| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glaser, Deb | 32 | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
On Saturday, June 8, six cavers were checking leads in a cliff in Jackass Canyon (Lower Deep Creek Canyon) in western Colorado. They were preparing to check a couple of holes midway down a 211-foot cliff, directly across from Twenty Pound Tick Cave. It was hot and windy and their approach had been long and difficult. One caver traversed around to the bottom to get water and act as a spotter in helping line up the rappel.
A 300-foot 11-mm regular PMI was rigged, anchored to a juniper tree, and thrown over the edge. A spotter 400 feet away along the top of the cliff could see it had hung up on a ledge 134 feet down. They had a coil of manila rope with a grappling hook attached to facilitate reaching the leads.
The first rappeller found the rope to be too far to one side of the nearest lead to attempt entry, so continued down and communicated to the top. All would descend but one, who would reposition the rope. Two more descended, one experiencing control problems on the fast rope, having to put the rope around his body to get enough friction on his carabiner/brake bar setup. Those below thought he was just fooling around.
Deb Glaser (32) came next, at about 3:30 p.m. on a double carabiner/brake bar rig. She proceeded under control at first but one third of the way down, where the drop went free, she yelled and accelerated. Essentially in free-fall, she struck her behind on a ledge 60 feet further down, then went another 80 feet to the slope at the bottom. She landed on her left foot, then over onto her back, her feet upslope.
Only her husband Roy Glaser was near, the others having gone to the stream for water. He ran over and found her trying to de-rig from the rope - "Get this thing off me!" She had a four by eight inch hole in her left shin where ends of broken bone and ripped muscle could be seen. A lot of blood was on her coveralls and the ground around. The others arrived a minute later. Her "eyelids, fingernails and lips were grey-colored." She had already moved around a bit so they did not fear spinal damage. As they moved her out of the sun she nearly fainted. One went for water, another back to the trucks to call in a helicopter and another wrapped a pack strap around her lower thigh to slow the bleeding.
After half an hour the victim complained of pain and was given the six aspirin tablets available. At 5:45 EMT's with a stretcher, medical supplies and a radio arrived. The patient was now in extreme pain. At 6 p.m. the Flight-for-Life helicopter from Denver arrived and hovered while two nurses got out and started IV's and oxygen for the victim. The chopper found a place to land one-half mile away. The victim, after first aid, was carried there in a Stokes litter. At 8:15 she was on her way to the hospital.
The victim underwent three rounds of surgery and was expected to make a 95 percent recovery in a year's time.
Roy Glaser cites himself for failing to give a bottom belay. Debbie Glaser names "ignorance and a failure to react to the situation correctly. She found PMI regular to "behave differently from the alpine-type ropes" she had rappelled on for the previous two years. She knew what to do but "panicked and went into shock instead."
When one rappels, they are, by the nature of the activity, on their own. One cannot expect all ropes to have similar friction in a given rappel device and one cannot expect bottom belays since this usually exposes the belayer to rockfall. If the rappel is rigged at an anchor back from the edge, one should get on and test the friction before going over. If friction is insufficient, stop immediately into the rappel and devise more friction. A rappeller should know that the friction decreases as the weight of the rope decreases, and be prepared for this. I would expect 11mm PMI regular to be slow in a double carabiner brake bar setup, but perhaps the rope was new.
It may be that Glaser's judgement was impaired by dehydration from the hot hike but she denies this, saying she drank all her water before rappelling.
Deb Glaser suffered a serious injury after experiencing a sudden loss of friction during a rappel, leading to a fall.