Kamchatka Project :: Field Report

In the weeks preceding departure to the Kamchatka Peninsula for a project Bryan and I had been working on for almost two years, many of my close paddling friends kept asking about what kind of whitewater we expected to find. And the truth was, with so much of our planning and prep time focused on the salmon, the conservation aspects of our trip, and the general logistics, that we had no idea what to expect in terms of whitewater.

I don’t mean to say that we hadn’t looked into it. At it’s heart this project was born out of kayakers wanting to go explore rivers in an unknown corner of the world. But this region has seen so little interest in whitewater that there was virtually no whitewater beta. We spoke to flyfishing guides who pointed us in some directions and other tourism guides that had insights into other drainages; although, when we looked at these rivers on maps, they just didn’t give us – as kayakers – the confidence we wanted that they would pan out into good whitewater. So a week before our departure, we called an audible.

The Semilayach River had the best Google Earth imagery on the peninsula and there was definitely a pool drop character to the river. Whether it would have the right amount of flow at the time we would be there or whether the drops would be clean and runnable or a junk pile of boulders was anyone’s guess. But we decided it was our best option, and as Daniel DeLaVergne once said, ‘sometime’s you gotta just drop in and figure it out.’ We did, and we found some good whitewater and some excellent rapids. And on the heli flight into the Semilayach, we flew over the Karimsky river, which looked even better from the air, and it too proved to be excellent on the river.

The Range Life hasn’t really been our outlet for this project, but we wanted to share some pics with our loyal readers and point you to our facebook page for more updates and sources of media that are starting to filter out now. Also, check out Outdoor Research’s Verticulture site for some sat phone podcasts. We have more than 2 weeks left over here, so stay tuned for more updates and enjoy the images …


international expeditions always mean a load of gear and airports. This one included two transfers and an unexpected layover in Moscow. photo by bryan smith


Bryan, Ethan, Jay, Jeff, Rob & Shane. photo by ethan smith


our soviet era shuttle. photo by shane robinson


thar's whitewater down thar. photo by ethan


ethan hitting one of the first boof's on the trip. photo by shane


rob cruising through a nice series on the semilchik. photo by ethan


bryan stoked to find some quality russian whitewater. photo by shane


source to sea means flatwater - bryan getting back to his roots. photo by shane


hard to beat smoked salmon, hot springs and an erupting volcano to start a river trip. photo by ethan


before there was the brown, there was the shit, and ethan fired up the shit! photo by bryan


where are we? In the middle of nowhere. photo by ethan


jeff collecting some data. photo by ethan


a rudimentary but effective flow measurement. photo by ethan


lots of fun mini gorges on the Karymskaya. photo by ethan


ethan running one of the team's favorite drops. photo by shane


our camp at the beach. photo by bryan


maybe the most dangerous part of our trip - the petropavolovsk yacht club. photo by shane


and a sign off by our friend smokey. photo by shane

The Chelan Gorge is Neat-O

I learned to boat in Colorado, and spent the majority of my first decade kayaking in there, so that's my main point of reference in this activity we call "kyaking" [sic]. That's also where I met Todd. We often reminisce about, and occasionally poke fun at the Colorado boating scene - perhaps even on this blog from time to time. Recently, the PacNW's latest Colorado transplant chimed in on the comparisons of the two regions with this post. It got Todd and I talking about Colorado boating again on our latest trip over to the East side of the Cascades, which happens to be very Colo-esque in climate. One conclusion we settled on was that, by comparison, photography is extra challenging over here in the deep, dark, well-forested runs of Western WA. Such would not be the case last weekend, however, as the Chelan Gorge has nary a tree nor a shrub in its bedrock crack, and nothing but crystal clear blue skies above. It also possesses plenty-o-sol allowing - practically requiring - shorties to replace the standard issue drysuit.

Prior to last weekend the Chelan gorge had only been run on one other occasion - during a flow study almost ten years ago as part of its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) re-licensing process. Yet, this may be one of the most well documented rivers in the nation. This stretch is now in a three year review process with many stakeholder groups evaluating our actions on and off the river, which means even more documentation (such as here and here). And now, I guess, adding my own two centavos, and Todd's photos, makes it that much more documented. Hopefully all this will help future boaters determine if this is a run they are interested in and qualified for, as safety is the number one concern for boating this run, but it would also be good to show as much interest as possible over the course of these next three years.

A final note on the nature of this run during the review process. The agencies involved in these releases have been particularly concerned about liability issues surrounding our recreational activities. Participants must register on the Chelan PUD site, sign waivers, and check-in the day of boating. Realize that this is one of the more difficult sections of water to boat on FERC releases, and it is located in an area with no other class V boating options, so the community is not accustomed to the likes of us waterfall-loving types. However, you wouldn't know this by the welcome you will receive. The waitress at the Apple Cup Cafe asked about our adventure, a crowd of thirty or more spectators gathered on the bridge spanning the canyon, and the PUD folks were very excited to facilitate the process, working over the weekend and even baking us brownies. So, play by the rules, be patient with the paperwork, and come out to support this decade-long effort by AW!

I don't have a ton to add to the previously mentioned commentary. The run is fun. It's probably not destined for the fame of Tatlow or the fanfare of Robe canyon, but it is a truly unique gorge with amazingly beautiful water ... and did I mention that its hot and sunny over there. Time for the photos! (all photos by Todd Gillman)






Sequence of Bellingham-by-way-of-CO resident Leif Embertson in the 3-part first rapid.




Jonathan Ehlinger in the middle of the entrance rapid.


Tretwold




The bottom of the first rapid is formed by a tight constriction with plenty of funny water in front of it. The hole, at 350 cfs, is small in size, but curiously strong .. and difficult to hit with the proper combination of speed and angle, which produced some interesting results. Above is Scherdle on the approach.


There was one really nice cross-current boof..


... and a drop that was eerily similar to Monkey Cage on the Top Tye...


Chris on the Monkey Cage doppelganger.


The water spilling off the top of Lake Chelan was around 60 degrees, which, with the 95-degree air temp, was almost too warm. In fact, the excessive heat at one point had me feeling lethargic and lazy. On a day like we had you could easily get away with paddling in just a PFD.






The Chelan's stunning color and clarity is something more commonly associated with "butt-ass-cold," not "my-skin-is-melting-off-hot."




Directly below the Monkey Cage look-a-like rapid, there's a not-so-bueno big rapid that leads into a portage around a sieve. I think everyone portages both rapids all the time.


Some locals told us of the old days, before the dam, when as kids they'd hike into the gorge and play in the swimming holes. A member of our group discovered at least one "swimming hole" designed, it seems, just for kayakers.


The Chelan Gorge with water in it is indeed a "Chelan Beauty", but be advised if you're contemplating a long drive to take advantage of one of the scheduled releases: the run is short, like only 5 rapids short; there's a bit of mank to contend with on the way into the gorge; and there are 2 advised portages, one of which takes some time to move a group through. None of this is meant to dissuade anybody, just being clear about it.

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.