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HANKSVILLE, Wayne County — Sometime it's not just skittish lawyers talking about things that don't really ever happen when the disclaimer on a high-adventure experience spells out hazards that are likely.
For Robert Tesar, 25, a teacher at a boarding school in Vermont, that meant finding out mud in the Dirty Devil River near Hanksville can become quicksand you that locks on to a person like concrete. For the three other National Outdoor Leadership School participants, that meant an emergency that was also practical experience in a school that teaches individuals who are pursuing careers in outdoor education or guiding.
"Mud is one of the objective hazards in that area," said Bruce Palmer, director of admissions and marketing for the school.
Tesar and the other three students were on the 23rd day of a canyon-lands hiking section of their training when Tesar stepped into the Dirty Devil River near Robbers Roost on Wednesday to get around an obstacle. He became stuck in ankle-deep mud in waist-deep water, and his classmates couldn't get him out.
They did exactly what they were supposed to. ...He indicated he was never scared during the incident because he felt so much confidence in the rescuers who were on the site." -- Bruce Palmer, National Outdoor Leadership School
Hundreds of miles away at the time, Palmer feared the worst when the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center notified him the group had activated a personal location beacon. "We carry those on all of our courses. ...The beacons are only to be used in a life-or-limb situation," he said, acknowledging the experience of Aron Ralston crossed his mind. Ralston's story of cutting off his own arm after being trapped by a bolder while hiking in southern Utah is told in the recent movie "127 Hours."
But it wasn't just Ralston's experience on Palmer's mind while he waited to find out what was happening. Palmer said Saturday the school's students encounter very real hazards all over the world. In September, a student fell from a trail to his death in India. That incident was the school's first fatality in 12 years.
Tesar would remain stuck tight in cold water for nearly 12 hours before rescuers, a helicopter team and others in rafts, could get him out. The other students prepared warm drinks and food for Tesar, and putting as many layers as they could on him to help him stave off the overnight cold.
"They did exactly what they were supposed to," Palmer said. "He indicated he was never scared during the incident because he felt so much confidence in the rescuers who were on the site." At about 1:15 a.m. Thanksgiving Day, rescuers in the rafts dug around Tesar's feet and freed him. The helicopter then took him to the hospital in Richfield, and he was released hours later.
Palmer said the school's staff will get a briefing from all four students in a day or two to before Tesar rejoins the group for the next phase in their training: a 14-day winter skiing course in Idaho.
In the meantime, the school and students are expressing gratitude for rescuers who left their homes on Thanksgiving day to accomplish the rescue. "Everybody wants to be with family," Palmer said. "But in the end it turned out to be a great Thanksgiving story."
Written by Steve Fidel with contributions from Sandra Yi.
