Ruminations

Admire Nature's Geology and Respect Limits

"The RCMP and Squamish SAR [search and rescue] have transitioned to a recovery of the bodies from the pool but the terrain is extremely difficult, very dangerous, and the water flow will be heavy with the warm temperatures today, increasing the risk to those in the recovery effort."
"Specialized RCMP and SAR teams are already on site this morning. Until the joint operation is completed Shannon Falls and any trails leading to the pool system at the top of Shannon Falls are closed to the public."
"These pool systems, unless you have the right equipment with you, unless you understand the area, that you're safe about doing it, you should not be up there."
"Currently all teams are being cleared from the area ... until then the park remains closed. I can't say enough about the incredible skilled work done today by the RCMP teams along with Squamish SAR [in recovering the three bodies]."
Squamish RCMP Cpl. Sascha Banks

"Getting the helicopter in to actually do an extraction out of there has its challenges."
"This is the first time I'm aware that anybody has gone over the falls."
"We’ve had a number of dogs that have gone into the water, and people that have slipped into the water as well. Fortunately in the past they have been able to be rescued."

"The granite there is beautifully carved by the water over hundreds of years, and it’s very slick, and with the spray and some of the lichen that builds up on it, people don’t realize how slippery it is."
John Wilcox, Squamish Search and Rescue

The location at Shannon Falls where three hikers were swept to their deaths. (Anita Bathe/CBC)

On Wednesday crews were preparing to lower RCMP officers by rope from a helicopter into the pool at Shannon Falls in Squamish, British Columbia. The site was where, a day earlier, three experienced adventurers whose exploits were known and celebrated on social media had found their day's outing the culmination of their outdoor experiences, when poor footing and youthful exuberance caused a catastrophic accident taking the lives of all three young people known to search out extreme adventure opportunities.

Ryker Gamble Facebook

The three friends, Ryker Gamble, 30, Alexey Lyakh and Megan Scraper all lost their lives that day after they had set out to have an enjoyable day together hiking up Shannon Falls and on into its pool systems to swim. Megan Scraper slipped and fell from the elevated pond shelf they were swimming in, and fell below to another pond 30 metres below the first. Both men, her boyfriend Alexey and Ryker their mutual friend, attempted to rescue her, both their efforts failing and leading to their own slipping and dying along with her.

There were witnesses to this unfortunate tragedy. Others of their friends who indulged in risky types of adventuring had accompanied them. They belonged to a travel vlogging group named High on Life SundayFundayz. That group has over a million followers on Instagram and other social media sites. The group stated their purpose was to inform and entertain and inspire others to "embrace all of life's opportunities with a positive outlook and energy".

One of the pools at the top of Shannon Falls. (Anita Bathe/CBC)

They did this constantly on their own account, and in spades. They indulged in continuous exploits that on occasion went above and beyond the margins of safety. In so doing, tending to minimize advice and warnings of an official nature posted within great natural geologic settings of world renown, to the extent of earning themselves a persona non grata distinction. They earned this distinction at various U.S. federal protected lands from which they were banned after flouting safety rules.

They had indulged their adventure passion for visiting sites of surpassing beauty and potential danger in 2016 in Yellowstone National Park where they took part in an out-of-bounds excursion at a particularly sensitive area. This infraction earned them a hefty fine and a week in prison. Beyond rules violations at Yellowstone, Zion, Death Valley and Mesa Verde national parks and Utah's Corona Arch and Binneville Salt Flats were other venues where they indulged their bids for attracting admiration and emulation.

Swimming on Tuesday in one of the icy pools comprising part of the Shannon Falls -- a 335-metre waterfall, about 60 kilometres north of Vancouver -- friends watched, horrified, as they witnessed one of the group swept over the lip of the pool to fall toward a second pool some 30 metres under the first. At 8:30 p.m. later that evening their bodies were located by RCMP. A day later the bodies were recovered.

John Wilcox of Squamish SAR spoke of hikers along the granite outcroppings of the falls unaware that lichen buildup on the rocks makes footing slippery enough so that dogs and people slip on the slick surface unaware of the dangers. To his knowledge all such previous accidents have ended in successful rescues. Not so on this occasion when three adventure-seized young people between 20 and 30 years of age challenged nature for the final time in their lives.