Eclectic Effusions

Man injured in canyoning accident rescued - National - smh.com.au

Today I read this. I actually have a connection to this story....

Man injured in canyoning accident rescued - National - smh.com.au:
August 20, 2006 - 9:17PM

A man who spent a night in the bush after suffering serious head and leg injuries during a canyoning accident is in a stable condition in hospital.
The 27-year-old man and a friend were canyoning near Kanangra in the Blue Mountains yesterday afternoon when he fell, injuring his head and leg.
The injured man and his friend were forced to spend the night in the mountains, before the friend walked out to raise the alarm this morning.
He then guided rescuers on foot to his canyoning companion, who was winched up to the Westpac Life Saver Helicopter just before midday (AEST) today.
The injured man was taken to the Nepean Hospital, where he remained in a stable condition.

Well, in 1993, I was invited by Everest summiteer, Brian 'Henry' Laursen and his climbing buddy Chalky Thomas to 'do a canyon'. Before I knew it, we were in the bowels of 'Culustral Canyon', near Kanangra in the Blue Mountains. Calustral Canyon in magnificent. To get into it is a story unto itself, but it is well worth the often arduous effort. Getting into the canyon, we negotiated several water courses, going deeper underground. At one stage, you reach a limestone wall, into which crystal-clean water gently glides past you and into what is known as the 'keyhole'.

We had rigged our abseiling gear and decended the rope through the hole, which was bearly big enough to pass a 90 kg guy, as I am today (of course, back then, I was a 'waifish' 80 kgs!) I was first through, and as I descended the rope, Henry stuck his head through the hole, peered down at me and yelled,

"Lucky we're doing this this week, mate. A bloke died here last week!"

Apparently, the story was true. Whilst climbing through the keyhole the week previous, a wave of water from a sudden downstream rain torrent hit and trapped a poor bloke, who drowned whilst pinned against the hole.

I did Calustral twice, but have counted no less than 5 incidents at Calustral since.

posted by The Eclectic Warrior @ 9:57 am