How not to cross a river!

[Erik Basil]

The Ventura County video is outstanding! Very good use of Google Earth, the hikers' photos and interviews. That one has some learning/teaching value.

Unfortunately, the vid in this thread has too much profanity (in the video and from me, watching the axe work) in it to be useful for my needs. You may already know, fellas, but hunker down next time.

[billy goat]

Instead of these dudes killing each other with the axe or drowning in the river, we discover that they're actually reproducing. Check out Roberto's "About Me" – awesome.

[J Boro]

Thanks for posting this and being open to learning from your mistakes. I totally held my breath as your buddy was pulled under that strainer. Your group was certainly lucky that everyone made it home safe. I'll offer some insights just FYI.

As far as the stream crossings, there are a few techniques that are useful, but nothing that would have let you cross in waist deep water. First, avoid the barefoot crossing if you can't see the bottom. I like neoprene socks, but in a pinch you can always pull your boot insole and put it in a regular sock. I deep gash in someone's foot is a trip ender. TO cross more safely you can link arms or oven better form a triangle/square and all cross together. Kinda ruins the hero stream crossing pictures, but it is much safer. Also, with solo crossing I like to face upstream and sidestep as it provides greater stability, control, and keeps your legs from being crossed by the force of the water. Make sure your packs are always unbuckled so they don't drown you if you do go down. Also, logs and anything unusual in the water should be avoided at all costs (even though they seem so tempting).

The other thing I would encourage you to think about is your group's dynamics and the role you played. I would imagine that someone in your party knew what a strainer was, knew about water crossing depth, for that matter, could figure out that standing in front of a swinging axe was a bad idea. So the question becomes why did it all happen and how could all of this been prevented or at least, the danger minimized. Your group's desire to be home for father's day motivated some poor decisions, but at the same time those decisions were still acted upon and the questions of how/why you let it happen are important.

While these are big questions that can't be answered quickly, one little trick I use is to have a 2 minute-ish time to play devils advocate when making risky decisions. You designate half the group to argue for something and half to argue against. If you agree to to this at the trailhead it keeps you from having to be the jerk if you want to argue about a risky decision.

Best of luck and go make a donation to a restoration project for chopping down those trees.

[Konrad .]

J Boro- that's awesome advice about delegating certain members of the party to play the devils advocate. I hope to incorporate that into my group trips.

Piper and Richard, thank you for the links…all of this is very relevant considering the extra snow experienced in many areas this year. Does anyone know more about the bridge mentioned in Richards article? Is it an established bridge w/o a banister/railing, or is it like a log/blowdown bridge?

[Chris S]

"Does anyone know more about the bridge mentioned in Richards article? Is it an established bridge w/o a banister/railing, or is it like a log/blowdown bridge?"

Here's a picture of the bridge posted by someone in the comments section under the article:

[Konrad .]

Thank you Chris. Holy cow, it's got a banister and everything. That's a really terrible tragedy. To be honest, I'm not even sure a lot of us (myself included) would have second guessed the decision to cross such an established bridge. Without actually having seen the conditions, it's a bit hard to really pass judgement on the circumstances. The article made it seem like there was only current running across part of bridge, but nothing posing as an clear and obvious danger. Im of the belief that park officials will state that the water levels were extremely high, regardless of whether the conditions were truly like that at the time the victims fell over. I mean, they only closed the bridge after the accident, so It probably wasn't an abundantly clear danger. Either way, it's an eye opener for me. Both men were intelligent, and at least one of them appeared to be really familiar with the outdoors. A real tragedy.

For those interested, here's a another picture of the bridge, which gives the viewer an even better perspective of it's construction and location:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/casualclicks/2488073867/

Here's another source covering the same story:
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/LA-Two-LA-Hikers-Dead-after-Yosemite-Accident-124838189.html

[peter vacco]

yeah they cut down seven trees. so what .. anybody notice there's already a ROAD going thru there ?
seven trees compared to whack'n a road thru that stuff. it's a matter of no consequence.

kinda a tough crossing though. way over my head, i carry an alpacka for that very kind of thing.
ever seen "being caribou" where karsten and leanne heuer swim ladeeda down the firth river in the yukon ?

[Steve Robinson]

Thanks for posting the pics Konrad! That looks about as good a bridge as anyone could ask for. I can't imagine how much water it would take to wash you off that, but I guess there in lies the lesson. When in doubt, don't go. I also think the designated devils advocate approach is pretty darn smart!

[Casey Balza]

I loled…..is that bad?

[R S]

For that? I'm sure most agree that using a Spot or anything of the sort should be left to life threatening situations and not because the river is too hard to cross.

[Greg Mihalik]

RS –

The SPOT "OK" button sends "All is well, don't fret".

It lets folks on the other end know that even though you're not where they thought you would be, things are under control.

It's the Other button that calls for help.

That's why it was a reasonable suggestion, and that's why a lot of people like SPOT.

[R S]

My apologizes.

[Anthony Alpert]

In all seriousness, thanks for posting it. And I appreciate reading the comments.

I'm sitting her on a stunningly beautiful 4th of July weekend, in front of my computer and watching TV. I made the decision to stay home instead of venturing into the Trinity Alps because of the streams. I really don't want to die. Dude, you could have died. Then you'd feel really stupid.

BTW, I just saw the part where you cut down the trees. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

[Dale Wambaugh]

I found my photo of the Monte Cristo log crossing. That downstream sweeper was closer than I remembered– you can see it in the upper left corner. Like I said, fall off the big log either way and you're toast.

[Matt Jones]

Thanks for posting. Many of us have had moments like this, and the fact that you've documented and shared yours will surely make someone out there a better hiker.

[Dondo .]

Thanks for having the guts put this up for all to see. Many of us like to trumpet our successes and hide our failures. I'm glad that everyone got out of this alive. BTW, the video is kind of funny in a sick sort of way. ;-)

[d k]

This photo was taken by someone (not me) who went out for a day hike last week at Hetch Hetchy and turned around at this point:

(I think that's the trail, not the creek)

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I don't know how much water was on the bridge in the Yosemite article, but some PCT hikers were turned back near Glen Aulin when the water on the bridge was thigh high.

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