Video Guidebook - Upper Icicle Creek

Here is my first stab at a video guide. Let me know if it helps!







Cheers!

Video - Ernie's Gorge

Help save Ernie's Gorge from a hydro diversion project.

Join AW and let them fight the good fight for us. Check out the North Fork of the Snoqualmie river page on the AW website for more info on how and why you should be concerned about this peoject.

Stay Stoked. Stay Safe.

Last Weekend - Top Tye Awesomeness

The Skykomish was running just under 5000cfs and the water at the takeout of the Tye was about an inch below the tree trunk.

Three laps on Top Tye followed by a cool down lap on the Skykomish made for a great weekend.

No clearance for normal Llama traction yet, but the van got a super sweet paint job.

Stay Stoked!

2013 Little White Race

LDuB Race - 2013

 

So, with a Cali mission looming, Scott and I decided that the best way to prepare for our impending bar-fight of a hike/boating excursion was to head down to the Little White Salmon and watch the race.



I heard about the Little White Race last year and I thought it was a pretty cool idea, even if it was a bit above my head. Racing Gettin' Busy sounded awesome, in theory. Then the idea of having to stick a boof at the bottom of Boulder Slouce (when I'm completely gassed) with a crowd screaming for blood crept into the back of my neck and I tucked my tail between my legs. I said maybe next year and cried into by sprayskirt.



Next year is here, and, the course is even tougher now with a giant slalom course below Spirit Falls. So once again, crying into my sprayskirt, I told myself "next year is your year man!" And raised my hand to help with safety.

The Little White race is long: from the top of Gettin' Busy down to the pool below Wishbone Falls. This is no slouch stretch of whitewater. The race organizers also decided to have the option of solo racers. Most creek races in the class V arena are team races with the obvious exception being the NF championship race on Jacob's Ladder.

 

Another glaring example of change in the modern boating community was the inclusion of a slalom course on the run, after the race. Slalom courses have been around for a long time, and there's entire tribes of Latvian youths that have never seen life outside of a slalom course and lashes from Gunther's whip, but I've never seen one like this:





Naturally, the best and questionably brightest showed up on race day to throw down on a slightly cooler but much brighter Sunday than we expected.









As my lines are pretty suspect on this run, I raised my hand to help with safety and was promptly stationed at Sacraledge. With multiple throwbags arranged for Human Fishing, I felt a little less guilty about bringing out the camera for the racers.













I was fortunate to see some of the worlds best kayakers blaze through the bottom of a rapid sequence, that normally leaves me breathless and wide-eyed, without even mouth breathing. Angles on these photos are limited, as I felt I was morally obligated to stay within throwbag range of the cave that was the real beatdown hazard at this river feature.

 
 

 






 Once we got the go ahead, that the last racer was through the course, it was time to head down to Spirit Falls and the Giant Slolom course that was waiting to take some names. As we (Team Safety) where pretty late to the party I opted to head down to my perch above the pool that creates the birthday eddy on river right of Chaos.

My thoughts on the 2013 Little White Salmon Race? That shit was amazing! My hat is off to all the racers and all the support crew members. Huge shout out to World Class, without which, none of this would have taken place.

LDuB Race Results

Down River Team

1. Niceto Yalan Quintana / Michael "Miguel" Shields              17 min
2. Orion Meredith and Niko Peha                                              17 min 7 sec
3. Chris Leach and Matt King                                                    17 min 52 sec
4. Kim Becker and Dave Hoffman                                             18 min 1 sec
5. Dylan McKinney and Clay Lucas                                          18 min 8 sec

Down River Men

1. Evan Garcia                                    15 min 2 sec
2. Gerd Sarrassolses                           15 min 11 sec
3. Louis Geltman                                15 min 12 sec
4. Todd Wells                                      15 min 25 sec
5. Darren Albright                               15 min 50 sec

Down River Women

1. Katrina Van Wijk                             17 min 3 sec
2. Sandra Hyslop                                 17 min 9 sec
3. Nouria Abou-Newman                    17 min 21 sec
4. Nicole Mansfield                             17 min 43 sec
5. Lu Urwin                                         18 min 9 sec

Men’s Slalom

1. Evan Garcia                                      50.59
2. Galen Volckhausen                           50.86
3. Kyle Hull                                          54.22
4. Erik Johnson                                    56.64
5. Rush Sturges                                    57.21

Women’s Slalom

1. Katrina Van Wijk                             1.31.60
2. Nouria Newman                               2.54.77
3. Sandra Hyslop                                  2.56.04

Stay Stoked. Stay Safe.

Video - Top Tye Creek

Top Tye Creek!!!





Top Tye Creek is kinda like those ice creams that I used to get at Dairy Queen as a kid. They take an ice cream cone and dip it in molten chocolate that instantly hardens into a hards(ish) shell. You’re taking awesome and making it AWESOMER. This is possible with some things in life; ice cream first and foremost, then cars I guess and finally Creeks. Top Tye is one of these.

Top Tye Creek is AWESOMER.

Back in the day, this was considered a beast and is in one of Tao’s videos: ‘Twitch 2000’. They make it look pretty intense but this creek is definitely in the boatable range for anyone who is decently confident in their ability to hit a delayed boof and doesn’t mind a little beating now and again. I would say a solid class IV boater who feels good on CC Lewis would be fine in here.

There is an entire section above this portion of the run that is even bigger. No one in this day’s group were feeling froggy enough to jump, with the obvious exception being Rob.  Rob McKibbin ran every major drop on the river this day and while I don’t have it on film; it’s the first top to bottom, no portage descent that we know of. I could be wrong, maybe the older crew has beaten him to it, but I kind of doubt it.

Top Tye is a great place to tie your creeking shoelaces. It’s steep, with must make boofs that will teach you the error of your paddling ways. It’s also very much a pool drop run though, so even if carnage happens there’s a good chance you’ll stay in the eddy below the feature.

There’s a fine line with flows here. Too little water and the F* you rocks are out in force, screwing up the best intentions. Then there’s the high water days that take all the fun out of your heart and fill your stomach with dread. But those days are good too, sometimes. This weekend the river level in the Skykomish was around 8800 cfs and dropping. The sapling, that we use as the gauge down at the takeout, was about 4-6 inches out of the water. This is a low flow, perfect for first timers and veterans alike.

I apologize for all the POV but it’s so hard to get out on the bank for a run like this. It would be like stopping at the bottom of each hill on a rollercoaster. Not gonna happen!

Enjoy:

Stay Safe