January 30, 2013

Video: Whitewater Kayaking the Stikine River, BC

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Here's what I'm hearing is a stellar video by Fred Norquist and Evan Garcia of their whitewater kayaking trip down the Grand Canyon of the Stikine with Eric Parker, Ryan Lucas, Matt Baker, and Ben Marr (I think that's everyone - I haven't watched the whole thing yet but seeing as I know if I wait I'll never post it I'm taking a break from work to throw it on here.)

The Grand Canyon of the Stikine is pretty much one of the hardest rivers anywhere, from what I hear.  The description that sticks in my mind is a quote from kayaker Jeff West (originally taken from his blog post on the Jackson site) in a Playak.com article that was written after he died in September 2012 on a solo run of the Stikine, shortly after successfully completing a one-day descent with Erik Boomer and Todd Wells.  Here's what he had to say about it:

"Stacked, huge, complex rapids with monster holes, crushing diagonal waves, three-foot tall surging eddy walls all surrounded by 1,000-foot cliffs. The Stikine makes other rivers seem two dimensional. I had always thought of water flowing downstream, side to side and sometimes upstream. Additionally, on this river the water is constantly exploding upward and sucking down. It felt like a giant roller coaster and monster trampoline combined."

I highly recommend reading his Jackson blog post to get the full story, not just about the rapids but also how he felt about running them.

Anyway, what I've seen so far of this video looked amazing.  Keep in mind everything looks smaller on helmet cam (not that it looks small, but in real life it's bigger regardless) and also for those watching at work, at least one f-bomb in here.


Tags

Ben M., Eric P., Erik B., Evan G., Fred N., Jeff W., Matt B., Stikine River, Todd W.


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