GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK
Rangers Rescue Stranded Father And Son From Snake River
Rangers, Teton interagency fire personnel and emergency medical personnel rescued a father and son on the night of July 10th after they became separated from their small boat and stranded on a logjam in the swift-flowing Snake River. Forty-year-old Byron Phames and his 15-year-old son were floating down the river in a petite, swimming pool-style inflatable raft when it partially deflated, spilling them into the water. The Teton Interagency Dispatch Center received a report of the incident at 5:55 p.m. from the wife and mother of the pair. At 6:40 p.m., park rescue personnel located the two hanging onto a logjam on the right side of the Bourbon Street channel about a mile and a half south of Moose Bridge. Rangers used a technical river rescue technique to reach the stranded men, positioning a rescuer in the current to reach each of the floaters, one at a time. While both men experienced early stages of hypothermia, they were not seriously injured and refused medical treatment. A total of 21 park personnel and Teton interagency firefighters responded to this incident. Investigators determined what had happened. Phames and his son had launched their inflatable dinghy from Deadman’s Bar — one of four river launch areas in the park — at approximately 2:30 p.m. They intended to float all the way to the Wilson Bridge, about 25 river miles away. A river guide for a park concessionaire saw the pair getting ready to launch and questioned their preparedness. The guide noticed that the two did not have any oars or paddles and cautioned them that they needed something to help them navigate their small craft. Phames then picked up two sticks to serve as makeshift paddles for his float trip. Besides lacking oars, the Phameses did not have life jackets with them. They floated several miles downstream without incident until the side of their inflatable dinghy got punctured, leaving only the floor chamber inflated. They were able to float past Menor’s Ferry and attempted to pull out at the Moose landing, but could not reach the riverbank using the makeshift stick paddles and continued floating beyond the Moose Bridge. About a mile and a half south of Moose, the river forks and the floaters took the left channel known as Bourbon Street. At this point, their inflatable dinghy became lodged against an obstruction, causing both men to fall into the river. Byron was trapped in a tangle of branches on a submerged tree and pinned underwater. River users call this river debris a “strainer.” Strainers are a particularly risky hazard for boaters because they can trap people against the branches and cause them to become submerged in the current. Fortunately, Phames was able to free himself from the strainer and make his way upstream to where his son was clinging to a logjam. Once he reached his son, Phames was able to call his wife from his cell phone; she then called for help. Two citations were issued to Phames – one for not having life jackets and the other for failure to obtain a park boat permit.
Contact Information
Name: Jackie Skaggs, Public Affairs Officer
DINOSAUR NATIONAL MONUMENT
Two Rescued From Green River Gravel Bar
Uintah County dispatch received a 911 call from the Split Mountain campground around 9 p.m. on June 28th reporting that four people had been swept down the Green River from the boat ramp and that one might have drowned. Rangers and the county SAR team responded. They found that two of the people had gotten to shore, and that the other two were located on Goose Island, a shallow gravel bar about a quarter mile downstream from the boat ramp. Uintah County was able to send a jet boat downstream to pick them up. The two were rescued around 9:45 p.m. One was transported to the hospital with hypothermia and water inhalation issues. The Green River was running at about 5000 cubic feet per second at the time; the water temperature was in the low fifties. The four, all 19 to 20 years old, had been swimming across the channel from the boat ramp without lifejackets when one of them began to have trouble and the other three attempted to rescue her. Swimming in the Green River, especially without a lifejacket, is highly discouraged.
Contact Information
Name: Kathy Krisko, Assistant Chief Ranger
The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan
The Moon is Waning Crescent (19% of Full)
Re: Recent Dangerous National Park and Monument Water Incidents Reported
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July 14, 2009 06:52AM |
July 14, 2009 11:50AM |
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