A Moab boatman has died in a rafting accident in Cataract Canyon along the Colorado River.
The Wednesday accident was the first fatality within the borders of Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah in two years, said superintendent Walt Dabney.Dabney said David S. Tower, 41, a boatman for NAVTEC Expeditions in Moab, was working a commercial rafting expedition when his raft hit a rock in an area of the steep-walled canyon called Big Drop Two. Tower and another boatman, identified as Charles Avery, no age or hometown available, were thrown into the water.
Park spokesman Larry Frederick said the water was running through the canyon at 22,500 cubic-feet per second, slightly below the 10-year average.
Both men were wearing life jackets and Avery struggled to safety. Tower was swept away.
He was pulled from the water 21/2 miles downstream unconscious. Dabney said a physician who was on the raft trip attempted unsuccessfully to revive him.
Frederick said cool temperatures have kept canyon water levels below average so far this spring, but as temperatures heat up and the snowpack melts, rafting conditions will be extremely hazardous. "While we don't expect to close Cataract, we probably will impose some restrictions at that time," he said.