"Death in the Subway"

September 2012, Zion National Park, Utah
Canon EOS 5D MK2, Canon 24-70 lens

Under normal circumstances I would simply title this image “Entrance to the Subway”. However, the circumstances surrounding my hike into the Subway were anything but normal. Indeed, September 19, 2012 is a day that I will never forget, and for all the wrong reasons.

The Subway lies in a remote and rugged area of Zion National Park. It is a stunningly beautiful area of geologic anomalies and breathtaking color. It has sheer cliffs, rivers, tunnels, pools, waterfalls and caves. The place is simply amazing, and irresistible to photographers, climbers and hikers. Because of the Subway’s allure, the NPS (National Park Service) has established a quota system for the area. Only 20 people per day are allowed into the Subway.

I had planned a 2-week photography trip to the four corners region (Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona). I was all ready to go, but I was waiting to hear the results of my Subway permit application before I left. Shooting the Subway was a trip priority, and I would not leave if my permit was denied. Because I had applied for my permit in the last-minute draw, the NPS would not notify me until 2 days prior to my requested date. On Monday, September 17, I received the news I had been hoping for. I was one of the winners in the lottery drawing. The trip was on! I hurriedly packed my truck and left the very next day to points east. The Subway was only the first destination of a long and (overly) ambitious itinerary.

On Tuesday, September 18, I arrived in the small town of Springdale, Utah after driving 450 miles from my home in Southern California. This would be my base camp for the next few days. On Wednesday, September 19, I arose well before sunrise, excited about the new adventure that I was about to embark upon. The Subway was an area I had wanted to shoot for years, and finally it was really happening. I had trained extensively for the hike and studied the route carefully. I felt confident in my preparation. I drove for about 30 minutes to the remote trailhead known as Left Fork. I arrived just after sunrise and prepped my heavy camera backpack for the long hike ahead.

An explanation of Subway logistics is in order here. The Subway itself is only about ¼ mile long. It lies in the exact middle of a 9-mile long canyon. There is a trailhead at each end of the canyon. At the top of the canyon is the Wildcat trailhead. At the bottom end is the Left Fork trailhead. The Subway can be reached from either end. Either way it is a 4-1/2 mile hike to the Subway. The most popular route is the top down hike, which leaves from Wildcat. This is a one-way 9-mile hike which exits at the Left Fork trailhead. This route has the advantage of being a downhill route. The only climbing involved is a steep 800-foot ascent at the end as you hike out of the canyon to the Left Fork trailhead. However, this “top-down” route requires swimming through 2 or 3 deep pools and 3 minor rappels down cliffs. I could do the rappels, but no way could I swim with my large camera backpack and it’s precious contents. Photographic equipment and water don’t mix. Also, because the top-down Wildcat route is one way, it requires a shuttle to drive back to the trailhead to pick up your car. I was alone, so a shuttle was out.

The route I chose was the bottom-up route, which begins at the Left Fork trailhead. It’s a 9-mile round trip route requiring a 4-1/2 mile hike in to the Subway and then retracing your steps 4-1/2 miles back to the trailhead. It cannot be done all the way through to Wildcat because of a sheer 20-foot cliff and waterfall at the very end of the Subway. The route involves a lot of river wading, but nothing more than waste deep this time of year. The downside to my route is that it is physically a tough hike. It begins with a very steep 800-foot descent down a slippery talus slope. Then it is boulder-hopping and bushwhacking for the remaining 4 miles to the Subway. Many times it is easiest to simply hike straight up the middle of the river.

I began my hike from the Left Fork trailhead at 7:45. I noticed that there were 3 empty cars in the parking lot. These were shuttle cars from hikers who were doing the top-down Wildcat route. They had left their cars at Left Fork and then received a shuttle ride to their Wildcat trailhead at the top of the canyon. I would no doubt encounter them sometime during the day. I was the only hiker doing the bottom up route, but I was sure that at least one or two more would eventually follow. After all, it was still very early in the morning. After 20 minutes of mostly level hiking I reached the edge of a cliff and stared down to the canyon floor 800 feet below. I then saw the trail descending into the canyon and immediately my fear of heights began to rise up within me. Half way into the descent both feet slipped out from under me and I fell – hard. Man did it hurt. I slid for a few terrifying seconds before I stopped mere feet from a sheer drop off. It was at this point that I realized that this hike was going to be far more difficult than I had anticipated.

After I had calmed down a few minutes later I gathered myself and continued the treacherous downhill hike. I reached the canyon floor and the river about 8:30, relieved but sore. My left hip was in a lot of pain. About 10 minutes later a German hiker passed me on the trail. We briefly spoke in English as his English was better than my German, although not by much. He then took off in front of me. I envied his agility, as all that he was carrying was a camera around his neck and some water in a camelback. He was able to boulder hop and hike upriver with ease. My heavy pack made everything so much harder. I told myself that it would all be worth it once I started shooting.

About a half hour later at 9:15 I saw the German hiker coming back towards me. This was strange. No way could he have reached the Subway – it was still miles ahead. At the same time I noticed a woman whom I had not seen before. She was following him about 10 yards behind. I asked him why he had turned around. In his broken English all that he could mutter to me was the word “tragedy”. I then looked at the woman and saw that she was quite distraught. Her appearance was disheveled and the look in her eyes was one I’ll never forget. Between sobs she told me that she thought her husband was dead, and that he had been hanging upside down in the Subway since 5:30pm the previous day (Tuesday). This means that he had been hanging for over 15 hours. I asked her his name and she said “Yosh”. I immediately grabbed her hand and began praying with her. I prayed for Yosh and her both. The German fellow stood aside awkwardly, not comfortable conversing in the English language, and perhaps not comfortable with prayer.

I got all of the pertinent information that I could from her. Apparently she and Yosh had attempted the third and final rappel into the Subway when something went terribly wrong. She had descended first without incident, but Yosh had the rope jam in his carabiner somehow. To make things worse, they had chosen the wrong descent route, coming down straight into a waterfall instead of a dry and much safer descent 50 feet further down the Subway. They were the last group of the day doing the top down route, so no help was coming behind them. She had attempted to free Yosh but could not. She said that he was hanging several feet off of the ground, upside down. The whole upside down thing was freaking me out. She had also tried to hike out of the canyon for help, but became disoriented. Eventually darkness forced her to turn back and spend the night with Yosh. She tried again to hike out this morning (now Wednesday, the 19th), and she finally ran into the German fellow, and then me. The German hiker immediately abandoned his dream hike into the Subway and was escorting the poor lady back to the trailhead where her shuttled car was waiting. God bless that man from Germany. He gave up something that he had flown all the way from Germany to do in order to help a person in distress. I pray that he got another permit and was able to return the same trip.

After getting detailed information from Yosh’ wife (I never did get her name), I headed towards the Subway, horrified at what I had just heard. I still had about 3 hours of very hard hiking ahead, and I was already hobbled due to the nasty fall I had just taken. I was so glad that the lady was in good hands with the German, but for the next 3 hours all that I could think about was what lay ahead. Her story seemed too incredible to be true. As it turns out, she had understated things.

At 11:45 I finally reached the entrance to the Subway. The picture above shows the entrance (I actually shot it on the way out – a couple of hours later). I entered the tunnel from which the Subway gets its name. It got darker and darker as I went further in. In the distance I could hear the faint sound of a subterranean waterfall. According to the woman, this is where Yosh was hanging. I had a sense of urgency to get to him quickly, but the footing was treacherous, and visibility was getting quite poor. Hollywood could not have scripted a more eerie scenario. I was just plain scared and did not know what to expect. My imagination was running wild in that dark and lonely cave.

About 100 yards in I encountered a waste deep pool of ice cold water. The sound of the waterfall was quite loud now, but I still could not see it. I entered the pool and waded through it for about 20 feet. I came up out of the pool and rounded a corner. I could now partially see the 20’ Waterfall in front of me. Lying on the ground next to the falls was a small backpack, strangely unattended. The end of a climber’s blue rope lay next to it. Following the rope, I slowly continued around the corner. My heart was beating so hard that I felt as though it would leap out of my chest at any moment. I always hike alone, but this is one time I sorely wished for a companion. Finally I could see the waterfall in its entirety. In the middle of the falls was a large, dark object. This had to be a dream. Surely I would wake up from this at any moment as I had from every other nightmare in my life. Not this time.

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness I could clearly see a body hanging upside down from a cliff. The man was dressed in a full-length sleeveless wetsuit. He had on gloves and a light blue helmet. His motionless arms hung about 5 feet off of the ground. The blue climbing rope and a red harness was wrapped around his right ankle. Yosh was blue and had no pulse. He was cold to the touch. My worst fears, and in particular those of Yosh’ wife were realized. Yosh was dead.

My thoughts immediately returned to Yosh’s precious wife. I thought about her plight. This had happened at 5:30pm the previous afternoon. The couple is alone in the deepest recesses of a cold, dark cave, and what little ambient light there was would have totally disappeared by 7:00 pm deep in the canyon. Remember, not only were they in a cave, but the cave lied at the bottom of a very deep gorge. They were over 4 rugged miles away from either trailhead and there was no cell phone coverage. Yosh did not have the strength to do a Herculean sit-up to cut the rope around his right ankle. I could see where he had taken a knife and cut his red climbing harness off of his torso. Yosh had the right idea. Indeed, his body had slipped through the harness, surely freeing him from an ice water grave. Tragically, the harness tangled around his right ankle. Only super-human strength could save him now. He would have to do a dead-weight sit-up while hanging upside down by his right foot in the middle of a waterfall. He would somehow need to maintain that impossible position long enough to cut either the very thick rope or his harness again with his knife. He didn’t make it.

After I was certain that I could do nothing for Yosh, I left Yosh but stayed near the cave entrance, knowing that a search and rescue team was surely on its way. The German and Yosh’ wife would have reached the trailhead hours ago. There they should have regained cell phone coverage and been able to call for help. I resumed my photography, although it would be safe to say that I wasn’t exactly on my “A game”. I deliberately and completely immersed myself in the photographic process, welcoming the diversion that it provided. The image above shows the entrance to the Subway after hiking 4-1/2 miles up Left Fork Canyon. It’s hard to imagine that just 50 yards inside the cave a man’s lifeless body is hanging upside down in the middle of a beautiful waterfall.

I met the first search and rescue team member about 2 hours later. After briefly conversing with him I began my long hike out. On the way I encountered 3 different SAR teams comprising 8 members total. One team of 4 was carrying a folded aluminum stretcher. I thought to myself that it would be impossible for them to carry Yosh’ body up the cliff that I had fallen on. That cliff is way too steep and slippery. Turns out I was right. They were unable to get him up the cliff, so they had to airlift him out of the canyon via helicopter the following day, Thursday, September 20.

I have searched the internet trying to find out what information I could about Yosh and his wife. Yoshio Hosobuchi was a retired neurosurgeon from Novato, California. He and his wife Dresden had been spending their recent years knocking items off of their “bucket list”. Last year they had successfully climbed Mt. Kilamanjaro in Africa. This year they turned their sights on the Subway. They have 3 children. I so wish that I could have done more for that precious couple. I am glad that I got to pray with Dresden. Nonetheless, her husband and companion in life is dead.

I don’t know if Yosh died from simply hanging upside down or hypothermia. What I do know is that September 19, 2012 is a day I will never forget.

"Death in the Subway"

September 2012, Zion National Park, Utah
Canon EOS 5D MK2, Canon 24-70 lens

Under normal circumstances I would simply title this image “Entrance to the Subway”. However, the circumstances surrounding my hike into the Subway were anything but normal. Indeed, September 19, 2012 is a day that I will never forget, and for all the wrong reasons.

The Subway lies in a remote and rugged area of Zion National Park. It is a stunningly beautiful area of geologic anomalies and breathtaking color. It has sheer cliffs, rivers, tunnels, pools, waterfalls and caves. The place is simply amazing, and irresistible to photographers, climbers and hikers. Because of the Subway’s allure, the NPS (National Park Service) has established a quota system for the area. Only 20 people per day are allowed into the Subway.

I had planned a 2-week photography trip to the four corners region (Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona). I was all ready to go, but I was waiting to hear the results of my Subway permit application before I left. Shooting the Subway was a trip priority, and I would not leave if my permit was denied. Because I had applied for my permit in the last-minute draw, the NPS would not notify me until 2 days prior to my requested date. On Monday, September 17, I received the news I had been hoping for. I was one of the winners in the lottery drawing. The trip was on! I hurriedly packed my truck and left the very next day to points east. The Subway was only the first destination of a long and (overly) ambitious itinerary.

On Tuesday, September 18, I arrived in the small town of Springdale, Utah after driving 450 miles from my home in Southern California. This would be my base camp for the next few days. On Wednesday, September 19, I arose well before sunrise, excited about the new adventure that I was about to embark upon. The Subway was an area I had wanted to shoot for years, and finally it was really happening. I had trained extensively for the hike and studied the route carefully. I felt confident in my preparation. I drove for about 30 minutes to the remote trailhead known as Left Fork. I arrived just after sunrise and prepped my heavy camera backpack for the long hike ahead.

An explanation of Subway logistics is in order here. The Subway itself is only about ¼ mile long. It lies in the exact middle of a 9-mile long canyon. There is a trailhead at each end of the canyon. At the top of the canyon is the Wildcat trailhead. At the bottom end is the Left Fork trailhead. The Subway can be reached from either end. Either way it is a 4-1/2 mile hike to the Subway. The most popular route is the top down hike, which leaves from Wildcat. This is a one-way 9-mile hike which exits at the Left Fork trailhead. This route has the advantage of being a downhill route. The only climbing involved is a steep 800-foot ascent at the end as you hike out of the canyon to the Left Fork trailhead. However, this “top-down” route requires swimming through 2 or 3 deep pools and 3 minor rappels down cliffs. I could do the rappels, but no way could I swim with my large camera backpack and it’s precious contents. Photographic equipment and water don’t mix. Also, because the top-down Wildcat route is one way, it requires a shuttle to drive back to the trailhead to pick up your car. I was alone, so a shuttle was out.

The route I chose was the bottom-up route, which begins at the Left Fork trailhead. It’s a 9-mile round trip route requiring a 4-1/2 mile hike in to the Subway and then retracing your steps 4-1/2 miles back to the trailhead. It cannot be done all the way through to Wildcat because of a sheer 20-foot cliff and waterfall at the very end of the Subway. The route involves a lot of river wading, but nothing more than waste deep this time of year. The downside to my route is that it is physically a tough hike. It begins with a very steep 800-foot descent down a slippery talus slope. Then it is boulder-hopping and bushwhacking for the remaining 4 miles to the Subway. Many times it is easiest to simply hike straight up the middle of the river.

I began my hike from the Left Fork trailhead at 7:45. I noticed that there were 3 empty cars in the parking lot. These were shuttle cars from hikers who were doing the top-down Wildcat route. They had left their cars at Left Fork and then received a shuttle ride to their Wildcat trailhead at the top of the canyon. I would no doubt encounter them sometime during the day. I was the only hiker doing the bottom up route, but I was sure that at least one or two more would eventually follow. After all, it was still very early in the morning. After 20 minutes of mostly level hiking I reached the edge of a cliff and stared down to the canyon floor 800 feet below. I then saw the trail descending into the canyon and immediately my fear of heights began to rise up within me. Half way into the descent both feet slipped out from under me and I fell – hard. Man did it hurt. I slid for a few terrifying seconds before I stopped mere feet from a sheer drop off. It was at this point that I realized that this hike was going to be far more difficult than I had anticipated.

After I had calmed down a few minutes later I gathered myself and continued the treacherous downhill hike. I reached the canyon floor and the river about 8:30, relieved but sore. My left hip was in a lot of pain. About 10 minutes later a German hiker passed me on the trail. We briefly spoke in English as his English was better than my German, although not by much. He then took off in front of me. I envied his agility, as all that he was carrying was a camera around his neck and some water in a camelback. He was able to boulder hop and hike upriver with ease. My heavy pack made everything so much harder. I told myself that it would all be worth it once I started shooting.

About a half hour later at 9:15 I saw the German hiker coming back towards me. This was strange. No way could he have reached the Subway – it was still miles ahead. At the same time I noticed a woman whom I had not seen before. She was following him about 10 yards behind. I asked him why he had turned around. In his broken English all that he could mutter to me was the word “tragedy”. I then looked at the woman and saw that she was quite distraught. Her appearance was disheveled and the look in her eyes was one I’ll never forget. Between sobs she told me that she thought her husband was dead, and that he had been hanging upside down in the Subway since 5:30pm the previous day (Tuesday). This means that he had been hanging for over 15 hours. I asked her his name and she said “Yosh”. I immediately grabbed her hand and began praying with her. I prayed for Yosh and her both. The German fellow stood aside awkwardly, not comfortable conversing in the English language, and perhaps not comfortable with prayer.

I got all of the pertinent information that I could from her. Apparently she and Yosh had attempted the third and final rappel into the Subway when something went terribly wrong. She had descended first without incident, but Yosh had the rope jam in his carabiner somehow. To make things worse, they had chosen the wrong descent route, coming down straight into a waterfall instead of a dry and much safer descent 50 feet further down the Subway. They were the last group of the day doing the top down route, so no help was coming behind them. She had attempted to free Yosh but could not. She said that he was hanging several feet off of the ground, upside down. The whole upside down thing was freaking me out. She had also tried to hike out of the canyon for help, but became disoriented. Eventually darkness forced her to turn back and spend the night with Yosh. She tried again to hike out this morning (now Wednesday, the 19th), and she finally ran into the German fellow, and then me. The German hiker immediately abandoned his dream hike into the Subway and was escorting the poor lady back to the trailhead where her shuttled car was waiting. God bless that man from Germany. He gave up something that he had flown all the way from Germany to do in order to help a person in distress. I pray that he got another permit and was able to return the same trip.

After getting detailed information from Yosh’ wife (I never did get her name), I headed towards the Subway, horrified at what I had just heard. I still had about 3 hours of very hard hiking ahead, and I was already hobbled due to the nasty fall I had just taken. I was so glad that the lady was in good hands with the German, but for the next 3 hours all that I could think about was what lay ahead. Her story seemed too incredible to be true. As it turns out, she had understated things.

At 11:45 I finally reached the entrance to the Subway. The picture above shows the entrance (I actually shot it on the way out – a couple of hours later). I entered the tunnel from which the Subway gets its name. It got darker and darker as I went further in. In the distance I could hear the faint sound of a subterranean waterfall. According to the woman, this is where Yosh was hanging. I had a sense of urgency to get to him quickly, but the footing was treacherous, and visibility was getting quite poor. Hollywood could not have scripted a more eerie scenario. I was just plain scared and did not know what to expect. My imagination was running wild in that dark and lonely cave.

About 100 yards in I encountered a waste deep pool of ice cold water. The sound of the waterfall was quite loud now, but I still could not see it. I entered the pool and waded through it for about 20 feet. I came up out of the pool and rounded a corner. I could now partially see the 20’ Waterfall in front of me. Lying on the ground next to the falls was a small backpack, strangely unattended. The end of a climber’s blue rope lay next to it. Following the rope, I slowly continued around the corner. My heart was beating so hard that I felt as though it would leap out of my chest at any moment. I always hike alone, but this is one time I sorely wished for a companion. Finally I could see the waterfall in its entirety. In the middle of the falls was a large, dark object. This had to be a dream. Surely I would wake up from this at any moment as I had from every other nightmare in my life. Not this time.

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness I could clearly see a body hanging upside down from a cliff. The man was dressed in a full-length sleeveless wetsuit. He had on gloves and a light blue helmet. His motionless arms hung about 5 feet off of the ground. The blue climbing rope and a red harness was wrapped around his right ankle. Yosh was blue and had no pulse. He was cold to the touch. My worst fears, and in particular those of Yosh’ wife were realized. Yosh was dead.

My thoughts immediately returned to Yosh’s precious wife. I thought about her plight. This had happened at 5:30pm the previous afternoon. The couple is alone in the deepest recesses of a cold, dark cave, and what little ambient light there was would have totally disappeared by 7:00 pm deep in the canyon. Remember, not only were they in a cave, but the cave lied at the bottom of a very deep gorge. They were over 4 rugged miles away from either trailhead and there was no cell phone coverage. Yosh did not have the strength to do a Herculean sit-up to cut the rope around his right ankle. I could see where he had taken a knife and cut his red climbing harness off of his torso. Yosh had the right idea. Indeed, his body had slipped through the harness, surely freeing him from an ice water grave. Tragically, the harness tangled around his right ankle. Only super-human strength could save him now. He would have to do a dead-weight sit-up while hanging upside down by his right foot in the middle of a waterfall. He would somehow need to maintain that impossible position long enough to cut either the very thick rope or his harness again with his knife. He didn’t make it.

After I was certain that I could do nothing for Yosh, I left Yosh but stayed near the cave entrance, knowing that a search and rescue team was surely on its way. The German and Yosh’ wife would have reached the trailhead hours ago. There they should have regained cell phone coverage and been able to call for help. I resumed my photography, although it would be safe to say that I wasn’t exactly on my “A game”. I deliberately and completely immersed myself in the photographic process, welcoming the diversion that it provided. The image above shows the entrance to the Subway after hiking 4-1/2 miles up Left Fork Canyon. It’s hard to imagine that just 50 yards inside the cave a man’s lifeless body is hanging upside down in the middle of a beautiful waterfall.

I met the first search and rescue team member about 2 hours later. After briefly conversing with him I began my long hike out. On the way I encountered 3 different SAR teams comprising 8 members total. One team of 4 was carrying a folded aluminum stretcher. I thought to myself that it would be impossible for them to carry Yosh’ body up the cliff that I had fallen on. That cliff is way too steep and slippery. Turns out I was right. They were unable to get him up the cliff, so they had to airlift him out of the canyon via helicopter the following day, Thursday, September 20.

I have searched the internet trying to find out what information I could about Yosh and his wife. Yoshio Hosobuchi was a retired neurosurgeon from Novato, California. He and his wife Dresden had been spending their recent years knocking items off of their “bucket list”. Last year they had successfully climbed Mt. Kilamanjaro in Africa. This year they turned their sights on the Subway. They have 3 children. I so wish that I could have done more for that precious couple. I am glad that I got to pray with Dresden. Nonetheless, her husband and companion in life is dead.

I don’t know if Yosh died from simply hanging upside down or hypothermia. What I do know is that September 19, 2012 is a day I will never forget.