A lot of time spent chasing the worlds best whitewater involves a lot of time spent waiting for the worlds best whitewater to show up. High water descents of rivers of some of my favourite rivers are only possible for a few days of the year when a rare combination of high altitude rain falling onto snow causes the water levels to spike to epic proportions. I find high water rivers nothing but pure joy, they are dangerous for sure but by the time I am getting on them when it's high I have done hundreds of descents of them at low flows and feel completely happy out there. Waterfalls are a whole other breed to me, with big waterfalls having the ability to end your season I like them to be at their ideal flow before I consider dropping one.
Today, everything came together better than we could ever have hoped for.
We started the day off with a lap down the Little White. We have been sessioning this river for the past 10 days and it’s amazing even at low flows but it is so special when it’s high. The water starts to fill in all of the cracks and things really begin to stand up in there. The river is fast, powerful and potentially really dangerous but with a solid crew it is nothing but good times as you twist, turn, weave, flow and rip your way down sick rapid after sick rapid.
We had a hunch that a 70ft waterfall named Outlet would be in and we set off in that direction. Dane thought he knew a shortcut and we ended up getting stuck in the mud… We managed to throw enough sticks under the wheels to give the truck enough traction to get out and we promptly turned around on the dirt road and headed back towards the main road in search of pavement.
We made it to Outlet falls in the afternoon and it was at a solid medium level. We are filming for a new edit and working with some photographers so we had to deal with lots of waiting while people got set up and drones got into position. You might think that sitting around above a 70ft waterfall could be quite stressful? And you are absolutely correct. Luckily we are used to it and myself and Adrian passed the time by chatting the usual smack above the falls.
“Anyway last night, she told me to tie her up and do whatever I wanted. And so here I am mate, sat above a 70ft waterfall with you”.
I went first and had a good line, I got swallowed by the curtain of water falling early and had a really soft hit. Adrian had an epic line that was sick to watch but took a roosting impact a the bottom. #worthit
Dane was the last to go and crushed his line. The new media is on lock down but check out this edit of me sending it two years go.
At this point in the day with the time lost from media obligations and getting stuck in the mud, the sun was beginning to go down. The smart man would have said there was not enough time to go to another river, the betting man would have been on his side but the three stoked men at the bottom of a waterfall decided that there was just about enough time in the day left.
Which is how we found ourselves bombing the Green Truss river as the sun disappeared behind the mountains. The Truss is an epic section of whitewater when it’s high but there are definitely some spots that can be hectic at high water. The whole crew was cheering as we made it through the ZigZag rapids, the hardest rapids on the river and floated to the takeout.
We got changed, drank a beer and toasted an epic day. I would have loved to have fallen asleep but I wanted to make the edit of that day while everything was still fresh in my mind.
These are the days that make all the downtime worth it. What a sick day!
See you on the water,
Bren
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