Wilson Creek Incident Report

In light of recent safety concerns I have come across this year I am going to do a series of posts concerning safety and mishaps in the hopes that people can learn from my experiences. To start it off my Dad did a write up concerning an recent incident on Wilson Creek this year. This is in no way meant to demean anyone just sharing information so people can learn from our mistakes.

July 13 2008


Gong show on Wilson Creek


I am not sure what it is going to take to get all West Kootenay
paddlers, many Borderline Boaters Kayak club members to become more
safety orientated.  If we as a collective group cannot get "safety
first" into our collective decision making the next thing we will be
dealing with is a "death" of someone we all know.


Strong words, but just talk to Lianne out here from the Calgary Kayak
Club, paddling with us this fine summer day, with ideal water levels
for a run either on the upper or from the 7k put in down.  Their club
has experienced two deaths in the last year, one from a boater that
continued to paddle rivers above her skill level, and she drowned on
the Kicking Horse.


It seems the collective orientation to safety is a cavilier, "they
will be fine".   And when it is all over participants laugh and think
running the 12 foot drop on Wilson Creek upside down is pretty funny.
Or running it without scouting it.  And both this happened with the
groups most experienced boaters up stream and not available for
rescue.  So if our group had not been at the drop to rescue the two
swimmers and their boats, things could have been much worse.


This also does not talk about the paddlers put at risk that chase
boats down to the more difficult drop just down stream from the falls.


The scenario this day was two distinct and separate groups ended up at
the put in for the upper Wilson Creek run at near to the same time.
Six paddlers in each group.  There was some encouragement for some
boaters to put in at the 7k mark, and miss the pushy section above the
falls, but these recommendations went unheeded.


I was a member of the first group and I was anxious to keep these
distinctions as I did not want to be responsible for the safety of the
second group.  Two weeks earlier I had refused to paddle with Jeremy (
member of the second group) as in my view he does not have the
paddling skills to be on that reach, and his roll in these situations
is about 2% reliable.  Coupled with billowing clouds of "pot smoke"
coming from behind one of the shuttle vehicles, the ducks were lining
up for them.  Ducks as in a shooting gallery, the more ducks, the
greater the chance of something going wrong.  For the second group
they had another boater, that was creeking for the first time, renting
a boat, so very unfamiliar with the craft he was in.  He was the
second swimmer at the falls.   6 Ducks between them. I knew they were
going to have some kind of epic. Anything over 5 Ducks should start
some serious reconsidering of plans.  I refer to this "Counting of
ducks is my mechanism to abort the trip, change peoples role from
paddler to shuttle driver, anything to bring the duck count down.


I should have spoken up that day instead of trying to maintain the
distinction of two separate and self contained groups.  As their
decisions about being on the that section of the river affected my
day.  I missed paddling the harder second falls with my son, Mikkel,
we missed some great footage and photos at the second drop and the
trip took about 2 – 3 hours longer than normal.  More importantly my
son was put at risk chasing gear above the second falls.


I hope instead of chuckling over this misadventure, that paddling
groups will develop a mechanism for reconsideration as they prepare
for a run.  Sometimes people just show up and a paddling group is
created at the put in and the group dynamics etc seem to keep people
from speaking up.  I know at least one person in the second group that
was not comfortable with the mind altering drugs pre paddling, but did
not say anything.  I for one am going to speak up more than I already
do.


Submitted by John Duncan  (JD)

Not where you want to be