Tatlow Creek

We got the first run of Tatlow creek of the year, hurray!

After a cool but long adventure on a middle gorge section of the Big Silver Creek we talked to Austin Rathman who told us that Tatlow would be prime the next day... That was enough for me to sack up get some Cafine and drive all the way to Mamquam falls that same night.

I woke up in the morning and ran down to the falls to see if it was maybe, possibley running for a second round... it wasen't. It was still a cool looking drop and amazing canyon. A little tid-bit of info about that waterfall, I talked to some local boys who were bored and went to measure the drop for fun. It was roped at "68" feet tall, not a surprise, that thing is massive.

We met the crew at the 50 50 bridge at 11:00am sharp. We went and had a quick look at the box and 50 50 falls before heading up the raod to the upper reaches of the Ashlu. Everyone who goes up to the Upper Ashlu or Tatlow should thank Austin Rathman for clearing the avalanch that covered road. Thanks man for allowing us to hit this epic run.

Anywho we hopped in a few hommies trucks to drive up the gnarly road. The first challange of the drive is the creek you drive through. It was pretty mellow if you chose the right line. Then the overgrown road for about a Km or so to the end of the driveable path. Once you arive there you get your gear on and start walking. Max Knewaiser lead the way down to the creek which is pretty hellish. The last decent to the river is the worst, this is where two people dropped their boat and lucky for them Max is a manly man and stopped them from bombing the canyon goast style.

Everyone was in one piece and ready to get some. The water is so clean that I was stright drinking massive amounts the entire run down the canyon.

The basic run down to the river is 6,6,6 to 20 footer. get your boof on baby!

Lane boofin' the 20 footer at the top.

Then the sick 25 footer that is the classic melt down drop.

Takin' it to china on the 25'er.

That leads into a fun double drop with two nice holes to get ya.

Next is the drop that got Lil Dave a while back, which was always considered to be a portage (run by some), until Lane and Myself saw nothing wrong with it and fired it up, followed by urryboady else. It is a cool S-turn slide with a big hole at the bottom.

Sick boggie rapids with great boof lead into what was know as the mandatory sieve portage. This rapid completley changed from the high water this year and is now a super fun double drop.

Lane 1st D'ing the old sieve portage, yeah buddy.

"Wall Check" 30+ footer into a wall, is next and is not scoutable. T.R.L. man Bryan Smith tried to do a crazy climbing move and fell in the eddy above it, so Max tried to look at it from above and got a little look. It was enough for me I ran it and whistled back up to the rest of um... Meaning all good bro's.

A cool boggie drop leads into the boof to 40-45 foot slide falls. Great drop!

Me right about to drop off the big slide near the end.


The gnarly tree drop is the last big one of the run. Lane and Max both fired that one, but the rest of us did the trown and go style portage.

Lane running the burl-tree-drop.

Me doing a nice misty off the trown and go.

One more little log walker leads in to a fun rally section out of the box gorge and to the take out pool. Such a beautiful place it is unbealeivable. Glaciers and tall peak surround you and the B.C. wilderness feel is strong up there.

This is an incredible run, has to be one of my favorites out there. We did it 3 days i a row getting the over all run done in under an hour. Sickness. We also ran the mone section a classic whitewater run on the Ashlu. It has two scary portages that scare off many paddlers. There is a 30 foot sea launch that is fun as well. You also get to see the carnage that the dam is having on the land and river at the end of this run, a sad thing go to therangelife.blogspot.com for more info on that subject. Thanks for reading friends...

Later E.G.