KAYAKINGS FIRST MEGA RAMP FALLS

Kayakings first natural 20 meter megaramp! Summit Creek, Washington is the venue for one of kayaking most noteworthy drops. First found by up and comers Todd and Chris Wells, they soon spilled the beans to Cody Howard who in turn thought it was the coolest drop he had ever seen. However no one was sure how 50 to 60 feet of freefall transitioning to a nearly flat rock slab would feel on the body.

Way back in the day I used to specialize in low water big drops, and even in my "old age" this one was right up my alley. After Cody, Bett Adems, and I explored the upper gorge of what will be known from now on as skate park creek, Cody insisted on hiking into the lower gorge to show me Mega Ramp falls. With rain pouring down and light waning everything I saw in the drop exuded perfection. The was visibly raising the level of the creek and I knew that the following day could be the perfect opportunity to probe the giant ramp. With an all important Ashland showing of Hotel Charley Vol. 4 to attend that same evening, we would have to get to the creek at the proverbial butt crack of dawn in order to run the drop into the down stream gorge and still make the 7 hour drive to Ashland, OR by show time.

At 6 am Cody, Bett and I were joined by videographer Ryan Scott and Pro Photog Lana Young to make the return trip to Summit creek. Visual inspection revealed that the once paltry flow was now roosting over the massive drop. Although the entry to the falls had cleaned up considerably, there was concern that the thick flow was now vaulting over the transition and landing abruptly on the flat slab below. Cody decided against probing the drop but was eager to help with safety and cameras. After a few more test logs, I was confident in gaining the transition and rocketing cleanly into the pool below.

Avoiding the acceleration of the lead in flume, I ferried into the drop at the lip and tried to hold my speed to a minimum. I went dead vertical right away and rocketed at 32 feet per second squared towards the flat slab 20 meters below. As hoped and anticipated, the transition was as perfect as anything dreamed up by Tony Hawk, sending me flying off the trani into a 40 foot dart move towards the pool below. The descent was so clean that Cody quickly followed with and equally spectacular and clean descent. Cody and I then proceeded down the rest of the gorge below the falls that was something like nearby Little Goose Creek (aka Kenobi gorge).

Big props to the whole crew for their commitment to expanding the boundaries of the sport in the already ultra-classic Columbia River Gorge!

Central Brazil: A new world record

We took a frame from one of the angles for you to check out!

Yesterday the 4th of March, 2009, Brazilian kayaker and fellow Brazil World Record Attemt Expedition member Pedro Olivia shattered the existing world record (108 foot or 33 meter) with a 38. 7 meter (127 foot) waterfall descent on a tributary to the Amazon on the Rio Sacre in Campos Novos, Mata Grosso, Brazil. His 2.9 seconds of pure freefall sent Pedro rocketing into the pool at right around 70 miles per hour in his Jackson Kayak Rocker. Although people have certainly perished upon hitting a pool of water from such heights, the team counted on the massive, gushing rivers of Central Brazil to produce the softest water landings on earth. This particular falls was nearly a foot ball feild in width, with approximately 5000 cfs of crystal clear 70 degree rain water spilling over the lip. This meant that although Pedro´s boat went over vertical, he and his boat were swept and kept intact into a deep mist filled pool. Infact Pedro resurfaced behind the falls were he was able to right himself with his hands on a conviently located boulder bar. The place is truely beyond description, and I guess that is why it is aptly named Salto Belo or Beautiful falls.

As with the majority of our descents in Brazil, we were led to this falls by extremely friendly and helpful locals. So friendly and helpful infact that they set a 40 meter repel for us inorder to access the base of the falls.

Our team and Pedro inparticular have been searching for a world record falls during the rainy season in Central Brazil for the last two years and it was certainly surreal to see both the Team´s and Pedro`s dream come true. I think it is now official that this Area of Mato Grosso and Goias is the true ``North Shore´´ of big waterfall kayaking.

Our team of kayakers is a international subset of Team Jackson Kayak that include certainly some of the most able class V (extreme) kayakers in the world including (USA)Jesse Coombs, (Mex) Rafael Ortiz, (USA) Chris Korbulic, (USA) Ben Stookesberry, and of course the venerable Brazilian Pedro Oliva. In Pedros words his descent was a reflectoin of this teams cohesion and support from the moment everyone got off the plane.

From my point of veiw Pedro, alone has shattered all preconceived notions of what is possible in a Kayak!

The trip is still not over yet as we move back into Goais for 3 final days searching out the biggest runnable waterfalls on the planet.

Make sure to check out this record braking and mind boggling descent in this year´s late April debut of Hotel Charley volume 4: At your Own Risk.

Back in the USA: Outlet Falls

Since getting back from Pakistan and India 2.5 weeks ago, I have been in touch with Erik Boomer about the record snow pack that was soon to be hit by a relatively warm torrential rain. With the true eye of the storm veering north into Washington, the Columbia River Gorge was blessed with the perfect amount of rain to bring creeks and rivers up to flood stage, but not to catastrophic levels like what happened around Seattle. When the storm finally came to an end, Devin Knight and I made an all knight drive to Portland to meet up with Boomer and the Herbecks (aka Nate and Heather). Apparently, they had their eye on a falls that had been bouncing around the collective imaginations of the Northwest paddling crowd for several years: Outlet Falls.

In the spring of 2004, I scouted Outlet falls with Josh Bechtel, Tao Berman, and Eric Link only to find the creek far too low to run despite heavy rain the night before. From nearly a quarter mile away high on the canyon wall, we could see a perfect but extremely tall punch bowl style falls that was the gatekeeper to an impressive canyon below.

Despite seemingly large drainage basin, located directly under the impressive summit of Mount Baker, Outlet Creek is completely cut off from the surrounding mountains that funnel more significant water into the White Salmon and Klickitat basins. Rain on a big snow pack was literally the only type of event short of a full Monsoon that would transform a tranquil trickle into a raging runnable torrent.

When Dev and I arrived on the seen, it was apparent that the word had gotten around as many of the Northwest finest paddlers and personalities where on hand for a would be first descent. Sam Drevo was the first to greet us and let us know that Boomer was at the lip and ready to go. After a 7 hour all night drive, Dev and I were weary of just jumping into the Malay of a flooded big drop, but a short visual inspection had us scrambling for our gear to join the rest of the team in preparation for the first descent.

Of course with this type of unique winter induced opportunity, comes hazards also unique to mid-winter paddling. Outlet was now a thick tongue of brown current spilling 60 to 80 feet into a boiling , icy cauldron below. Due to the 2 to 5 feet of snow pack, the peak of the rain of event was only now entering the falls indicated by the river lapping up to the edge of the snow packed bank. 7 foot boils at the base of the falls sent the 35-degree water hurling towards ice shelves on either side. Dry suits were certainly mandatory in light of the significant hazard of hypothermia from any would be swim.

To complicate matters more, a 5+ rapid above the falls was preventing an easy entrance into the creek necessitating a pretty exposed seal launch above another significant rapid that led right to the lip of the falls. Boomer is certainly no stranger to exposed situations and radioed to the rest of the group that he had his line dialed and was ready to launch. Dev and I where positioned directly above the lip as Boomer used a hybrid form of snow kayaking to fly off the canyon wall and porpoise perfectly into an eddy above the massive drop. 2, 3, 4 strokes to the lip of what Boomer would later describe as "ka-ra-te" and he set the classic stern draw to tuck which has become a hall mark big waterfall kayaking. From what I could see from above it was a perfect descent, but seconds later I saw his paddle float downstream and then Boomer appeared fighting to hand rolled against the icy wall. In the end, he swam just feet from Heather running safety in the pool below. He was ok and super pumped on an amazing first descent, but it was obvious that the falls was extremely powerful.

Many of you already know that I love big waterfalls, but what you may not realize is how much they scare me at the same time. To intentionally enter an avalanche of liquid ice is counter intuitive, yet a clean line will yields a feeling of elation and personal accomplishment that lasts a lifetime. In the end it is all about the feeling of the place and the people around you and that day the situation was perfect. Devin Knight and I dissected the line and came up with the ideal scenario. The rest of the crew including Ryan Scott, Barnie Bonito, Charlie Munsey, Christie Glismyer, Richard Hallaman, Keel Brightman, Jed Weingarten, et. al where on hand shooting photos and film, and running saftey to make the event a one of a kind experience. I'll let Sam Drevo's sweet photo tell the story of my descent. What can I say... the Super Hero Loves to fly!

Also huge thumbs up to LJ Groth for is third and final descent of Outlet that day. He tossed his paddle and nailed a beautiful plug, flushing straight downstream and nailing his hand-role!


Check out more on our Outlet descent at:

northwestpaddling.com
www.keelbrightmanphotography.blogspot.com/
watergrande.blogspot.com
www.pbase.com/ greglief/outlet_falls

Intercontinental Crossing: Northeast India and Bhutan

Ben Stookesberry and Chris Korbulics transcendental journey through a 130 mile swath of the Himalayan front.

The Eye of the Lion: Pakistan

The Indus River is a Himalayan Giant whose headwaters juxtaposes the mighty Tsang Po/ Brahmaputra River in Central Tibet near the mystical peak of Kilash. Traveling 600 miles through Tibet, India, and Pakistan the Indus slams into the Karakoram Range of Northern Pakistan at 8000 feet above sea level. The following 100 miles of the Indus forms one of the most dramatic Gorges on the planet that at it's heart forms a chasm 2 miles deep and 12 miles wide.

Karakorum beauty: The Indus River bisects the two most prominent mountain ranges on earth. The Himalaya and the Karakorum. In addition to being the second highest mountain range in the world, the Karakorum is known for jagged spires that render some of it's more prominent peaks still unclimbed.


30 day tourist visas to Pakistan are available for $120 usd, but are not valid for travel through restricted area. Please note that the entire country outside of Islamabad is a restricted area: make sure you have a guide!




Our "guide" and friend Roland Stevenson was our ticket to the Northern areas. Upon arriving in Islamabad, Roland quickly connected with old friends and new ones to make our trip up the Indus a snap. Roland is rapidly becoming the preeminent expedition coordinator in on the Indian sub-continent. Over the past three year's, he has spearheaded dozens of commercial and non-commercial trips through his cooperative whitewater company River India. I say cooperative because Roland uses his language and people skills to connect with the locals and give every trip a local partner.



Right to left (top to bottom) the whole crew including our intrepid Pakistani drivers: Chris Korbulic, Phil Boyer, Ben Stookesberry, Darin McQuoid, Roland Stevenson, Rashid and Mustafa.

When 10 to 15 thousand cfs constricts to 50 or 60 feet and drops 20 - 30 the ride down the tounge is nearly out of control. Here on day 1, Rafa enters our first encounter with the full power of the Indus on day one. In this same rapid the surging hole/ wave that you can see in the middle closed out on me and I spent the second have of this rapid getting held upside down in the proverbial glacial strangle hold of the Indus. This was my wake up call: take off your pogies and get your gameface on because there is no one that can help you if something goes wrong out here.

Our first encounter with the local population on day 1 in the Canyon set the tone for the trip: friendly, excited, and stoked to interact with the crazy kayakers.

Darin McQuoid on day 1 turning his skill full steep creek maneuvers into big-water sledge hammers. In the Indus, you either punch or get punched.

Day 1 part 2 "Himalayan Drainpipe"

On day 2, freezing haze gives way to brilliant blue skies as Rafa leads the way towards the first truly enormous rapid on the Indus. On our 100 mile pre-scout of the Indus from the Gilgit/ Skardu Highway we spotted some rapids that stood out like cathedrals amongst mere castles. It was obvious that all of Rafa's time spent honing his big water prowess on the Ottawa had paid off as he alone taps into the first Cathedral sized rapid on the Indus... an obvious first descent!


Still Day 2 and the Rapids continued to stack up. Already our group had become more accustomed to both the Indus and each other. To that end, the boat scout begins to develop where just a few brief glimpses from the approach to the rapid gives the lead paddler an adequate mental map of where to go. In turn the rest of the group either gets that same feeling or has enough faith in the lead paddler to follow somewhat blindly. Boat scouting is a true sixth sense unique to river runners.

Again on day 2, this rapid dropped completely out of sight and we took the Liberty of a relatively short scout to Identify our lines. As usual to that point, Rafa fires off first taking a nasty center line into a huge standing wave in order to surf clear of a ominous looking set of pour-overs further down.

The near the end of Day 2 and beautiful sandy beach that was bathed in light under a full moon that night.

Day 3 turned out to be the natural evolution of Day 2's dabble with boat scouting. The river had opened up into a long series of powerful read in run that might be more dangerous than a daunting scouts. In this type of water, a fellow paddler only 20 feet in front of you can be out of site do to double and tripple over-head crest to trough wave heights. Darin McQuoid accelerates into depths of the Indus gaining only breif cresting views of what lay in wait down stream.

Day 4 began with another lengthy section of big water read and run. But was soon punctuated by the Legendary falls at Asstack. Somehow photos just don't do this drop justice. Partly because you are not seeing the 10 foot surges in the pool and partly due to the conceptual problem of rationalizing 15,000 cfs through a slot like this. Also know that Rafa was the only one to enter the river this close to the falls as the froth you see him in something more like a storm cloud and less life a turbulent river.

Unfortunately for the group, Day 4 was Rafa's final day with us on the water as his two week sabbatical from his mechanical engendering studies could go no longer. Rafa's final drop dubed "Rafa's Last Stand" forebode what would soon become the norm on the Indus downstream. The river constricted to 15 feet wide between a diagonal pourover and a 200 foot pilar of bedrock. Again the river had acheived insane velocities generating massive boils in the pool below. In this photo Chris K is caught in the interface of the boils and the savage current.

Phil enters Rafa's last stand on Day 4 marking the end of Rafa's aggressive run on the first part of the Rondu and the beginning of the Bedrock Gorges to come.

The end of day 4 saw the rest of the group pushing on toward the next available beach for camp and met with more powerful drops on the Indus. Phil took my hand signals from his boat and ended up with an impressive surf in a huge hole. Phil definitely takes the freestyle prize for his clean air blunt.

Day 5 began with a call on the Radio from Roland up on the road. "You guys better take out at the swinging bridge around the corner. There is a massive rapid there that leads to a 5 mile long vertical walled gorge. Some of the rapids in there look unportagable and/ or unscoutable from river level."

3 hours later I joined whitewater veteran 40 year old Phil Boyer for an attempt on the Day 5 Gorge. In this photo Phil fights for his ferry as the madatory but scoutable entrance slide to the Canyon smashes into the left wall at the bottom.

The next rapid in the swinging bridge gorge of day 5 was only marginally scoutable from 200 feet off the deck. Phil enters with a perfect sub-out clearing the huge hole on the right and the recirculating wall on the left. Phil and I racked up our collective 4th and 5th portages of the trip on the last two major drops ending with a 30 foot seal launch back into the Indus.

Even the flat water on the Indus is deceptively strong. Floating towards the first rapid of day 6, Chris Korbulic has little time to relax as the steady 10 mile an hour current speeds him toward more towering whitewater.

Chris Korbulic entering day 6 in the Rondu Gorge of the Indus.

Big water to tight moves and visaversa is a halmark of the Indus and exemplified on day 6. Darin mcQuoid inbetween big ones.

Phil Boyer lines up for the entrance slide to a huge rapid called slide left on Day 6.

Day 6 Darin Mcquoid Half-way through his probe run on "Slide Left" establishing the center line.

Chris Korbulic Thankfull that this is only part of the flow of the Indus on Day 6.

Darin McQuoid takes a rare opportunity to skirt the main flow through a steep section of boulders after the Previous Big ledge on day 6.

Chris Korbulic going for a surf at the end of day 6.

Darin McQuoid launches into a big one at the beginning of day 7 our way into one of the most daunting gorges on the run.

The largest single feature on the Indus showed up early on day 7 where all 15,000 cfs literally atomizes into a 40 foot drop.

Where's Chris Korbulic? Find Chris exiting the falls on day 7 to put perspective into this photo.

Phil Boyer leads the juicy side of a river wide series of ledges and seething toungs. Well into a committing gorge on day 7, this seemingly solid toung of whitewater swallowed phil halway down the drop.

Early on Day 8 we encountered another Cathedral sized rapid that mocked into a pothole filled wall. The rapid was too risky for 9 am in the middle of the Rondu and became our 10th collective portage of the trip.

This visual of Phil is one of the best from the Indus midway through Day 8. This is just the final move of a 1 km long rapid that took us almost an hour to scout from top to bottom. Once in the rapid foaming 8 foot haystacks and the occasional ledge hole was framed by a patch work of sieving hotel sized boulders... In other worlds, once you were in the maelstrom the only way out was down the middle through a massive,backed up, but flushing hole.

Darin McQuoid in the Same rapid on Day 8 dubbed "The Road to Perdition".

We called it early on day 8 in anticipation of another committed canyon that would make up Day 9 leading to the beautiful Haramosh Valley. Staying the night at an in just downstream we were able to anticipate and scout this rapid from the road. Again this rapid is like something out of the North Payette, but on another 10,000 cfs of steroids. 1 km long, massive ledge holes and a couple of very fine lines down the left side. In this photo Phil finds the flushing side of a massive river wide hole.

Darin finds himself with nowhere to run in the Middle of the same rapid on Day 9. He was forced to take the mandatory surf diagonally towards a flushing windown on the right. After running this monstor successfully the whole group felt a boost of confidence as we entered the final 20 kms under a cool fall blue sky.

The previous night we had met the Principal of a school in the Haramosh Valley. He was excited for us to meet the students and share a little bit of our english pronunciation with them. Phil Boyer explains how me wishes the South Fork American River in His back yard was like this in November!l

The Students were all extremely well behaved for the presentation on Day 10 and spent much of their afternoon scampering down the banks and cheering us on. Incidentally Chris Korbulic and Roland Stevenson spent half of the previous day working in the class rooms with the male and female students. This is certainly the bright future of Pakistan, and runs in opposition to some of the Militant religous schools that teach hate and blind faith in place of the sciences, mathematics, and English. In the future we would like to try to support this wonderful center of learning and growth in the Haramosh Valley!

Inspired by Haramosh's wonderful People and high mountain Asthetic, I take the "Leap of Faith" on the Indus after school on Day 10 into one of it's more impressive Hydraulic features. For me this rapid exemplified the graduer and the power of the Indus in addition to visually runnable lines. Shukriah al humdila!

Another look at this truly spectacular falls on the Indus on Day 10.

Phil Boyer enters a massive wave train below "Leap of Faith" on Day 10.

Chris Korbulic enters another massive riverwide hole on the Lower Indus on Day 10. At this point we were really in tune with the river and were running many rapids that we might have portaged at the beginning of the trip. Everyone would come away from the Indus feeling like there whitewater perspective had certainly been broadened.

With just one more portage at the beginning of Day 11 we would finish the Rondu with just 11 collective portages establishing the most complete river whitewater descent of the Rondu to date. It seemed everyday would bring a little more winter with it, and our final night on the river we woke up to heavy snowfall clinging to the surrounding mountains. I think the Rondu Gorge is so deep that precipitation can easilly disipate from peaks that are 10 to 18 thousand feet overhead.


On Day 11 the Indus did not let up until literally 2 km above our take out leaving us with 12 kms of big water still to negociate to the confluence with the Gilgit River. In one of the Rapids, I took my heavyest pounding of the trip in a monster hole that I felt extremely lucky to escape from. Even this close to our would be take out, any sort of swim is potentially life threatening.


In the Final few Kms of the Rondu and Day 11 the classic boat scout insued as we held rank through monster whitewater.

With our final scout and one last duck dive into the gulf of yet another Massive on our final and 11th Day in the Rondu, a feeling of elation and accomplishment swept over me like I have felt few other times in my kayaking career. Once again I am literally gafaaed at the power of mother nature and the beauty of the Other side of the world. Our Glimpse of the Rondu area of the Indus was a snap shot in time that can never be repeated. From the massive flows and fluctuations there in that ravage the Rondu year after year I can only imgin how different every flow and therefore time of year must be. I can only think that our confluence of good weather, perfect water levels, great group dynamics, and superb interactions with the local peoples where Serendipitus. But then again, looking back at many stories from this awe inspiring region so many our of the extremely positive variety at least if not life altering. I would encourage anyone to make the trip for any number of cultural or adventure tourist itenararies!

(Front to Back) Darin McQuoid, Phil Boyer, and Chris Korbulic let the accomplishment wash over them as they float beyond the Eye of the Lion on day 11.




The long way home.

the 8th River

A new single season Sierra Nevada Bench mark by Ben Stookesberry and Darin McQuoid

Center of Brasil: Mesas of Green

Southern Utah esque mesas punctuate the Central Brazilian Forrest Crossing into the State of Tocantins Brazil from Goias

The catch word in Central Brazil is waterfalls . These, the most southern tributaries of the Amazon, drop over sandstone and limestone escarpments to form some of the most runnable big drops this group of expedition kayakers has ever seen. Boating these rivers becomes an exercise in patients and poise: patients in the endless meanders of rivers that can't seem to decide on which direction to flow, and poise when the river charges into some of the most spactacular and committing box canyons that I have ever seen.

As the brain child of Ryan (Mac) McPherson, this first of it's kind class V expedition into Central Brazil has already set some impressive bench marks for all that follow. Our second day in Goias Mac, Chris Zawakee, and I set a new national waterfall record on the 23 meter Salto Abade. A week later Pedro Olivia and I match that height on a far schetchier high volume falls in the southern portion of Tocantins. What the final two weeks of the mision will bring is anyones guess, but everyone seems to have there eyes on a 30 plus meter drop that is bound to show up around the next corner.

Cataratas de Rio dos Coros

The second drop in the smoking gorge