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Frozen Drain
[Dec.04] - Swimming in the Mississippi
Members: Frozen, Arrow, Mr. X, Katwoman, Asylunt, Flame
Even as I type this my fingers are still thawing out; I wince every
time I hit a key too hard. I only have half the feeling in my
fingertips and think they probably have frost-nip (different than bite).
My feet and legs are scraped and I'm still shivering 2 hours later.
But I'll be fine. I was lucky.
I tend to think of myself as an intelligent person who makes
intelligent decisions. Someone who doesn't take unnecessary risks
or act on impulse. Even so, I've done a few stupid things in the
past. But what I did tonight was certainly the stupidest, most
risky action I've ever taken. Let me describe to you the events
leading up to my near-death experience.
There is a drain I and a few others had been planning on exploring
and tonight we thought would be a good night to check it out.
Getting to the outfall is tricky, as you can see in the picture below.
This picture doesn't give a very good sense of scale, but this drain
is HUGE. The height of the opening is about 15 feet. The
concrete blocks you see on the left shore are about 2' x 2'. You will
get a better sense of the size with later pictures.
The only way to get in without taking a raft or swimming is to tie a
rope to one of the nearby trees and drop down it onto the outfall.
I have a crappy rope ladder (just a rope with loops every few feet for
footholds) and so we all used this to get to the outfall.
By the way, the temperature at this time is -2 degrees Fahrenheit and
with a 14mph wind this makes the effective temperature -21 degrees
Fahrenheit. Needless to say, it's extremely cold out and we were
shivering on the way to the outfall. Flame didn't have boots or
waders so she choose to wait in Arrow's car until we return rather than
get her feet soaked in cold water. Asylunt also had only tennis
shoes, but he decided to try to make it by walking along the edge and
out of the water. The rest of us had either boots or waders and
didn't have a problem walking in the water.
(People approaching in the drain with flashlights)
(Asylunt passes a slippery section trying to keep his feet dry)
(One of many streams of water shooting out
of cracks in the drain wall)
(Mr. X takes a leak)
(The first interesting feature of the drain - a drop shaft)
Asylunt soon had to turn back because the slippery sections were
becoming too large to clear. About 20 minutes later we had only
encountered one other interesting feature - another drop shaft.
Katwoman and Mr. X decided to head back out of the so-far uninteresting drain
and Flame hitched a ride with them when they got out. Arrow and I
felt like pushing ahead to discover more, so we continued on deeper into
tunnel. A while later, the drain curved to the right and we
found another drop shaft; this one was more interesting.
(Arrow dumps the water out of his boots)
(The 3rd drop shaft - the interesting one)
(Looking up the tall shaft from below -
notice the hex plate up there!)
(Looking from the drop shaft back into the drain)
Feeling satisfied that we found something worthwhile, Arrow and I
headed back to the outfall, dreaming of a warm car ride home. We
reached the outfall after some time and Arrow tried to go up the rope
first, but he couldn't make it. My ladder is very difficult to
climb and, although I've climbed it several times before, each of those
times were under better conditions (i.e. I was awake and it was warm).
Arrow eventually made it up the ladder with my help from below, however,
and now it was my turn. I got about halfway up the ladder when I
got stuck and couldn't get my foot in the next loop. My pants leg
was frozen solid and I couldn't bend my knee enough. I tried again
with the same result, expelling the little energy I had left. (By
the way, it's finals week and I've only slept about 6 hours in the last
48). Arrow pulled up the rope and tied the other end to the tree
because the gap between loops is shorter on that end, and he left to put
his gear into the car and warm up. I attempted to climb the rope
again three or four more times, each time almost succeeding but I was
just too tired at that point to pull myself up. While waiting for
Arrow to return I considered my alternatives. I could call some
friends and wait for them to bring me a ladder. I could call 911
and get some emergency personnel to help me out. I could walk
farther back into the drain and hope at some point there's a ladder
leading to a manhole through which I can exit. I could swim out...
Several of my alternatives were smart and carried minimal risk.
Swimming out was not one of those. I would have to swim in deep,
freezing water for about 30 feet. I recalled hearing about people
swimming in Lake Superior in the winter for fun. Heck, this can't
be worse than that. Thirty feet is nothing. Arrow returned
and I explained my idea to him, in-between his protests of how stupid it
is. My plan was this: Arrow should move the car as close as
possible to the drain (which is the top of a tall hill) and then come
back to the outfall whereupon I will toss up my gear, strip down to
nothing but my boxers and swim the 30 feet to shore.
(My planned route)
The concrete of the outfall slopes downward quickly so I will be over
my head in water for most of it. As an added safety measure, I will put my arm through one end of the rope ladder and Arrow will
untie the other end from the tree so he can hold it and follow along the
top as I progress. If I can't make it, he will run down to the tip
of the arrow in the above picture (my landing point) and pull the rope
and me to where he can get me out of the water. Once I'm out he
will put his wool blanket around me and I'll get to the car as fast as
possible, turning heat on full blast and I'll be fine.
After some convincing, Arrow agreed to help me and went back to move
the car closer. I stood there going through every detail in my
head, making sure I was doing everything possible to ensure I make it.
I noticed a layer of ice on the water. This is not good - ice on a
river means it's very cold. To test the thickness I tossed a rock
out. It broke through easily as the ice was paper-thin.
"Good, I can swim through that", I thought.
Arrow returned and I pulled off my boots with some difficulty because
they were frozen to my pants. I took off my pants and tossed them
up to Arrow, took off my jacket and spent a good 40 seconds trying to
toss it high enough for Arrow to grab it (the wind was opposing it).
By this time my wet socks were turning to ice and I had no feeling in
the bottom of my feet. Trying to avoid frostbite, I pulled my
boots back on. I was so chilly at this point that I left my shirt
on because of the psychological warmth it provided, as well as my hat.
The hat turned out to be a good idea because my hair stayed
relatively dry. Wearing my boots, hat, boxers, and shirt, I put my
arm through a loop of the rope and walked into the cold water.
Immediately I was in water above my head so I turned to my back and
began doing the backstroke (I did the backstroke because I remember it
uses the least amount of energy of all the strokes, and also because I
could see where I was going and make sure I kept the right direction).
The water was beyond cold. It was so cold that it didn't really
feel cold.
Kicking my way across the thirty feet, one boot fell off, then the
other. This helped me swim faster so I was grateful. I
noticed myself getting weaker and losing energy. Looking up, I saw
the rope snag and catch on some sort of nail sticking out of the
concrete wall. While Arrow worked to get it loose, I noticed the
slack becoming less and less. Before it could become taught I
slipped the loop from my shoulder and discarded the rope, eternally
grateful I had decided not to tie the rope around my waist. The extra
delay of un-snagging the rope might have been too much for my body to
take.
When I finally made it to the landing there was some sort of rebar
beneath the surface that I could step on to get out. If this rebar
hadn't been there I wouldn't have had the strength to pull myself out
and probably wouldn't be writing this tonight. I hadn't considered
how I'd pull myself out in my weakened state.
Now out of the water and kneeling on one of the concrete blocks, my
wet shirt immediately began to freeze solid and I tried to pull it off
but discovered I had no feeling in my hands and a very weak grip.
All I could do was put my arms up and Arrow pulled it off for me and
wrapped me in the wool blanket, which didn't help much. I then
began to experience the symptoms of hypothermia. I couldn't stand
up, I was very dizzy, and I was too disoriented to know which way to go
to get to the car. I think I was slurring my words a little too.
Arrow directed me where to go and I started climbing up the blocks,
hands and feet, Arrow pushing me along because I was too weak to go very
fast. With each step my wet sock would freeze to the concrete and
I would have a bit of trouble pulling it free, especially since I was so
weak at this point. I began to sit down to pull off my
socks but Arrow stopped me and made me keep going. This was good
because, once stopped and resting, I'm not sure if I would have been
strong enough to continue. After finally getting up all the blocks I
stumbled barefoot (well, sock-foot) through weeds and thorns and bushes
but didn't feel any of it because my feet were so numb. Arrow had
to direct me because I was still disoriented. I finally got into
the car wearing nothing but my boxers and some socks (and a loosely
draped wool blanket) and Arrow turned the heat on full while I worked on
warming my hands and feet, neither of which I could feel.
The rest, as they say, is history. Arrow gathered the
belongings I had tossed from the outfall and returned to the car.
He said my wet shirt froze to the concrete block where he dropped it
after pulling it off me and it was frozen so solid that he couldn't tear
it off despite pulling nearly as hard as he could. So my shirt is
still down there frozen to the block and my boots are making their way to the Gulf of
Mexico. But I'm okay and my fingertips are starting to
feel better. I feel lucky to be alive. If I had tied the
rope to my waist, or if that piece of rebar hadn't been there to help me
out of the water, or if Arrow hadn't been there to direct me to the car,
I might have died, or at least lost my fingers and toes.
I'm not sure if I should end this with a lesson about how even
'seasoned' explorers can make stupid decisions or if I should end saying
"I'm glad I did it and had the experience." Both are true. I
think in order to truly enjoy life you need to take unnecessary (yet
calculated) risks once in a while. That said, this is one
experience I don't care to repeat.
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