Global Whitewater Boating - Shangri La River Expeditions

Whitewater Boating
Types of River Craft
Maneuvering, Hazards & Safety
Famous Rivers of the World
Famous Rivers of the Western US
Environmental Issues
Reed canoe -5000 BC
The boatman is now a mummy :)
Open canoe in Lava Falls on the
Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.
Eskimo kayak
This guy was giving free kayak rolling
lessons :)
Modern playboat
Racing kayaks are 4 meters long, fast but
hard to surf and do other tricks on waves.
In the 1970s, the first plastic kayaks
became available, and it was possible to
cut them down for playing. By the 1990s,
short “rodeo” boats were outselling
racing boats and many river towns began
to build whitewater parks and hold
annual rodeo competitions.
Stand Up Paddleboard
Called an SUP for short, these are
actually inflated to a very high pressure,
so they can be deflated and easily carried
in a car trunk or on a raft. It takes very
good balance to paddle one, but if you fall
off it's very easy to right it and climb back
on. Parents are starting to take their
children, who learn quickly.
Gowa or Coracle
This type of boat has been popular in
Tibet for centuries, where they're made of
yak skins and can be used to cross the low
gradient rivers typical of the Tibetan
Plateau. This pic was taken on the Kyi
Chu about 100 miles upstream from
Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet.
“Powelling”
This stamp was sold in 1969 to
commemorate John Wesley Powell's
historic descent of the Green and Colorado
rivers from Wyoming, through Utah and
the Grand Canyon, ending at the
confluence with the Virgin River on the
Arizona – Nevada border. Big water
rafters and dory boaters occasionally still
use Powell's technique of rowing
downstream to develop momentum, either
to plow through waves or to move across
the current to less challenging whitewater.
Cataract boats
Cataract boats were first built in the 1950's
by Utah river guides to run Cataract
Canyon of the Colorado in what's now
Canyonlands National Park. In this
picture, they're being used to run the
Yampa and Green in Dinosaur National
Monument, and people still take them
through the Grand Canyon. Mexican Hat
Expeditions, which pioneered their use on
the San Juan River, eventually changed its
name to Canyoneers and began running
large motor rafts in the Grand Canyon.
Modern whitwater dory
Dories can be made of wood, aluminum
or fiberglass. They're decked over to
avoid swamping, and some are even self
bailing. They float like corks and the ride
is really great. However, they flip more
often than rafts and don't bounce, so it
takes more skill to row one. Grand
Canyon Dories still operates dory trips in
the Grand Canyon (now a division of
OARS).
Inflated goatskin raft
Subsistence farmers still use these rafts to
cross flatwater sections of large rivers
such as the Yangtze, where this picture of
tourists was taken.
Modern inflatable raft
The transition to modern rafts made of
nearly indestructible airtight chambers
was made possible by military surplus
inflatable assault boats, life rafts and
bridge pontoons. These were used for
about twenty years, until the whitewater
rafting industry expanded enough to
justify the manufacture of a wide variety
of self-bailing inflatable rafts. Although
flips occur, they are not common and with
rare exceptions, the just add to the river
adventure.
Creature Craft
This boat is self righting and used for
highly technical high gradient rivers.
However, it only carries two people and
doesn't carry much gear, so it's typically
not used for multi-day trips unless the
rapids are suitable for support rafts.
Wooden sweep boat
These boats were developed for use on big
flatwater rivers such as the Columbia and
lower Snake, but a talented guide could
also take them down mountain rivers at
highwater, such as the Main Salmon, and
one man, Buzz Holstrom, took one down
the Green and Colorado, including
Cataract and Grand Canyons in the late
1930s. They're too big and heavy to
portage, so Buzz was the first person to
run every rapid in the Grand Canyon.
Inflated sweep raft
The availability of modern inflatable self
bailers made it possible to use sweep rafts
for gear boats, such as this one on the
Middle Fork of the Salmon in Idaho. The
guide goes to ahead of the rafts or dories
to set up camp, giving passengers more
time to fish, swim in hotsprings or go for
hikes.
Georgie White motor raft
Georgie White pioneered the use of military surplus
bridge pontoons to take large groups of people, mostly
from LA, on discount trips through the Grand
Canyon. She'd strap three of them together and use a
20 HP outboard motor to control it. It wasn't very
maneuverable, but it also didn't flip very often. Her
trips were only about a week long and her passengers
could take the train or bus to Flagstaff. She had been
running these trips for about 15 years when I met her
on my first Grand trip in 1969. Other outfitters began
to use bridge pontoons in the early 1960s, and by the
time GCNPS began to limit group size and the
number of trips per day in the early 1970s, there were
about twenty companies taking a total of 20,000
people per year through the Canyon.
Rogue River Jetboat
In addition to the Rogue River in Oregon,
these boats are used on the Main Salmon,
Snake and Colorado through Cataract
Canyon, typically for one day trips. They
were once used in the Grand Canyon both
for up-runs and down-runs, but were
outlawed by GCNPS in the early 1970s.
Niagra Falls barrel
Photoshop does have its uses. I put my
son Travis in this wooden planter, then
put a picture of him in a photo of Niagra
Falls. He didn't even get wet :)
Yangtze River “barrel”
This is not Photoshopped picture. In 1986, the Chinese
government gave a permit to an American to lead the first descent
of the upper Yangtze. Four teams of Chinese were formed to beat
the American to the first descent. By the time they reached Tiger
Leaping Gorge in the Big Bend, several team members had
drowned and the remaining two teams merged and built this
inflated rubber ball to run the massive rapids of TLG. They
succeeded in beating the American team to a first descent, but by
the end of their trip a total of ten had drowned. The TV and press
coverage of this race turned the Chinese off to rafting until a
Chinese rafting team completed a first descent of the upper
Yarlong Tsangpo without any loss of life. This river drains the
north side of the Himalaya Mountains in southern Tibet,
becoming the Bramaputra when it enters India. See next slide and
go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InCseMCuQLM for an
incredible video of this craft running Tiger Leaping Gorge in the
Great Bend of the Yangtze.
Hutaio Shoal, Great Bend of Yangtze
Taos Box experiment
Hot air balloons do not make good
whitewater craft. They can lift occupants
over rapids, but have trouble making
turns and tend to go upstream if the wind
is blowing that way (a common
occurrence).
The whitewater boating industry was
growing so fast that by the early 1970s one
of larger companies, the American River
Touring Association, started a whitewater
school to train new guides. This is the cover
of their first manual. Eventually the school
and its manuals expanded, and of course
other schools also began operating.
International Scale of River Difficulty
Class I – Easy, flat water, moving slowly
Class II – Still easy, but with small rapids and faster flow
Class III – For intermediate boaters – rapids require maneuvering
but swims aren't that bad
Class IV – For advanced boaters – waves are bigger, rocks are
harder to avoid, boats may wrap on one, swimmers may hit rocks
Class V – For expert boaters only – running rapids safely is
challenging, flips are more common and bad swims can result in
injury or death
Class VI – For suicidal boaters only!
River “Hole”
Some holes can be fun to run, especially
for kayakers and rafts that are large
enough to “bridge” it. Others can cause
flips, especially if run sideways, and some
can be “keepers” of both boats and
people, sometimes resulting in injury or
death.
The next few slides are from the manual
and are self explanatory.
River “Wrap”
Bends and Ferrying
Self explanatory. Daily flow
info is available from USGS
Water Resources for most
popular river segments.
Always wear a life jacket on
whitewater rivers.
The highest flow was about 300,000 cfs in
1892, though terrace gravels indicate flows
of 800,000 in the past 2000 years, and
many geologists believe it took thousands
of muli-million cfs flows to carve the
canyon. The gates to Glen Canyon Dam
closed in 1963, so annual peak discharges
are low, except for the 1983 flood of about
90,000 cfs. Boats flip frequently at flows
above about 30,000 cfs – even 37'
motorized rafts have flipped at high flows.
Crystal Rapids in Grand Canyon
Crystal is one of the longest and most
challenging rapids in the Grand Canyon.
Before Dec 1966, it was a small rapid, but
a huge flash flood dumped large rocks
into the river, creating a huge hole in the
upper rapid and a rock island in the lower
rapid.
Crystal at 90,000 cfs in 1983
A Tour West motorized raft getting
recycled in the upper hole.
The trashed remains of the Tour West boat.
The National Park Service closed the river to
boating until the water level dropped as a
result of this accident.
Crystal's Rock Island at low water
A 40' Western motor boat lost power and
got hung up on the rock island, then an
OARS 18' boat got hung up on the motor
boat. A helicopter was required to free
the boats.
Strainer!
Strainers (logs and trees) are one of the
biggest hazards to whitewater boaters.
They often appear as the spring floods
decline and the first party to run the river
has to be extremely careful. One of the
best western kayakers, Walt Blackadar,
drowned in one on the South Fork of the
Payette in Idaho, a river he had run
safely many times.
Ropes can be saviors or killers. It's really
important to avoid loose ropes on boats, as
they tend to act like Anaconda snakes in the
water and can cause you to drown.
Skull Rapids – Westwater Canyon
One of the sorriest drownings involving a loose
bowline occurred at Skull Rapids when a boat being
rowed by a highly experienced guide flipped at high
water and the rope got wrapped around her disabled
son's ankle. There's a 75' cliff on river right at the
end of the rapid that has a big “cushion” with a large
eddy called the “Room of Doom”, also bounded by
cliffs, on the right. The boat tried to go left, into the
main stream, but the Room of Doom eddy current
caught the boy. Although his life jacket floated him,
he was located in a spot where no one could reach
him, and all the potential rescuers could do was
watch him die of hypothermia. Kayakers were later
able to free the body.
Dubendorf Rapids in Grand Canyon
Located about Mile 132, this is one of the
major rapids in Grand Canyon. The left
run is swimmable (I've done it on
purpose, as have several of my friends),
but the right side is not safe.
Dory wrap on No-No run
It's much better to flip in the tail waves of
Deuby than to try cheating it on the right.
I own a dory and avoiding rocks is very
high priority. Wooden dories break up and
aluminum and fiberglass dories wrap.
There have been some spectacular dory
wraps in Grand Canyon – the top of
Hance, this one and one on the rock pile at
the mouth of Havasu Creek. All of these
required a helicopter for removal, a
considerable expense for the owner, in
addition to the total loss of the dory.
Grand Canyon Dory Boatman
Rowing a dory takes more skill than
rowing a raft. First, they don't bounce,
second they flip more easily. The result is
that a Class III for a raft is often a Class
IV for a dory, etc. Another consequence
is that dory boatmen tend to have huge
egos, at least until they've been humbled.
Serious hypothermia in Cataract
Fortunately, this raft and all occupants
made it safely to shore. Needless to say,
this was the end of the river trip.
Unfortunately, it took two days to climb
out of the canyon and another three to
hike to their cars at the takeout. Long
swims on rivers in spring when the water
is cold is a significant cause of river
deaths.
Bears are generally only a hazard in
campsites on rivers that are forested –
especially the Rogue in Oregon and the
Selway and the Middle Fork and Main
Salmon in Idaho. It's important to clean
up the kitchen and store all food in latched
boxes at night. They can be scared away
with a flash light, and if this doesn't work
a Darth Vader sword should do the trick.
Other hazards
The most common causes of injury on
river trips are on shore. Falls while
climbing around camp or up side stream
canyons cause far more injuries than
swims. Rattlesnake bites are not common
and don't cause death, but may cause loss
of limb flexibility. Stings from scorpions
and bits from red ants are usually just
painful, but occassionally someone goes
into anaphylactic shock, which can be
fatal without evacuation to a hospital.
Don't expect this vehicle to come to your
rescue – it could take them a week or more
to get to you, if at all. Plan on self
rescuing, or hope another member of your
group or another group can help.
There are many river rescue books and
classes and the American Canoe
Association even certifies people with
adequate training. These resources should
be utilized.
There are four types of river trips: commercial, regulatory (patrol),
research (includes environmental) and private (non-commercial). I've
done all four. On commercial trips, paid guides control the trip and do
their best to make sure clients have such a great time that not only do they
become repeat customers, but they tell their friends to join them next time.
Patrol trips are necessary on rivers that are so popular that they can get
crowded, so permits are required to limit the number of trips and river
rangers check to make sure all trips have a permit and that they're
following the environmental and safety regulations (though there are some
great stories about sneak trips). Research trips include geology, ecology,
archeology and other types of science. On private trips, people own their
own boats, get a permit (if necessary) and take their friends along. “Pirate”
trips are those where the private boat owners charge a fee rather than
sharing costs. Usually private trips are also great trips, although
sometimes friends of friends come along who aren't necessarily
compatible people. In 1986 Ken Warren led a private trip on the Yangtze in
western China and had a group of incompatible people (mostly caused by
bad choices on Warren's part) and half of them mutinied, including some
of the guides, which resulted in an early termination of the trip.
Getting to the river can be hazardous
This is the new I-17 bridge over the Agua
Fria that washed away in a 1979 flood.
Several cars were washed away. Statistics
on deaths and injuries on river trip on an
hourly basis indicate that driving to the
river is more hazardous than floating it.
Take baby steps
The great majority of problems river
runners can be avoided by learning the
basics and avoiding running rivers above
your skill level (and never during floods).
Of course, as with all sports, there are
extremists, and although they may have
very high skill levels, they push limits and
die at a higher rate than any other group
of boaters.
This is the cover to a coffee table book on
whitewater rivers of the world by Graeme
Addison. The following maps and images
are from this book.
Hooker River – New Zealand
Thrombosis Falls, Mzimkula River
Indus headwaters in Pakistan
Zambezi in South Africa
Hidden Falls, Tsangpo River in Tibet
In 1998 two teams of boaters ran first descents of the
Yarlung Tsangpo, which drains the north side of the
Himalayas in Tibet. A Chinese rafting team ran the
upper section, portaging two canyons (run later by
foreigner kayakers), from the source to near the entrance
to the Tsangpo Gorge, where the river flows through a
15,000' canyon before turning south around the east end
of the Himalayas. An American team tried to run the
Tsangpo Gorge in flood, with disastrous conseqences –
one of them drowned, ending the attempt. A multinational team managed to kayak another 17 miles at low
water in 2002 and ended up hiking to Hidden Falls,
which had been discovered by Tibetan hunters centuries
before and photographed by Chinese hikers in 1998. The
200' falls has never been run.
Mekong headwaters on Tibetan Plateau
This is me, rowing on a third descent of
the Mekong headwaters. During the
winter, at low water, the river freezes and
Tibetans use it as a trail, painting manis
(prayers) on rocks (they're partially
submerged in this picture).
Rio Claro
Seven Tea Cups
in Chile
My son Travis, who owns a whitewater
rafting business in China and runs the
headwaters of the Yangtze and Mekong
on the Tibetan Plateau and the Salween
in southwest Yunnan, kayaked the Tea
Cups after he graduated from highschool.
Chorro Canyon, Naranja River
Costa Rica
My daughter Carmen worked as a guide
on the Naranja after she graduated from
highschool. Travis, her mother Cindy
and I visited her and ran this Class V
canyon. We went for several swims (a
common occurrence) but the rapids are
short drops followed by a pool, and the
water is warm.
Turnback Canyon, Alsek River, Canada
Walt Blackadar was the first to kayak this
canyon, and he did it solo. I took him on
a Grand Canyon trip (he taught me to
roll) and he ran Lava Falls four times,
until he made it without having to roll.
Google Earth image with popular rivers
highlighted. The demand to run these is
so high that private trip permits are
required and commercial permits are
limited. The following pictures are of
famous rapids on these rivers.
Rainie Falls, Rogue River in Oregon
Oak Springs Rapids, Deschutes River
in Oregon
Dragon's Tooth Rapids, Klamath River
in California
Ladle Creek Rapids, Selway River
in Idaho
Salmon Falls, Salmon River in Idaho
Quartzite Falls, Salt River in Arizona
Warm Springs, Yampa River in Utah
at 34,000 cfs in 1983
Lava Falls, Grand Canyon in Arizona
Green River, Desolation Canyon in Utah
Not everyone is a whitewater junkie.
However, mosquitoes like flatwater, so
unless there's some whitewater, you may
suffer while floating through paradise.
The San Juan is a Class II river, with
enough riffles and small rapids to
discourage mosquitoes. However, it's
easy to get disoriented in the Goosenecks.
Lots of boaters run rivers because they
provide access great places for hikes.
This is the top of the Mule Ear looking
north at the San Juan River in southern
Utah.
Feather fetish, Hopi salt caves
in Grand Canyon, Arizona
Lots of rivers have interesting cultural
aspects. This site is now off-limits to
visitation, but there are hundreds of other
sites worth hiking to. In fact, using the
river to access remote archeological sites
is one of the big attractions for many
boaters.
Illegal gold mining at Miner's Cabin
Westwater Canyon in Utah
Not everyone likes rivers. Nowadays, it's
difficult to obtain permits to mine or
engage in other types of activities that
endanger the river, but that's only
because river runners have had to
become political activists to protect their
favorite places.
Palisade Whitewater Park plans, 2004
Since the 1990's, park 'n play whitewater parks
near cities have become popular sites for
kayakers. There are dozens in the US and
hundreds worldwide. Unfortunately, in 2006 the
US Bureau of Reclamation refused to issue
permits to this one on the Colorado River near
Grand Junction, Colorado.
This map shows all of the dams in the
Colorado River Drainage (red dots). It
has been called “River No More” because
only a small fraction of it reaches the Sea
of Cortez – the rest evaporates from
hydropower reservoirs, leaks into
surrounding bedrock or is diverted for
irrigation, industry or culinary uses.
Steamboat Rock, Dinosaur NM in Utah
This is the site of the infamous Echo Park
Dam at the confluence of the Green and
Yampa (upper right), which in the early
1960s the Sierra Club finally managed
convinced Congress not to build.
Glen Canyon Dam & Lake Powell
Utah-Arizona
The Sierra Club agreed not to fight Glen
Canyon Dam as a compromise with the US
Bureau of Reclamation for not building
Echo Park Dam, in spite of a 1958 report by
Luna Leopold, the first chief of the Division
of Hydrology of the US Geological Survey,
that stated the Colorado River did not have
enough water for this dam. He has been
proven right – Lake Powell, behind Glen
Canyon, has averaged about 50% of its
capacity for the past 15 years. So has Lake
Mead, behind Hoover Dam.
China is making the same mistake the US
did – too many dams for the amount of
water available, and it's going to get worse
as the earth warms and precipitation patterns
change.
China is making another huge mistake by
building about 140 large dams on the
upper Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween
and Indus in areas of high seismicity.
Someday a large earthquake will topple a
dam, and the flood will topple
downstream dams.
Get Involved in
River Preservation
and River Reclamation