Whitewater spill surprises trainees

Raft flips upstream from swiftwater rescue class

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Sometimes timing is everything. That truism played out April 29 when a raft overturned at Bonecrusher Rapid and a man who was swept away in the fast-moving Middle Fork of the Flathead River ran into a swiftwater rescue training class.

“Everything on this one was a miracle in a lot of ways,” Flathead County search and rescue coordinator Brian Heino said later.

It was a hectic afternoon. Heino was training on the Middle Fork near the Belton Bridge with a dozen other people from the sheriff’s office, Glacier National Park and other organizations when he got called out to Flathead Lake. Two paddle-boarders were lost on the lake while winds were toppling trees around Bigfork, so Heino was gone when the raft overturned on the Middle Fork about 3 p.m.

Much earlier in the day, Ryan Zinke — the former state senator from Whitefish and a retired Navy SEAL commander — was heading for a float down the South Fork of the Flathead River with his wife Lola and two friends from California.

The road to the river access site proved impassable, so the group opted to put in on the Middle Fork upstream from Moccasin Creek. Ryan has floated the Middle Fork since he was young, and Lola has been on whitewater trips around the world.

The Middle Fork was high enough to cover most of the rocks, Ryan said, but a log blocked the left side of the river at Bonecrusher Rapid, forcing them to go to the middle. Unfortunately, another log blocked that route, too, and the raft got hung up and eventually overturned.

“Our oar snapped, too, and that didn’t help,” he said.

Ryan and Lola ended up with the overturned raft on the Park side of the river, while one of their two friends made it to shore and up to the highway, where a driver stopped and gave him a ride. The second friend, however, swept past the Zinkes calling for help.

Ryan single-handedly flipped the raft back over and took off in pursuit, paddling with the emergency paddle from the bow.

Meanwhile downstream at the Belton Bridge, members of the swiftwater training class were “eddied out” near the shore when “all of a sudden this cooler comes floating by,” Heino said. “And this guy comes downstream.”

The trainees threw the man a line and hauled him in. He’d been in the river about 20 minutes and was hypothermic. Shortly after, Ryan pulled up in the raft and told the trainees about the other two people upstream.

By the time rescuers reached Lola, where she was soaking wet and stuck below a steep rocky slope, her temperature had dropped to 89. Like the other rafters, she wore wool, a fleece jacket and a hat with a life jacket, but no wet suit. The rescuers used ropes to help her up to the Park’s south boundary trail, and she was able to hike the mile and a half out to the Belton Bridge.

Ryan, who’s had his share of adventures around the world as a former member of the elite SEAL Team 6, said he met with personnel from Three Rivers EMS and the search and rescue teams.

“I was delighted to help them train, but the unfortunate part is it was cold,” Ryan said. “They are great guys, and I was impressed.”