Post by Alistairslalom on Sept 19, 2011 12:49:24 GMT
Date: 18/9/11
Paddlers: Myself, Jack, Gav and Hotchkiss
River level: Just under 0.6 on WTW. Apparently Medium, didn't feel like it.
Description:
After a faff free getaway from Dundee , Gav informed us 5 mins from the get in that he had forgotten a spray deck. After asking every paddler in sight, we resigned to the fact that gav was just going to have to do it without one.
Luckily on the way to the get in a nice man stopped and gave him a spare deck.
Oh did I mention that the get in is a 6km uphill walk.... I've done more fun things in my life.
Eventually after much moaning and a picnic we arrived at the get in, 2 hours later..... the river was humping .
It started as a fast tight gorge, and kept going as a fast tight gorge all the way to the get out.
The first rapid we encountered had a couple lines down it. We set up safety and ran it one by one, with myself volunteering to run it last without safety since there was no way onto the bank from below.
Everyone nailed they're lines and my amazing throwlining skillz's were not needed.
So I started to run the drop, nailed the lead in, then right on the lip my boat decided to turn upstream and I landed in a nice retentive stopper sideways. Things did not go well, but after about 5 roll attempts, being sucked back into the stopper upside down and being pinned against a wall, I rolled.
Many of you young padawans could learn from a feat of this kind.
The next rapid was a closed off slide with a nasty stopper at the bottom. We ran it as a group. Jack decided that it was cool to surf the bottom of drops when other people were coming down and only narrowly missed out on a face full of the front of my boat and a beating in the stopper.
Many sizeable rapids later we reached the normally Grade V drop. At this height a nice line opened up and we all managed to sneak down it.... only narrowly avoiding the aptly named (by Jack) HOLE OF DEATH!.
Jack then decided that floating around in a resurcing eddy a couple metres from a sizeable drop, without his deck on... or paddles, was his idea of fun. He survived, we laughed safely from below.
More big drops and holes and waves and tree's and rocks and stoppers and horizon lines followed but finally we made it to the last rapid.
It was fairly uneventful. Jack pretty much fell in, I almost fell in and Hotchy almost got backlooped in a stopper below, seeing all this Gav took a different line and was fine.
Time to walk up to the river: ~ 2 hours
Time running the river: ~4 hours
Pics courtesy of Gav.
Paddlers: Myself, Jack, Gav and Hotchkiss
River level: Just under 0.6 on WTW. Apparently Medium, didn't feel like it.
Description:
After a faff free getaway from Dundee , Gav informed us 5 mins from the get in that he had forgotten a spray deck. After asking every paddler in sight, we resigned to the fact that gav was just going to have to do it without one.
Luckily on the way to the get in a nice man stopped and gave him a spare deck.
Oh did I mention that the get in is a 6km uphill walk.... I've done more fun things in my life.
Eventually after much moaning and a picnic we arrived at the get in, 2 hours later..... the river was humping .
It started as a fast tight gorge, and kept going as a fast tight gorge all the way to the get out.
The first rapid we encountered had a couple lines down it. We set up safety and ran it one by one, with myself volunteering to run it last without safety since there was no way onto the bank from below.
Everyone nailed they're lines and my amazing throwlining skillz's were not needed.
So I started to run the drop, nailed the lead in, then right on the lip my boat decided to turn upstream and I landed in a nice retentive stopper sideways. Things did not go well, but after about 5 roll attempts, being sucked back into the stopper upside down and being pinned against a wall, I rolled.
Many of you young padawans could learn from a feat of this kind.
The next rapid was a closed off slide with a nasty stopper at the bottom. We ran it as a group. Jack decided that it was cool to surf the bottom of drops when other people were coming down and only narrowly missed out on a face full of the front of my boat and a beating in the stopper.
Many sizeable rapids later we reached the normally Grade V drop. At this height a nice line opened up and we all managed to sneak down it.... only narrowly avoiding the aptly named (by Jack) HOLE OF DEATH!.
Jack then decided that floating around in a resurcing eddy a couple metres from a sizeable drop, without his deck on... or paddles, was his idea of fun. He survived, we laughed safely from below.
More big drops and holes and waves and tree's and rocks and stoppers and horizon lines followed but finally we made it to the last rapid.
It was fairly uneventful. Jack pretty much fell in, I almost fell in and Hotchy almost got backlooped in a stopper below, seeing all this Gav took a different line and was fine.
Time to walk up to the river: ~ 2 hours
Time running the river: ~4 hours
Pics courtesy of Gav.