Devil's Washbowl Malad River, ID

This waterfall has taken me a long time to get to! I don't live that far from it...nor do I live that close haha! The Malad River Gorge lies between Twin Falls, ID and Boise, ID about 7 hours from home in Bozeman. There is a great old school movie called "Buck Fever" Made by Spencer Cooke and Jed Selby back in the day...it features amazing old school freestyle and tons of shit running in sketchy boats! The late Charlie Beavers stepped up and ran this drop in a Wave Sport Stubby...which was a half river runner half play boat at that time! He styles the entry and comes off the drop nicely...only to tail tap, go vertical, and piton his brains out on a ledge half way down the falls. It look pretty disgusting to say the least!

Watch his first descent line HERE AT 7:50!!!!!

I don't know how many years it took for Seth Stoner of Boise to step up for the 2nd D...but he ran it in 2009 at a much higher flow! This finally opened the gate to a big stout drop in that area of the country...other than this one there isn't much for runnable drops around there!

This spring I really had my sights set on going to run this beast and never could make it happen between Hood River and BC trips! I was surfing the world wide web a few days ago when I accidentally clicked my bookmark for the Malad River...and what did I see...400cfs!!!!!!!????? I quickly messaged the Boise boys and asked if this was for real and they said YEEEEHAWWWW!!!! With out much time to think our crew Johnson, Parker, Baby Bird, and Myself woke up at 5:30am and started the drive south to go get some Fall stoutness...

Upon arrival I suddenly realized that this drop was much stouter than I had anticipated! Meeting up with Seth Stoner, James Byrd, Davis Gove, & Russel Davies we had a stout and fired up crew ready to huck! Running in two crews to split numbers up we watched as the Idaho boys went first! The six stage entry gorge above the falls looked great and a ton of fun...the boys styled down to the last chance eddy as we watched...After 2 blown skirts, an ejection, and 2/3 people taking big hits to the bottom of their boats...I was much more nervous to run the drop! Still the line was good and we had driven all this way only for this drop...Myself, Baby Bird, and Parker laced up!

Our run went well with no swims or blown skirts...I did however jangle up on the entry and have to pull some quick ninja moves to correct above the lip...and Baby Bird took most the skin off a few fingers on the reconnecter! The bounce in the middle left small dents in our boats, but the hit wasn't too bad! All in all it was a great waterfall with a super good class V canyon leading into it! A total a win/win for September in the Rockies! This drop has some serious ID/MT mank factor to it...so any small errors could be "really" bad...i.e. hitting sharp rocks off a 50 footer...So this thing is the real biz! Enjoy a few frames snapped by Myself and Erik Johnson!

HDR shot of I-84 crossing above the Devil's Washbowl & Malad River Gorge.

The Idaho Boys (Seth, James, and Russel) dropping into the sick gorge above the stout! 

 

Seth Stoner taking his second lap off the stout! 

Myself taking a big stroke and spreading my wings off this roosting stout!

Here is a go pro freeze frame...love looking all the way down the canyon! Epic horizon line for sure!

Well folks I have a few more weeks of hanging out in Montana living the good life before I head to Vera Cruz Mexico and continue that good life! ;) We shot a ton of video this day at the Malad so look forward a a sick edit dropping in the next few weeks! 

Later E.G.