Sunday, September 18, 2011

Khatada River

Made the mission to Khatada river last week. What a beauty. Its a pretty solid class V run, and the crew consisted of a kiwi named Sy, Ali Marshall, Corey Boux and myself.

To get to this run, you drive west from Terrace approx. 1 hour, paddle across the Skeena River (takes about 30 min), then hike up to the put in beside a little marshy lake. The hike takes about an hour and a half, and be prepared for mud. Lots of berries to eat on the way though! I have heard horror stories about the mosquitos on the hike but it was clear sailing for us.

This run is all about the big slides. 3 drops are upwards of 100 feet each of steep fast and technical goodness. Rather than talk, heres a few photos: (my camera was crappin out so bear with the blurred shots....)

Corey nearing the bottom of the first drop (this pic shows about 1/3 of the rapid)









Ali taking left line on the first drop


















Sy and Ali looking at the rooster rapid













Corey and Sy at the final slide














Ali at the bottom of the last slide


















Corey in the top of the slide. I like this photo, if you look hard at the top left you can just see his head poking up

















Sy on the last slide
















All in all, pretty tight run. Beers tasted better than usual after this one!