Box Canyon Beauties

As the Fall season quickly turns winter here in the Sea to Sky corridor, people are already talking about LA NINA and predicting an epic ski season. I'm still watching the rivers in hope of a few good runs on Ashlu, Elaho, Squamish and Callaghan before I pull out my skis, but the BC coat range is slowly transforming into winter.

Chasing the flows after a recent storm, Chris Tretwold and I managed to paddle the Box Canyon of the Ashlu recently with PHIL TIFO. Phil is an accomplished photographer based in Squamish and works primarily breathing powder as a staff photog for Transworld. Not a bad job to have. A month prior I had dragged Phil into the Tatlow in an effort to get some potential land angles on the big drops. The rumor of mama grizz and endless bc hellfuck kept him waiting at the nymph pool with the dogs rather than attempting to scwack through the woods chasing kayakers. Not a bad choice.

Knowing that the Box is one of the more accessible runs to get a view into for photographs, I had been telling Phil that "we gotta get some cool aerial shots of the Ashlu this season". Also not knowing how long that section of the Ashlu would remain free flowing, it was paramount that Tretwold was introduced to the beauty of the Box in it's natural state. With the Elaho at about 120cms and the cloud cover breaking, everything lined up on a Saturday morning for the mission.

In case you forgot how beautiful the Ashlu was...

Last words before dropping in.


The crux boof at the corner rapid.


Engagement


The entry into triple drop


The exit of triple.


There had been some rumors flying around about some new changes in this run. The two things that were clearly different from the 2006 season where.

1. Triple drop. The entry ledge now goes down the middle. We use to run this on the right, then sneak into a small right channel and hit this really sweet boof at the bottom. Now you still enter on the right, but a big tongue and reactionary take you back towards river left. If you look at the above photo you can now see that there in no rock that used to create the river right channel and feed you onto the boof. Big change, but I think it actually makes the drop easier. The drawback is that is puts you on the left for the next drop that you want to run right.

2. Wood in the first of the 10 foot ledges in the second canyon. You used to be able to run the first ledge far right. You still can but wood prevents you getting the flake over there.

3. Having you license plate recorded and number of kayak noted. Thanks Ledcor!

Some people ran the drop immediately below the two 10 footer this year and I heard it had changed. It looked identical to last year when we were there. You have always been able to run the right side. There is a slidey sideways boof, but it does have issues. There is a shallow pin rock that still remains and the center boulder is very undercut.