# How does one get out of the Room of Doom?



## smithk2ski (Dec 10, 2016)

Friend with a sport boat 😆


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## curtis catman (Sep 29, 2015)

There exists a video on u tube of an oar raft breaking out of it but I don't know the flow level.


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## Easy Tiger (Jun 22, 2016)

Something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhWtGeGYwsw


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## mattman (Jan 30, 2015)

KingElbear said:


> After my last Westwater trip, where I saw another group with a boat swirling around in the Room Of Doom. Ive thought to my self what I would do if I ended up in there. So lets hear from the Pros or the unfortunate. How to get out of the Room of Doom


It's usually by flipping. Unless it's really low water, then paddle in and paddle out. Though not really that hard of a section, I still feel like W.W. deserves some respect, and often just gets overly sand bagged by the cocky.

Maybe It's just the story my SRT instructor used to tell every class, about the eight year old boy with the rope wrapped around his leg in the room, with the water level rising, other end of the parties rope was caught under water.
My instructor happened upon the scene, and tried to free the kid, to point of the rescuers exaustion. Then the water rose a little more. I'll spare everyone the rest of that crappy story

Have fun, but please be safe everyone!


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## Electric-Mayhem (Jan 19, 2004)

I've heard stories of people, usually swimmers or small boat users, having to hike themselves and all of their gear up and over towards the downstream side. I think that is only in extreme situations though.

At the high flows where it really doesn't want to let you go easily, I think its just a combination of getting lots of momentum and getting the timing right to push out out the top of the eddy. At the flows where it is a problem, it seems like kind of a crap shoot on whether you'll hit the rock of shock and flip or get washed out. That video is pretty indicative of a higher water experience of being in there though.

Its easy to say sitting on my couch at home, but I think the might have benefited from trying to catch the current around the outside of the room to push him further towards the top of the eddy at the mouth of the room. Higher in that eddy you are the better IMHO. Not always easy to get there though, and definitely be prepared to high side and as others have said to have your boat go upside down.


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## DoStep (Jun 26, 2012)

I had a friend that after his 6th or 7th failed attempt to row out of the recycling eddy, he tossed a bucket on a short line into the current that provided enough grab to help pull him out of it.


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## SpeyCatr (Aug 14, 2013)

A drag bag?


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## wildh2onriver (Jul 21, 2009)

The top of the room collects debris/dead animals which adds to the challenge.

I hiked back and helped a friend get out once at about 10k--it took numerous try's with both of us rowing, each with one oar. We almost flipped on the r of shock. The trail above is well defined...


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## mrbaum (Feb 20, 2015)

We've pulled a big cataraft out by getting a rope to the opposite side of the river away from the room and pull it tight tying it around a boulder , and then pendulum swinging the raft out by rowing against the current. However that was extremely dangerous to do, because stringing a taught rope across the river is no bueno especially above skull. The BLM rangers will tell you to leave your craft and hike your butt out.


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## duct tape (Aug 25, 2009)

A little curious about how the videographer got there, not the typical scout side, in fact I didn't know you could get over on the right shore. Seems pretty cliffy to me but then my focus has always been on the hole, not the bank. Maybe a passenger in the stuck boat who climbed out or hiked up from below?


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## KingElbear (Feb 28, 2013)

Electric-Mayhem said:


> I've heard stories of people, usually swimmers or small boat users, having to hike themselves and all of their gear up and over towards the downstream side. I think that is only in extreme situations though.
> 
> At the high flows where it really doesn't want to let you go easily, I think its just a combination of getting lots of momentum and getting the timing right to push out out the top of the eddy. At the flows where it is a problem, it seems like kind of a crap shoot on whether you'll hit the rock of shock and flip or get washed out. That video is pretty indicative of a higher water experience of being in there though.
> 
> Its easy to say sitting on my couch at home, but I think the might have benefited from trying to catch the current around the outside of the room to push him further towards the top of the eddy at the mouth of the room. Higher in that eddy you are the better IMHO. Not always easy to get there though, and definitely be prepared to high side and as others have said to have your boat go upside down.


 
Can you hike in to the Room of Doom from the below?


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## wildh2onriver (Jul 21, 2009)

There are a couple of fairly easy routes that will get you up to the trail on top. They are past Skull and above SITM. There have been multiple occasions of boats having to be de-rigged and carried up and out of the Room.


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## Andy H. (Oct 13, 2003)

Thankfully I've never been in the situation, but my understanding is that it's nearly impossible to swim to shore at higher levels and that a swimmer needs a rope rescue to get out. And also that it's about an hour hike (climb?) to get into for rescuers.

It starts getting more difficult to get out of above 5000- 6000 cfs. Below that level it's great to pull into and hang out after running Skull. That said, I've also wondered if I'd find a piece of wood floating in there with nails sticking out of it...

-AH


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## raymo (Aug 10, 2008)

A very good divorce lawyer and two or three living south of the border.


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## richp (Feb 27, 2005)

Hi,

If it is to be done at all, you swing around the back of the Room, building up speed to get as high in the eddy as possible when you hit the eddy line. Hammer hard to punch the line before you get surfed into the pillow on the Rock of Shock. I have been known to drop my right oar and go to two hands on the left oar, in order to maximize power on that side to maintain my ferry angle.

And at some levels, its virtually impossible -- the current and height differentials are too great. However, there is a way to get to the rock wall at the top of the Room from the small eddy on river right, just above Bowling Alley.

FWIW.

Rich Phillips


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## Fumble (May 23, 2013)

Are you talking a boat or a swimmer or a boat and a boatman.


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## basinrafter (May 12, 2009)

Many many moons ago, on my first ever Westwater trip, I had the pleasure of visiting the Room of Doom, or the "Room of Inconvenience", as the ranger called it at those flows. I would guess it was running around 4k cfs. Our paddle raft, with just two paddlers and a guide, none of whom had ever seen Westwater, went "deer in headlights" as we rounded the corner into Skull, and went straight into the hole. The boat came out right side up, but none of us were still in it. All 3 of us, plus the boat, bounced off the Rock of Shock, and on into the Room. It took the 3 of us 3 solid tries to get out of there, with all our kayaking friends watching from the eddy across the river. They were just about to send somebody over to help when we finally busted out. I think the hardest part of it is that just when you need to be getting the most power out of your paddle stroke, you're suddenly fighting to even get your paddle into the water through all the debris that's hanging out in the eddy line.


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## Dave Frank (Oct 14, 2003)

My very first Westy trip was in '94 at 14K in a borrowed bucket boat, with about zero experience.

Ater scouting the rapid, our crew announced that "we didn't come here to go around this $hit!"

We ran right down the middle and it felt like we were going to float right through Skull upright. I was in the bow, pulling on to the bow line and actually wonder if it was my weight on the rope that was the final straw to finish the back flip, but I doubt it. I came to the surface with the rock approaching quickly. We were able to swim to the bank and join the bloated beaver in the little crack in the rock that one can climb out. The boat was upside down spinning in the middle of the room. I finally got the courage to swim to it and back to shore with the bow line. We pulled the boat in and got it righted. 

The real secret to getting out is roping the boat higher than you could attain by paddles or oars. We got it as high as possible, then I jumped in the stern and started digging, while the rower rowed as hard as he could. We cleared the wall the first try, but not by much.

I had a friend miss the ferry and end up in there at about 12K, when the Oar Right, that wasn't screwed on tight in the rental raft, slid and became an Oar Wrong.

I ferried my trusty Inazone 240 in there and did the same rope trick for them. 
he cleared the wall on the first attempt.

Rowing in and out without the rope assist is doable up to at least 6K. Haven't tried it any higher.

That pillowed rock is terrifying. I've heard the rope entangled kid story before and always think of that when I pass it, and it always makes the safety talk about loose ropes. I hate to think where that rope must have piled up when I did my egress move back in '94; I can assure you that hazard was nowhere near my radar at the time.


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## mattman (Jan 30, 2015)

I think every piece of debris on the whole colorado side of the dranage, ends up in two places, the room of doom, and that big ass eddy on the left, above Satans Gut.


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## punisher660 (Jul 6, 2013)

So here is my ROD story at 7K CFM and the reason for a lot of my rafting apprehension that I need to get over.

This was only a couple of years ago in October and still makes me squirm. I was on a 16 foot cat and was invited on WW. Prior to that, I had done the Moab Daily, A Section of the Green, and a trip as a paddler on a guided trip on the Snake.

I had no idea what to expect, hadn't seen anything like it before, and was just told by the group leader to line up after the overhang rock and back stroke in.

My raft wasn't setup properly as people loaded extra gear on my boat, it wasn't setup properly for my body position, and didn't know any better.

Needless to say, I tried to pull back into position, but missed one of the strokes so I got pulled into Skull. On the third rapid, the whole raft was pitched over backwards. My gortex jacket that I had on because it was October quickly weighed me down like an anchor, and my friend riding behind me was pulled strait down.

I'm a fairly strong swimmer (or at least I like to think so), and I kicked for the surface for all I was worth. The pull was strong enough that it started to suck my scuba boots off my feet. After being thrown into the Rock of Shock, I managed to make it to the surface and claw my way along the room to the north side where I climbed out.

My friend had a much more difficult time as the little elastic strap on his NRS Pilot knife was caught on the raft and dang near held him there. He broke the strap and popped up just in time to get pinned between the raft and the Rock of Shock. He did manage to get onto the raft though.

This being our first time on big water at the helm, we were both a bit nervous, exhausted, and perplexed as to what to do. The dry boxes (or as I now know them to be "splash boxes") pulled in a bunch of water, and really weighted us down. 

The rest of the group was across the river waiting for us in the eddie - one of them tried a few times to ferry across to lend a hand, but on his second attempt he was put into Rock of Shock and he held himself in place by wedging his oar between the raft and the rock. The oar eventually snapped which flipped his boat, but luckily the current carried him out of the room and farther down river. He was sucked down river and was under water for quite a ways - I was fearing the worst at that point.

He eventually popped up and clung to a rock on the side of the river, but he was banged up pretty good. We tried for about an hour to flip the raft and made zero progress. At this time, I didn't know anything about Z drags, rescue techniques, or anything really. 

We got really lucky and a group of about 5 kayakers were paddling by and saw how bad we were struggling - the all made there way over and helped get us flipped back.

That was only the first part of the battle though. By this time, so much dead fall had collected in the ROD, that it was literally an island of debris. You couldn't get an oar deep enough in the water to get a bite and couldn't paddle through. 

Another guy in the group who had way more experience (and stamina) than me managed to make his way over. He took the oars while I cleaned debris from the oar path with another paddle. It took at least another hour of trying to paddle through the debris and the eddy line before we finally broke through.

Needless to sayI haven't been back on WW and want to get a lot more experience under my belt before I do it again. I did sell that Cat though and move to a bigger boat which should provide even more of a challenge


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## LSB (Mar 23, 2004)

Back when I was young and invincible and ran westwater several times a year the crew from Vail and Summit that I paddled with had a tradition of stopping in the RoomofDoom and gobbling a few mushroom caps to make the flat water slog a little more interesting.


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## Roddy (Sep 8, 2011)

I was not on the trip in the video but I know a lot of people that were, including Harold. He has a ton of river experience and he is a pretty big dude that can move a boat like it has a motor. They hiked up to the room of doom from downriver, leaving some safety downstream. Harold was the lucky nominee (volunteer?) to row out of the ROD. After the flip, the safety crew pulled Harold into the boat but they could not grab the flipped raft. I think they recovered it around Dewey. You'll notice a lot of flotsam in the eddy, including a dry bag and half deflated raft, punctured by some of the nails in the wood swirling in the ROD. The dry bag weighed a ton from all the water saturated in it, but it still floated. Westwater is an easy, casual float...until it's not.


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## DanCan (Jul 22, 2011)

My boating partners have been in the RoD more than once... I have too but it was by design at low water flows.

Worst one we ever had was one of our guys got in there with the oar rig and a load of people. We hiked all but 3 people out to the down river spot. Then 2 guys got on the oars and one guy tied a 3 gallon bucket to the bow line. 2 guys (one on each oar) rowed like madmen in the up river eddy out into the eddy line and the 3rd guy heaved the full bucket of water out into the current. Current grabbed the bucket and pulled the front of the boat on out pasted the pillow wall.

That was after they had spent over an hour trying to row out. Not sure how they came up with that idea but it worked.

Other times, just try and try until you get far enough out into the eddy line to rotate off the pillow wall down stream. I think it is dang sketchy myself.

DanCan


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## Schutzie (Feb 5, 2013)

Shooter has never (thankfully) been in the room of doom, but the feeling when he was running commercial was, if caught in there, the following steps should work.
1) Have a beer. Calm down. Catch your breath.
2) Time your run out of there, as many have pointed out, to hit the line at the top of the room; scraping your boat on the upstream rocks is allowed.
3) Row as if your ex mother in law and ex wife were coming up on you with the intent of serving court papers. In other words, row your ass off and do not stop .......DO NOT STOP ......... until you either get sucked back into the ROD, hit the shock rock and flip or can jump to, or hit the opposite bank.

One guide who had been caught at high water in the ROD said the perception of when you are out is all screwed up; just when you think you made it, you get sucked back in, so the rule is, do not stop rowing or paddling until you hit the opposite bank.


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