The White Mile Trial

Canada’s Chilko River has long been famous for the 15-mile stretch of whitewater in Lava Canyon that offers some of the most challenging whitewater runs in North America, including a series of rapids known as “White Mile.” But no one had ever drowned there.

Eleven advertising executives from some of the largest corporations in the United States boarded a raft for a day of river running in British Columbia. Their guide, Ron Thompson, rowed the boat into the current, just as he had done without incident for the past 13 years (and, to be precise, 207 trips).

Less than three hours after they pushed off from shore, five of them would be dead. No one knows exactly what happened that day, but the bow of the raft caught an errant current, turned abruptly, and then unexpectedly careened into a rock mid-stream. All but one of the men were dumped into the tortured currents. Six of the swimmers made it to shore and survived. The other five were swept to their death in the frigid waters.

The testimony that was given during the dramatic two-week trial was high drama. The stories of those who survived the ordeal and the opinions of the experts who evaluated what went wrong were both riveting and inconsistent. The jury awarded the plaintiff a million dollars, a fraction of what she had requested, but to many it was an extravagant amount for a lawsuit involving an experienced guide with a perfect safety record who had obtained releases of liability before the trip.

The issues presented in the courthouse were provocative ones. Ultimately, the issues at stake were those of risk, fate, and personal responsibility. The answers to many of the questions raised in the trial are still unresolved, and the reader can then decide what happened that day and how the jury should have ruled in this most alluring of outdoor pursuits.