Mary Malmros, a member of the party, described the events as follows: It was now late afternoon and the safety of the group – traumatized, shocked, and spread out downstream – was the first priority. After a few brief moments near the surface he disappeared under water. As they prepared for a second attempt, Jim’s life jacket was pulled from his body. They were unsuccessful and quickly became exhausted. Two kayakers entered the eddy and tried to push Jim to shore. His helmet was still on, and there was no visible sign of injury. The rescuers found Jim floating face down.
Two kayaks were brought upstream so that boaters could ferry into the eddy, and the gear raft was paddled across the river so the guides could move upstream to assist. Jim was floating face down in the eddy as the current swirled around. One of the gear boats eddied out on the right, opposite Dead Man’s Eddy.
They picked up Mary, who had portaged, and moved downstream. Meanwhile the other two kayakers ran “Jaws” and eddied out below to provide safety for the rafts. This was the last time that Jim was definitely seen alive.” This same surge washed his rescuers to the right. Suddenly a huge pillow of water tore Jim off the back of Ken’s boat, sucked him down, and carried him into the eddy. Dave offered to take Jim’s kayak but by then they were being washed towards Dead Man’s Eddy. Jim kept holding onto his kayak, and Ken realized that they were not moving right fast enough. Ken asked if Jim was OK he answered, ”Yes.” Ken then began towing him to the right bank. Ken, Dave, and Beau were following him and came to his rescue. “Jim Traverso capsized and rolled in the first hole, then capsized and swam in the huge exploding waves in the main part of the rapid. Rob rescued her, towing her to the right bank, then chased her kayak. The woman behind Hind capsized and took a swim. Rob Hind, the lead kayak guide, went first, followed closely by a woman, Jim Traverso, and four other paddlers. “We decided that the kayakers who wished to run the drop would go first, then provide safety for the raft. David Allardice, the outfitter, describes the events that followed: Below this rapid is “Dead Man’s Eddy”, a powerful recirculating current which even at low flows is capable of sucking ten foot logs under water. The group stopped and scouted “Jaws”, a hard Class IV rapid located just below the confluence of the Dudh Kosi. The accident occurred on Octoon the sixth day of a nine-day trip. Ultimate Descents, one of ’s top rafting companies, provided kayak guides and oar boats to carry gear. On this, his third trip down the Sun Kosi, he was leading a group of seven paddlers from New England. Jim Traverso, 44, was a fit, experienced kayaker who had lived and boated in for twelve years. Several rafting companies had been down the river recently without problems, and were on the water when the accident occurred. Local boaters feel that this was not an unreasonable level.
But 1999 was a wet year in the mountains of, and the river was running very high at between 50,000 and 100,000 cfs. Despite some impressive whitewater, it had never caused a whitewater boating fatality before.
The Sun Kosi is a classic 170 mile long Class IV run in.
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