Adventure race fatality

[dryad]

Seattle Times article

[marylou]

Thanks for posting that.

[catbirdseat]

Reposting something from klenke in the Pub Club thread (of all places):

 

So today I'm doing my climb of Illabot Peaks in the middle of nowhere near Marblemount. When I get back to my car on a non-descript logging road there are two women standing there. In turns out they were volunteers for Subaru Primal Quest Adventure Race, which was being staged in the area. The summit of Illabot was one of the checkpoints. So I'm talking to the woman (one of them left) to see what the race is all about. I'm telling her the peak is pretty cliffy at the top (Class 3/4) and not something I'd put as a destination for an adventure race where people are lacking sleep. Not five minutes after saying that this woman gets a call on her walkee-talkee saying there's been a Code 3 (meaning bad) accident involving rockfall near the summit of Illabot.

[blue_morph]

He wasn't wearing a helmet.

[Dru]

Do you think a helmet makes a difference when the boulder weighs 300 pounds?

[ketch]

I have been working with the support team for this race. It appears that they wil be dropping the ropes portion, still not released yet. They already dropped the Baker Portion. The teams that made it that far were diverted past that section. The proposed route had them arriving at the railroad grade and then making a quick lap up the emmons route and back out to the east of Sherman peak. they were to get back to the jumping off point and then on into the mountains via mountain bike. This entire section was determined to be to dangerous. I am not sure of the ropes portion that was dropped. It was a 1500ft rope jug followed by a 900 rap. It was to be 9 miles south of Darrington on "The Fin".

 

Everyone up here that is involved is pretty bummed at the moment.

[Billygoat]

I guess we don't have to worry about the Tibloc issue anymore.

 

Too bad this happened. An event like this has so much hope and energy to it. Condolences to all those involved.

 

 

 

 

Hey Ketch, how's the conditions up there? Where are you? I was thinking of hitting the North face of Shuksan this weekend. Beta...

[blue_morph]

Do you think a helmet makes a difference when the boulder weighs 300 pounds?

 

Who knows? Certainly not you. Maybe it would have been the difference between life and death. Maybe not.

 

Wear your helmet folks.

[marylou]

Ketch, please keep us posted. I got a good buddy out there on that there race.

 

TIA.

[Dru]

Do you think a helmet makes a difference when the boulder weighs 300 pounds?

 

Who knows? Certainly not you. Maybe it would have been the difference between life and death. Maybe not.

 

Wear your helmet folks.

 

I have seen what happens to a helmet when a 300lb rock hits it

[Billygoat]

Shit, my budy got hit with a 5 ounce rock that cracked his helmet.

[estivate]

It looks like the route didn't go to the top of Ilabot, but to 5500'. The top is 5944'. No ropes involved, certainly not more than 3rd class terrain. The guy was killed by a rock, set rolling by one of the other members of his party. It's the kind of mishap that actual mountain climbers get very attuned to avoiding instinctually, since they have moved on so much chossy rock and talus. Compare the amount of talus that a novice sends rolling down a loose gully compared to someone who'se been doing it for a long time. Was it participant error? Don't know, but I kind of suspect that inexperience played a part. I mean, they didn't check the participants for knowing how to move on talus.

 

My original assesment of the route was that it was essentially a very long, sleep-deprived endurance race, heavy on the logging road mountain biking, with some amount of garnish of other activities added, largely so that, as at a fashion show, and a bid to widen the sponsor base, the participants could model various sorts of gear. The skill requirements as regards paddling and climbing were purposely kept really low. What climber would regard jugging up a rope

as an appropriate test of mountains skills? And those kayaks they were paddling, my god, what tubs. Real beginner boats, graceless and slow, but forgiving of skill deficits. And I suspect that the participants are largely endurance athletes and triathlete sorts.

 

Of course they will not cancel the race. They will make some pious throat clearing, and then they will come to the conclusion that "he would have wanted the race to continue". And in fact, it's probably marketing gold, exactly the sort of stuff to give the race the enticing patina of real risk, which has largely been designed out of it. In case you think this is a "citizen's race", it costs $7500 per team to enter.

 

There is one actual off-trail thrash segment of this race, which goes S along the W bank of the Sauk from the whitechuck crossing, and turns up the swift creek valley, to reach the Twin peaks-Forgotten saddle, over a shoulder of twin peaks, and out the Buck creek valley to the S Fk stilly. Upper Swift creek is pretty brushy. I think one could get good entertainment value sitting up on twin peaks for a couple of days watching the hapless contestants blundering around in the brush.

[klenke]

I believe the summit of Illabot (5,944 ft) was indeed one of the checkpoints, not this 5,500-ft point you speak of. My reason for believing this is as such:

 

When I got to the summit I came upon an orange and white flag thingy anchored to the ground with a green cable. Attached to the cable was a cylinder with an orange device in it. I didn't inspect the device inside (I thought it was merely a clasp for the cable).

 

The volunteer I met back at my car had a map on which all the local checkpoints were marked. One of these points was marked as the summit of Illabot (5,944 ft).

 

Later, while milling about at the checkpoint at the logging road with Primal Quest volunteers one of them sat next to me and we chatted a bit. I asked if the flag at the summit was theirs and she said yes. I then mentioned the cylinder and there being something in it. The woman said that it is a hole puncher with a secret punch shape that contestants are supposed to use to verify they have reached that checkpoint.

 

Here are some pics of Illabot Peak's main summit (5,944 ft) from Mike Torok's website:

 

The south side of Illabot with West Ridge on the left:

A pic of the climbing near the summit, which is just beyond the large rock at top center. The easiest route I found was Class 3/4 and steep with Class 5 lurking everywhere:

 

I don't know which side of the mountain the accident occurred on but given the fact that the next checkpoint was about a half-mile away at the 5,100-ft saddle due south of the peak it may have occurred on the side shown above.

 

Topozone map of the peak.

[estivate]

I believe the summit of Illabot (5,944 ft) was indeed one of the checkpoints, not this 5,500-ft point you speak of.

 

Thanks for the pics. Your evidence seems conclusive. I was relying on stuff on their website, which mentioned 4 checkpoints, the highest of which was 5500'. It could be that they fiddled with the route to make it more sporting after the Easton glacier excursion was scrubbed. If they did, somebody's probably bitterly regretting it about now.

The skill requirements of getting up and down a 3rd/4th class scramble are arguably onsiderably higher than a glacier stroll, even if you don't get to use sharp-pointed equipment.

[Lambone]

that is very sad....rockfal sucks.

[ketch]

HI All,

 

The race is back on, I believe that they are going to keep the ropes in after all. The did do some fiddleing with the southern section (Twin peaks, Dickerman, Ice caves) One of the challenges is that this was an orienteering section and the teams were trying to follow the compass to the checkpoint and not necessarily taking the easy route. They checked in at the first check point were given course and distance cards with had to be punched at the stations then show up at the next check point with it complete. Two teams have withdrawn. One had not even made it to the first Baker checkpoint when the accident happened. One was just really worked.

 

Everyone is doing a little better in camp. A fair amount of chat with family and team mates. The general feeling is to keep going but that the teams being a little more vigilant would be good.

 

As to the kayaks being tubs, I dont know. I worked at CP4 for a bit. The teams left Rosario and went clockwise to Yellow Island, Back to Orcas, out to Sucia island, then around to Orcas South of Point Lawrence. (About 40 miles of open water) The leading teams were checking in just over seven hours from start. Not too tubby

 

If something comes up that is relavent I will get back to ya-all.

[ncascademtns]

Skagit County requested Everett Mountain Rescue for support on the pack out. 4 of us showed up in Rockport at 5:00am that morning. They offered us one spot on the helicopter to fly up and package him up for a short haul. Instead of us flipping a coin, we decided to decline the offer. Shame that this had to happen. The acident happened on the south side of the mountain about 500 feet from the summit.

[ketch]

A memorial of sorts was today. The race is over with the last of the teams arriving last night. Today as the Australian team and the nike team ( the others injured in the same incident) paddled in with their kayaks all the rest of us that could find a kayak went out to join them and then escort Nigels Brother paddleing back with his brothers ashes. Touching scene and it went a long way to reinforce that the "down to earth, outdoors" types are some of the best people to be around in the hard times.

 

I have yet to be included in any of the conclusions from investigations (if they have one yet) I will post something if they are any differant than what we has already been posted.

[klenke]

I created a page for Illabot Peaks on summitpost. Click here if you want to see what the mountain looks like.

[ncascademtns]

Good Job Klenke.