Any news on the Kanangra Boyd tragedy?
Mark Fowler
reported in the media?
Mark Fowler
David Killick
This is from AAP:
Climbers die in abseiling accident
AAP --
Two abseilers fell to their deaths during an expedition in the
Kanagra Boyd National Park in the Blue Mountains today.
Sources say the two climbers were believed to be part of a group of
nine from Newcastle University's mountaineering club.
Seven survivors were walking out of the park, near Jenolan Caves, a
police spokesman said.
A police helicopter was en route to the area, he said.
Local Oberon police said the party of bushwalkers left on the trip
over the long weekend and only were reported missing this morning.
Officers with the assistance of State Emergency Service volunteers
located the party shortly before lunch, a police spokesman said.
He was unable to comment on the deaths or how the group got into
trouble.
He said the accident has happened in a very remote area where there
are many walking trails but restricted helicopter access.
No other details were immediately available.
A police spokesman later said the two abseilers were men in their 20s
and the seven survivors of the nine-strong exhibition were now out of
the park.
"Polair has now airlifted all seven survivors to the police forward
command post at Kanagra Walls car park," he said.
The bodies of the two dead abseilers are still in the National Park.
He said the group were all reported to be in the 20s.
The two deaths add to the two others who died in separate climbing
accidents on the weekend.
David Killick
current story is
http://www.news.ninemsn.com.au/01_national/story_22117.asp, but they
change pretty often so here's the text:
Climbers freeze to death in Blue Mountains waterfall
AAP --
Two abseilers died when their ropes snagged trapping the pair in the
freezing waters of a waterfall in the Kanangra Boyd National Park in the
Blue Mountains, police said today.
The pair from the Newcastle University Mountaineering Club are
believed to have died from exposure during the climb down the Corra
Beanga Falls on Saturday night, a police spokesman said.
"They became stuck somehow and were unable to be freed by their
friends and of course water in winter in the Oberon area is extremely
cold and unfortunately they perished," he said.
"We can't directly speculate it was hypothermia...the bodies haven't
been through a post mortem yet and that is for the coroner to
determine."
The pair were part of a group of nine bushwalkers on an abseiling and
canyoning trip.
The bodies are still in the national park and would be recovered
tomorrow, the spokesman said.
Their seven colleagues were winched out of the park by police
helicopter late today.
cheers,
David.
David Springthorpe wrote:
>
> On Tue, 13 Jun 2000 18:13:52 +1000, David Killick
> <dkil...@bigpond.com> wrote:
>
> >This is from AAP:
>
> Can we know the address for the AAP Web site, please.....?
>
> -------------------------------
> David Springthorpe
Lyn & Roy
God, what the hell were they doing in the Carra Beanga canyon at this time
of year?
I wonder who advises some of these people on these canyoning expeditions.
The Kanangra canyons can be bloody freezing in December, let alone in June.
Roy
David Killick <dkil...@bigpond.com> wrote in message
news:39460CE1...@bigpond.com...
brett mckay
That is the latest I have heard.
David Noble
> Thanks David
>
> God, what the hell were they doing in the Carra Beanga canyon at this time
> of year?
Carra Beanga has avoidable swims - and you certainly don't need to abseil
right down the waterfalls there. Its quite a nice canyon to visit at any time
of the year. But in winter, on a cold day, it could be quite damp and slippery
in any creek out that way.
>
> I wonder who advises some of these people on these canyoning expeditions.
> The Kanangra canyons can be bloody freezing in December, let alone in June.
But the dry ones - eg Kalang, Dionne Dell, Carra Beanga, Davies etc can (and
are) done all year round.
Dave Noble
>
>
> Roy--
--------------------------
David Noble
dno...@ozemail.com.au
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~dnoble/
Lyn & Roy
are increased enormously if other factors come into play.. i.e cold, contact
with water, snagged ropes, and more importantly.. darkness.
Without totally prejudging this incident there were several apparent things
which came together to leave not much margin for error.
I don't mind canyoning in daylight.. but really, darkness in that area in
winter is tempting it, is it not?
Roy
David Noble <dno...@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
news:394640B1...@ozemail.com.au...
David Noble
> I agree Dave that they can be done all year round, but the risks in winter
> are increased enormously if other factors come into play.. i.e cold, contact
> with water, snagged ropes, and more importantly.. darkness.
Yep - but really shorter available daylight hours
>
> Without totally prejudging this incident there were several apparent things
> which came together to leave not much margin for error.
> I don't mind canyoning in daylight.. but really, darkness in that area in
> winter is tempting it, is it not?
A party size of 9 for a canyoning that involves quite a few abseils to rig up -
may be a bit large unless a lot of the members are skilled at this. The fact
that they had to camp in the canyon and that the two that died were abseiling
down in the dark to find a better campsite leads one to suspect that party
speed and the number of daylight hours available were a factor.
As it goes - Carra Beanga is not a bad canyon to do in winter - it is not as
committing as some others - the ridge to the north would offer many good
campsites (100 m above the creek) and is not too hard to get to from various
places in the creek.
Also - if the accident happened on Saturday night - then 2 days seems a long
time for some of the party to walk out and raise the alarm. But we don't know
if the had any ropes available at that stage - as all of their ropes may have
been snagged.
The weather was not too bad at Kanangra over the Long Weekend - and was fine on
Saturday and Sunday morning.
Dave
>
>
> Roy
David Springthorpe
the falls in this morning's SMH and the description under the photo ?
Why can't they get it right ? Yesterday they said the other canyon
accidents at the weekend were at the "Stones NP" and "Capertree
".....
Similar mis-leading location map published when reporting plane crash
at KBNP in 1994 (I was leadng the walk on which the plane was sighted,
but can't remember the exact year without looking at my records).....
-------------------------------
David Springthorpe
Mitchell Isaacs
Why were there two of them? If they were parallel processing, then fine, but
if that's the case why did they BOTH get stuck?
And if they were experienced canyoners, why were they stuck on the rope?
Surely an experienced canyoner leading a large abseil would have prussiks or
the like?
I find it confusing....does anybody have any more info on these points?
Also, on the abseiling in the dark thing....cavers do it all the time.....
Mitchell
"David Noble" <dno...@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
news:3946AC11...@ozemail.com.au...
Lyn & Roy
problems then the first guy prussicked up to help No.2 and they died, of
hypothermia.
All very strange.. perhaps they weren't up to the challenges facing them.
Given that the survivors were healthy at the end of it all, if appears two
lives were wasted needlessly.
Roy
Mitchell Isaacs <misaacs@spam_me_not.student.usyd.edu.au> wrote in message
news:8i74pg$r2d$1...@metro.ucc.usyd.edu.au...
David Noble
Sunday - and that the accident happened on the second last drop
(whatever that means in this canyon - the second last drop of the main
falls or the lower ones?) - and that they were trying to finish the
canyon so that they could start their next activity - a caving trip.
They had been on the move since Saturday morning. I heard the group had
some experience - but not a huge amount.
The Sydney Morning Herald said that one of the guys that died was the
President of their club.
Dave
John McLaine
which case hypothermia is probably inevitable in time.
If they were not, could it possibly be another case of Sit Harness Syndrome?
I'm not sure of the correct term, but it's been documented that the
restricted circulation of your harness will kill you if you're suspended for
too long. Can anyone refer us to resources re this phenomenon, and could it
be implicated in this tragedy?
Does anyone have a photo of the canyon that they could scan in?
Such a sad mistake, we'd better at least learn from it.
John Mc.
"David Noble" <dno...@ozemail.com.au> wrote
> As it goes - Carra Beanga is not a bad canyon to do in winter - it is not
as
> committing as some
snip