Box canyon of the Nevados

The Rio Nevados has been one of the most classic runs in the Pucon area. A classic ever since the day all the boys first ran it some years ago. You put in at a bridge, run two different canyons with great rapids, and then takeout above a gnarly unknown section of river. I heard a few things about the lower Nevados... but rumors that it was an unrunnable gorge with a 60 footer in there. This year interested in how the Nevados could all the sudden turn from classic to class VI... we journeyed down and scouted her a few times. What we saw was runnable shit???? After maybe 4 runs of the Upper we were fired up and ready to go get in there.

We got there and went straight to the normal takeout. The basic rundown for the canyon is:

- three stage entry into a 45ish footer.
- 15 footer into a really tight slot
- sick looking 20ish footer
- boof to slide
- boogie rapids out

...but once your in there your not getting out. So we all had to go in there knowing we would run all the drops. After some scouting of the big one, we were all super nervous and Jared decided it was his time to shine. We all set up for his run and he greased it! Killed the entry boof, which looked hard as hell, then stuck the drop. Rodrigo went next and had a very similar line... they sold it to me. I fired it up next... man the best rapid I have run in Chile for sure. So many stages to the drops and then you get to fly off a big drop.... Money. GrahamNation came last with a dope line as well, we all sat in the pool at the bottom screaming and hugging high on life.

The lip of the big boy so sick.

Dropping in to the "Hourglass" EG.

The money photo of the day thanks to Fred, Rodrigo hitting a sick line on the big boy.

We weren't done though... The next drop looked nasty. Jared fired in there first, and broke his paddle in the slot.

Jared first D'in El Diablito.... sacrificing another paddle, that slot was chunk. He named it "The little devil"

Graham didn't like the looks of the drop so he hopped out on a slippery ledge and had Kurt Casey help him up the bank to bail on the rest of the gorge. Rodrigo and I dropped in there with Jared. The Diablito went well for us.

Me on the cherry bombish move.

coming out of the slot in El Diablito.

Rodrigo getting it done.

Once we got through that it was all good. We portaged a little siphon of doom and then ran two incredible drops. I guess back in the day Danial Dela Somehow got his boat down there and ran from there down... so from here it was a second D. The next drop he named "Nutrients" because there's a huge tree hanging down in the hyerp.

Jared flying off Nutrients.

Loading up on the curler ready to fire off a huge boof.

EG enjoying the beautiful gorge feeling oh so committed.

From there we ran one more epic drop and a small boof to exit the canyon.

Boofin' a nice drop to free ourselves from the depths of the canyon.

The same boof from Fred's point of view high above us.

Rodrigo on the slide that follows the nice boof, last move to freedom.

We were on top of the world and happy as can be after such a perfect first descent. The whole gorge was so deep and beautiful, I couldn't believe that all the rapids were so quality and good to go. Another big drop opened up in the Pucon area... now the Nevados is my favorite river here... it's a whole new ball game in there. Hope you enjoy the photos and the stories... until the next mission

Later E.G.