Skookumchuck Creek

Even at low water Skookumchuck Creek is easily one of the best class III-IV rivers in British Columbia.

I may be wrong on some of the rapid names since it was our first time running this river and our recollection of the guidebook was vague.

Kayakers are Rhonda (0:48), Ben (4:23), Tyler (0:58), Julien (2:00), and myself (1:12). Special guest appearance by Brian (3:13).

Thanks to some artistic license, the boat extraction scene is a bit mixed up and doesn't tell the whole story. In reality, the Z-drag was improperly set up when we first arrived. If you look closely (2:48) you'll notice the rope was initially run between 3 carabiners which actually gives a mechanical disadvantage due to friction. We gave it a yank anyway but to no avail (3:01). Ben then added pulleys to all carabiners (2:24) and Julien attached a prusik loop to the rope from the boat (not shown in the video) so the second pull (also not shown since I was pulling instead of filming) had the 3-to-1 mechanical advantage needed to finally free the boat (3:12).

Lessons reinforced by this experience:
1) Put airbags in your boat.
2) Learn and practise setting a proper Z-drag.
3) The minimal rescue kit is: a sling, a prusik, 2 pulleys, 3 carabiners, and a rope. An extra prusik and biner are useful as a brake.
4) Don't pull downhill toward the river (five of us would have fallen in had the rope snapped).

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• whitewater
• kayak
• kayaking
• Skookumchuck
• Creek
• creeking
• Kootenays
• British
• Columbia
• river
• rescue
• z-drag

[soneeday]

Ouch alright on that wavesport :(

A friend had a dent on the front of his boat and he hung it and poured hot water and it popped back out.