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 Class III tight move, Class VI consequences New
- Forum: BoaterTalk
Re:  On video Fist looks like a fairly straight shot. What am I not seeing that makes it so dangerous? Ed_E.Hopper New
Date: Oct 27 2008, 15:10 GMT
From: Powhoundus
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I just started running the gorge last year, and I've only run Fist a few times. Lucky for me, the first time I ran it was stuck to the tail of seasoned vet Brent Austin. He does the left to right line, as opposed to starting in the middle and heading right... did that last wkend and didn't like it as I almost caught the hole! Also good thing that nobody told me it was Fist until after I ran it. Otherwise I would have probably been even more nervous. The hairy ferry is easy, I hear, as long as you don't screw up ... cause you're not exaclty ferrying across calm water and to catch the left side eddy you're flirtn with the cave. I like L -> R line cause you start left, on the eddyline above the drop and start driving for the spray rock ... not too hard or you'll catch the hole. Keep your eye on the rock and you'll guage how hard you should paddle. It happens all very fast there, 3-4 strokes at the most before you're through. The cool thing about this line is that you are establishing good left to right momentum, so even if you flip on the bottom wave - hole, your momentum should push you well out of harms way. Like someone else said, I breath a huge sigh at the bottom of this rapid and wish the fire escape ledge was 6 inches lower! The thing to remember about the cave is the entrance is big, with a lot of water pushing into it, but the exits are small. I hear it's like a big eddy under there and the water moves very slowly toward the exits ... hopefully they are clear. I swore I wasn't going to paddle the gorge this year without a spare air... and i did. I am slowly gaining confidence in the gorge, but I still want one for this run and maybe a few others.
Hoping for low water releases in Nov!!!
Wes |
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