Dipper Creek: The Upper Canyon

Shane & I got out of Seattle at a reasonable hour after work. The plan was to meet Chris in B'ham, slam some dinner real quick & then finish the drive up to Squamish. The three of us were giddy with excitement, having resigned ourselves to our fate. We had done about as much prep work as was possible & even had a semi-complete list of all the known rapids on the creek. Comes a time when you just gotta step up & take what you got coming to ya, and in the morning we would do just that.

Morning came quickly. A high pressure system brought clear bright skies and cold temps, making for the first time this season I'd have to chip frost off my windshield. We were at sea level in Squamish, & we knew it would be even colder up in the mountains. Bryan was stoked to have coerced a land support team, including his wife Lise-Anne & our buddy Jonaven, into bushwhacking along the rim of the gorge with ropes in case we got ourselves into a pickle & needed a haul outta there. Stopping along the way at Jonaven's, we were surprised to find out that he'd also talked 3 of his gung-ho buddies into joining them on the land crew.

On the drive up, we were still unsure on the actual plan. Would be be starting with the Lower Canyon, since it seemed at the time like less of a chunk to bite off? And since, with our foot soldiers in mind, the hiking along the rim of the Lower Canyon was much easier. Or would we put our support crew through some pain & suffering, & just fire into the super-steep Upper Canyon without the benefit of a recent scout of the bottom part of that gorge? We debated the merits of each & ultimately decided to head upstream to attempt the Upper Canyon .. again.

The hike in wasn't hard by BC standards, but definitely got the blood & sweat flowing. And compared to our slog UP the very same canyon wall a year prior, it was remarkably easy. .


Big Dipper.
Photo: Todd G.

BD Falls is every bit of 70 feet & not nearly as "slidy" as it would appear in the photo above (blame that on a bit of distortion from my superwide lens). It is totally runnable, and I'd probably run it the next time I'm up there .. but I can't help thinking that the landing's equivalent to being a quarterback getting sacked by a really big lineman who came in hot on your blindside. Keep in mind this rapid drops immediately out of the pool that Double Dip, the 2-tiered 50-footer, lands in. Our goal was to actually figure out & run Dipper Creek to the bottom, not invest a ton of time in safely stunt-boating two big falls. We also couldn't risk blowing our long-awaited opportunity on a trip-ending explosion/evac scenario on the first rapid. So with that in mind, we admired the awe-inspiring view of Double-Dip-into-Big-Dipper on the way to our chosen put-in at the base of BD ..


Tret in the BD exit drop .. a fun, low-stress way to start this mission!
Photo: Todd G.


Photo: Todd G.


Shane very stoked to be committed to the gorge.
Photo: Todd G.

Upper Dipper is quite stacked. Just around the bend from the spectacular entrance series is Dipstick, an S-shaped rapid that involves boofing a small horseshoe ledge while limbo'ing some wood, then driving left & back to center for the main part of the rapid -- a silly 25-foot slide.


Photo: Todd G.

Shane sez: While this drop wasn't all that difficult, it felt good to actually have to make some moves to stick this drop. Dipper is such a low volume creek, it would be easy to get lazy and just drift and boof ... it ain't no Robe Canyon.

Chris on Dipstick
Photo: Todd G.


Dipper is all bedrock all the way .. pretty much.
Photo: Todd G.


Photo: Todd G.

Bedrock constrictions form most of the Dipper's rapids, which included lots of little ledges & long twisting slides. From Dipstick, a few mellow slide features leads you to Little Dipper Falls, a drop that we'd gotten a glimpse of on our first aborted mission, & ever since, had been calling "The 50-Footer", for the sole purpose of descriptive naming.


River-level scout of the drop formerly known as The 50-footer.
Photo: Todd G.

On one of Bryan's later scouts of the creek, he deemed it in the neighborhood of 35 ft. Scale & proportion tend to get skewed one way or the other when scouting from so high above the features. At any rate, this must-run slide-to-vert falls is very good to go, & was the standout rapid of the day.


Bryan "Kato" Smith calling dibs on this one.
Photo: Todd G.

Shane sez: ^^^ I love this shot. The vantage downstream almost steals the focus from Bryan, and it really captures what it looks like in there - the canyon is every bit as tight as is looks downstream!

Now for some perspective, here's Chris running it with Bryan in the pool below.
Photo: Todd G.


Chris's view of me running Little Dipper.
Photo: Chris T.



Shane rolling in ..
Photos: Todd G.

And we haven't even gotten to the crux yet ..



Shane probing a super-tight, un-portageable constriction below a sizable ledge. Maybe we should call it Skinny Dip .. I dunno. This rapid is visible in some of the Little Dipper shots above.
Photo: Chris T.

At this point we were getting hemmed-in. I mean, we were "in the gorge" from the put-in, but at this point it gets really deep & really tight .. which leads us to Rowdy Flatwater.


Los Dudes eddying out at the lip of Rowdy Flatwater.
Photo: Todd G.


Looking back up at Skinny Dip & Little Dipper from the lip of Rowdy Flatwater. It's a big steep drop into the slidey bit of RF, & it's this part that falls onto a ridge of rock extending from river-left that is scary.
Photo: Todd G.

RF is a looooong twisty, very constricted, very steep rapid formed by a vertical right wall that goes to the sky .. & a sloping, moss-covered left wall. The main issues with the rapid are: (1) the seemingly unavoidable piton in the entrance, which would slow you down enough (or stop you dead in yr tracks, or destroy your boat) making the violently recirculating hole behind it a real hazard; and (2) if, by the grace of the buddha, you make it thru that mess, you still have a couple more bad holes to negotiate. It's only a boat-width wide, so how bad could it be right? But that just means the holes are really long upstream to downstream & that moving left to right to get outta the holes isn't an option.


Looking downstream from the entrance. You see the line, right?
Photo: Todd G.

In spite of the very slick bedrock, moving around on the river-left side of RF is surprisingly easy .. but with higher water, that option would shut down. Since there was no way to walk "around" the bottom of the rapid, we put our land team to work for the first time here. The portage was very involved, & it probably would've been easier to just roll the dice on running the rapid. We set up a rope-assisted traverse with elevation-control from a line running up to an anchor manned by a couple of those dudes up the canyon wall. This worked for boats & paddlers. I think you could still make it work w/o the land team, but it would be a much more wet experience .. & I think in the future at least the bottom half of the rapid will just get run via a sketchy seal-launch .. hate to be the last guy, though.


Our portage circus.
Photo: Todd G.

Below the debacle that is Rowdy Flatwater, a little bit of boogie water & more jaw-dropping gorge scenery leads to some very fun stuff. It was here that Bryan said to me, "Now we're in the gorge!" .. I got a chuckle out of that. I knew what he meant though -- now we're in the deepest, most constricted, least portageable, & least known part of the gorge. Yeeha!


Photo: Todd G.


Photo: Todd G.

The creek is small, so the eddies are tiny. At one point, we each occupied our own respective eddy while Chris had a scout from a boulder on river-right. He then waved Bryan, then me, thru a steep slot. Bryan got out below on river-left in the midst of the continuous rapid, while I awaited instruction. He gave the "so-so" look, but I was eager to move. It was blind, fast & very fun .. & I was under-prepared for how long the rapid was. I bombed over a slide-to-boof into a very tight pinch, into a fast jet approaching an obvious boulder boof, into ... it just kept going! finally subsiding in a narrow corridor of perfectly polished granite with a towering waterfall cascading down upon my head. Excellent.


Photo: Todd G.

Shane sez: This drop was such a bonus. I'd never scouted this section of the river, so this drop was a surprise and so much fun. It had an entry boof that looked tricky, but once I landed that, it was just splashy and fast all the way through. It just kept dropping, and I didn't know what to expect so I just kept throwing in boof strokes. Then you come around the corner and there is the amazing waterfall cascading in off the right wall. Wow!

Bryan
Photo: Todd G.


Photo: Todd G.


Photo: Todd G.


Photo: Todd G.


Appreciating the amazing place we landed in.
Photo: Todd G.

At this point, the creek continues to fall away thru a series of slides & small falls. Unfortunately, our progress was stopped by wood at a point in the gorge where portage was impossible. For a tense moment, it was questionable whether or not egress from the gorge itself was even an option .. but we were fortunate to have stopped in a place where the left wall mellowed just enough to allow us to rope up & out. We radioed-in our support crew to meet us with ropes. We hauled 7 or 8 pitches with their help & did a bit of a bushwhack mission in the typical BC fashion before reaching the road no worse for wear.


Photo: Todd G.


Decision time .. where do we go from here?
Photo: Chris T.


Up & out is where we went from there! Our ground support crew assisting in the get-out. Huge thanks to all those guys!
Photo: Chris T.

Ain't No Fat Ladies Singin' 'Round Here!

"Man, I've never wanted to run a drop I didn't wanna run, as much as I want to run that drop."



Those were my words to Bryan as we were on what was supposed to be a quick final scout of "Vertigo Gorge" prior to giving the rest of the team -- Todd and Chris, who were presently setting shuttle -- the green light to drop in. But now the analysis paralysis had set in, which prompted us to radio them with the not-so-rosy report and get them to hike in and meet us for further inspection and a group decision.

After hiking down the cougar trail along the rim of the deep gorge and rapping in for a river-level look at the source of our indecision, Todd returned and expressed the same sentiment, almost verbatim.

And now here we were standing on the Cat Perch overlooking one of the most impressive and committing gorges we'd ever seen, all quietly thinking the same thing.

Hours later ... we'd broken down camp and wallowed in our defeat at the takeout, drinking a beer before returning to civilization and the responsibilities that always pull you out of the woods sooner than you'd hope. We were bailing out of yet another canyon. This time, the third time, on our ongoing 3-year project we'd taken to calling "Waterfall Creek" for obvious reasons.

"Everyone should drink another beer," Chris chided us, in an attempt to slow the retreat.

We were demoralized and facing a long drive back to the city. Boats were strapped, gear was sorted, and iPods were plugged in, ready for the road. So when Chris casually offered up his next proposal, it really seemed to come from left field, although now, after a couple beers, we were probably more receptive. Turns out, that was part of the plan.

"What would you guys think if we could get around the waterfall and down to that little eddy? I'm ninety-five percent certain there's a big tree upstream that I could use as an anchor to rap down into the gorge. If it works we could still run the rest of the gorge. I mean, would that change anyone's mind?"

"Ah man, that's cheating. That waterfall is the price of admission into that place." Todd said.

"No way, man! I mean, the goal is to make it down through the gorge, travel the river, run some good drops and see some good scenery, right?" Chris countered.

It took only a couple seconds of consideration for Todd to agree and pipe up, "Okay, I'm in! If you can get me to the base of that waterfall, I'll drop in," as he grinned and looked at the others.

I then upped the ante, offering to just go ahead and run the waterfall as long as I had a person at the base of the falls with a rope. All weekend long, Todd and I had been the most adamant about expediting the mission and getting back home early. But now here we were, all flipping the proverbial bird to responsibilities, SO's, and sound decision making -- we were driving back up to our camp. We were going to put on Dipper Creek ... again.


On the Cat Perch overlooking Vertigo Gorge
Photo Chris Tretwold


The heart of Vertigo Gorge is caused by the huge intrusion from river-right.
Photo Todd Gillman


Photo Todd G.


Middle of Vertigo Gorge
Photo Todd G.


The cathedral teacup within Vertigo Gorge
Photo Chris T.


The double-drop into the cathedral teacup. The lead-in to the double is a waterfall into a caved-out room.
Photo Todd G.


River level scout of Vertigo
Photo Todd G.


Bryan & Chris contemplating commitment & consequences in Vertigo.
Photo Todd G.



It's good to be back!

Van Island Revisted: Do Not Forget Your Sixth Sense

The most recent adventure to Vancouver Island was my first, and while Todd provided an excellent wrap-up in terms of a trip report and the usual eye candy, I thought I would chime in with a little verbal musing of my own.

Filming the previous rapid, I was the last of the group to catch the large eddy behind a house-sized boulder where everybody was pondering the next step. I could feel this tingle in my body and wondered why the pace of the group appeared to have stalled more than the usual approach to another horizon line. That tingle was not fully realized until I drifted over to Bryan who then stated, “We’re boxed in now!” Ah-ha ... the extra acute sensations I was experiencing was in response to the sudden change in river character – vertical walls on each side with very limited scouting and portaging options. This “spidey sense” is important for boating in the Northwest and indispensable when dropping into rivers on Vancouver Island – don’t forget it!

This was my first trip to the Island, but I had heard the many rave reviews from Mr. Gillman’s previous adventures and this one promised to include many of the same antics. Gold River would be our “Zone” (an apparently NW dialect) for this mission and after dropping Jakub’s car off, we had a huge list of classics and potential first and second and maybe even third descents thanks to the gracious beta from Vancouver Island’s Shane. Readers should be reminded at this point that the Northwest and BC in particular is notorious for beta that is light on important details such as marginally runnable rapids that are difficult to scout and portage, and rather the beta takes the “its all good … go get it,” tone.

So it should have come to no surprise when on our third and final day – the day we were supposed to be busting out three classics – we encountered our second fully boxed-in and vertical-walled junk pile of a rapid. And we were still on run numero uno. The spidey sense had been running on hyperactive for the last 36 hours and maybe due to fatigue this early in the season, almost allowed to us to get ourselves in a real bind.

As the dealing unfolded, an hour later we had not progressed much. Todd was still upstream making room on the camera memory card for many more incredible pics; Shertzl had not said in word in the last 45 minutes and still had not found a egress less than 5.11c; on the other hand Ryan had verbally dissected every possible line we could make out from upstream and none of those options sounded good to me; Jakub kept giving the signal of nervousness by pretending to chew his fingernails and pounding his heart; and Bryan had decided to go get a second opinion from Jakub’s perspective on the other side of the crick.

Heading home on the ferry, spidey sense back in recovery mode until it will surely be called upon in the coming weekends, we all relished in those memories. Some of which were not fun in the moment, but all of which worked out in the end with reasonable options for safe travel. Standing on top of boulder in the middle of the river, not knowing if I would be paddling downriver to the next eddy or attaining upstream to the top of the gorge; throwing my boat from a forty foot cliff and jumping in after it; portaging through the dense underbrush of the BC forests where the ocean on the other side of the mountain is closer than the nearest road; and getting deep in the sh!t – this is why I will go back to the island and love every minute of it!

If you read/skimmed all of that hoping for some pretty photos, you will have to just go back to some of Todd's posts ... and you should:
Van Island:Gold River Zone:Day 1
Van Island:Gold River Zone:Day 2
Van Island:Gold River Zone:Day 3

Don't Kill the Messenger

But I got more bad news! Its in Canada again, but this time its not the Ashlu and its not even Micro-Hydro. Thanks, Spencer and Chris for the ALERT. Also, remember to buy FSC LUMBER.

"The Best Place on Earth"

After a record snowfall winter in British Columbia, it probably comes as no suprise that things have been juicy up North. While levels have settled over the past couple weeks due to colder temps, the melt is far from over. Between the local classics, some bushwacks in the BC backcountry, and some incredible sea kayak missions TRL has been well represented in BC so far this season.

For years the BC liscense plates have carried the slogan "Beautiful British Columbia". This year I started to see these new plates floating around and right away I noticed the slogan had changed to "The Best Place on Earth".

The old plate...


The new plate...


So here are a few reasons why BC is "The Best Place on Earth"... really just some solid updates on what is happening up North

1. Callaghan Creek

This run has to be one of the best runs to have in your backyard. Over the past couple weeks the levels have been a perfect medium-high flow. We have been busting out laps on this beauty in the evening. So much fun when you get this run dialed and just catch a few eddies here and there. Access is easy, it has a variety of styles of whitewater from IV+ boulder gardens to a perfect 25 foot waterfall, the sun comes directly into the canyon most of the day, every rapid goes...to me it is the perfect run.

Matt about ready to launch off the first ledge just after the put-in.

photo by Maximilian Kniewasser

Steve Rogers dropping the first waterfall. Way better this year without the log!

photo by Amy Christian

Graz launching the 25 foot waterfall

photo by Maximilian Kniewasser

Keep in mind that LEDCOR owns the water license on this river. According to Jan at the BC CREEK PROTECTION SOCIETY there is some kind of a moratorium on development of this particular project until after the 2010 winter games. The Nordic Center for the Olympics is going in up the valley as we speak. I have noticed some monitoring equipiment just below the take-out which most likely has to do with a flow study on the creek.

2. Ashlu Access

Two weeks ago when water was really high due to a week of warm weather, a few of us went up the Ashlu in hopes of hitting the Upper Ashlu. It is well above Tatlow and a big drive, but well worth the mission. The Ashlu was probably the highest I have seen it off of snowmelt.

Standing at the 50/50 bridge...think the Box Canyon might be a little high.

photo by Bryan Smith

We drove up past the mine run. Just crazy to see the excavation that they have done for the dam site. You used to drive up this side of the road and not even be able to see the river! Now it looks like a gravel pit with a river going through it, some old tires laying around...very scenic


photo by Bryan Smith

Now for some some disappointing news. There has been a huge avalance just above the put-in for the play run. It covers the road with debris for about 200 yards and is litered with huge trees and rock. Beyond a burely BC 4X4 mission.

Not just snow...lots of debris.

photo by Bryan Smith

Although or intial thought was that snow would melt and we might be able to get past...the pile of debris is extremely deep and full of big objects.

photo by Bryan Smith

I have already got a few emails this season asking about Tatlow and this certainly throws a bit of a curve ball in. I would expect Tatlow to be in from mid July until early August. This avalalanch is about 2km from the turnoff for Tatlow. So this year it looks like it is going to be a hiking mission. Probably about 5-6km total.

As much as I really wanted to be able to easily get up into that zone right now, I'm also stoked to know that the bears have that whole upper valley to themselves right now.

3. BC sea kayaking is just a vast and exploratory as the river paddling scene.

As some of you may know I have been working on a sea kayaking film PACIFIC HORIZONS. This Spring we did an incredible exploratory trip into the Discovery Islands area, a week long trip in the Bunsby Islands off the North end of Vancouver Island, and a bunch of other stuff. Here are a few pictures, but you should crusie over to the PACIFIC HORIZONS site and check out some of the stories and TRAILER.

Crystal clear water in the Discovery Islands

photo by Steve Rogers

Surfing the long boat on an epic wave!

photo by Steve Rogers

We had amazing weather and took ferry after ferry to get to some new destinations.

photo by Steve Rogers

The latest addition to the water tribe.

photo by Steve Rogers