Two hikers swept to their deaths by floods in canyon
Two hikers were found dead and one was rescued by helicopter this week after storms and heavy rainfall triggered floods that surged through a narrow canyon in southern Utah, authorities said Thursday.
The hikers, men in their 50s whom authorities did not publicly identify early Thursday, had set off last Friday from Wire Pass, a trailhead that leads into Buckskin Gulch, one of the nation's longest and most rugged slot canyons, or narrow gorges, which runs through the south of the state.
The men were experienced hikers on their way to Lees Ferry on the Colorado River, a distance of about 50 miles that they had hoped to reach by Sunday night, he said in an interview.
They never arrived at their destination. On Monday morning, the wife of one of the hikers called authorities to report that the group had not been in contact. While the men were well-prepared and experienced hikers, the prospect of their disappearance was alarming, considering the weather and the challenge of searching miles of narrow canyons by helicopter.
Southern Utah had been deluged by stormy weather. The Bureau of Land Management and the Kane County Sheriff's Office this week issued an advisory to discourage visitors from continuing their hikes, saying that “severe and unpredictable” flash flooding could occur in Buckskin Gulch, another canyon, called Paria, and Wire Pass, a starting point for hikers setting off into the canyons.
The effects of stormy weather are daunting on the pathways that thread through the steep canyon walls, particularly in Buckskin Gulch, a narrow gorge that winds for about 16 miles through steep, sandstone walls, making it one of the longest slot canyons in the world.
While the area is attractive to hikers, the slot canyon's slender passages can be perilous during heavy rainfall, forming a chute through which powerful floods can surge.
Rescuers evacuated at least 11 hikers from other groups from the area in the past week, Lt. Alan Alldredge, an emergency services official and spokesperson for the Kane County Sheriff's Office, said.
The days before the three hikers set off had been rainy, adding to a season of wet winter weather that had already spewed runoff into the canyon. The hikers did not get very far that first night, and set up camp, he said. On Saturday morning, he said, they could hear the quickening sound of water.
“You got a 5-foot coming at you, and the walls are 3 feet wide,” he said. “Then you got a wall of water. There is nowhere to go. You go where the water takes you.”
The rushing water had carried the hikers miles downstream, until at some point two of them clambered onto a bank, the official said. The men regrouped before pressing on to search for the missing hiker. One of the men had hurt his leg and said he could not go on, Alldredge said.