick all the time, and if I were to get so much as a cold it could kill me. In the two years since my diagnosis my lungs have sustained a linear decline in function...I struggle to breathe... and I have lost my ability to row boats, ski (I was a racer and a pro ski patrol) and climb (I climbed for fifty years & used to lead 5.12) so now I cruise the film of rivers I once rowed and add my two cents.
My lung function is close to 15% of expected, which is very near to what my doctors call "Organ Failure", so I do not have much longer. But it's OK... I lived a long and adventurous life, and I leave behind a 20 year old son and a wife of 25 years who will carry on this tradition.
Always give a helping hand, and never take a single day for granted....and wear better river boots when you are doing a rescue! The climbing shoe company "5.10" makes a fantastic river-specific boot "The River Tennie" which is a high top, neoprene/mesh rig with a sticky rubber rand and a climbing rubber sole...get a pair of these on yer feet when you are rowing rapids, because you just never know when you'll be walking in current or over those slippery boulders, and a jammed toe or lost shoe will leave you stranded...My parting gift to you.
I wore High top Converse Chuck Taylor for years, but if the River Tennie was available, I'd have had those...especially on the Middle Fork where you can pretty much count on getting out of yer rig to help someone...See you in the next eddy John...
It's time like this you really miss the grand canyons big water.
that isa fucking bad ass rescue. well done
Great job, however I’m nauseous after watching that!
nice job fellas. ...I'd have liked to see it right side up, see how much carnage happened during that wrap
Thanks, always glad to lend a hand when we can.
It was a good recovery. My only questions are why you cut the rope, and did you lose the one snatch block and carabiner at the midway point on your 3 to 1?
We did lose the snatch block. We had to cut the rope because we didn't have the setup to pull the wrapped boat up to where we were pulling from and it looked like the frame may have been bent. In the heat of the moment it seemed like the best way to get the boat down river. Thanks for watching and thanks for the comment.
Thank you for posting this! I learned a lot from watching. Very impressive! Several questions:
1. Was it a predetermined choice to clip to the raft's perimeter line rather than a D ring 18 inches away?
2. It looks like you are using a safety throw line for the rescue. It looks like Spectra. Am I correct?
3. Most throw bags have 75' of line. Is that what yours had?
Thanks, and kudos for a great rescue.
Hi Tom, yes it was our intention to clip onto the perimeter line, our thought was that it would distribute the load around several D rings making it less likely to rip rubber from the stuck raft as we were pulling on it. The rope is Spectra (a brand new rope I might add) and the length was 75'. Glad I had the length, as you can see we just made it back to our anchor.
Thanks, John. I was asking because from what information I can find, that perimeter line has a breaking point of about 1000 lbs, which is pretty low. But your reasoning makes total sense--and it worked! I need a new throw line, and after learning from you I'm spending the extra money to make sure it is Spectra/Dyneema.
@@tomcochran2455 What these guys did worked... But there are more solutions to this equation. Personally, I'd like to see the IK 'lowered' down into place where the person on board could build a proper anchor. Next, I'd like to see the boat pulled more toward river right than straight upstream. Throw bags worked; However if there was a static line available that would of worked better. I understand why you would'nt want to hook onto just one D ring, but the Perimeter line is NOT the answer. Best case scenerio you can equate that line to pulling on the 2 closest rings, creating essentialy a vector pull on those two rings (now your counting on the glue of those two rings)... Upstream safety is very important here, incase someone came down into the rapid unaware of the ropes strectchd acros the river... Its always alot easier to look at a problem after the fact. Again, glad it worked out
You have the wrong pulleys! You need to get some prusik minding pulleys. the pulleys nee to be flat on the bottom not round.
Was the guy in the black helmet and beard named Russ Sly?
wooooo... glad that worked out. Always easier to 'Monday morning quarterback" but I feel that could have been done a little differently (and safer)