Rescues on the Wenatchee River are up this year thanks to a dangerous combination of conditions. Because of the increased snow levels, there has been high, swift water in the river for much later in the season.
Cascade Medical EMT Lester Stoltz, who also serves on the Chelan County Swift Water Rescue Team, was a river guide for 10 years on the Wenatchee River.
“People generally don’t think about that too much unless it is flood stage. They just plan their vacation every year on the Fourth of July and they don’t really know the river might be a little higher,” Stoltz said. “This year, in particular, I think we saw increase there. I think we’re also seeing an increase in tubers and stand up paddle boarders. I think people are doing less extreme sports. They are doing this, because it is easier and doesn’t take a lot of training.”
Last year, there were 27 rescues on the river. There have been eight in the past two months, but no fatalities. The season is not over yet, Stoltz points out. The trouble has been mainly with the tubers floating past the check point, getting into trouble further down river.
Tubers either start from the bridge on Icicle Road or at the hatchery. They float down into town, then around Barn Beach, get out of the river on one side or the other.
“With the higher water level, the Barn Beach rapid, they were able to float right through it. With the water level dropping, it becomes much more difficult to get through that rapid. It’s not a natural rapid because of the logging industry. I think there was a dam built there. When the dam was destroyed, all the debris was left,” Stoltz said. “It’s actually makes a natural choke point for tubers, so I don’t think we see as many go past there.”
Past the checkpoint is Hobo Gulch, which is a straight shot of pretty fast moving water. Stoltz said it is hard to get out of there river there. It leads into Boulder Bend, where they get most of their call outs.
“It’s just a big class 3 rapid with pretty big hydraulics with a lot of rocks, making a big, sweeping right hand turn,” Stoltz said. “The currents push you in different direction and that can be very difficult to manage.”
Fortunately, Stoltz said, there has been some good press, because he’s seen a lot of kids in life jackets, but not so much the adults. He believes because of the big companies, managing it really well, to the bystander, it looks like an amusement ride.
“They get dropped off, they get picked up. It seems really simple, but it still is a wild river. It still is not guaranteed you are going to go down this path or that. There’s also lots of people going online, looking at pictures, clicking ‘book me’ with very little conversation with anyone,” Stoltz said. “They just show up and go down the river from there. They may or may not be able to swim and may not have any experience in a wild river.”
Stoltz said they’ve noticed most of their rescues were taking place after the Leavenworth Outdoor Center, a local tube rental company, was closed.
“They do a great job of organizing a lot of people down the river. They staff very well for it. They put staff members on the river’s edge. What we’ve noticed, with the water up and people being able to float by there, as soon as they pulled their staff member on the paddle board and their stop sign off the river, people were floating past,” Stoltz said.
Stoltz said he’s even seen people make the mistake of putting in at Barn Beach instead of taking out there. He thinks maybe they are staying at the KOA with the belief they can just float back down to their camp spot.
To help guide tubers after Leavenworth Outdoor Center is closed, Stoltz said they put up a sign to try and guide tubers. When a river call goes out, the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office is in charge of all search and rescues in Chelan County.
Chelan County Fire District 3 and Cascade Medical ambulance band together. The Swift Water rescue team is part of that. Stoltz has been a volunteer for 3-4 years. He said CM has 2-4 swift water trained people. It’s not a job requirement, but the hospital does support it.
“The events are very taxing on the system, as far as fire, police, EMS. When one of these events go out, it is very dynamic. There are a lot of people involved. There may be up to 20 people between fire, sheriff and ambulance service,” Stoltz said. “A lot of times we have multiple victims. It is difficult because they are spread out. A lot of times, the fire chief will take over command of the whole scene, then the sheriff will plug in where they are needed.”
Stoltz said they’ve done a lot of training, particularly around Boulder Bend, to learn the area as best they can. At one point this season, he said they were called out three nights in a row after the Leavenworth Outdoor Center took their signs down and pulled their guy.
Chelan County Sheriff Sergeant Kent Sisson said the water level has remained higher and swifter than in past years, so that has added to the amount of incidents they’ve responded to on the river along with the fire district and EMS.
“As with normal, these folks are often not prepared and not experienced on the river, which creates an issue for us. They don’t take out at the right location. If they are on a tube or small raft, they’ll put in at the fish hatchery and not take out by Barn Beach, which you hope people can do. If they get into swift water without a personal floatation device or decent raft, you’re going to have difficulties downriver from Barn Beach,” Sisson said.
Most of time, Sission said it is a preparedness issue, people not experienced on the river, which creates an issue for them.
“Just this last month, there have been about eight different incidents, which is more than normal. We’re lucky we haven’t had significant injuries or deaths this year so far. There’s been a lot of folks stranded in the water that have been rescued,”
Sisson said.
In terms of the rescues, Sisson said some are self rescues. Other times, people are rescued by those passing by. Sometimes people end up on an island, log or rock. Those folks do need to be rescued.
“There’s been some where we’ve actually had to pull them from the river channel with the Chelan County Swift Water team,” Sisson said. “It’s a team effort between the fire district, us and EMS to get there. The priority is to get there as quickly as we can and be organized, get folks into the right locations, so we can make the rescue or at least spot the subject in distress.”
Even though there have been lots of incidents on the river, there has not been a fatality. Sisson hopes they can make it through the season without one.
“There was an incident on the Methow River where the subject was swept away trying to rescue his dog. He ended up being swept 14 miles downstream. We assisted with that one,” Sisson said. “Hopefully, people will use common sense when they go in the water and take out at the right point.”
Dave Johnson, the owner of the Leavenworth Outdoor Center, said this season has been busier than ever. Even with the high water, Johnson said there have been no additional challenges, as they already have safety programs in place and people on the water.
The tubers floating past his check point are private tubers, he said.
“We already have our system in place, having a person in the water and a stop sign on the beach. Everyone else has begun to depend on us being out there, so when we’re done for the day and closed, then I’ve just learned people are having trouble because the signs are gone,” Johnson said.
The pull-out point for Leavenworth Outdoor Center is just above Barn Beach on the same side of the river. Johnson said they account for all their guests before leaving the river, usually around 6 p.m.
“We even run a sweep at the end of the day, like the ski patrol does in the winter time. We do the same thing. We send a person down each route, the Icicle Creek and Wenatchee River,” Johnson said. “We look for all of our guests. Once all our guests are in, then we would bring in our personnel and take our signs down.”
Johnson said they are seeing record numbers of tubers this year, he believes, not due to the weather or river conditions.
“I think just more to do with increased population on the west side, putting more pressure on people getting out for the weekend. That combined with the growing popularity of the sport. I just think we’re just following average growth. I don’t think it is about weather or river conditions. Customers really don’t understand that,” Johnson said.
In other parts of the country, Stoltz said laws have been created to manage the thousands of tubers on rivers. On these rivers, there might be 3,000-5,000 tubers on a particular day. Stoltz said there’s probably 2,000 here.
“We’re not that far from it becoming a real issue,” Stoltz said.
Stoltz has some advice for the tubers. Know your put-in and take-out and what is in between. Use a guide service, if you don’t know the river. Always wear a life jacket. Don’t strap yourself to a tube or another tuber.
Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.
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