From: konolige@ai.sri.com (Kurt Konolige)
Newsgroups: rec.boats.paddle
Subject: Bio Bio trip report (long)
Date: 18 Dec 92 23:29:49 GMT
Distribution: rec.boats.paddle
Organization: SRI International, Menlo Park, CA

I just finished up a week-long trip on the Bio Bio in south central
Chile, and we had one accident-prone day I wrote up so I wouldn't
forget the safety issues.  --Kurt

==================================================================

			  Lesson in Safety:
	   Report on a bad day on the Bio Bio River, Chile

			 Sunday, 13 Dec 1992

The flow was very high, estimated about 20kcfs (thousand cubic feet
per second) in the Gorge.  We had just completed Nirreco canyon a few
days before, with one paddle raft and four kayakers.  We had several
portages, including a long one around Lava South, and we were looking
forward to a day that was not as challenging.

The Gorge is the next narrow canyon downstream from Nirreco.  We were
camped at Heartbreak Hotel, an open area between the two.  The weather
was cloudy and chilly, in the 60's, with a strong upriver wind.  The
water was cold, probably low 50's.  The Gorge does not have as steep
drops as Nirreco, but it is narrower, and the water at this level was
fast, cold, and violent in hydraulics and eddies.  None of the guides
had seen it at this level, and we did not try to scout it from the
road, which would have required a long hike into the canyon.  After a
few long rapids in the open area around Heartbreak Hotel, the Gorge
narrows for an almost continuous 2-mile stretch of class V (at this
level).  There are no big drops or river-wide pourovers, but a
continuous series of holes, waves, and large boulders, with
fast-flowing pools at infrequent intervals.

We were four kayakers and 11 paddlers in 2 rafts.  Rick, Lawrence and
Mark were guides who had done the Bio 8 or 9 times the previous
season.  Rick, Lawrence, myself, and Dave were in kayaks.  I have 12
years experience, although it's been sporadic in the last 5 years,
while Dave has been boating for 5 years, and is just starting to
challenge himself in class 4+ water.

Mark was guiding the smaller 14' raft, and Olaf and Ine, two
experienced raftspersons, shared guide duties on the larger 16' one.
Their paddlers were inexperienced and two, Ken and Yvonne, were weak
swimmers (the other two, Joe and Tim, were reasonably strong
swimmers).  This was the first time they had paddled together (in
previous stretches we had used oars on the larger raft), and there was
no warmup period in which they practiced together.

From a group talk the night before, I had understood from the guides
that the Gorge rapids would be bigger and harder than anything we had
experienced on the first few days, although much easier than the
Nirreco Canyon.  I recall being told that a swim could be serious,
although we didn't have the info that there would be 2 miles of class
V.  The guides themselves may not have known this.  I had anticipated
a relaxing day, lots of play time and a chance to improve big-water
skills.  

Kayaking the first few rapids gave me a renewed appreciation of the
power of the river, and quickly dispelled any notions of easy play.
There were plenty of eddies to catch, but the eddy fences were large
and unpredictable, the eddies themselves surging and requiring
constant attention.  Most of the walls were steep, affording little
chance for a quick scout, and making portaging almost impossible for
the rafts.  The rapids reminded me of Granite in the Grand Canyon.
Waves were large and pulsed irregularly, making reactive bracing a
necessity.  Dave was having an off day, and he swam three times in the
first series of rapids, unable to hit his rolls in the big water.
Fortunately this was the area before the canyon narrowed, so there was
enough recovery room for easy rescue.  Dave was wearing a full drysuit
and didn't seem chilled by the swims, but his confidence obviously
dropped. 

The guides had decided on the standard boat order: two guides in
kayaks first, then the other two kayakers, followed by the guide raft
and then the larger raft.  In the Gorge we would river-scout, since
the guides were confident most hydraulics were avoidable.  The lead
kayaks would go down each section first and indicate the best route.
My understanding was that each small section would be done in this
way.  The first few drops in the Gorge worked fine.  Then, we lost
discipline.  At the entrance to one drop Rick, the lead kayak, stopped
to play on a wave.  Lawrence went down to the end of the drop, and
Dave and I pulled over to an upper eddy.  I thought the rafts would
wait at the top until we had a chance to follow Rick down.  Instead,
Mark headed the lead raft down, the second raft (guided by Olaf at
this point, who had just taken over from Ine) followed, and Dave
pulled out to go with them.  

There was a rock just exposed on center-left, and the water was
pushing left.  Mark made it around to the right, but Olaf, hesitating,
and having some interference from Dave, washed up almost sideways
against it.  Only Ine responded to the high-side call, and as the raft
came vertical everyone flipped out.

The rescue response was immediate.  Rick grabbed Ken and Yvonne, the
two weakest of the crew, after a short swim and hauled them into an
eddy.  Mark, Dave, Lawrence and I went after the rest, who stayed with
the boat.  After going through some rough water, the remaining 4
managed to get back into the raft, which had stayed upright.  They
just had time for one stroke before they went sideways into a
reversal, flipping the boat.

By this time Mark's raft was also in trouble: in chasing swimmers, he
had gone into this same reversal and flipped.  Sometime in this period
Dave also flipped and couldn't roll.  There were now 10 swimmers, with
2 kayakers left for rescue.  The 4 swimmers from the large raft had
been in the water a long time, and after the second flip Tim was held
under the raft for awhile.  I managed to get Joe over to an eddy.  Tim
was right behind him, but too weak to grab onto the sloping cliff
wall.  Joe hauled him out and I checked to make sure he was ok before
going on.

Downstream Mark and his crew had flipped their raft upright and
self-rescued.  They found Olaf weak and being submerged by a large
eddy line, and hauled him aboard.  Dave had self-rescued into an eddy,
dragging his boat and paddle.  His boat didn't quite make it, and
rather than letting go he got pulled back into the current.  After
going through several more holds and boils, he abandoned his boat and
paddle to try to save himself.  When Mark's raft got to him, he was
not responding to their rescue attempts, and had to be hauled up.

I passed Mark's raft parked in an eddy, told them about Joe and Tim
upstream, and went to help get the other raft.  Ine had managed to get
back on it, and she and Lawrence (kayaking) were trying to coordinate
a rescue.  At one point, when the raft was close to shore in an eddy,
Lawrence told her to grab a throw rope anchored to the bow and jump
ashore to hold the raft in.  Ine misunderstood and jumped without the
rope.  The boat was adrift; Ine went back to get it and hung on to the
side, but was forced to let go after a series of holes.  By now she
had been swimming most of the 2-mile rapid.  Lawrence finally managed
to pull her out; she was weak and exhausted.

Coming downstream, I found the free raft caught in a small surging
eddy, and I landed below it to try to tie it up, while Lawrence
collected debris from the group:  Dave's boat and paddle, and raft
paddles.  Amazingly, no equipment was lost.  Getting everyone back
together again took a few hours, involving some risky hiking on the
Gorge walls.  There was only on trauma, an ankle bruise.


ANALYSIS
========

1. We were lucky.  We had 4 people rescued after long swims, when they
were exhausted and close to giving up.  Two more, Ken and Yvonne, were
not able to endure even a short swim in this water and were fortunate
to have been pulled over quickly.  Most swimmers swallowed some water
and were not functioning well.

2. The rescue response on the part of the kayakers and Mark's raft was
excellent, and in my mind saved some lives.  Rick's decision to go
after Ken and Yvonne was superb, and made instantaneously.  The
self-rescue of Mark's boat was critical, and both Lawrence and myself
rescued people and gear.  What could have been a fatal incident turned
out to be just an exhausting and frightening experience.  For myself,
I had to do a major class V rapid blind, with no rest between drops
over a 2-mile stretch.  I remember my arms being almost numb with
fatigue at the end, and I could very easily have gone over and been
unable to roll.

3. Like many river accidents, the whole incident would have been
avoided or ameliorated.  There were some bad decisions made beforehand
that led to the potential for a disaster, and some mistakes in running
the river.

a) In running the Gorge, we should have been more conscientious about
observing the boat order.  The rafts did not eddy out and wait for all
the kayaks at the point of the flip, which would have put more
potential rescuers at the scene.  They were also too close together
and in conflict with one of the kayakers.  Mark claims that eddying
out would have been too exhausting for the crews; if this were the
case, they shouldn't have been on the river.

b) Dave flipped and swam three times before the Gorge.  We should have
stopped to make a decision about his continuing in a kayak.  At this
point it was possible although difficult to walk out of the Gorge; or
he could have gone on as a raft paddler.

c) The potential for disaster was established by decisions made in
setting up the run.  Having passed through Nirreco canyon without
incident, we were feeling confident about doing an easier section.  The
guides did not have enough info about this section at its unusually
high flow.  A strong paddle-raft crew was probably ok, but a weaker
one was vulnerable to the fast water.  Later we talked to Chando, an
experienced guide and the head of the Patagonia Company.  He had done
this section a few days before, and said he only took oar boats down
with clients, since they wouldn't have enough power or experience for
paddle rafts.  The guides work for Chando and had met him a few days
earlier; they should have known this and shared it with us.

The decision to take the weaker paddle raft was made for several
reasons, none of them good ones.  First, because some people
(including Ken and Yvonne) were excluded from the Nirreco run, the
guides were anxious to have everyone go on this final whitewater day.
Second, although the large raft was rowed the first three river days,
the frame was old and inadequate, and the guides were worried that it
was damaging the raft, which did not belong to them.  We had other
equipment problems that seem trivial but became important.  There were
no spare paddles.  There was a lack of webbing for safety and flip
lines on the rafts; we used some nylon clothesline around the sides,
and there were no lines inside the raft, which made it difficult for
swimmers to haul themselves back in.

I think the biggest decision-making failure was that the guides were
not forthright in sharing info with the group, especially since one
raft was not commanded by a guide.  Olaf says that the rapids were
much worse than he expected from the guide's description; they were
certainly worse than I expected, and although I felt ok going through
them with adequate safety, running them as a rescue boat place me in
some jeopardy.  As either a rafter or a kayaker, I would have voiced
strong concerns about running these rapids with a weak paddle crew.

Given the inexperience of the large raft crew, it was important to
have the crew practice maneuvering, swimming, and rescue on the first
few rapids.  This would give them some idea of the nature of the
river, and what they would be in for in a swim.
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