Triple Crown

The Triple Crown. No, not that Triple Crown. And not that Triple Crown either. I'm talking about the three classic creeks right outside of Whistler, BC: The Callaghan, The Soo, and The Upper Cheak. Home of the Whistler Cup, which is happening as I type.

All three of these rivers are just minutes from Whistler, have amazing access (especially for BC), have quick shuttles (usually Bikeable, Joggable, or Hitchable), and are not super scary while being super fun. What more do you want in a day of boating? While I have done all three rivers multiple times individually, I have never done all three in one day. Like Todd, when the plan was put together, I usually turn my nose up, prefering to knock off a new river on the hit list. But Skookum Creek was on tap for Sunday, so for Saturday, some good splashy whitewater sounded fun.

When you go to run the Callaghan, all you think about are the two amazing waterfalls, which makes you get in creekin mentality. However, when you take your first stroke out of the put-in eddy, you realize, "whoa, this is like a real river, with some volume." One of the great qualities of the triple crown is that you could run 15km of class V and never touch a rock...its just great river running (with some waterfalls).

Traveling north from the Callaghan, we headed to the Upper Cheak for a non-stop run in about 15 minutes. Then on past Whistler we hit the Soo, which has larger and more technical drops than the Cheak, but is still a big and pushy river. By the time you finish all three, its time to head for Pasta Lupino's in the village and check out the scene.

We got some video for your viewing pleasure, however, we didn't take any still photos, so I dug through the archives for a little eye candy...enjoy.

Photos by yours truly,

Whistler locals always cringe at this photo...The standard line is off the spout on the left [of the photo]. However on this trip we had no guide, and this line looked fine...and it was...despite the sieve in the landing zone. Although I think the drop has changed and the landing on river-left is less likely to fill in.


Brock said he really wanted to be on the blog. So here he is probing the guts of the perfect 25-footer on the Callaghan


I love this over the shoulder angle on the same drop.

Check back soon for Todd's report on Skookum Creek...or better yet, subscribe to tRL on the right and you'll get an email when he posts it. You don't want to miss this one.