An experienced hiker was rescued Sunday morning after becoming trapped in quicksand for hours in a backcountry section of Courthouse Wash in Arches National Park.
The hiker, Austin Dirks, wrote in a detailed Reddit post that he became stuck before sunrise while hiking a section of the Hayduke Trail, where flowing water and 20-degree temperatures left his right leg locked in place. With no cell service in the canyon drainage, he used a satellite messenger to send an SOS as park rangers and Grand County Search and Rescue prepared a drone-assisted response.
Dirks described himself as an experienced and fit backpacker who has logged thousands of miles on long-distance trails and has extensive off-trail experience in Utah. He wrote that nothing about the canyon looked dangerous until his left foot suddenly dropped to the ankle, followed by his right leg sinking to the knee and becoming “fixed in place as if set in concrete.”
He wrote his trekking polls “sank to the handles the moment I leaned on them” and every hole he tried to dig “filled instantly with sand and tiny stones.”
Quicksand forms when water saturates loose sand and reduces the friction between grains, causing the ground to lose its ability to support weight, according to National Geographic. The outlet notes that humans typically do not sink past their waist because the mixture is denser than the human body, though struggling can disturb the sand-water mix and worsen entrapment.
After about 30 minutes of struggling, Dirks’ fingers were numb, his knee was locked at a painful angle and he had made no progress. He added dry layers from his pack and typed his SOS “one letter at a time” on his Garmin device because the cold made his hands difficult to use.
Grand County Search and Rescue vice commander Scott Solle said the call came in at 7:20 a.m. on Dec. 7. Responders launched a drone to locate Dirks and identify a safe access route. An Arches National Park ranger reached him first and handed him a shovel from stable ground. Minutes later, a full SAR team arrived carrying ladders, boards and additional tools.
Dirks wrote that rescuers built a supported path across the saturated wash to distribute their weight and dug around his leg faster than the stream could refill the hole. When they freed him, his shoe nearly tore off but held. He crossed a ladder to solid ground, where he said he could barely put weight on his leg at first because it had been numb for so long.
EMS personnel wrapped his leg in a heated blanket and placed warm packs on it. After about 15 minutes he regained feeling and chose to hike out with rescuers, who guided him to a remote dirt road. A ranger drove him back to his vehicle in Moab. He was not injured.
Dirks thanked rescuers in his post, writing, “Without them I would have been stuck there until nightfall.”
“My family wouldn’t have called it in until I was overdue at 6 p.m.,” he wrote. “I would not have been found by chance. I owe them more than thanks.”
He added that quicksand can appear without warning, urging hikers to use caution in washes that appear dry or stable.
“It does not care how experienced you are. It only cares that you stepped in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he wrote.
Sunday’s incident occurred in the same drainage as a 2014 quicksand rescue. Solle said it was GCSAR’s 142nd call of the year.