Rafter killed on Kicking Horse River

[Wormius]

Not that this is particularly newsworthy, but with the same rafting company about 5 years ago our raft went sideways and flipped over when it hit a dip. Probably the scariest few moments of my life being stuck under the raft in freezing water, hoping to be able to get out from underneath and hold onto the edge while disoriented. Hoping to hell you don't go into a rock as you're coarsing down the river all the while being churned around like you were an article of clothing in a washing machine. I look back somewhat fondly because of the adventure of it and fortunately nobody was hurt. It's too bad this story ended badly though.

http://www.castanet.net/news/BC/7702...ng-Horse-River

One person has died after a raft flipped during a whitewater rafting excursion on the Kicking Horse river east of Golden.
Glacier Raft Company, which was running the excursion, says the raft was one of a group of five going over a rapid in the Middle Canyon section of the river around 3 p.m. local time on Saturday.
Each raft carried eight passengers and one guide.
When the raft turned over, guides from the other rafts in the group quickly pulled all passengers from the river.
The company says that one person was unresponsive even though the guides attempted resuscitation while waiting for a rescue helicopter.
The company says the Kicking Horse river is currently experiencing high water conditions due to spring run-off, but conditions were within safe operating guidelines.
The company, which is based in Golden, has been operating for more than 30 years. It says it normally carries between 2,000 and 3,000 passengers each year on the Kicking Horse and other rivers in the region.

[mac_82]

I was actually on the river when this happened. We just went through the first set of rapids in the middle section, came around the corner, and there was a chopper hovering over the river air lifting someone. We didn't know what had happened, but our guide was saying how it has to be really serious (not just a broken bone) for you to be air lifted off the river. Didn't find out until Sunday that the person had actually died. Pretty tragic.

[Rerun]

I've been rafting twice on the Kicking Horse and had two somewhat scary experiences. The first was when there were 2 groups of us in two rafts. It was the Aug long weekend. We were floating down the river in a fairly calm area and I heard this loud cracking noise. I looked where the noise was coming from and it was coming from the river bank where this huge pine tree (maybe 50' high) was toppling over into the river (the high water from spring runoff had under cut the bank where the tree was standing). The tree slowly fell towards the water, but unfortunately the lead raft was directly in its path. People dove from the raft to get to safety but not everybody could get out in time. Two people were severely injured and had to be helicoptered out.

The second time was with my wife on a July long weekend. The guide decided it would be fun to surf the swale cause by the river rushing over this huge bolder in the middle of the river. Unfortunately our raft got caught in the depression and the water flowing over the boulder started pouring into the raft. Within seconds the raft was completely filled. My wife was on the side of the raft that was closest to the boulder and the water was pouring over her like a waterfall. She thought she was going to drown. It was all I could do to pull her out of the waterfall, and at the same time try and paddle as hard as we could to get us out of there. Our efforts were futile though. Even with all of us paddling we couldn't escape. Fortunately another raft headed for shore and the guide jumped out and ran along the bank til she was even with us and threw us a line. Between her and her crew pulling on the line and us paddling, we escaped.

Needless to say, my wife will never go whitewater rafting again. I on the other hand must be stupid though because I'd do it again.

[Azure]

I went on the Bow a couple years ago and it was great. Obviously there are risks, but I wouldn't say that the rapids were bad enough to create much of a problem. One of our guys went overboard, and they guide did a bangup job getting him back on the raft.