By the Mercy of the River

WESTWATER CANYON -- I want to thank the muddy waters of the Colorado River for letting me live. I had no lack of respect for the power of water before, but now I understand the meaning of the mercy of the river.

When the first raft flipped in the standing wave of Skull Rapid, everyone in it disappeared from sight. There were no heads to be seen, just an upside down raft and we were coming in fast right behind it. There was no time to change course. The river was in control now.

Hanging on to the front of a raft it's hard to tell what's happening around you. I remember seeing the drop into the wave and then it was black.

I didn't get a chance to take a breath or a lucky toss away from the raft. I was trapped underneath with my life jacket holding me up in the mess of gear and oars. I grabbed the frame and tried to pull to one side then the other, but there seemed to be no end to the 16-foot boat in any direction.

I decided to treat the raft as a drowning victim who was holding on to me. I pushed straight down and swam deep into the river. If I came back up under the raft, I knew I wouldn't make it. But the river let me live this day and I saw the light.

Shawn Turner's outstretched arm was the first thing I saw. He had been oaring the raft when we flipped and he still had a hold on it. I had floated underneath him and resurfaced upstream.

"Robert! Grab the raft!" Turner yelled.

I hated the raft and wanted nothing to do with it, but I couldn't keep my head up in the turbulent water so I grabbed on for the ride.

We had to stop the boat before the next major set of rapids or there would be more washing machine action. The water was very cold and we had to get out quickly or succumb to hypothermia. I grabbed at the slick cliff sides of the canyon but my one arm couldn't stop a boat loaded with the gear of 10 people.

"I can't stop it!" I yelled in desperation. I felt hypothermic and my arms became pathetic and useless.

Finally my feet caught a boulder and with the help of a little adrenaline I pulled the boat into a small eddie.

"I have 10 people!" Weber State University trip leader Daniel Turner yelled out from the top of the cliff above Westwater canyon.

Stretched out over a half mile of whitewater were the survivors of Skull Rapid.

Turner had scaled the canyon wall across the river after catching and stopping the other raft down stream. He ran up and down the canyon counting heads and then yelling to us that everyone was OK.

David Provence lay on his stomach on the rocks nearby, vomiting muddy water that he had inhaled or swallowed after the first boat flipped. Provence remembers someone stepping on his face and being pushed deeper into the fast-flowing water. He popped up to see that his son, James, was safely out of the water but then he floated on, almost helplessly, in the 47-degree water.

He didn't look well and everyone else in the group was in shock. I was just glad to be breathing again. I knew my camera equipment was under the raft and I thought about getting it out, but the last thing I wanted was to go back under that boat and into the cold water.

Daniel jumped back into the river from the other side. He swam hard to cross it, then I threw him the rescue line.

Shortly after our incident, another boat floated by, upside down, with two people hanging on and I threw them the rope as well.

The scene was one of upside down rafts and people in shock, perched on the rock, shivering from the cold water they had just escaped.

We began to unload the raft one bag at a time; miraculously everything was still in the boat. I would later find out that even my cameras had survived the flip.

Sara Austin, of Layton, fearlessly jumped under the boat into the water and started handing out dry bags.

"It scared me for a while because I didn't know if everyone was OK and if everyone was safe, but you've got to keep your head on your shoulders and try to get things done," Austin said later that day.

Dustin Anderson, of Tremonton, was trapped under the first raft when it flipped and his experience was similar to mine.

"We all went out of the boat at the same time and I ended up under the raft right away," Anderson said. "If everyone went through the same thing I did, I hope everybody is still alive because I took a beating."

The raft was flipped upright and reloaded with gear and people. BLM River Ranger Drew Scheltinga came by in his raft and picked up David Provence, who still did not look well. Scheltinga lead both our rafts through the next series of rapids and then strapped us all together and motored us to the Cisco landing.

After unloading the boats, WSU trip leader Turner pulled the group together for a debriefing.

"That was a pretty big yard sale we had there," Turner said. "Overall, I was really impressed with the way everybody kind of kept their cool and walked through it."

At the end of the day what really counts, according to Turner, is that everyone came home safe.

"It just happens. It's part of the game and it's how you put the pieces back together and bounce back from it," Turner said. "Hopefully it was a good experience even though it was a pretty eye-opening experience -- the power of a river."

"When it really comes down to it, in whitewater rafting it's not a matter of if you're going to flip, it's when."