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Norge Part II: Gorges

2008-08-13T20:50:00.000-07:00

Dropping into a locked in gorge is a special experience, and one of the unique elements of whitewater kayaking. There are few other sports that present the opportunity to explore the depths of places rarely seen and touched by other human beings. These special places often require intense committment, offering some of the most challanging whitewater experiences, both physically and mentally, for a boater.

We were fortunate to have the opportunity to explore two wonderful gorges, with very different characters during our adventures in Norway.

The Frya Gorge: Several gorges with fun rapids, and a chance to get rowdy at the end.

The hike down to the gorge.

The Frya is a smaller creek flowing out of Lake Furusjøen and into the Lagen River. Relatively unknown, and often overlooked, the Frya Gorge is a pearl of the Sjoa + CO region. We were very fortunate to get on this one at good water levels thanks to some rain the few days before.

The Frya begins as a boulder strewn creek with some mellow class III rapids before digging its way into several deep gorges containing a variety of coninuous boulder garden style rapids with fun boofs and interesting lines. However, the nature of the Frya remains relatively tame, with no rapids harder than class IV+.

But this is what made the Frya so enjoyable. The whitewater was fun, but because it did not demand your complete and undevided attention at all times, we were free to lean back and simply enjoy the sights and sounds of such a remote and unspoiled piece of river. In places, the Frya is squeezed down to less than 2 metres, while the gorge walls, covered in places with yellow moss, arch in overhead. It was very peaceful to be able to just sit there in a clear pool and take it all in.

The clear water and overhanging walls of the Frya Gorge

It was in the depths of the Frya that Tyler related to us a well known Norwegian fairy tale. Norwegian children are told that the hanging lichen growing on the pine trees, which resembles stringy geen hair, is in fact the hair left from the arms of trolls roaming the forests. I personally like the fairy tale explanation better than the text book one!

Once the gorges come to an end, the Frya opens up momentarily before spilling into a final spectacular gorge. The upper section is unrunnable, but we were able to walk the rim of the gorge, and scramble down and put back in just above the exit drop of this last gorge, and fire up the awesome double drop. The first drop is a 10-12 footer that falls into a boiling pool in a tight mini gorge, which is then quickly followed by a 8-10 footer out of the gorge and into the pool below. This was by far one of the coolest drops of the whole trip!

Justin on the lead in to the last drop.

Logan launching off the first drop.

The Finna: A long, tight gorge with steep drops

The Finna has a very different character than the Frya. A bigger river, the Finna has some bigger rapids, some of which are must run, in a very committing gorge. Overall, the Finna felt alot like Vallecito in SW Colorado, except longer at 9 km's (most of which is gorged in) and with slightly smaller rapids than Vallecito, mostly in the class IV+ to V- range.

The Finna put-in drop on the Skjerva. The Skjerva joins the Finna about a 1/2 mile below here.

The put in for the Finna is actually on the Lower Skjerva, a steep lower volume creek that joins the Finna after a fun 1/2 mile of so, and offers a good warmup for the river below. Once the Skjerva joins the Finna, the flow doubles and it is not long before the Finna enters its gorge.

However, before even getting to the gorge, we ran into trouble. Underestimating the speed and power of the river, Ben found himself face to face with a nasty undercut, and was forced to swim after being uncerimoniously shoved underneath. Luckily, we were able to corral him, and his gear shortly below and hit the restart button.

Right below where Ben swam is where the Finna takes a sharp right, and drops into the first major rapid at the entrance to the gorge. Once through this rapid, the walls rose sharply up from the river, and we were locked in.

Chris going deep pn the entrance rapid to the gorge.

The rapids began coming in quick succesion. Most of the rapids consisted of technical moves through big holes and pour overs. I was difinitely impressed by the power of the water through the drops, which were willing and able to spank the slighly offline boater. Despite the power of the rapids, they were relatively forgiving and had good recovery pools.

Tyler & Tyson lowering the boats on the only portage in the Finna Gorge

Though the gorge was locked in, it was possible, although difficult to scout the majority of the rapids, and it was awesome having Tyler and Logan to route us through the countless horizon lines, saving us from having to check them out ourseleves. Looking back, many of the rapids are a blur, though the two that stick in my mind are the must run and the very last rapid.

Looking above as Tyson gets ready for the boof on the must run.

The must run was a great rapid, consisting of a relatively straight forward entrance followed by a hard ferry to the right, and over an eight foot boof. I was up first, caught the eddy on river left, and then started my ferry to river right, and the boof. However, I miscalculated my ferry and got pushed into the flow against the left wall and melted into the boil/hole below. Knowing that the line went, I just waited to pop up and deal. Luckily, the boil/hole spit me out into the deep pool below and I rolled up, and proceeded to watch the rest of the crew come through. Half of the boys made the boof, and half didn't, making me feel a bit better about my botched line.

Ben missing the boof line on the must run....

...and catching a bit of a tooling

Justin, nailing the boof line

The next rapid of note for me was the very last one. Looking down at the horizon line, all we could see was a mess of white, and an ominous bend below where the gorge bottled down even tighter. I should note that as the gorge goes on, it just keeps getting deeper and tighter, and at this point the needle on my fun meter was definitely starting to get close to the red zone. I was still having fun, and was loving being able to route through the rowdy rapids on verbals. But the tight gorge added to the pucker factor, and I was beginning to feel like I was ready to enjoy a cold beer on the downstream side of the gorge.

So, dropping in behind Tyler, we crashed our way through the rapid, and towards the ominous bend. As we came through the bottom of the rapid, Tyler turned around and, probably seeing that my eyes were as big as saucers, yelled to me, "We're Done!" The ominous bend turned out to contain the tightest portion of the gorge, where the Finna is squished between dead vertical walls to less than 3 metres wide. However, there was nothing in there except for a nice current and a good acoustic reveration of our hoots, hollars, and cheers!

The quality of whitewater in Norway is simply amazing, and in our whole trip we paddled nothing but amazing whitewater on spectacular rivers and creeks, making it hard to pick a favorite. But if I had to, the Finna would definitely take the crown, and reflecting back, I would place it in the top 5 favorite rivers list.

Stay tuned for the third and final installment of Gravity Sessions trip to Norway: Slides and Waterfalls!

The Box

2008-08-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

Last week Joe, Alex and myself left Denver to drive 9 hours up to the Clark’s Fork Box just outside of Yellowstone National Park. We met up with Barry and Orion from Bozeman for this two day, 24 mile mission through this 1200' walled granite gorge. We rolled into camp at 3am, it would have been much later had the Monatana boys not left some nudy pics as markers to guide us in. This was a nice welcome and made pitching a tent this late at night a bit easier.
We started off with the short Honeymoon section, this provided us with a much needed warm up for what was to come. The first portage came right after the Honeymoon take out, the Green Monster, and thus began our 4 mile flat water paddle to the Anklebreaker portage. The flatwater was simply amazing, nobody was in a rush to get downstream, we were all just taking in the scenery and watching the canyon walls rise the further we ventured. The put in below our first portage:

Our first day lasted about 11 hours, including our hike up to the canyon rim where camp was set up. You really don’t grasp how remote and committing this run is until you enter the box section with your first of I think six portages. To me the scariest part of this wilderness adventure was hiking these portages. Most of what we were walking on was loose sharp rock on a steep pitch. It was very easy to loose your footing and take a long tumble down these sheer and elevated mank piles, potentially loosing your gear or worse yet breaking a limb. I had one close call where I lost my footing and dropped my boat and paddle over a 20 foot ledge, barely keeping myself from junking over. Luckily they landed in a pool of rocks down below where I could recover them. A look back at the ankle breaker portage:

Our first rapid was Double Suck, Barry showing us the boof line off the ledge:

Next up we had Deep 6, named for how long it tends to keep you under before ejecting you. Alex and Joe having clean lines down the left:

Things started to really drop at this point, bringing us to Balls to the Wall. This is a sieved out steep rapid with a manadatory run out. Orion finishing off the upper section:

Our last big rapid for day 1 was Snolieguster, this has a tricky lead in to a river wide hole, followed by a perfect 8 foot boof. Here is the hole:

Followed by the boof:

We decided to try a different route up to the rim, something a little more direct to where we were camping. A look back at ball buster portage and the start of our hike out:

Little did we know that we would be free climbing a 30 foot 5.8 section with loose rock and moss, for sure the most sketch part of the day. This is what we climbed in the dusk:

Once past that obstacle, we had to navigate through a mosquito and grizzley infested marsh to find camp. A fitting end to an epic day for most of us. Two unlucky fellas still had to run a 3 hour shuttle (which actually took them 5 because they were so blazed.)

Day 2 started off with something underworld, I think it was called Chauncey's Underworld. Here is Barry blasting through the meat:

Dillworth, one of the most continuous rapids of our 24 mile adventure was up next, then the picturesque Calendar Falls:

After Calender Falls we took a lunch break on one of the many black sandy beaches along the way. The very next rapid we found this mangled kayak, apparently from the group that was in the weekend before us at really high water. It looked as if a hand grenade had gone off in the stern of the boat:

The next rapid was Deliberation Corner, the most ominous and technical drop of the run. The river seems to really constrict here providing ample gradient, with the walls feeling like they were closing in over you. We all decided to shoulder the boats and walk down to the must run boof over a sticky hole. Joe nailing the 10 footer:

Right around the corner was the Gates of Mordor, Alex dropping in:

The run out leads into Dave's Chasm, the canyon narrows to about 20 feet in width:

The last major drop of the Box is the must run Leap of Faith, this right below the Sunlight Strainer portage, or as I like to call it the F'ing Joe portage. Here is a shot of Orion dropping out:

Looking back up at Leap, breathing a lot easier knowing that we only have the class IV run out to go:

The shuttle ride back provided a picture perfect end to our journey:

Excited to be out of the shuttle vehicle:

The crew:

I am already missing those blistering portages I did in my dry suit, it really encompassed what expedition kayaking is all about. You put an exceeding amount of effort getting into the canyon , then your rewarded with some of the best V whitewater in the States with the colossal feeling of accomplishment on your paddle out.
Huge thanks to Barry for taking us 4 newbies down, we were very fortunate to have such a great guide. Thanks also to Cutch and Evan for the great description in the Whitewater of the Southern Rockies.

Norge: Part I, The Big Ones

2008-07-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

Words by Chris Morrison, pics by Luke Pennington, Ben Copithorn, and Chris Morrison

The first thing I noticed about the rivers in Norway is that they are BIG!

I was surprised when I arrived in Norway at how lush the country is. Scattered throughout the countryside are beautiful farms, whose green fields stretch from the banks of the rivers up the steep mountainsides. And flowing through these wide valleys are BIG, beautiful rivers. The view from Mariann Saether's farmhouse down the Otta River valley reminds me of looking at a masterful work of art; the epitome of perfection. It IS the view I conjure up when I think of what a river should look like. Leave it to mother nature to craft such a beautiful scene. Complimenting the beauty of the rivers and valleys are the farmhouses themselves. Crafted of mighty timbres and topped with grass and slate roofs. Amazingly, many of these farmhouses, including Mariann's are centuries old, dating back to before the United States was first colonized.

One of the farmhouses on Mariann's farm, which dates back to 1608.

Another one of the farmhouses on Mariann's farm. This is the guesthouse where we stayed on our trip. The house was built in 1608, and is rumored to be haunted! We left the bunkhouse door opened at night for the cool breeze, but didn't hear anything from John's ghost.

The crew consisted of Tyson T, Jason S, Ben C, Luke P, Justin M and myself, C Mo. We came to Norway upon the recommendation of some Germans that we met last year. After much searching and attempts at planning an international kayaking trip for 6 people, we stumbled across Mariann Saether and Tyler Curtis's Norway Daze. To put it simply, they made things VERY easy for six people looking to travel to the land of the midnight sun and make the most out of limited time. Tyler & Mariann's first hand knowledge of Norway ensured that we had quality paddling everyday; and their first class accomadations and amazing hospitality made sure we were uber fat and happy for the whole experience.

The crew ready to get after it, Luke is showing us some of his cheerleading moves from back in the day.

As I've mentioned several times already, the rivers in Norway are BIG. To paraphrase from Olaf Obsommer and Jens Klatts' excellent Norway: The Whitewater Guide, there is one difference between the rivers in Norway compared to just about anywhere else:, "everything is bigger, everything is higher and everything has more volume." Upon reading this, I thought, it can't be THAT big a difference. Well, I was wrong...

The Big Ones:
The Sjoa River: Asengjuvet, Playrun and Amot gorge. Big waves, big holes, and a few beatdowns!

The Sjoa River was the our first foray into the "bigger" rivers of Norway. The Sjoa drains out of the Jotunheim Mountains, some of the highest in Norway, and carves down into a deep canyon, alternating between steep gorges, open farmland and wooded valleys.

Putting onto the Asengjuvet section of the Sjoa, the sun was shining, and we were all stoked for some big water action. The river was running on the high side, I'd estimate about 3,500 cfs. But it was only class IV, right..

Upon putting on, the Sjoa bends into the deepening canyon for several miles providing ample warm up before coming to the highlight of the run : "The Gut." The Gut consists of a 300-400 meter long rapid and necessitates threading several large holes, a few of which, we were informed, were to be avoided at all costs. Despite Mariann & Tyler's verbal instruction, and strong warning about the holes, Ben decided that he would plug one,...for fun. After a thourough tooling, several loops, and a few reverse un-intendo's he was uncerimoniously spit out. While I got the pleasure of looking upstream to see the conclusion of his tooling, I turned downstream just before Tyler decided to plug the monster. Apparently, he also had seen only the last of Ben's surf, and figured the hole would just spit him out. As Ben found out, this was not the case, and our guide proceeded to get a little beat down of his own.

Too shortly, the Gut ends, and the gorge opens up, marking the end of the Asengjuvet section, and the beginning of the Sjoa's playrun. The Sjoa playrun is just that, another beautiful section of river with some fun play features. More noticable for me, however, was the amazing gorge that the Sjoa carves through in this section. A non-threatening beauty, the waters of the Sjoa are free to course through at a liesurely pace allowing the passer to enjoy the beauty with no threat of getting swallowed.

While we floated through the casual playrun section, Mariann and Tyler jumped out in order to run shuttle for the Amot Gorge, the lowest section of the Sjoa before it joins with the Lagen. I should mention here that besides our crew, Mariann and Tyler, Logan Grayling, a friend and fellow Canadian to Tyler was staying with Mariann and Tyler durig our trip, and paddled with us almost everyday. Aside from being a seriously ripping kayaker at the tender age of 20, Logan is a serious smart ass. But a smart ass in a good way,...like your smart ass best friend from college. So while taking a breather at the take out for the Playrun, Logan mentioned to Ben and I that it would be best to stay in our boat through Amot,....OR we would die. (I should also mention here that despite Logan's generally sarcastic flavor, he was serious)

Now I had no idea what lay in store downstream in the Amot gorge. But the Gut had been big and pushy, the weather had turned cool and rainy, and we had already paddled 20k....I was beginning to have serious reservations about Amot. I didn't mention Logan's comment to anyone else during the several K's before the gorge began, as I didn't want the thought eating away at everyone else. But Ben and I discussed jumping out prior to the gorge. The consequences of death for swimming just didn't seem too appealing at this point.

However, as we approached the regular put in for Amot, Tyler and Mariann peeled out into the water from river left and caught an eddy river right. We were in now...
We got verbals about the immediate rapids, and peeled out. I was super nervous, as big water is not my specialty, and I had no idea what to expect except a locked in gorge, that squeezed the almost 3,500 cfs down to 10 metres in spots. Not to mention the possibility of death.

When we rounded the first corner and entered the first rapid of Amot, my anxiety eased substantially as we were faced with big waves, powerful reactionaries and hole dodging goodness. We blasted our way down into the gorge until eddying out above the corridor. I vividly remember sitting in the boiling eddy, looking over the horizon line downstream and seeing nothing but white, and hearing Tyler say, "what you see, is what you get." The rapid below was a fun mess as you drop into a huge reactionary coming off the right bank, dodge a few holes and then shoot through the narrow constriction at the end of the corridor.

Once through the corridor, we regrouped in the eddy above the exit rapid to Amot. Once again, we found ourselves in a boiling eddy, looking downstream at yet another large white monstrosity, which once again required hurling ourselves downstream through the burl, dodging holes and squirly eddy lines...and then, it was done!

The Amot, though spicy with higher water turned out to be one of my favorite runs in Norway, and a good introduction to the higher volume gems that dot the country. Thank goodness I didn't pull out early!

The Lagen: Rosten Section: Big, Steep Rapids in a Spooky Gorge

The Lagen begins in the lake Lesjaskogvsvatnet, and flows south towards the town of Otta. For most of its journey, it meanders through lush farmlands. But before the Lagen joins the Otta, it digs down into a deep gorge, peppered with steep rapids. With the exception of a few rapids, the Lagen is mostly read and run class IV. And while the run is mostly roadside, the gorge feels far from civilization, and has a rather "spooky" feel to it. Maybe its the size of the rapids in a tight gorge, or the undercut walls or just being in a gorge with that much water. Whatever it is, the gorge is spooky.

The sun was shinning bright, and the water was yet again on the high side. We put on and negotiated the put-in rapid without incident and began making our way down into the gorge. The highlight of the run is definitely the triple combination which comes up fairly quickly into the run. Dropping about 20 feet, the triple combo consists of a straightforward ledge drop, which leads into a slide that bends 90 degrees to the left, slams into a big reactionary, and then charges another 90 degrees to the left and crashes through two BIG holes, the second of which is an ass beater. Scouting from river left, it was clear that there were two options: the chicken run, far left down the slide avoiding the reactionary and the two big holes, or straight through the reactionary and into the maw.

After contemplating for a minute, Tyson smiled at us and said, "I'll go for the cowboy line." So we set up for safety, and watched the big water Idaho boy show us how its done.

After watching Tyson style the line, we all decided to go with the hero line, and made it though,...with varying degrees of success.

Jason, coming through the bottom

Once again, Ben caught the best hole ride of the day, getting worked over pretty well in the bottom hole. To his credit, he rode it out, hootin like a cowboy the whole time. Wish I had a picture of him as he bounced like a cork in the hole!!

Directly below the triple combo lays the Rosten waterfall. At lower levels, this is a sick 12 footer, but at higher levels, as it was on this day, the base of the waterfall has a nasty towback, deserving a walk.

The falls. Hard to see how big the towback in this pic is, but you can be sure that a clean line would have been tough to hit, and even though it was hard to walk away from, a beating in this hole could be very ugly.

After scrambling around the portage, we put back in and continued our way down the tight gorge. The last major rapid was a fun right to left move down a ramp, through a hole, and back out the end of the gorge.

The Sjoa: Ridderspranget Run

The Ridderspranget run is the uppermost section of the Sjoa, and yet another big volume gem. The Ridderspranget also has one of the best histories of any river I've ever paddled.

Directly above the put in for the Ridderspranget, the entire volume of the Sjoa is constricted between gorge walls to less than a metre. Legend has it that a young knight stole the bride of another knight from a neighboring land. While fleeing from his pursuers, the knight leapt the Sjoa gorge on horseback, escaping his pursuers.

Not as daring as the young knight, we declined the jump, and opted for the seal launch into the turquoise water exiting the gorge.

Justin, sliding into the Riddenspranget

After everyone was in the water, Tyler gave us the beta for the first drop, which lies directly around the corner. Once coming around the sweeping left bend, you just had to drive right, break the lateral coming off the right wall, and maintain your right momentum to avoid the hole at the bottom. Easy enough, right?

I peeled out after Luke, came around the corner, and came face to face with a much larger lateral than I had expected, barely made it through, and looked downstream towards the monster hole. I could see the hole had a nice green tongue on the left side, but I was already committed to the right line. I could also see that Luke was stuck in the hole. All I could think was that I did not want to be in that hole, especially with Luke. I continued to drive right, and managed to break through the strong towback, and escape its clutches.

Pulling into the river right eddy below the hole, I looked back upstream to see Luke was still being throttled. I had enough time, as did several others in the crew, to sit in the eddy, laugh at the series of loops, windowshades, and various other sweet rodeo moves that Luke was throwing down in his creek boat. Then after his ride seemed to be lasting way longer than he would be able to hold out, I had time to pull up to the top of the eddy, jump out of my boat, get my bag out, and watch as Luke pulled one final BIG loop, and flush outta the hole. Fortunately, the hole was not backed up by any immediate rapids, and we all had time to collect ourselves and recount what was by far the best ride of the trip. Yet another one that I wish I had a picture of!

The next rapid on the Riddenspranget is by far the highlight. A sweet 12 footer.

Mariann on one of her favorite backyard runs

Tyson going deep

After the 12 footer, the Sjoa meanders through beautiful wooded scenery, before the mandatory portage. This monster is huge, with several big holes in the lead in and culminating in a 30 foot falls. With maybe 500 cfs, the falls and preceeding lead in looks like it would go, but with the 2,500 - 3,000 cfs careening over the lip, the hole and horendous recirculating eddy lines at the base of the falls made it look, well, absolutely horrendous. After staring with dropped jaws for several minutes, we continued our portage, entering into the fast moving gorge and class IV rapids below the big falls.

The next rapid was another monster. A triple drop, which at more normal flows is regularly run, was ferocious. Three big holes, replete with undercuts, and definite potential for disaster. This one, especially at with high water, was an easy walk for all in the group.

The final drop of the day was yet another big'n. Another triple drop. The first two were good to go, and while the last drop had clean lines on both the right and left, a monster pour over lurked in the middle. The 8 foot pourover looked like it dug its way to China, and didn't come back. Tyler decided to go first, and in typical Tyler style made it look good. Logan was next and pulled off an even nicer line. Jason was inspired and pulled off the best line of the day, barely getting his head wet. The rest of the group, with the exception of Mariann decided for the dry line. Mariann buttered up the top drop, and got flipped in the second. Making a quick roll, she was nonetheless far down the pool towards the lip of the third drop when she rolled up. Showing serious grace under pressure, Mariann went with the right line, ferrying directly above the lip of the pourover in the center, charged right, and made it to the safety of the right side of the drop.

Luke and Tyson taking a look at the entrance to the bottom drop

Tyler, entering the left line on the third drop

Though Norway runs in general have more water than a bunch of southern Rocky Mountain paddlers are used to, these three sections felt bigger than the rest of the runs we ran on our journey through Norway. But despite the intimidating nature of some of the big gorges with lots of water, we found the rapids to be relatively forgiving and some of the best of the trip.

Stay tuned for part II of the Norway extravaganza: Slides and Waterfalls are cool...

Boxelder Creek

2008-05-19T07:58:00.000-07:00

Its the third week of May 2008, and Spring has been coming slowly in the Colorado Rockies. Old man winter is still very much alive in the high peaks and almost none of the major drainages have started to move. We were getting ancy, ready for warmer weather and flowing water. Hopes of paddling anything in the state began to be crushed as we watched temps drop during the week. However, a glimmer of hope appeared with a post by Casper Mike on Mountain Buzz inviting anyone willing to make the drive to central Wyoming's Medicine Bow mountains to join him on Box Elder Creek.
Now..., a little bit of spray, and some harsh discussion have been circling around for the last few weeks regarding the merits of Box Elder. Aside from the scattered info, including a TR on a high water decent of the upper canyon, we had little to go off of when we took up Casper Mike's invitation. Something along the lines of upper canyon good to go, lower canyon still unrun. So late Friday evening, we jumped into Justin's truck and started making our way north.
Upon arrival in Casper on Saturday, we met up with Mike and his buddy David, and set out for Box Elder Canyon. We parked at the midpoint of the run to check things out. From our vantage point 2,500 feet above the canyon bottom, we got our first glimpse of the creek. The view was impressive. From the canyon rim, we had a clear view of "loaf," a major drop through a mini gorge close to the end of the upper canyon. While unclear how runnable the drop was from our perch 2,500 feet above the river, it was BIG, and it certainly made us wonder about what we were just about to get ourselves into.
After discussing logistics, we decided to park one vehicle at the midpoint and drive to the putin and paddle at least the upper gorge, and possibly complete the decent of the lower gorge. Regardless of the outcome of the day, we would need to climb almost all the way out of the canyon to portage the middle portion of the gorge. Mike informed us that at the current flow of about 350cfs the middle portion of the canyon would be unscoutable and unrunnable.
So with a bit of trepidation, we headed for the putin. After solving a few gear issues, we finally got on the water to find out just what Box Elder was all about. After about a mile of mellow warm up, our trepedation was replaced with excitement once we got to the first of the quality drops which continued in pool drop fashion. The highlight of the day came at loaf, the drop we had seen from the top of the canyon. Loaf is a three tiered drop into a tight gorge, with a 6-7 foot boof exiting the gorge. The drop reminded me a bit of double trouble on crack, speed and with a serious case of roid rage. I could be exagerating a bit here, but this drop is BIG. Debating lines and probable outcomes, Justin decided to fire it up. We set up safety, and waited while Justin prepared to drop in. He charged the center entrance drop and barreled into the second drop before disappearing as he was totally enveloped in the curtain and crashed over the final 10 foot plunge. He resurfaced a quick second later well beyond the grips of the hole, rolled up, made a few strokes and boofed over the finale drop and into the safety of the large pool below. It was awesome to see Justin butter up the line. As clean as his line was, nobody else was up for the challange, and we quickly took to the dry line to continue our decent of the upper canyon.
By the time we had completed the upper canyon it was getting to be late in the afternoon. With a a huge portage required to get back to river level and the lower canyon, we opted to head straight for the car and the cold beer waiting there, and leave the lower gorge for the morning. The hike out was brutal. A slog by any standards, we had to hike up a mix of steep talus, muddy hillsides, and rattlesnake infested sage brush before reaching the top of the canyon and the car.
We returned the next morning and met up with Mike to paddle the lower canyon. Unfortunately, Casper Mike was not feeling well, and opted out of for the day, but helped us run our shuttle anyway. In addition, Mike helped us secure access through the private property at the take out.
To our knowledge, and Mike's, the lower canyon of Box Elder had not been paddled. Mike assured us that it was good to go, and a touch easier than the upper canyon. So we shouldered the boats and started heading down to river level. About midway down, we got a better look of the last drops in the middle section of the canyon. It looked really good with the exception of a serious looking set of drops immediately above what appeared to be a terminal hole. We still couldn't see what was contained further upstream in the heart of the middle canyon, so we were unable to tell how runnable/scoutable the drops are. So after some deliberation, we decided to put in below the last of the middle canyon drops below the hole.
After about two hours of torturous down scrambling, we reached the river at the bottom of the last of the middle canyon's drops. Upon closer examination, the majority of the middle drops looked really fun. Even the nasty hole looked like it would go although there would be SERIOUS consequences to being off line. And this would be a serious possibility given the stout set of drops leading into the hole. But a clean line was definitely there. However, after our hike, nobody felt like scrambling back up the river to test out our theory on how runnable these drops were.
So we geared up and headed down stream into the unknown. Along the way, we encounted a few challenging drops and some fun slides, and read and run with less of a pool drop character than the upper canyon. With the exception of 2 drops the lower was a full notch easier than the upper.

To summarize, Boxelder Creek is about 7 miles long cutting its way through a steep, rugged limestone canyon nearly 2,500 deep. The canyon can be divided into three sections; the upper, middle and lower. The upper section is about three miles long, and I would classify this as pool drop V, with one V+. The middle section is only about a mile and is V/V+. The beta we received is that there is no portaging one of the cave drops at river level, and at flows to make the upper and lower canyons good (about 250cfs to 400cfs) it is best to hike all the way up and around the middle. The lower consists of two V's at the top, the rest is fun read and run IV+/V- with a few slides.
Hopefully we can get back in there to find a way to tie this whole run together, although it is unlikely that at the flows needed to make the middle go (I am guessing 150 - 200cfs) the upper and lower would be very low and moderatley worthwhile. Your looking at 3-4 hours to portage up and around the middle, very exhausting to say the least. Leave 3 hours to run the upper, maybe 4 for the middle, and 2 for the lower section. Be heads up for rattlesnakes when hiking. For this reason, Boxelder Canyon will never be a classic, but anyone looking for an adventure through a beautiful canyon will be rewarded with a very fun run.

UPPER SECTION

Triple Scoop (V-)

Rocket Launcher (V-)

Wild Turkey (V)

Gut Buster (V-)

Electric Slide (V)

Loaf (V+) (1st known decsent by Justin Merritt)

Dung Ball (V)

About halfway up the takeout hike.

LOWER SECTION (1st known Descent)

G-Spot (V) Precision is key, missing the G-Spot could result in you playing with yourself in a ledge hole.

Moist Curtains (IV+) Get ready for two big juicy curtains to guide you down.

Turbo Tongue (IV+)

We have to mention that Casper Mike deserves alot of credit for opening up this creek. He did alot of work scouting on foot the entire canyon, which is not easy given the rugged terrain, and we were rewarded with an amazing creek nestled right off of I-25. Thanks for showing us the way Mike!
Also, it should be noted that there are definitely access issues with this creek. While the canyon proper including the midpoint hike out/take out is on public land the putin and takeout are on private property. Mike has secured access to the putin for himself, and I am sure he would be happy to help out any other boaters wishing to check out Box Elder. The takeout in particular is a very sensitive as you have to cross over private propery to get to your vehicle. Despite having permission to cross the land, we were confronted by two seperate landowners, neither of which actually own the property that you need to cross. Both of these landowners had guns. Whether they were on display for our benefit or not is unknown, but know that these people are not messing around. At this point it is a good idea to contact CasperMike on the buzz and see if he can help arrange something if you decide to run this.

Trip report and photos by Ben and Chris

One Last Leg Burner

2008-04-29T20:55:00.000-07:00

Text and Photos by
-C Mo

It was getting to be that time of year...The resorts are all closing down, weather on the Front Range is starting to get nicer, and dreams of melting snow, raging rivers, and waterfalls start dancing around my head.
But this year, I found myself a little torn. I took up telemark skiing earlier this season, and found a new reason to get excited about sliding down snow. So it wasn't breaking my heart when in the second week of April Mike proposed a backcountry adventure. With the snowpack still in midwinter shape, and the rivers still frozen stiff, I figured it would be a great time to have a sunny day in the backcountry.
Our objective: Mount Sopris
Mount Sopris is the sentinal guardian of the Roaring Fork Valley, dominating the skyline for miles around. While it is not the highest peak in the craggy Elk Mountains, it certainly is the envy. Bob Ross himself couldn't have created a better looking peak. And the best of all...it has lines that just beg to be skied. From huge expansive bowls, to nasty chutes, and long approaches, Mount Sopris has it all.
After putting in some research, Thomas Lakes Bowl was determined to be hold the best options considering the sketchy snowpack that we were dealing with. So without further adieu, Mike, Tyson and I headed up to the hills for some cold smoke.
With a 3:45am wake-up call, we began the 5,000 foot 7 mile one way slog at 5am. I've never skiied in the backcountry at night before, so even without coffee, the cool air and new experience were enought to get me going.
When the sun broke, we were rewarded with our first views of Thomas Lakes Bowl. I was blown away. I have always been impressed by the dramatic siloutte of Sopris, but from our angle and with the fresh sunrise lighting the landscape, it was a photo opportunity that would have Ansel Adams rolling over in his grave.
Our route took us up the southeast ridgeline of the east subsidiary summit. (say that five time fast!) After several hours of torture, we made it to the last push up the summit ridge, which required us to take off our skis and hike up the rocks, and traverse between sketchy cornices on the summit to reach Thomas Bowl.
And finally, it was time to rip. We checked the snowpack, checked our beacons, and strapped on the sticks, and proceeded to tear into the perfect spring pow. By the time we reached the bottom of the bowl, the day had turned into a full blown beauty. And as the avalanche forecast predicted, the warmer temps and warming snowpack began producing some point release and wet avalanche activity. Fortunatley, we were out of the danger zone, and were free to enjoy the roar the falling snow.
A few moderate pitches brought us back to our skin tracks and the trail out. After about 9 hours, 14 miles and 10,000 veritcal feet, the first beer went down real well...

Dawn breaks on the Roaring Fork Valley

Chris-East Main subsidary of Sopris in sight

Tyson & Mike-first breather of the day

Tyson-breaking trail

Mike-almost there....

Tyson-the final push

Thomas Lakes Bowl from the SE-we skiied from lookers left of the rocky outcrop in the center to lookers right of the same knob

Mike-getting it done

Chris-looking small in Thomas Lakes bowl

Looking back at the crews tracks

El Rio Embudo

2008-04-29T11:50:00.000-07:00

By Luke

Embudo means "funnel" in Spanish, but if I didn't know any better I would have to guess that it means "kick ass kayaking run" instead. With our eyes on the guage multiple times a day after getting word that flows and temps were on the rise, the full crew decided to rally down to Pilar, New Mexico for one of the best creek runs in we the four corner states...if not the country.

We all arrived late Friday night, the first time that we had all been on the same river together since last October, and come Saturday morning I would say that we all felt like little kids on Christmas morning. We were ready to commence the gift opening. After a full on breakfast, essential to peak performance, we headed up to the put in. The weather was fairly warm around mid-day, but it had been pretty chilly the night before and we were curious to see what the flow was at. We geared up and headed down the short hike to find that the flow looked pretty similar to our runs last year at 3.15 feet. A good level and what I would consider a minimum for a decently padded out run. Much lower and it becomes a freakin' mank fest, suitable for Captain Mank himself, Joe Keck, but aggravating for most.

After a short paddle in you come to Long Rapid, which is well.....long. It's starts off mellow like Lynard Skynard's "Freebird" and continues to escalate in difficulty until you hit the end of the rapid, the guitar solo, and rockout on the final drops when at last you come around a car sized boulder and see all of your buddies grinning from ear to ear.

The middle of the run ensues with quality whitewater, sweet boofs, and awesome laterals to carry you down if your timing is good enough to stay on top.

The main event, Slots of Fun, is truly that. With a somewhat intimidating final drop the lead in is stout, but the rewards are great if you stay on line and hit the right "spot" while dropping over the "Slot". Hanging out on the rock next to Slots is one of my favorite places to be. With the Southwestern landscape, you and your posse stoked on life, and knowing that the paddling season is just about to come into full swing is a very spiritual feeling.

The rest of the run to the take out is great paddling as well, and even better while anticipating the taste of a cool brewski upon arrival at the shuttle vehicle!

(Please note that the take out access is a very sensitive issue on this run and we want to continue to be able to paddle the Embudo. Post on Mountainbuzz first if you're unsure about the correct takeout)

Ben nailing the flake rock on Slots...

CMo lining up the crosshairs....

The author boofing into Cheesegrater...

Justin gettin' jiggy wit it....

Double T on line and on time!

Escalante

2008-04-24T17:04:00.001-07:00

Escalante Trip - Trip Report April 2008
by Ben

We headed out from Denver early on Saturday, April 19th for our first creeking trip of the season. You could not have asked for better conditions, the chocolate water was raging and the temperatures were in the mid 70's. Sunday, 4:20, proved to be the best of both days giving us medium-high flows, providing enough padding to run Escalante Falls and making the inner gorge a bit more interesting.

Our group consisted of myself, Justin, Lori, Chris, and Mike. It was great having Lori there to take a bunch of these amazing photos, run shuttle, and looking after all the dogs...thanks for putting up with us stinky river-rats!

Justin boofing the first drop, Leap Of Faith...

Mike blasting off Rib Ripper...

Justin finishing off the upper run on Corkscrew, online as usual...

Mike entering the inner gorge...

Chris running the falls. Freaking sweet boof guy, way to represent MD...

Cool angle on this picture taken by Lori catching me in mid air, she was sitting about 100 feet above us...

Some random guy getting buried at Magnetic Wall...

I learned the hard way how to run the entrance to Magnetic. Found it much easier to grab the river left eddy above the drop and charge with right boat angle, making sure to have a delayed boof stroke. The initial attempt got me my first bootie-beer of the season, nothing like the taste foot fungus and Miller Lite to quench your thirst...

What an awesome way to kick off the season! Made a few new friends out there, did some great camping (minus the gay dog action and me forgetting breakfast), plus had our shuttle bunny taking care of us. Mike, can we get some ICE CREEEEAAAAAMMMMMM, don't think that we will forget that. Don't wait too long, those ice creams become steak dinners at Ruth's Chris Steak House after 10 days.

Check that off the list for the season, next up Rio Embudo...

For a video report check out www.gravitysessions.com/video