Rio Florin (High Water)

With the sun finally coming out and levels starting to drop we set our sights on the Lake District. With a group of 6 stout gypsy's all loaded in a small Cheve car we headed four hours south to the Rio Florin. To our surprise we found a huge amount of water in the river giving us quite an interesting experience in this committing canyon. The whole trip was a great time. It was myself, two nice chicas, and three great Spanish friends I have been running around with for the past month, good times for sure. Enjoy the photos of our Florin adventure and get to this river at some point in your life it's sick.

Hiking in to the Put in bridge in the cold morning air.

The first double drop of the run... This is one of the best drops in Chile if the level permits a sane descent.

Aniol running a sick seeming slide before the Stout.

So the top bit of the river was good to go until we got to the main gorge containing the three big drops of the run. The first of which was totally not good to, so we started walking in the bamboo. The second slide was high and scary, but Aniol decided to fire it up with a nice line.... The once we saw the big drop we knew it was money so with out too much hesitation we all ran the clean 50+ foot falls that made all the driving worth it.

Myself dropping the 50 footer with some high ass water.

Parra dropping in on the big drop.

Soaking in the hot spings after the run/hike we completed down the river.

Eating some lunch after a good huck session.

A big group of gypsy's ready to head home after a great trip.

A long road to nowhere...cheers to a good trip with some more good friends I met along the way.

Later E.G.

Curarrehue Madness (Rios Puesco y Remeco)

Just 50km outside of the quaint little town of Pucon lies the Mapuche headquarters, the city of Curarrehue. This is also the headwaters for many of Pucon's greatest rivers. The Trancura/Puesco, Panqui, Maichine, and Palguin are all with in a half hour drive. So this makes Curarrehue a frequent day trip for Demshitz... Take a look at two of the great creeks right outside of town.

Curarrehue is the center point of all native Mapuche culture here in the region. This old lady was on a walk from her small wood house in the mountains all the way to town to buy some living supplies.

Mike Garcia would say, "That water is gin clear"... Clean, clear, and drinkable rivers make dehydration a non-issue in this part of Chile.

Remeco:
The first creek is a small trib of the Maichine named the Rio Remeco. This is a low volume canyon with a very committing boxed in double falls. A small hike, and a complex trails leads you right to the put in above the double falls. From here you have to run a mank sliding entrance off a beautiful 20 foot boof, into a tight box canyon. Then the exit falls is a clean 25 footer, landing in a soft big pool. The rest of the run includes manky fun boofs and some log dodging back to the bridge...
The hike in to the Remeco is steep.

At the rivers edge after walking up to reach the small bamboo infested trail leading to the river.

We ran in group of two... Myself watching and "Parra" running the second (exit) falls of the box gorge.

Nothing but a bunch of dirty river hippies.

Eating some well deserved Nutela sandwhiches after the Remeco huck session.

P.S. If the water is high on the Remeco be careful on the first falls, there is a bad cave behind the curtain.

Puesco:
This is what kayaking is all about for me... Non-stop IV+/V kayaking for about 8 miles. Maybe the most bang for your buck in the entire Pucon area. Lay some treats out there and get stylie!

Lay some treats on um'...

Rush getting busy on the steeps of the Rio Puesco.

Aniol happy to be on the water, everyday these youngsters be husttlin'.

All the boys floating towards a bridge on the Puesco.

Nothing brings you together like some class V mad bombing.

So if you are coming to South America, put this little town on your list of hot kayaking spots. Thanks to Laura Mas Rispa for the photos of these few good days up there. Keep on kayaking weather it's hot or cold...

Later E.G.

World Record, Amazingly Fashionable

http://www.river-roots.com/site/news/#



Quoting Rush:

We woke up with a wicked hangover on Dec 6th with the intention of doing some filming on the upper Palguin. Little did we know, a world record would be broken later this day. After filming Anton and Ben May style the upper section in the Topo Duo, Fisher threw out the idea of running Middle Palguin in the Duo (70 ft.) Initially I thought it was not a good idea, but after watching good lines in the Duo on the upper section I told Fisher i'd think about it. Thankfully, Anton volunteered with no hesitation. I wasn't sure if it was a great idea but either way I knew it would be good footage...

Ian Garcia and I decided to go first to set up safety for the Duo. Ian went first and then I waited about 15 seconds before going. My line felt super smooth off the lip but my skirt imploded on impact. Right as I came up, Ian was just surfacing as well. He had taken about 20 seconds of downtime! We both imploded our skirts and had to self rescue. This was a bit of a junk show but after about 45 minutes we got everything ready for the World Record Tandem Kayak Descent. At this moment thunder and lighting kicked in and Ian and I both contemplated how good of a plan it actually was. "At least it's not us up there!" We laughed.

To our astonishment and content, Anton and Fisher STYLED the line. No worries! The boat had a huge dent but was intact nonetheless. A new world record for kayaking, even if it is a bit of a joke. That being said, how long will it be before someone runs something bigger in a Duo???




I think we may be on to something here... Imagine a 19 person kayak. Just think about it.

Middle Palguin Papa!

Middle Palguin once again? Why you ask?...because it's the best damn waterfall in Chile, perhaps. The water has been holding at a very juicy level for the past month and this has forced us to push our comfort levels up and up. This means higher descents of our ever loved, classic runs and hucks. The Middle section of the Rio Palguin, which holds one of the biggest and most beautiful waterfalls I have found throughout my travels, has been one of our main sights in the past few weeks. After doing a cool (Code-ops) film day on this stout, I was all fired up to go back out there with some more of my boys. So after leaving Pucón and eating two tasty empanadas on our way there I was ready to get some....

Las Ratas getting ready to huck.

A big, boily pool to fall into.

The group all atop the stout ready and willing.

We had a large group of people ready to run the stout, but our Chilean friend, Zoro, was offering to give us a show and run it first.

Zoro, firing it up first, like it aint no thing.

Vamos Papa!

LJ getting an artistic angle at the lip.

Bone out!!!

Here is my line from the bottom...





Montucky lovin´wrangling up dem lost remos...

Aniol doing a good job dealing with a hard seal lanch.

Aniol setting up a perfect line.

Aniol Sarrasolses...Cobra style.

Batlle Pro at the top of the Medio looking so small.

Toddfater getting ready to run his biggest drop yet.

Toddfather looking good from a downstream angle, giving a good measure to the fall´s true size.

Although there were good lines down the falls by everyone in our group, it was the power of the boil and amount of water that got the majority of our group. With epic downtimes and imploded skirts 3 of 6 crew members swam in the pool below. This made quite the downstream chase for Cobra and I, as we collected boats and paddles. 2 laps down...how many more can we get before this manna from heaven runs out ???

After a sick day on the water, the group got together for a classic, Chilean asado. Meat was consumed, booties were drank, and good times were had...


All the Ratas!!!

Photos by: LJ Groth, Marc Parra, & Todd Richey.

Later E.G.

Middle Palguin POV

Here is some cool Head Camera footage I shot at the Middle Palguin this last Sunday afternoon... "Easy like Sunday Morning" as they say.

Middle Palguin POV from jared seiler on Vimeo.

So there is a cool video to for Yinz to enjoy and drool over... The sun has just now finally come out of it's cave and we are up to good things here in Patagonia.

Later E.G.

Pucon Photo Update #1

As time goes on... our rivers flow forth through the gutters of the earth. We are here to take our time and energy to explore, enjoy, and document these great places. Sometimes, we are good at this and others, not so much! The past few weeks have been very good to us here in this sleepy town in Southern Chile... which, at times, isn't so sleepy. Many good rivers have opened their doors and let us pass through the chasms they posses. So here, with a hot list of rivers under our belts and some big hucks to accent our paddling ventures, I give you the first of the Egcreekin "Catch Up" photo updates from Patagonia. Photos by Lj Groth, Jake Greenbaum, and Aniol Serrasolses.

Villarrica in all its glory hosting us to the goods of Pucon... even though we've only seen it twice this month.

Got the wings out for Lj's first day in Pucon... thanks for the shot my friend.

Paddle gone, "Falling down," I love the Three Jumps (Tres Saltos) of Pucon....

First female descent of Tres Saltos by Sol, from Buenos Aires.

The Trancura Valley what a beautiful sight... Volcan Lanin and Volcan Catchropiran. These volcanos are the headwaters of the Palguin and Trancura rivers.

Natedizzy stomping the wall fall on the Nevados with some juicy flows.

Enjoying the natural wonders of having over 100 active volcanos in Chile... Los Pozones, Pucon's number one Termas.

Gringo Soto running the crux of the Nevado... pure Chilean style from the Bandolero de Pucon.

Gotta get some Turbio love when you can... the rains come and we go.

Anton ran the Stout on the Turbio... props to this Swedish/African with dem cajones!

A tight sick drop on the Rio Plata... shot by Jake Greenbaum.

The mystic elements of the of the wild canyons of the rivers mountains. -Jared

Las Kayakistas guapos (Anton, Jared, Evan, Rodrigo).

An asado with my Spanish brothers... and Zoro the asado master.

Ok, now I'm going to wait until tomorrow to put another post up with even bigger and better shots... We have gotten some good opportunities to go out and capture kayaking at its finest. Hope the rivers are flowing free, wherever you might be....

Later E.G.

For the past few weeks, we have been on quite a strange rally of paddling...due to the everlasting cold rains, so we ran Tres Saltos again.  It was a nice level and we all had fun. Then with a small break in the weather and a trip to Santiago, the levels dropped enough to get on some more different rivers.  Rodrigo has always talked of the Plata throughout the years and we haven't gotten it until two days ago. The run starts out with quite a stout hike in, BUT, there is a magical view over the whole Pucon valley to keep every one happy for the majority of the trek.  

Jared hiking across the first bridge before the climbing starts....

Jared in a tight spot near the put in.

Taking a small break from the steepness.... all the boys happy to get out and get a little workout in. 

Unloading the Kayak Pucon van at Lago Villarrica.

Finally at the river after dropping into the canyon for 40 minutes.

Jared boofing a nice little drop.

One of my personal favorites of the day... You can't tell that it is a tight 12 footer right below where he is setting up.

Hiking up...and up!

Some mad bombing through a money section.

El Rio Plata has always been a river I have wanted to do...not only because the rapids look cool as hell, but because it is also the closest of all the creeks to the town of Pucon. From downtown, you can look across the lake and see the deep jungle gorge that withholds this amazing river. To break it all down, the river is a bit on the mank-side of the scale, but all the significant drops are good to go. 

This one was a manky, tight turn!

Fighting with lots of bamboo going down to the river...

Some boogie water.

BROWN!


Jared styling out a tech-drop.

Jake on the last 20-footer of the Plata.

The portage that Jared decided to run. He really regretted his choice minutes later when his cameras (both of them) disappeared around the corner.  

Buttcrack Falls!  A tight briny....

Fired up to be in the Plata with all my good friends!

Over all, the river was classic and a very unique place for us all to be. The rapids were technical and hard at times, then clean and fun at others. My favorite part of the Plata was the box canyon we got to pass through to get from the put-in, all the way back to the lake, where we started the gnarly little hike.   

Later E.G.

Si lo crees, lo puedes!

Well after a long time with high levels, and doing a few different rivers including... Desahue high as hell, Upper Liucura, Turbio, and high water Nevados.... We returned to the Tres Saltos with a high, but reasonable flow. I have been fighting off a wicked cold down here while still trying to kayak in the winter like conditions... So I have been feeling a little under the weather to say the least... First image is covering our Halloween celebration from Saturday night... It was quite the fiesta to say the least... The next day we got on the Desahue with an unbelievable high flow. Running unstoppable huge class V between sharp plants, we made it through the crux of the run before having a swim and loosing a kayak and paddle to the raging torrent. With bad vibes we hiked out of the river to save the rest for another day... After scouting more high water death, we finally balled up and went back to the park and huck saviour Tres Saltos....

Demshitz had a strong showing at the bar.

Ian firing it up first...

A huge paddle toss and hands roll made my run a success.

Jared running this big boi for the 3rd time this year.

Thin Hurm having a good yet slightly crooked line off this jungle love.

And last but not least, our good chilean friend Gringo ran it with a nice line.

He was rather fired up and happy to have had a good line.

Our group enjoying the rain fed creeks while they are here... This has been the most rain I have ever seen at one time... Most everything is too scary and high to put on. There are some creeks that can handle it... That's what we are looking for.

Later E.G.