chute at snow creek- leavenworth

[nova]

Climbers-

Has anyone else been tempted to float down the water chute that flows under the Snow Creek trail? It appears to go on for at least half a mile then mysteriously disappears.... Aside from that it looks like a super fun ride. If you have done it or know anything about how the journey would end (assuming one does not get caught) I'd like to hear about it.

[Kat_Roslyn]

Are you talking about the irrigation canal? Bad idea. Very bad idea.

[olyclimber]

Do not do that.

 

If you really want to go on such a ride, they have them in Hawaii. My sister and her family went on them, they sounded quite fun...like a big water slide.

[Lisa_D]

I've thought of that myself, especially on really hot days!

But that water is going pretty fast..

Edited August 30, 2007 by Lisa_D

[MarkMcJizzy]

It goes thru several tunnels, probably with strainers in attendence. For all I know, it could go thru a siphon. There have been several deaths of Police Divers in irrigation canals in Washington in the last twenty years.

 

A really good way to die a stupid death

[ClimbingPanther]

but hey, at least you could get nominated for a Darwin award! my glass is half-full.

[nova]

Well I don't want to DIVE in the canal, I just want to float down it. It's only a couple of feet deep... and it seems like you could jump out if it got hairy. Has anyone actually floated down it or is everyone just speculating on the danger?

[ketch]

Spoken like a person who has no real knowledge of strainers, siphons, and other fun stuff that are used in irragation ditches. Do you really think that the idea of just climbing out did not occur to the police divers that were killed?

 

Not to say I've never dove into a irragation canal for a quick cool off but I would look real carefull at where the water goes and how fast it gets there.

[ScottP]

There was one that spanned a side canyon of the Kern River canyon just east of Bakersfield that was probably 4 times the size of the one in question. The water came out of a tunnel in the east wall, travelled through the flume maybe thirty feet and then disappeared into a tunnel in the western wall. The water was just ripping through it too. Despite the long hot hike we had just done to get up there, we steered well clear 'cause it just looked really deadly.

[Jens]

It has certainly been contemplated by many climbers over the years, including one scheme that inovled an inflatable air mattress.

[catbirdseat]

Here's an example. Double Tragedy

[ClimbingPanther]

"They lived for adventure. That's what they did," said Andrew Stewart, one of the brothers' 47 cousins. "They were the two greatest kids in the world."

Only in Utah

[MisterMo]

It crosses the Wenatchee River in a siphon just outside of Der Town if I remember correctly.

 

Good place to drown; bad place to float.

[pope]

Dwayner's got a great story about jumping in one of those. Maybe he'll share. I wouldn't get close to one of those, personally. There's great swimming in the Wenatchee, across from Castle Rock, and also in town at the park.

[Bug]

Icicle creek will freeze you to death in about 15 minutes.

Getting out of fast moving water with smooth sides is very difficult.

Since the irrigation ditch is well marked with "no trespassing" signs they are not responsible for safety features or providing for the possibility of someone floating through it without dying.

Strainers are common in irrigation ditches so that pumps are not damaged by floating deris.

I used to float irrigation canals in Montana. Things got really weird twice. Once we were pulled under a gate that was raised and lowered to control the flow. Lucky for us there was no strainer.

Another time we went into a tunnel that came out into a canal with vertical concrete sides. It ended with a strainer that we were able to grab hold of and pull ourselves up. The force of the water pushed us against it so hard, we would not have survived if our heads had been under water. We were exhausted when we got out. Panting and laughing we noticed multiple cuts and scrapes on each other fron the climb out against rusty iron mesh. We were 12 or 13. That was the end of my canal floating adventures.

But let us know how it goes.

 

 

[John Frieh]

Kern River canyon just east of Bakersfield

 

[G-spotter]

I ran through the Staender Ridge tunnel once in the fall when he canal was mostly dry

[nova]

yeah, I guess I will probably save that one for another summer... thanks for the brainstorm folks, i probably would have done it too...

[Sol]

my buddy's dog fell in that one on the way to snow creek wall. he ran like mad and was just able to rescue her before the canal became accessible. even though she has four limbs with claws she could not climb out. it was scary.

 

down in cali there is an irrigation pipe that goes through hammer dome in the calalveras dome area. Apparently its common practice to take the slide through the hammer. no thanks.

[counterfeitfake]

I bet Jamin would float it with you.

[Bug]

Is he still alive?

[sobo]

Mebbe, but not by the end of this weekend if he sees this thread...

[sobo]

...It appears to go on for at least half a mile then mysteriously disappears...

That's called a siphon. It resurfaces somewhere else across a draw or gulley. If there's water in it, you'll never make it out the other side alive, guaranteed. No one ever does...

 

...or know anything about how the journey would end...

Anybody here remember the four divers who got killed in the Roza Irrigation District siphon near Zillah about 10 years ago? The irrigation district hired two commercial SCUBA divers to go into a 12-foot diameter siphon to rig up a stolen car that was dumped in the canal and eventually ended up down in the bottom of the siphon. It needed to be fished out so normal flow could be restored in the canal. Anyway, at the bottom of the draw which the siphon traverses, they were effectively in a 100-foot open water dive. It didn't occur to them that would be the case when they went in, as they most likely were thinking that they were diving in only 12 feet of water, even as they continued down in elevation. Two rescue divers went in after them, forgetting the very same principle! They died, too. Tragic, yet entirely preventable.

 

Stick around with the living for a little while longer, nova, and stay out of irrigation canals until you understand them better.

[Raindawg]

Dwayner's got a great story about jumping in one of those. Maybe he'll share. I wouldn't get close to one of those, personally.

 

Stay out of the ditch!

Here's the short version of my own experience in one of them things. Sometime in the mid-1980's, before there was a parking lot at the Peshastin Pinnacles, people would park along the orchard road and if it got really busy, they'd even park on the shoulder of Highway 2 and then walk. So I'm done fooling around at the Pinnacles and my car is parked on the highway, and I don't feel like walking around to it, so I decide to make a short-cut through the orchard to the highway...but then I encounter the irrigation ditch...It looks no deeper than about four feet and doesn't look like it's moving very fast and that I can just wade across it. So, I take my pack and throw it across the canal, and then I take off all my clothes, and throw them across the canal and get in....at which point, I'm immediately swept away in a fast moving current...the walls of the canal are all slimy and I can't crawl out...and away I go, bare-butt naked, heading for a place where it passes under the road where there's probably a strainer. I eventually was able to find a crack in the concrete sidewalls and hang-on with my fingers while my body was swept horizontally to the side...the crack extended out of the canal so I was able to "climb" out of there ....and then there was the nudist-walk for a ways to find my clothes and gear in the orchard...it was rough going because I was barefoot and there were a bunch of small broken sticks and such I had to walk through. Won't do that again....nope!

 

And by the way, more than one dog has taken a journey down that Snow Creek Wall irrigation ditch...never to be seen again.

 

Lesson? Stay out of the dang irrigation stuff!

Drink a beer instead.

 

[RuMR]

damn! that's a story and a half!!!! talk about "climbing for your life!"