DeSoto Falls First Descent...

Whats up Everyone!

Well, I'm still in a bit of an afterglow from an incredible day of paddling in Alabama yesterday. There have been a number of waterfalls and rapids in my life that I've considered big stepping stones for myself as a whitewater kayaker, and the waterfall that I ran yesterday has kind of been the pinnacle goal for me over the past four years.

This is DeSoto Falls.


This picture has been on the desktop of my computer on and off for two years. Every time I turn on my computer to do schoolwork, edit video, or check levels this is the first thing I see, and I've literally spent hours just daydreaming and staring at this beautiful drop, and wondering about its runnability.

DeSoto at a runnable flow.


I first discovered DeSoto four years ago, while on one of my obsessive Google image searches for waterfalls. I researched it online pretty thoroughly for a while, and Spencer Cooke and I finally went to look at it three years ago after the North Alabama Whitewater Fest down near Birmingham. It wasn't running, but it was sick to just stand at the lip and think about the possibilities. Since then I've been in touch with Adam Goshorn, who is fortunate enough to live 5 minutes from the drop... and I've kept a pretty close eye on the gauge for the West Fork of the Little River, hoping to some day time it at the perfect flow of 300-600 cfs.

The past week has been a good one in the Southeast, Saturday was a sick day out on the Raven's Fork of the Oconaluftee, and after a morning run of the Green on Wednesday, and an intense afternoon run of Big Creek at 4 ft., I realized that I was paddling as well as I ever have, and with the West Fork gauge at 1100 cfs, well above floodstage, the stars might just be aligning for that incredible waterfall.

Raven's Fork... such a beautiful place to find yourself in a kayak.

Credit: Clayton Gaar

One of my favourite people to train with, Daniel Windham, and myself in Caveman.

Credit: Rob Tompkins

So early Thursday morning Chris Gallaway and I loaded up my Subie with our sights set on Alabama. After a 4.5 hour drive that seemed to last an eternity we rolled into the DeSoto Falls parking lot, and immediately saw a wall of brown water rolling off the big dam upstream of the first drop of the monster. Adam Goshorn took work off and met us up there, and after about 40 minutes of scouting and discussing with the boys, I decided that I was ready to get into the flow and paddle off it. Adam was very cool to hike all the way around and down to set safety for the drop... cheers man! Can't thank you enough.

So this drop has always appealed to me/scared the shit out of me because of the commitment of running a 15 to 20 foot drop directly above the 70-80 foot main waterfall. I chose to run the top drop down the far river left side, and knowing that the landing was only about a foot or two deep, I had to roll off vertical, and then hit a late boof off the shelf halfway down. This was also made a bit more stressful considering the two gallons of water sloshing around in my boat waiting to take me safely into the vertical plane on the big drop, rather than boofing out.

Top drop without water.

Credit: Chris Gallaway

So when it finally came time to go for it I made eye contact with Chris on the bank to make sure everything was ready, cleared my mind of all other thoughts, and reached a state of focus that I have only felt once or twice before in my life. I rolled off the first one and boofed into a stomp just as I had hoped, and then I set up really close to the left wall to keep from being pulled towards the center of the river, and the abrasive, shallow crack/shelf thing that would send you into a pitchpole or spiral into green water off the big drop.

Working out the first drop. The curler in the foreground is at the lip of the big one...

Credit: Chris Gallaway

Moment of truth.

Credit: Chris Gallaway

I took a right sweep as my left edge connected with the curler coming off the left wall at the lip, and then placed my left stroke in the water as the world opened up, and I rolled off to vertical. I have never fallen that far before and it was surreal slowly pulling my left stroke into a tuck, and staring at my landing for what seemed like an eternity as I accelerated towards it, with all the solid water around me exploding in the air and turning into spray. About fifteen feet above the bottom I finally closed my eyes, clenched every muscle in my body, and prepared for what I thought was going to be a gigantic hit.

Trying to lock in the angle... you can see the lip of the entrance drop in the very top of the frame.

Credit: Adam Goshorn

Tucking up and preparing for impact.

Credit: Adam Goshorn

I was ripped out of my tuck on impact, but DeSoto was merciful with me, it was not nearly as hard of a hit as I had anticipated, and I let out a big victory scream as I resurfaced upright to the left of the boil, staring back up at where I had just come from.

All in all, it was probably the most incredible drop I've ever done, and I feel honoured to be the first person to run it. Adam, Chris, and I finished the day off with a great run of Little River Falls and the Canyon at a great level of just over 12 inches. Thanks again for showing us the lines Adam!

Signing off from cloud nine,
Chris Gragtmans

Mexican New Year...

Greetings Whitewater World!

I just got back from an incredible trip to the country of Mexico... the place has an unbelievable amount of whitewater and some very very large waterfalls. Mexico is an awesome place to go for paddlers of all levels, but carries a special attraction for class V paddlers looking to step it up and start freefalling long distances.

Scouting in Mexico...


Pat Keller, myself and Jake Greenbaum rode down in Pat's truck, and met up with Austin Rathmann, Ian McClaren, Jon Meyers, and Lawrance Simpson in Valles, Mexico.

Ready.


The reward after 35 hours of driving!



Filming at the lip of the first drop of Day 1, the Micos. 2 ran, the rest did a sick rappel off the side.



Micos waterfall from below... about 75 feet of total drop and 55 feet of freefall... Lawrance knocked out the First D of the left side on this trip, sick!



After Pat and Lawrance ran the Micos, we did the beautiful travertine waterfall run-out below and packed up to go to the second huck of our trip, Cascada El Salto. This waterfall has to be one of the coolest looking drops ever, dropping about 100 feet over three tiers. I've always wanted to run this beast, but my head just didn't feel right to do one of the biggest hucks of my life, so I opted out.


Two bad lines on El Salto...



Unfortunately day 1 took Jon Meyers out for the trip. He flipped on the 70 foot second drop of El Salto and fractured his left elbow. McClaren flipped too and although he didn't break anything, his elbow wasn't quite the same after that... the big drops will get ya!

Getting hassled by the fuzz. They had big guns.


Another 6 hours south and the next day we found ourselves in the final destination for our trip, Tlapacoyan in the state of Veracruz. This is where the Rio Alseseca makes its 30 mile plunge from the mountains onto the coastal plan flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. Other than the Middle Kings, I have never seen any other river with sustained sick, (marginally) runnable whitewater for so long. The thing just keeps falling and falling, and unlike the Kings, this river is formed by volcanic basalt, and its jungles hide a tonne of huge waterfalls. Several different sections of the Alseseca were our focus for the remainder of our trip in Mexico, and I can't wait to get back and explore more.

The jungle here just makes you want to run everything. "Looks a little low but the portage is horrible, I'm gonna run it!"



Austin on Rapid 1, roadside Alseseca.



Lawrance styling one of the coolest rapids in existence, S-Turn.



The author enjoying the tropics.



Great drop on the Pezma section.



Pat Keller doing what he does best... plug in first and probe that shit for us!



The trip came to an end somewhat abruptly due to pending school responsibilities and some sickness in the group, but I know that we'll be back. If you are planning your own trip to Mexico in the future, I would advise the following precautions:
1) Wear long pants to avoid poison ivy/bug bites.
2) Don't carry anything illegal in the car... you don't want to go to jail there.
3) Take the toll roads, they are very worth it.
4) Bring tonnes of climbing gear... ascenders, two big climbing ropes and rappel gear
5) Take a vehicle with big clearance, the speed bumps are killers.
6) Bring your A game, you can go as big as you want!!


The boys satisfied after an awesome trip. We're pretty tough in case you can't tell.



Until next time...
Chris Gragtmans

Waterfall Tour of Quebec...

As creekboaters, there are a couple of destinations that we hear a lot about as being the holy grails of extreme kayaking. Norway, Mexico, California, and Chile come up time and time again as the places to visit when you can gather the funds and the crew. I love traveling to locations such as these that are well-established and documented, but once in a while it's fun to get off the beaten path a bit. That is what Quebec is to me... a fairly undocumented mecca of absolutely everything that you could want as a kayaker. But you've gotta work for it!

I take no credit for this graphic by Spencer Cooke...


A typical Quebec waterfall...

Photo: Kelsey Thompson

This July I took a week long trip with my buddy Kelsey Thompson, and we paddled some incredible rivers in the Laurentian Mountains.

First stop... Les Sept Chutes de Saint Anne, Drop 1.

Photo: Kelsey Thompson

The Sept Chutes of St. Anne are located east of Quebec City, and are 7 absolutely incredible park and huck waterfalls on the St. Anne du Nord River. These drops were first-d'd by Dominic Chaput and Dominic Fournier(Dom and Domer) a couple years back at low water, and to my knowledge have only been run a handful of times by them since then. I've been researching and wanting to run them for the past three years, and I finally got a chance. After the 4.5 hour drive from Montreal, Kelsey and I met up with Steve Arns, Krusty Thompson, and Bob Butler and got to paddle these sick cataracts. Incredible day at a flow somewhere around 200 cfs.

"Big Water" Bob Butler styling it while I film and Krusty shoots photos.

Photo: Steve Arns.

Steve Arns, Drop 5.

Photo: Kelsey Thompson

Bob mid-bounce on Drop 1.

Photo: Steve Arns

After the Sept Chutes, we made the big drive northeast into the middle of nowhere to paddle the Malbaie River. In spite of it's remoteness, it is well worth the drive, and provides a great day of high volume class IV/V creeking and the sweetest 30 footer you'll ever run! The whitewater immediately took my mind off of the long drive and rainy night that we had just spent, as well as the fact that I had 1/4 tank of gas about 120 kilometres from the closest gas station!

Myself enjoying the zen moment.

Photo: Steve Arns

Kelsey rolling off the lip.

Photo: Steve Arns

Kelsey boofing another cool Malbaie drop.

Photo: Steve Arns

Upon completion of the Malbaie, Steve, Bob, and Krusty had to make the 11 hour drive back to the city of Ottawa, and the real world. Kelsey and I decided to rally back to the Sept Chutes and spend another day running those bedrock wonders. Upon arrival, we discovered the river had increased exponentially in volume because of the rain... and the Sept Chutes had now entered the realm of truly world class whitewater.

Kelsey's and my run that day was one of the best days of the summer for sure, and I was fortunate enough to end it with possibly the biggest/sickest/most fun rapid that I have ever run in my life... a burly cascade starting with a boof over a huge hole at the top, then down a whiteout curler-filled slide dropping about 30 feet, immediately off a 40 footer at full speed(trying to get right, because the left half of the boil pushes into a nasty kiwi-in-a-pocket type place), and then down another Toxaway-style slide dropping about 30 more feet.

The forty footer from the overlook.


After finishing our run on the Sept Chutes, Kelsey and I headed back in the direction of Montreal, and scouted the infamous Steve Fisher rapid called the Chutes de la Sainte Ursulles. I've been looking at this one for a couple years too, and the damn South African superstar had to crush my hopes and dreams when he first d'd it last year. Punk ass! Haha... just kidding, didn't want a piece of it in years past, and that didn't change during this trip.

The sickest thing ever run in my opinion...

Photo: Kelsey Thompson

After our grand adventure, Kelsey and I were treated to two days of sessioning the Lachines Waves in Montreal. Couldn't ask for a better place to mellow out after scaring yourself a bit.

Kelsey doing his Canadian National Champion thing...


Well that's all for now folks, hope you enjoy the video, and see you at the Green Race!


Peace.
Chris Gragtmans

Cheoah Race!

This weekend was a fun one out on the Cheoah River... I made the drive out with my Asheville buds, Daniel Windham and Ashlyn Little, and we got a couple great runs down that beautiful river. It was definitely the most fun I've had in my kayak since getting back to the drought-ridden Southeast.

As 4 PM rolled around, about 20 of us lined up, shortest boat to longest boat, at the Forest Service bridge for a little impromptu head to head race through the falls, and all the way down to the lake.

I was surprised with the showing, and with Shane Benedict and Maria Noakes paddling Pisgah rec boats, Chris Hipgrave in his Wavehopper, the man Adam Zog-dog in his T-Canyon, and numerous other heavy hitters in Dancers, Tornados, and Pirouettes, everyone was super fired up!

I got kind of a mushy start back in the pack a ways, battled with a number of people until the lead in to the falls, and eventually found some open water and was able to wind it out and get into a groove.

Muchos gracias to Ashlyn Little for the pics!! That's whats up.

Myself cruising up to the falls after getting clear of the mess behind me.


Zog-dog doing his thing... probably the most core person I've ever met.


I love this series! 3 boats into the falls at once... Daniel Windham goes for the pass.


And the ensuing mayhem! (L-R Shane Benedict, Chris Hipgrave, Joe Barkley)

**Photos by Ashlyn Little**

Anyways, it was an extremely fun, challenging race on a beautiful river, and I'm definitely in again for next year! Gotta credit my bud Pat Keller here for the use of one of his beautiful Green Boats... that is one incredible design.

The results as I remember them(I have a bad memory):
1) myself
2) Chris Hipgrave
3) Adam Herzog
4) Chan Jones(i think)

Peace.
Chris Gragtmans

Middle Kings Expedition...

After two Upper Cherry runs and a couple chill days, it was time for Pat, Coop, Dylan and I to bite off the crown jewel of the Sierras... the Middle Kings River.

We met up with the Asheville crew that was just taking off the river and got some very encouraging advice, as well as a couple scary peeks into what we were going to be dealing with:

Tommy- "It's the river trip of a lifetime."
John- "Here's a picture of Jules hiking in the snow on Bishop's Pass... ok here's a picture of Jules puking on Bishop's Pass."
Tommy- "There's the rapid where I swam."
Katie- "There's the rapid where I swam and lost my boat."
Jason- "Get ready to punch a thousand holes. It's awwwwwwnnn in there!"
Jules- "There's the rapid where homie compound fractured his arm and swam."

I knew that the Middle Kings represented a milestone that I've been training for since I started creekboating. The specs of this adventure are pretty incredible:

Shuttle- 400 miles down around the southern slope of the Sierras
Hike- 13 miles to putin, over a 12,000 ft. pass, 2 miles up at the takeout
River- 31 miles
Putin Elevation- 8600 ft.
Takeout Elevation- 2200 ft!!

I didn't take any pictures of this trip, so I'm going to refer to Pat Keller's Blog, and Cooper Lambla's Blog to tell the photographic story of the Middle Kings. It was six of the most incredible days of (I think) all of our lives, and I can't wait to go back.

Click below to watch the Middle Kings video.


Peace.
Chris

The Upper Cherry Double

I've heard a lot about Upper Cherry Creek near Yosemite National Park, but none of the hype could possibly have prepared me for just how incredible this granite playground is.

The 11 mile hike in through a lunarscape...

*All photos by John Warner*

Dylan and I drove straight through the night from Crested Butte, Colorado with beta from my buddies Max Kniewasser and Chris Harjes that Upper Cherry was super high, but would come in to a perfect level with a big cold front rolling into the area. Unfortunately, Max and Chris did not know just how cold it was going to get, and about halfway through the brutal hike it started snowing on us. We then recieved the news from some hikers that the high for the next day was 40 degrees, and lows for the next two nights would be in the teens! Needless to say, after 4 non-stop days of paddling in Colorado, a 27 hour drive straight through a night and a half to get to Upper Creek, and only 4 hours of sleeping in the dust before starting the hike, we were freaking demoralized! I had a 40 degree sleeping bag, a couple of good IR thick skin layers(thank God), and another crucial, lifesaving piece of gear, my tent fly. That night was brutal, nothing short of a blizzard hit us at the put-in, and we all hunkered down and shivered it out next to a dying fire. Harjes got the worst of it with no shelter, and the group was feeling rough in the morning.

It got sunny just long enough to coax us into not hiking out, and putting on to paddle down to Cherry Bomb...


Rapid #1, right below camp.


Filming Sam...


As soon as we put on and ran the first couple of the rapids, the snow started falling again, and the temperature plummeted. There was a lot of blowing into hands that day, and praying that we wouldn't swim as we worked our way through the Class IV Gorge, and the Gorilla Gorge.

Upon reaching the top of Cherry Bomb Gorge, the last place to exit before you drop into the 8 or so entrance drops, Cherry Bomb Falls and the next 5 walled in holes, I was feeling super pumped to drop in without the standard walk around and scout the gorge from the top, and Nick Wimsett, an incredible Kiwi paddler who had run Cherry Bomb the previous year, was also in. After a couple of minutes of deliberation, Sam and Dylan decided they were feeling fired up as well, and the four of us left Harjes, John, and Peacher and started paddling into that chasm.

Leaving the point of no return...


Amazing what glaciers can do.


Climbing up to the rock at the lip of Cherry Bomb was pretty incredible, just because that rapid is so legendary and I've always been so impressed with the way it looks in video and photos... and there I was, finally!

Our lines went well through Cherry Bomb and the next series of walled-in holes, and needless to say I was repeating the 7 Rivers Expedition famous line... "left, left, middle, right, right, middle, left". My dorky kayaking video obsession finally paid off!

Dylan givin' er.


Paddling the beautiful teacups coming out of Cherry Bomb Gorge.


Needless to say, in spite of the two nights of blizzards and a couple of big swims, Upper Cherry is one of the most incredible places a kayaker can find him or herself in. We got two runs with a total of 7 days out there on the granite, and I can't wait to go back. I'll let the video do the rest of the talking...



**Thanks to John Warner for use of his images**

Peace.
Chris Gragtmans