Rio Paucartambo Peru

“The bus is full, the next one leaves on Saturday” This was not what we wanted to hear, “What day is it today? “ I asked Jonathon we had been traveling in Peru long enough now to have lost track of the days of the week, just the way I like it to be.
“I think it’s Wednesday “he replied. “That sucks” I said “we need to leave tomorrow morning at the latest”

“Well let’s find a private ride” he said. From then on Jonathon was on a mission to find the 5 of us a ride to the Paucartambo River in Peru.
He succeeded and we left that afternoon on a 4 hour ride to a bridge just downstream of a town that shares the same name as the river.

We got there by dark and camped by the river below a small village where most of the adults spoke only quichua a native language, only the kids had learnt to speak Spanish.

We woke early the next morning and put on a fairly small river flowing at about 7 to 800 CFS.
I had wanted to run this river ever since I saw a film of the first descent completed in the early 1980’s
What I didn’t know was that this river would turn out to be one of the best multi day runs I have ever done.

The Paucartambo starts way up in the mountains at around 10 000 feet about 200 miles later it flows into the Urubamba river way down in the upper Amazon basins jungle.
On its journey it flows through remote and difficult canyons, once it gets going after a flat water paddle at the start, it barely ever stops, endless perfect white water with only a few portages mostly solid class 4/4+ with some fantastic class 5 rapids thrown in on a fairly frequent basis.

I catch an eddy right above what appeared to be a 20 foot drop, I had been leading for a while now pushing into rapids without scouting trying to move quickly, we had 7 days worth of food but were late in the season, it was November and the wet season could arrive any time no one wants to be on this river when its high and it could flash in a matter of hours.
Looking over my shoulder I realized that this time I had over committed and because I was just 4 feet from the lip of the drop I could see from my boat that the drop had no exit the whole river disappeared under huge boulders.
I gave a stop signal to my friends; Ben scouted the rapid from the opposite bank, and immediately told me it didn’t go.
There was a cliff above me making it difficult to get out, but a ledge about 10 feet up offered me my only option, I managed to climb up dragging my boat with me, and continued to climb up stream to ferried over to join the others in our first Portage.

Just downstream a huge class 5 rapid took us an hour to scout and only 30 seconds to run.
After more big rapids on the limit of being boat scoutable we reach another huge rapid where 90 % of the water slammed into a huge boulder after dropping over a evil looking ledge, we were tired and decided to camp here amounst the boulders in the heart of Orange canyon a appropriately name canyon due to all the rocks being colored orange, we were never sure why but guessed it might be some kind of mineral in the water because only the rocks that were under or had at some time been under the water were colored Orange, a weird looking phenomenon.
Orange Canyon was full of sieves but we got through it the next day and entered a flatter area for a while before entering another steep canyon.
More great white water, and a fabulous, scenic canyon, one time I remember floating between rapids in this deep beautiful canyon , I looked up and put my arms up in the air feeling the joy of just being in this place.

Day 3 on the river proved to be the biggest including a section flowing at 250 feet per mile, with what was now about 1800 CFS.

I stalled in a big hole, got threw it but had lost all my speed and I was blinded by the water, instinct and the look of the rapid from the eddy above it, told me there was another drop coming up I had time for one stroke and then I hit a much bigger second hole, fortunately my kayak went deep really deep under the hole, it resurfaced quickly but clear of the hole, I was lucky, and had time to send the other’s on a different route through the same rapid.

We reached a huge class 6 rapid that required a portage over big lose boulders at the bottom of a land slide, portages often seem more difficult and dangerous to me than actually kayaking the big rapids and here I took a big fall while carrying my loaded boat hitting my head on a sharp rock, my helmet saved me.

Shortly after our portage we were scouting once again, this time in a walled in canyon.
The first part was unrunnable but fortunately portagable, the second part looked like it was good to go but at first glance was impossible to scout.
We were all unsure how bad the holes we would have to run looked from are vantage point upstream of the rapid.
“Where do we go” asked Ben “I’m not sure but we will figure it out” I said trying to sound confident, really I had no idea and got in my boat not sure where I was going but felt if a ferried around a bit above the rapid it might become clear.
There was a small cove in the cliff wall just downstream of the eddy I was in, the water was whirling around and getting pushed around the corner into a giant hole the worse spot on the rapid, however there was also a rock ledge where I could get out and climb downstream to scout.
I managed to back my boat into the cove and found a hand hold on the ledge, Todd threw me a rope that I could attach to my boat in case it got away from me while I was getting out, getting out of your boat on to a small ledge while its bouncing around in a whirl pool that your convinced is a plughole into a sieve is not easy, at least not mentally, but somehow I found myself and my boat on the ledge.
It took a while and some rock climbing to be able to scout the rapid but eventually I came back to within sight of my friends with the good news -- the rapid was good to go.
Some of the crew still didn’t like the idea and now I was in a position to help them portage so they took that option, Jonathan and I ran the rapid and we all ran another easier rapid that allowed us to exit the canyon, out into the sunlight and to a perfect beach for camping at the end of are longest day.

Fun white water continued on our 4th day and the next day we had half a day more on the river and we made it down to the confluence with the Urubamba River.


The Puacartambo River here at the confluence had close to 5000 CFS, it was amazing to think that just 4 and half days ago we put on in the mountains with around 700 CFS!

There is a road at the confluence that eventually would get us back to Cuzco but all the locals we met said they would be no bus, however there would be a 40 foot motorized canoe going upstream at 5 in the morning, we camped in the yard of a local family living in a bamboo hut raising chicken and gathering fruit from the jungle.

The Canoe arrived just as the sun was coming up the next day, he stopped and picked the 5 of us and all our kayaks up, and there was more than enough room in his giant canoe.
He powered upstream against around 8 to 10 000 CFS, ferrying from eddy to eddy he had impressive skill, soon we reach a part of the road that the buses do drive to and then had to with stand about 17 hours on two different buses back to Cuzco, riding not far from the famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu.

The Paucartambo was easily one of the best river journeys of my life and my friends shared my sentiments.
I would like to thanks them for making this happen. I paddled with-- Todd Collins, Ben West, Jonathon Blum and Scott Baker.

Rio Cotahuasi Peru

The Cotahuasi river in southern Peru is said to flow through the deepest canyon on earth, it is a spectucalar canyon and a magical experience.

Great continous white water flows almost the entire distance from put in to take out, endless class 4 rapids.

In a few spots the river is only 1 meter or 3 feet wide and yet the surrounding canyon walls are 10, 000 feet tall!

It is a committing run with a long hike in with mules to portage 300 foot Sepia falls.

After we ran the upper reaches of the Cotahuasi [ previous posts ] we joined the rest of our team at the put in for a 5 day run down the main Canyon, we had 7 kayakers a river boarder, 1 gear boat and one paddle raft.

The river in October was low, still really good for Kayaking but our rafts had a few problems including flips and one bad wrap.

Every night we camped under the stars amongst giant boulders or one time at an old Inca ruin!

It has to be one of the best multi day trips in the world, I want to go back.

Flat water Canyon , Rio Cotahuasi , Peru

Flat water canyon on the Cotahuasi river lies just upstream of the normal put in for the multi day section of the same river.


Its name would suggest that it would not be of much interest to a white water kayaker, but it is far from flat, it fact it has some great class 4 and 5 white water.





It got its name from a group that scouted the canyon from the rim and thought they saw nothing but flat water, the next group who found a way in and had this information and expected a mellow trip but instead found a classic white water run, Seeing the funny side they named it Flat water canyon.





We had just completed a upper section of the Cotahuasi before we hiked into the normal cotahuasi put in and caught up with the rest of out group ready to start a 5 day trip on this run.


Our big group all camped together at the put in. We had left our kayaks at the start of the trail, there were no mules left to take them and so we had made arrangements for them to come in on the mules the next morning.


Because of this we realised we had an opportunity to get up early, hike half way back up the trail and meet the kayak carrying mules coming in, then hopefully find the put in to flat water canyon.


Todd had not kayaked the day before with us so his kayak was already in, he really wanted to run the canyon and so between us we carried his kayak back up the trail with us.


About 2 hours later we came to what we believed was the trail of off the canyon rim down to a feasible put in.


There were a few locals walking the trail to the very small villages that dot the canyon in this area. We asked them if they had seen our mules carrying kayaks, 1 person said " yeah, they will be here in 15 minutes " another said that they had not left the trial head yet and would be 2 1/2 hours!? Ha , welcome to south America I thought, no one really knows but they all want to help and would never say " nope, sorry I don't know " most move to there default answer " media hora " they say -- half an hour, most things in South America if you ask the locals seem to take half an hour even when they take 5 hours or more. Knowing this we all sat down on the trail in the baking sun and waited.


This time we got lucky and I had to take back my thoughts because 15 minutes later we spotting our kayaks bobbing along on the backs of very hardy mules.


We talked to the mule drivers and fortunately they knew exactly where we were trying to go and knew where the trail was, we were in the right place and they were able to take the mules down to the rim, from here we had to shoulder the boats as the trail is way to steep for mules, one of the mules drivers even showed us the way down and helped us at the really steep parts of the trail, with our kayaks.


The trial was the worse part of this whole run, steep with lose dirt, and the wind was so strong it came close to knocking me of my feet as it would gust against my kayak on my shoulder which acted like a big sail.

Th run itself was really fun continuous white water, technical at this low flow, mostly class 4 - 4+ with maybe 1 or 2 rapids in the class 5 range.

We took out at our camp site after another great day on the water.

The rest of are crew were either resting or visiting the local village perched high on the canyon rim.

We decided to stay here one more night, and start the lower section of the Cotahuasi the next day.

Upper Cotahuasi Peru

These are shots from 2 different sections on the upper Cotahuasi in southern Peru.

The true Upper was creeky sieve avoiding class 4 and 5.

The other was a short but really good section of class 4 with 1 class 5 rapid we took out were the hike into the 5 day section on the Cotahausi starts, however it would be possible to keep going down to Sepia falls, portage the falls which is a huge multi teared drop and would be a long fairly brutal portage.
Then put back on and run Flat water canyon [ coming up in another post ] into the 5 day section.
We had a group ahead of us doing the hike in and so needed to catch up, when we reached the take out one of our mules who was loaded with a lot of our food had been left behind so we became mule drivers for the rest of the day. The hike past the Falls is spectacular.

The Rio Cotahuasi offers incredible amounts of white water we managed to run a lot of it, but there is a lot we didn't get to. Got to get back there. Peru is Amazing.









Photos below = the short section above the start of the traditional hike in to the classic 5 day run

Communicate

“ What’s down there Andy” “Well, umm, one drop leads to the next drop which leads to a perfect slide which leads to a series of more drops all of them go in the middle, Its sweet”

Set perfectly under a waterfall with volcano backdrop, this river looked fun even though it was really low maybe only 50 to 70 CFS, just enough water at least for the more channeled part of the river.

Ben, Scott and I did laps of the put in drops before we headed downstream, not to far down we decided to walk around a braided section that was to low to boat.
Soon the channels came back together to form one channel and we found a fun 15 footer that we each ran 3 times, more fun drops and slides followed, we were very relaxed, at this water level this was a no stress river, just enjoying the fast shoots, slide’s and boofs in the Chilean sun.

Not far down stream the river split again into 2 channels both looked impossibly low, I was leading and decided to try the left channel I had to push my boat over a few rocks but made good progress.
I looked behind me as I always do to check on the progress of my friends, they had disappeared out of sight, my immediate thought was they must have taken the other channel, I was thinking I should have gone that way to but I was a little annoyed because I believe in sticking together on the river or at the least letting everyone know what you intend to do.
I went a little further downstream to where I could eddy out and wait for them; it didn’t take long for me to realize that they were not coming so I ran the rest of the left channel which dropped steeply into the right channel just downstream.
I expected to see them here or at least see them coming down the right channel, but there was no sign of them.
I was getting confused; maybe one of them is pinned? I got out and hiked up the right and left channel’s but still no sign of them?
The right channel looked good at least much better than the way I had come and because of this I came to the conclusion that they had over taken me and were now downstream looking for me, probably thinking I was downstream of them. This must be it, where else could they be, I thought?
I took off downstream concerned because I was boating alone on an unknown river but motivated to move quickly so I would catch up.

I got to what looked like a significant drop not big but the whole river pinched down pretty tight; it didn’t look to bad, but looked like it had more punch than anything else so far.
I had been boat scouting much bigger stuff now for over a month while on a kayaking mission in Peru and Chile, my confidence was high perhaps a little too high, I made a half hearted attempt to stop but there was no real eddy and it looked good.

I committed to the drop as I came over the lip I realized my mistake, the drop pinched into a bad hole, I couldn’t get enough of a stroke in to be able to boof the drop due to how narrow it was, in a matter of a second I went deep really deep, I knew I was about to get beat down in the hole I had just plugged, I flipped underwater and resurfaced upside-down in the hole.
I set up to roll and somehow jammed my paddle across the gap underwater, I remember thinking this no longer feels like 50 or so CFS how can the water be this powerful ?
I freed my paddle and tried again my rolled failed.
I’ve been paddling a long time and have developed a very reliable roll it’s been a long time since I had a failed roll, I tried again and failed again I switched sides and tried again and failed again.
I was running out of air but on this last attempt I had realized my true situation and the reason I could not roll.

I was underneath a deeply undercut rock, the left bank was made up of bedrock and the undercut created a cave perhaps 10 feet or more deep.
The hole kicked into the cave and recirculated upstream back into the drop, on my last roll attempt my shoulder actually hit the under side of the rock when I was less than half way up, immediately knocking me back over.

I was quite far under the rock and felt in deep trouble.
Ironically just the night before the boys had asked me when the last time I had swam was, a typical conversation between paddlers that usually brings out some good stories.

My answer was about 4 years ago when my paddle snapped after running a large drop and the broken paddle shaft ended up stabbing me in my hand, it’s hard to roll with half a paddle stuck in your hand. It had felt like I was going to drown at the time but now it just made a good story.
How does that saying go?—“We are all in between swims”- I knew when I told my story that my time was over due, I don’t have a problem with swimming but this was scary and it felt strange and very unexpected to be alone.

I pulled my skirt and swam it took we a while to reach the surface due to the highly aerated water, when I did the first thing I witnessed was rock, rock in the wrong place, above my head!
I was maybe 5 feet under the undercut and going not only deeper into the grotto but back upstream towards the maw of the hole.
I kicked hard towards daylight fortunately I did have some head space and therefore some air, kicking wasn’t working, right now is when I needed my friends and there ropes.

I knew the only way out would be hand holds in the rock. I grabbed for anything, the rock appeared to be basalt which was good at least it wasn’t smooth granite.
Nothing, nothing, my figure nails just scraped the rock in desperation. I kicked again and managed to reach further, got something, salvation, a solid hand hold near the mouth of the undercut, I pulled with one arm against the current, suddenly blinded by the bright Chilean sun I was out or at least my head was. I reached downstream for a new handhold, I felt my paddle with my feet that were still getting sucked into the undercut, and I paused to pull it out with my foot.

I threw the paddle onto the bank above me with my free hand then grabbed again for a hand hold downstream, lucky for me there were a few good ones and I was able to pull myself out and downstream.

I climbed up onto the river bank exhausted and cold but happy to be alive, still not really sure how or why this had just happened, could I have really misjudged the river that much after so many years of kayaking, was I getting to blasé, disrespectful?
Or was it just weird circumstances that lead to my misjudgment, or perhaps a combination of both?
There was still no sign of my friends. Where the hell are they? I felt annoyed like they had let me down right when I needed them, I could have died, where were they? Are they OK? Have I let them down? What the hell is going on?

I watch my empty boat getting recirculated under the rock coming out from under it and doing cartwheels in the hole, flushing, going under the rock again and back for more cartwheels in the hole, it was drowning, that could have been me, I am so lucky! I could have drowned alone in not much more than 50 CFS!
I position myself downstream to a spot where I may be able to grab my boat if it does flush all the way out, after 20 minutes it’s still doing rounds.
It looks as though if I cross the river I may be able to catch it from that side as it does cartwheels. Getting across is risky and tricky, there is a slide downstream and a short section of fast moving water between the hole and the top of this slide it’s a narrow window but the only real way across, swimming down the slide would not be fun but not too bad so I go for it airing towards the slide and away from the hole.
I make it over just before the top of the slide, position myself next to the hole and wait for my moment, the boat comes from under the rock executes a good 3 pointer and I managed to catch the end grab and pull her free.
Emptying my boat of water, I realize that I left my paddle on the other bank, the last thing I want to do is swim back over to get it, but hand paddling does not look like it will work due to a tricky seal start, back into the river. I will have to swim again.
So that I don’t have to swim back to this side once I retrieved my paddle I attach my rope to the boat swim over with one end of the rope and then pull the boat after me.
Finally I am reunited with all my gear.
It must have been 45 minutes since I last saw Ben and Scott?
I breathe, relieved, frustrated, scared and worried for my friends.
What to do? Should I hike out? Where are they?
I scout downstream the river looks fairly easy and I can see the bridge that signifies the takeout.
I put back on and run the river down to the bridge, as I am doing so I finally see Ben walking over the bridge.
I am very relieved to see him but react badly in my confusion, “Ben, where have you been? Where is Scott? I nearly drowned, where the hell were you? “

I may have over reacted a bit, perhaps looking for someone to blame for what was at the end of the day my mistake.
I could tell by the look on Ben face that he felt really bad about what had happened and gradually I calmed down.
It turned out that Ben and Scott had shouted at me as I entered the left channel to say that they were going to portage both channels because they looked to low and therefore hard on there boats, they thought that I had heard them and took off to find the trail, it took them a while to bush whack to the trial but eventually they put back on the river and with no sign of me assumed I was downstream, from there description they must have put back on just downstream of where I swam, they paddled down to the bridge expecting me to be there, below the take out bridge is a nice 20 footer, its possible to run this and then walk back up to the take out, they went down to this drop thinking I must be there, because we had all checked it out before running the river.
When I wasn’t there they started to worry and it was right when Ben was walking up to the Bridge that we saw each other.
To finish the day off on a better note Scott and I put back on and ran the 20 footer together while Ben took Photo’s, it made us feels like we were back together again as friends and as a team.

At the end of the day this incident occurred at least in my mind for a few different reasons one was simply a misjudgment on my part, but the biggest reason was a break down in communication.
I had been paddling with Ben and Scott for the last month and half we knew each other well and were aware of each others capabilities.
Over all we had excellent communication and were a strong team but on this day for one short moment we let are guard down and this simple break in effective communication could have cost me my life.
We were lucky and learnt a lesson I have been taught before, indeed most of the bad incidents I have either been involved with or heard a lot about could be put down to either bad or misunderstood communication.
Mis heard guide lines, river signals gone wrong, boaters not knowing each other on a difficult river, I think it is mandatory you know each others skill levels especially if you are leading.

Or when there are too many paddlers in the group, this is something we all should consider more for it can be very hard to communicate effectively to a large group of paddlers, a large group to me is anything over 5, it starts to get hard to keep an eye on each other to make sure everyone knows what’s going on especially so if there are different levels of experience and skill.
Personally I have strong feelings about this and refused to paddle in a large group unless I feel I know everyone with in that group.
Some of the best military units in the world such as the SAS only work in teams of 4; each person within that team knows each other like brothers and can communicate in silence, in situations where it would be much more difficult to do so in a larger or unknown group.

Communication is key and being able to do so quickly and effectively should be part of the fun of our sport, we should be individuals working together as a tight team and not individuals simply paddling the river with strangers for there company.

If you paddling with strangers start with something easier than the weakest paddlers limit, give your new team a chance to get to know each other.

Paddle alone if you wish, you know the risks but when you paddle with friends be responsible for yourself and for them, work together make sure everyone knows the plan, this is surely what brings us together as river people, enjoying, sharing and rising to the challenge together as a team, this is a big part of what our sport is all about.

Colca Canyon Peru

Lower Salmon River, Idaho.

Wet Planet White water recently sent myself and Heather Herbeck on a reconnaissance mission to scout the lower salmon in Idaho, our mission which we willingly accepted was to calculate if the river is suitable for over night raft supported kayak classes.

We joined a trip put together by Winding waters a rafting company base in Joseph -- eastern Oregon.

After a 5 hour drive from the Columbia river gorge in Washington State, we arrive in Asotin near Lewiston Idaho.

We joined the Winding waters team and drove to the put in.

After unloading mounds and mounds of gear.

One of the guides noticed a bright light coming from a short way behind our pile of gear and tied off rafts, at first it was thought to be a large camp fire or strong headlights but Morgan [ the guide ] went to double check and came running back with news of a small but growing wild fire !

We immediately filled buckets of river water but are efforts to put the fire out were futile against the rapidly growing fire, so we had to row all are rafts gear and kayaks across the salmon river to the protection of the other shore.

Fortunately we had a satellite phone and so were able to call the sheriff for help.

After a interesting night watching the amazing advance of this fire [ which was successfully put out by fire fighters a few hours later] we started our river journey from Pine bar to Hammer springs on the Snake river. A journey of 3 1/2 days, and 53 miles.

The first day to a great camp spot at cliff rapids is fairly flat with some fun class 2 rapids, surf waves and good eddy lines, we had around 6000 cfs for our trip which is quite low but makes for good definition in the rapids and is a good level for teaching kayaking.

The Photo at the top is looking upstream from cliff rapids camp.

Day 2 has much more action with some big class 3 rapids and some awesome play spots, including lower bunghole a great surf wave which gives up spins and aerial moves on surfers left and right.

Snow hole rapid is probably the biggest on the river at this flow with a class 3 main line and a river left class 4 line.

After this day Heather and I decided this river would be fantastic for teaching both beginner and intermediate kayak classes as well as more advanced playboating clinics.

Its also a very beautiful place with incredible camping and warm deep water.

These 4 shots show the Lower bunghole waves, with me surfing on the second wave.

Heather in the middle of the main line on snow hole rapid, and a shot looking down the river left class 4 line with more holes and some undercut boulders

Our next night on the river was spent on a huge beach at Meloney creek where we learnt of the fascinating native American history on this river and the snake river [ Nez pearce tribe ] there is evidence of them collecting bark from the ponderosa pine at this camp which they would eat and perhaps use as a form of dental floss?

There is also a lot of history here from there war against the US army and there flight across this very barren land when they attempted to flee to Canada, they had the skill to cross the Snake and lower salmon in flood without losing any people or domestic animals more impressive when we were told that the US army were incapable of doing the same thing!

There is also evidence of Chinese houses on the lower salmon, Chinese immigrants having been shunned by the local community came to the wilderness in search of peace and gold, they built small stone houses close to the river utilising large boulders by building dry stone walls on and around them to create small rooms with a fire place next to the door way, which is a Chinese tradition, 4 people would have lived in a tiny house no more than 15 feet by about 10 feet.

The Chinese house and fire place.

The 3rd day on the river was also fun with good play in the first part of the day including one mystery move spot where I was able to get some down time over head height in a necky vibe.

There was one more class 3 rapid here China rapids. after which we floated out of snow hole canyon which we had been in for all of day 2, here there is a fairly long stretch of flat water but with some class 2 rapids which contain violent eddy's and whirlpools great to play in for fairly advanced kayakers but also strong enough to be a bad place to swim.

Shortly we entered Blue hole canyon a steep stunning canyon with really fun big wave trains and lots of big horn sheep the last rapids are named sluice box and Eye of the needle, after this the Salmon joins the snake river below hells canyon.

We camped at the confluence of these 2 rivers sleeping in Idaho with a view of Oregon across the snake.

The point of land which separates the two rivers before there waters mingle was a place the Nez Pearce used for there Vision quests, a time when young men would stay here for long periods of time with no food, often staying to the point of starvation, which would allow them to see visions [ or hallucinate perhaps ] possible a form of meditation ? All I know is it was a great place to be.

From here to are take out on the Snake is mostly flat with just a few swirly class 2 rapids so we strapped all the rafts together and motored out turning an all day paddle into a 2 hour motorised float.

These photos show the confluence of the Salmon and Snake rivers and the Vision quest point, as well as looking downstream on the Snake river.

Wet Planet are now planning to run 4 to 7 day beginner to advanced over night kayak clinics on the lower salmon with raft support, check the Wet planet link on this blog for there contact information.

New Zealand.

I just got back from a 2 month kayaking trip in New Zealand.
It was my 3rd time to this fantastic country, this time I was guiding another kayaker for half of the trip and then doing my own thing for the second half.

Tried my hand at Skydiving and paragliding while I was there, and drove around in a classic Mini cooper with 3 kayaks on the roof and a bike on the back ! lots of fun.

I took a lot of non paddling shots on this trip, the scenery is amazing, but words and photo's do not do the place justice.
Best thing to do is go there.
Here's a taste :