# Death on Shoshone?



## WisegirlII (Apr 14, 2006)

Does anyone know what happened regarding the death on the Shoshone (or it may have been barrel) this Sunday?

I believe it was a rafter training with a rafting company.

To anyone who was a friend or family member, I am so sorry this has happened.


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## kayakArkansas (May 14, 2004)

I know this is completely off topic, and I am very sorry to hear of a loss of a fellow boater. My thoughts go out to the friends and family. But to the person who posted this thread...reading your signature I'm thinking you are a WSOP fan?? Just wondering if that was the quote I thought it was...sorry to stray from the topic.

--Zach


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## craporadon (Feb 27, 2006)

He seemed to swim out of the raft in the pourover in the second drop of Shoshone before the wall. There is a really big pourover reciriculating back very far right in the middle of the river at this flow. You would'nt even see it if you floated by but it is bad when you float into it. Be careful of this pourover, I think they call it Marty's Diner.


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## WisegirlII (Apr 14, 2006)

Craporadon - Shoshone gets run so often and when you hear of something happening to someone with knowledge of the river (assuming here) it makes you wonder if there's anything you need to know or be reminded of. Thanks for the info.

Kayakark - I just like Mike M. he makes me laugh.


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## Jobu (Apr 14, 2006)

that sucks so early in the season.

Marty's diner can get pretty big and hold you for a while. I am suprised at this level that it would be deadly though. My heart goes out to the family and the rafting company involved. 

I myself trained on shoshone and browns. We had an incedent that still haunts me. In browns a good friend of mine was in training and the loud mouth of the group led the boat into an overhanging tree. Boat flipped and pinned under the tree with my friend pinned under the boat! She finally wriggled out after almost 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Spent an hour on the side of the river trying to regain her composure. After that on the same day I took the worse swim of my life in class 4 cydel's suckhole and got recirculated for about 30 seconds. 

But rafting training can be rough, we had to swim maneater, the last rapid in shoshone voluntarily. We swam out in our pfd's and just went for the ride getting dunked regularly. Pretty crazy stuff. One kid kept trying to stand up in maneater. He's very lucky he didn't get himself in a foot entrapment.

Anyway rivers are great if you respect them but can be dangerous. Its a price anyone of us could pay to enjoy mother nature. God bless the person whom passed and thier loved ones.


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## basil (Nov 20, 2005)

http://www.glenwoodindependent.com/article/20060418/VALLEYNEWS/104180026

Anyone know what injuries he got when "thrown from the boat"?


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## wholesurfer (Oct 7, 2005)

Sounds like he was kayaking...not rafting....or at least thats what the lame ass Post Independent said...


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## telegurl (Jul 25, 2005)

I'm very sorry to the friends and family of Jason. My thoughts and heart go out to them all. 

Does anyone have any addtitional information as to his injuries.


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## kakahead (Nov 2, 2005)

I went down to the shosone on sat afternoon and when I got there there was a fire engine and ambulence, and the mountian white water descents school bus. I remeber going up the the guy from the company and asking him how the river was and he never responded and looked really freaked out. It was definetly and erie day, cold and overcast, with nobody else on the river. None of those guys even told me a thing.


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## WhiteLightning (Apr 21, 2004)

From "The Coloradoan", the Ft. Collins newspaper:

Drowning victim seemed 'a natural' for river rafting guide job
By NIKOLAUS OLSEN 
[email protected] 


A Fort Collins man who died Saturday near Glenwood Springs while training to be a river rafting guide was an avid outdoorsman who seemed to be a natural for the job. 


Jason Hansen, 30, died after falling out of a raft as it maneuvered through a section of Glenwood Canyon. He is the first person to die this year on the Colorado River.


Hansen was training with 12 other people from the Fort Collins-based Mountain Whitewater Descents. His coworkers were able to pull him from the river less than a minute after he fell in, but attempts to resuscitate him were not successful.


For more on this story, read Wednesdays Coloradoan.


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## basil (Nov 20, 2005)

More details in
http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs...0419/NEWS01/604190336&SearchID=73242039775423

The key part is:


> The raft hit what's called a hole, and Hansen fell in. A fellow guide grabbed his arm and she, too, fell in, said Modesitt, who was on the raft at the time.
> 
> The other guide who fell into the water quickly surfaced. Modesitt threw Hansen a rope, but it missed. Hansen then came out of the hole, and a member of the group swam out to him and pulled him to the river bank.
> 
> Attempts to resuscitate Hansen were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead at Valley View Hospital.


Since someone jumped out to him when he came out of the hole, I guess he was unconscious coming out of the hole. Perhaps he swallowed water in the hole or hit his head. He must have been in the hole for a bit. 

Sad.


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## WhiteLightning (Apr 21, 2004)

Has there been any more information on this?


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## MPEARSON (May 23, 2005)

Rocky mountain news has more information, but they still don't know what happen. He had a helmet, wetsuit, etc. They haven't mentioned a head injury yet and he was in the water for no more then a minute. They think it was no more then a minute in the water, but with the situation it could of been longer. I don't know, Its sad


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## whip (Oct 23, 2003)

*Recirc*

Marty's can be super sticky. What were the flows that day? There's a real similar hole below South Canyon at Dinosaur just before the Tibbets takeout on I-70. Victims have been observed in both these holes rotating on the long 
axis of their body just spinnin at a high rpm. At flows above 3500 I've seen rafts hang out in that hole for an hour or more. Having worked in emergency sevices for nearly 30 years I've observed quite a few drownings on scene and in ER. They're strange creatures. Old folks survive, young die. Cold water kicks some people right into cardiac arrest. Near drownings...i.e. people who take a bad swim seem fine for a few hours then try to and do die. This one sounds like bad luck to me. Wrong place at just the wrong
time. Feel pretty bad for his wife and kids. I'm sure his mates that day are going over and over in their heads wondering. Keep you CPR up to date and
do what you can to minimize those risks I guess.


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## mountainwhitewater (Feb 2, 2004)

This is from Brad Modesitt, owner of Mountain Whitewater Descents. I wanted to clear some things up. I was sitting right next to Jason as he fell into the smiling hole on the sixth run. Another trainee also fell into the hole, but she flushed out quickly.

Jason and I had already done a trip down Gates of Lodore in March and a trip down Westwater in April. He already had classroom training on how to get out of a hole and he had read the _Complete Whitewater Rafter _by Jeff Bennett.

Jason was wearing polypro top and bottoms, 3mm wetsuit, NRS booties, kayak splash jacket, Protec kayak helmet, and class V PFD. He had accumulated 30 hours of river time. 

Jason stayed in the hole for approximately ten seconds. When he flushed and surfaced, he was face down. A 3rd year guide and Rescue 3 Swiftwater Technician, swam out approximately ten yards, flipped Jason over and swam him to shore. I met them as he reached shore and the two of us and one other carried him up the bank. He was not breathing and had no pulse. Rescue Breaths and CPR were started immediately. The time from him going into the hole and the start of CPR was approximately one minute. Within another minute, a car on the Interstate using OnStar was notified of the incident. We had people running either direction to use the highway call boxes and on the other side of the river a passing train was waved down. Paramedics were on scene quickly from Glenwood Springs. We performed CPR continuously until the Paramedics arrived, and they continued to the hospital.

We had first aid kits with CPR masks in pelican cases in all 3 rafts and a large EMT trauma kit in the shuttle bus. Another guide of 6 years, did have to use his river knife to cut the strap off holding his pelican case to the thwart. The strap was a little tangled and it was just faster to slice it. We had already started CPR, but the third guide was bringing a backup first aid kit because he was unclear about what was happening other than CPR being performed.

I have been a guide for 13 years now and accumulated 16,000 river miles. I have been trained in EMT, OEC, and WFR. I was a Beaver Creek Ski Patroller during the 99-00 season. I have current basic 1st aid and CPR instructor cards. In the last 6 years I have certified people in CPR over 125 times. I was trained in Swiftwater Rescue by Les Bechtel.

It is my understanding that the preliminary Coroner report is asphyxia, (drowning) with no evidence of trauma or broken bones, and a negative toxicology screen. 

Why this happened we may never know.

Our hearts and thoughts have been with Jason's wife and daughter and the rest of his family.


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## WisegirlII (Apr 14, 2006)

Brad, thank you for taking the time to post this. No one wants to hear of anyone dieing on the river and it's always harder when there are unanswered questions as to the "how" and "why". In this case, like you said, no one will really ever know, but at least for you, those involved and everyone else aware of this death, it's clear that every precaution and safety measure was taken to keep this from happening and to resolve the accident once it occured. It's beyond frustrating to do everything right and not have things work out the way we want them to. My heart goes out to you, everyone involved and especially his family.


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