Friday, August 27, 2004
Have A Wetass Weekend...
(Photo: Andrew Chisholm/Surfer: Andy Campbell/Location: Shipsterns. Via BillabongXXL)
(Photo: Andrew Chisholm/Surfer: Andy Campbell/Location: Shipsterns. Via BillabongXXL)
The Search For Sandy Irvine On Everest--Some Answers, More Questions: When we last checked in on the EverestNews Mallory/Irvine detectives, they had determined that the body they found on Everest was a Chinese climber named Wu, who disappeared in 1975. Since then, the expedition has revealed that it had a second secret climbing team (the "B" team) at work on the mountain. The idea was to have some climbers who could go anywhere without being watched or questioned. In addition to Wu, the expedition found an oxygen bottle from the 1920s or 1930s, right where a Chinese climber had said he had seen an "Old English dead." This COULD have been a bottle from the Mallory/Irvine expedition, and if you want to follow the forensic work used to try to identify this bottle (which digs back into Irvine's diary), click here. What the team did not find, though, is Irvine's body at the spot where they thought it would be. The spot is open and steep, so if the body slid it would not stop for 6,000 meters. Click here to read the expedition's final theorizing on whether they had the right place. This is an intriguing mystery, and hopefully these guys will go back next year. But if the body slid, it's doubtful Irvine will ever be found (much less his camera). And the mystery of whether Mallory and Irvine made the summitt in 1924 will live on. Perhaps it's better that way...
Irvine's Grave...
Irvine's Grave...
"Mekong" Mick's Wildass Adventure--Chapter 13: In which Mick contemplates the impact of China's dams on the people around them, and decides to take a stand...
"The most striking contrast between the Three Gorges Dam project and the Mekong Cascade Dam Project is that the majority of negative impacts from the Mekong Dams will not be felt by the Chinese population but instead will be shouldered by the rural people of downstream nations including some of the most impoverished on earth. Far from offering to build entire cities to assist the worst affected, as yet there has not been any formal attempts at mitigation with the downstream nations. Interestingly, an environmental impact assessment of the dams on downstream nations was not undertaken by the Chinese until after the Manwan was completed in 1993. The controversy continues, as does construction.
On a personal level I was deeply saddened to see such a great and powerful river subdued into a flat and lifeless lake. Over the preceeding months I had the great privilege to become the first person to experience the entire upper section of the Mekong from ground level. I had studied its temperament from its playful folly across the Tibetan Plateau to the violent mood swings that erupted periodically when obstructions attempted to divert the flow. I had gaped in awe at kilometer after kilometer of gigantic gorges and attempted to calculate approximately how many billions of tons the river had eroded away along a single 100 kilometer stretch. My calculator did not contain enough digits!
Until now the river had twice shocked me with lessons in my own mortality and instilled me with a million moments of wonder. Constantly alive and relentlessly transforming the world through which I traveled the Mekong to my mind is in fact a living, evolving entity.
In front of us lay a motionless body of water, devoid of character and strength. It was fed by the Mekong yet it contained none of the traits that I had come to know and deeply respect throughout the journey. On the web news we encountered just before starting this section we read that down stream nations were experiencing some of the lowest Mekong water levels on record, negatively affecting millions of local farmers and fishermen. Yet where we were, just a few hundred kilometers north of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar the river was nearly full. The unfortunate fact was that the majority of the water was being withheld in China to fill the two operational hydropower dams.
I discussed it with Brian and we decided that as a sign of protest against the construction of dams across the Mekong mainstream that will in turn enforce un measured and uncompensated hardships on local peoples in downstream nations, we would not paddle across the man made Mekong Lakes of Yunnan."
Tomorrow: Dodging raining rock, and pissing off local riverboat captains...
Damn dam...
(Photo: Courtesy Lynley O'Shea)
"The most striking contrast between the Three Gorges Dam project and the Mekong Cascade Dam Project is that the majority of negative impacts from the Mekong Dams will not be felt by the Chinese population but instead will be shouldered by the rural people of downstream nations including some of the most impoverished on earth. Far from offering to build entire cities to assist the worst affected, as yet there has not been any formal attempts at mitigation with the downstream nations. Interestingly, an environmental impact assessment of the dams on downstream nations was not undertaken by the Chinese until after the Manwan was completed in 1993. The controversy continues, as does construction.
On a personal level I was deeply saddened to see such a great and powerful river subdued into a flat and lifeless lake. Over the preceeding months I had the great privilege to become the first person to experience the entire upper section of the Mekong from ground level. I had studied its temperament from its playful folly across the Tibetan Plateau to the violent mood swings that erupted periodically when obstructions attempted to divert the flow. I had gaped in awe at kilometer after kilometer of gigantic gorges and attempted to calculate approximately how many billions of tons the river had eroded away along a single 100 kilometer stretch. My calculator did not contain enough digits!
Until now the river had twice shocked me with lessons in my own mortality and instilled me with a million moments of wonder. Constantly alive and relentlessly transforming the world through which I traveled the Mekong to my mind is in fact a living, evolving entity.
In front of us lay a motionless body of water, devoid of character and strength. It was fed by the Mekong yet it contained none of the traits that I had come to know and deeply respect throughout the journey. On the web news we encountered just before starting this section we read that down stream nations were experiencing some of the lowest Mekong water levels on record, negatively affecting millions of local farmers and fishermen. Yet where we were, just a few hundred kilometers north of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar the river was nearly full. The unfortunate fact was that the majority of the water was being withheld in China to fill the two operational hydropower dams.
I discussed it with Brian and we decided that as a sign of protest against the construction of dams across the Mekong mainstream that will in turn enforce un measured and uncompensated hardships on local peoples in downstream nations, we would not paddle across the man made Mekong Lakes of Yunnan."
Tomorrow: Dodging raining rock, and pissing off local riverboat captains...
Damn dam...
(Photo: Courtesy Lynley O'Shea)
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Wetass Hero--Anne Quemere: This incredibly determined Frenchwoman is in the midst of rowing across the Atlantic, from Cape Cod to France. She's finally closing on the French coast, which is a relief because she's been out there--wait for it--83 days! And, believe it or not, she's not sure she wants to finish. Here's a report she sent in a few days ago:
"Today, I row happily under a warm sun and a SW wind. I am getting accustomed to the odd oars and I may end up with one arm bigger than the other. The present conditions should allow me to get home quickly, a result I hope for but I fear at the same time. Be with my family, share meals and ideas and rest in familiar places will be wonderful but it also means the end of the adventure. I feel like a runner ready to reach his goal and loosing the charm of the race; Since yesterday, I am surrounded by physalies, thousand of them and I also see strange whitish balls the size of a ping-pong ball. What are they? Can somebody tell me? Anyway, I try to avoid them when I wash my dishes.Exept for these antidiluvian creatures, the sea is empty. No dolphin, no sperm whales, no ship. The sea is empty of edible fish and I am too far from commercial lines. To lighten the Connetable, I drink my water reserve I have been carrying since the USA, it will mean 20 kilos less to pull. If I believe the forecast, but I want confirmation, I should have to deal with NW wind again that may push me inside the gulf of Gascony. In the meantime, I move NE as much as I can and I can see in dream the towers of La Rochelle..."
The French have perfected the persona of the "philosopher-adventurer" and Quemere is a perfect example. Sure, ocean rowing can be a bit boring. But you have to admire and respect the patience, grit and vision it takes to spend almost three months at the oars, alone with your dreams, fears, and blisters. So, here's to Anne...
Ocean Odyssey...
"Today, I row happily under a warm sun and a SW wind. I am getting accustomed to the odd oars and I may end up with one arm bigger than the other. The present conditions should allow me to get home quickly, a result I hope for but I fear at the same time. Be with my family, share meals and ideas and rest in familiar places will be wonderful but it also means the end of the adventure. I feel like a runner ready to reach his goal and loosing the charm of the race; Since yesterday, I am surrounded by physalies, thousand of them and I also see strange whitish balls the size of a ping-pong ball. What are they? Can somebody tell me? Anyway, I try to avoid them when I wash my dishes.Exept for these antidiluvian creatures, the sea is empty. No dolphin, no sperm whales, no ship. The sea is empty of edible fish and I am too far from commercial lines. To lighten the Connetable, I drink my water reserve I have been carrying since the USA, it will mean 20 kilos less to pull. If I believe the forecast, but I want confirmation, I should have to deal with NW wind again that may push me inside the gulf of Gascony. In the meantime, I move NE as much as I can and I can see in dream the towers of La Rochelle..."
The French have perfected the persona of the "philosopher-adventurer" and Quemere is a perfect example. Sure, ocean rowing can be a bit boring. But you have to admire and respect the patience, grit and vision it takes to spend almost three months at the oars, alone with your dreams, fears, and blisters. So, here's to Anne...
Ocean Odyssey...
Wetass Sport #342--Pond Swooping: If just plain ol' skydiving isn't exciting enough for you, you don't have to throw out your chute. Instead you can dive into a wetass variant of the sport in which you plummet toward a body of water, time your landing so that you touch down on the surface at about 70 mph, and then try to skim along like a barefoot water skiier 'til you gracefully step onto land with nary a drop of water on you. Of course, if you mistime things, it could, err, hurt. Anyhow, the sixth annual Pond Swooping Nationals ("If you're not prepared to get wet... DON'T COME!!!") just touched down in Gardiner, NY, and the venerable NY Times was there in the person of reporter Corey Kilgannon to make a full report. Here's an excerpt:
"On Friday morning, they began their runs, swooping down to the water every minute or so - first Sonic, then The Punisher, then Fruitcake - flying over the water in a narrow buoy lane, first curved, then straight.
Just as many competitors in the weekend event skimmed along on their bellies or buttocks, or lost speed and control and splashed unceremoniously into the muddy water, to hoots and jeers from spectators. This is called chowing, and it is as integral to pond-swooping fun as the perfect surface glide.
Splashers get flagged down by the chow judge, Bruce Chapman, which means a big deduction of points from the judges sitting lakeside in lawn chairs. They assess a swooper's approach, skim length and swoop control. In other events, swoopers try to land on a raft, and show their freestyle skills in an event called canopy expressions.
The crowd watched intently as Clint Clawson, 29, from Perris, Calif., drifted down from the clouds and swooped down on the pond. Mr. Clawson, a top pro on the national Pro Swooping Tour, has won the event at the ranch the past two years. With his black Chuck Taylor hightop sneakers, he traced a graceful arc in the water before landing on the far bank, while mugging for the crowd."
If you can't quite visualize it, check out Skydive New England's excellent photo gallery here. Pond Swooping: Good nicknames, good lingo, a bunch of nutjobs with parachutes, great sport...
"Uh-oh, I think I'm gonna chow..."
(Photo: SkyDive New England)
"On Friday morning, they began their runs, swooping down to the water every minute or so - first Sonic, then The Punisher, then Fruitcake - flying over the water in a narrow buoy lane, first curved, then straight.
Just as many competitors in the weekend event skimmed along on their bellies or buttocks, or lost speed and control and splashed unceremoniously into the muddy water, to hoots and jeers from spectators. This is called chowing, and it is as integral to pond-swooping fun as the perfect surface glide.
Splashers get flagged down by the chow judge, Bruce Chapman, which means a big deduction of points from the judges sitting lakeside in lawn chairs. They assess a swooper's approach, skim length and swoop control. In other events, swoopers try to land on a raft, and show their freestyle skills in an event called canopy expressions.
The crowd watched intently as Clint Clawson, 29, from Perris, Calif., drifted down from the clouds and swooped down on the pond. Mr. Clawson, a top pro on the national Pro Swooping Tour, has won the event at the ranch the past two years. With his black Chuck Taylor hightop sneakers, he traced a graceful arc in the water before landing on the far bank, while mugging for the crowd."
If you can't quite visualize it, check out Skydive New England's excellent photo gallery here. Pond Swooping: Good nicknames, good lingo, a bunch of nutjobs with parachutes, great sport...
"Uh-oh, I think I'm gonna chow..."
(Photo: SkyDive New England)
"Mekong" Mick's Wildass Adventure--Chapter 12: IN which Mick picks his way through the "Dragon's Teeth" and runs into his first Chinese mega--dam...
"A five day detour to the Zongdjian horse racing festival gave our bodies some time to recover and one last glimpse of the rich Tibetan cultural heritage before entering a new cultural realm of Lisu, Bai and Han farmers. As expected the Mekong rose several feet in our absence and was less than 2 meters below the high water mark when we set off from the Lincang bridge. As the water volume increased so too did the level of chaos encountered class IV - V runs were followed by class IV - V boils, whirlpools and surges. It was an awesome section of whitewater and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
For a change we actually had a fair idea of what we were in for over the next 160km due to some detailed accounts from previous expeditions posted on the informative Shangri-La river expeditions web site. There were long and detailed descriptions of one particular rapid called dragons teeth. It was located in a sheer sided canyon and was supposedly extremely difficult to portage. Previous boaters had graded it as almost off the scale and at lower water levels it had flipped most of the rafts that dared to run it. With approximately 3 times more water currently in the river we wondered whether dragons teeth would turn into a suicide run.
Late on the first day we noted a large avalanche scar on river right where the northern face of a hill had slid into the river. Peculiarly there was no debris at the base of the scar. The debris had been flushed down stream by flood waters for more than two kilometers, plugging up the entrance to a canyon. It was dragon’s teeth. From 200 meters upstream we could see the horizon line drop away significantly and mist rise up from the violence. We eddied out on river right just above the drop to inspect the rapid and to our relief it looked runnable but with the light fading fast it was best left until the next day. Camp was set in the scenic gorge and we settled in for a night under the stars.
The white water was huge over the next two days but loads of fun. Occasionally we would be lashed by gales that always seemed to blow upstream. At one point we were forced to stop above a long rapid because the winds whipped up so much mist off the surface of the waves and holes that we could no longer visually make out the features to avoid. Suddenly the river stopped dead.
We had arrived at the controversial Manwan Dam. The Chinese are in the process of planning and constructing a cascade of 9 dams across the Mekong mainstream in Yunnan, two of which have been completed and another 4 are currently under construction. The dams on the Mekong combined constitute one of the largest engineering feats ever undertaken. To give an impression of the scale, the Xiowan dam due to be completed in 5 years is about the same size as the Hoover dam in the United States and will back up the water for 170km through the gorges, forests and villages we had just paddled.
The pros and cons of large scale hydropower dams can be debated indefinitely with advocates citing a long list of benefits while opponents cite an arguably longer list of negative environmental and social impacts. In most cases where inequities are obvious and clearly defined dam advocates will attempt to mitigate the situation by offering benefits to the peoples and environments most at risk. Although mitigation attempts associated with the highly publicized 3 dams project on the Yangtze were widely considered by the international community to be inadequate the Chinese authorities did in fact devote hundreds of millions of dollars to relocating the most affected people to purpose built cities."
Tomorrow: Mick gets bummed out...
Yunnan Landscape: "Hmm, I wonder where I can get some takeout..."
(Photo: Courtesy Lynley O'Shea)
"A five day detour to the Zongdjian horse racing festival gave our bodies some time to recover and one last glimpse of the rich Tibetan cultural heritage before entering a new cultural realm of Lisu, Bai and Han farmers. As expected the Mekong rose several feet in our absence and was less than 2 meters below the high water mark when we set off from the Lincang bridge. As the water volume increased so too did the level of chaos encountered class IV - V runs were followed by class IV - V boils, whirlpools and surges. It was an awesome section of whitewater and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
For a change we actually had a fair idea of what we were in for over the next 160km due to some detailed accounts from previous expeditions posted on the informative Shangri-La river expeditions web site. There were long and detailed descriptions of one particular rapid called dragons teeth. It was located in a sheer sided canyon and was supposedly extremely difficult to portage. Previous boaters had graded it as almost off the scale and at lower water levels it had flipped most of the rafts that dared to run it. With approximately 3 times more water currently in the river we wondered whether dragons teeth would turn into a suicide run.
Late on the first day we noted a large avalanche scar on river right where the northern face of a hill had slid into the river. Peculiarly there was no debris at the base of the scar. The debris had been flushed down stream by flood waters for more than two kilometers, plugging up the entrance to a canyon. It was dragon’s teeth. From 200 meters upstream we could see the horizon line drop away significantly and mist rise up from the violence. We eddied out on river right just above the drop to inspect the rapid and to our relief it looked runnable but with the light fading fast it was best left until the next day. Camp was set in the scenic gorge and we settled in for a night under the stars.
The white water was huge over the next two days but loads of fun. Occasionally we would be lashed by gales that always seemed to blow upstream. At one point we were forced to stop above a long rapid because the winds whipped up so much mist off the surface of the waves and holes that we could no longer visually make out the features to avoid. Suddenly the river stopped dead.
We had arrived at the controversial Manwan Dam. The Chinese are in the process of planning and constructing a cascade of 9 dams across the Mekong mainstream in Yunnan, two of which have been completed and another 4 are currently under construction. The dams on the Mekong combined constitute one of the largest engineering feats ever undertaken. To give an impression of the scale, the Xiowan dam due to be completed in 5 years is about the same size as the Hoover dam in the United States and will back up the water for 170km through the gorges, forests and villages we had just paddled.
The pros and cons of large scale hydropower dams can be debated indefinitely with advocates citing a long list of benefits while opponents cite an arguably longer list of negative environmental and social impacts. In most cases where inequities are obvious and clearly defined dam advocates will attempt to mitigate the situation by offering benefits to the peoples and environments most at risk. Although mitigation attempts associated with the highly publicized 3 dams project on the Yangtze were widely considered by the international community to be inadequate the Chinese authorities did in fact devote hundreds of millions of dollars to relocating the most affected people to purpose built cities."
Tomorrow: Mick gets bummed out...
Yunnan Landscape: "Hmm, I wonder where I can get some takeout..."
(Photo: Courtesy Lynley O'Shea)
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Orange II Final Result--24-Hour Record? Oui! Transatlantic Record? Mais non!: Yup, they were just a half hour out, and spent the last hour tacking toward the finish. What a bummer that must have been, as the clock ticked down. Anyhow, Here's Mons. Peyron's summary:
"Looking at it from an overall point of view, there are more positive things than negative to look back on after this adventure. The result is beyond our hopes, bearing in mind that we set out after only a short period of ten days or so on stand-by... We set a new 24 hour record, reached a maximum of 39 knots, and apart from just a few minutes, equalled the reference time, in spite of a course that was much less favourable. The angles to the wind didn't help us, especially at the end of the race, when we had to tack for an hour: strangely enough, we can see part of this unplanned, extra hour in the final result!
We know that the boat, which we have learnt to control now, is capable of smashing the record... We pushed her all the way, and were ready to take some risks of course, as when you set yourself such a challenge, that is something you have to do: it is surprising that given these conditions we didn't break anything at all, except for a key on the computer keyboard, and I'd like to say thanks now to the team, who got the boat ready, as they really did a wonderful job."
Pipped Peyron: "Merde..."
"Looking at it from an overall point of view, there are more positive things than negative to look back on after this adventure. The result is beyond our hopes, bearing in mind that we set out after only a short period of ten days or so on stand-by... We set a new 24 hour record, reached a maximum of 39 knots, and apart from just a few minutes, equalled the reference time, in spite of a course that was much less favourable. The angles to the wind didn't help us, especially at the end of the race, when we had to tack for an hour: strangely enough, we can see part of this unplanned, extra hour in the final result!
We know that the boat, which we have learnt to control now, is capable of smashing the record... We pushed her all the way, and were ready to take some risks of course, as when you set yourself such a challenge, that is something you have to do: it is surprising that given these conditions we didn't break anything at all, except for a key on the computer keyboard, and I'd like to say thanks now to the team, who got the boat ready, as they really did a wonderful job."
Pipped Peyron: "Merde..."
Orange II Update--D'Oh: According to the position reports on Orange's website, Peyron and his boys missed out on PlayStation's record by about a half an hour. Ouch. More when the press release comes in...
Orange II Update: Bruno Peyron just came in with the following from the boat:
"The wind has got up again, but at dawn this morning we were slowed right down with some fairly weak winds. Having said that, we were still doing 22 / 23 knots. Things are better now, as our speed is varying from 28 to 30 knots, and if I place my little cursor on the finishing line, the computer calculates that we'll cross the finish in 4 hours and 32 mins (situation at 11.40 CET-editor's footnote). But it keeps on changing, so anything is possible for the better or worse. On a direct course, there won't be any problem, as our average speed is good enough to do it, but if we have to tack, things are less certain. I'm repeating myself but even if we're really channelling our efforts as we enter the Channel, it's all down to a question of minutes! Moreover, such a minuscule time difference is unheard of in the history of this record... But 120 miles isn't that far, and we'll soon know the outcome!"
Stay tuned...
"The wind has got up again, but at dawn this morning we were slowed right down with some fairly weak winds. Having said that, we were still doing 22 / 23 knots. Things are better now, as our speed is varying from 28 to 30 knots, and if I place my little cursor on the finishing line, the computer calculates that we'll cross the finish in 4 hours and 32 mins (situation at 11.40 CET-editor's footnote). But it keeps on changing, so anything is possible for the better or worse. On a direct course, there won't be any problem, as our average speed is good enough to do it, but if we have to tack, things are less certain. I'm repeating myself but even if we're really channelling our efforts as we enter the Channel, it's all down to a question of minutes! Moreover, such a minuscule time difference is unheard of in the history of this record... But 120 miles isn't that far, and we'll soon know the outcome!"
Stay tuned...
Orange II Transatlantic Record Bid--Now, It's A Nailbiter!: I guess no one should ever count Bruno Peyron out. Since yesterday morning the French maestro has been sailing his monster cat flat out, through rough seas and building winds. He's piled up 634 miles in the last 24 hours, and at 0900GMT this morning he had just 148 miles to go, and 6.25 hours to get there. That requires an average of more than 23 knots, which puts it all down to the winds and wind angle. Peyron was forecasting a drop in wind pressure and they have to gybe south to get to the finish, so this thing is going to be a matter of minutes and miles. We'll know in a few hours, and I will post an update as soon as I get word. Damn, that boat is fast...
"Keep it rolling, Bruno! I can smell the croissants and espresso already..."
"Keep it rolling, Bruno! I can smell the croissants and espresso already..."
Wetass Video Of The Week: Think rally racing is anything close to safe? Just check out this mesmerizing film of the rolling, crashing, metal-bending, tree flattening side of the sport. Great soundtrack too...
"Damn, I'm losing it! I knew I should have shelled out the extra money for airbags..."
"Damn, I'm losing it! I knew I should have shelled out the extra money for airbags..."
"Mekong" Mick's Wildass Adventure: In which Mick finally says goodbye to the canyons and hellacious whitewater of the Himalayas...:
"We agreed to meet the next day at a specified bridge down stream where Mr. hands and Young would already be waiting. I arrived there late that same afternoon after an uneventful run through several gorges that did not contain large rapids. Mr. hands and Young were nowhere to be seen and the village, which on our map should have been down by the river, was actually high up on a ridge. Assuming that they would be waiting in the village I trekked up to it. Avalanches blocked my path several times and I was force to backtrack twice to find alternative routes. Four hrs later I reached the village to find that the road marked on my map did not actually exist and my friends weren’t there. I tried to call the guys by Sat ph many times to no avail and by 10.00 am the next morning I decided to push on into a dangerous section of gorges called "the big bends".
As I encountered the big bends I immediately had flashbacks to the hellacious gorges of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. Again I was about to enter a point of no return on my own, not knowing what lay around the next corner. There was no way to trek out once the big bends had been entered. The only consolation was that they only extended for a few kilometers. I proceeded as cautiously as possible down a succession of class III rapids until I could see the water building up at the first corner. I simultaneously spotted an eddy on river right and made for it to inspect what was to come.
I dragged my kayak up onto a jagged boulder and proceeded to take a look. "Nothing too difficult" I thought to myself and just then I heard two "plops" in the river and then a rock the size of a yo yo bounced heavily off a boulder and into the river just seven meters from where I stood. They were falling from far above. The gorge was so steep and sheer sided that I could not tell from which side they fell but it didn't matter. It was time to get out of there. I quickly climbed into my kayak and seal launched half sideways into the river. As I paddled away I felt my legs getting wet. My first thought was that my spray skirt was not clipped on properly but it was. With each stroke through the next class III rapid the boat became heavier with water and I made my way to the nearest eddy. I inspected the boat to find a gash some 12 centimeters long had been torn into the hull of the boat by the jagged boulder. I looked up and down the gorge for a way to trek out, no chance!
I had to mend it as best I could inside the gorge. Using duck tape (Thanks Wick!!) and a dry bag I managed to plug the hole significantly enough to continue although water seeped in. On the 3rd day on my own and with a badly leaking boat under my arm I finally met the guys. They had been waiting at a village called "Lancang Jiang" rather than "Latsaa Jiang". Using 16 tubes of epoxy resin, 36 screws, a length of truck inner tube and a piece of scrap metal we found on the road we managed to plug the hole. To our utter surprise when we filled the kayak with water to test the seal, nothing leaked out!. With only 14 days of white water left in Yunnan and insufficient funds to get the spare kayak sent up in time I decided to put my handy man skills to the test and paddle the ailing kayak through the rest of China.
With each passing day the waters of the Mekong rose significantly. We paddled past the snow-capped mountains of Melei Xue Shan for another 3 days and as suddenly as one can change a TV channel we entered a new climatic realm. One moment a brisk temperate breeze of the high Himalaya chilled our faces and hands the next a humid and significantly heavier type of warm air engulfed us. The temperature rose by 10 degrees Celsius and from that day forth we could wear shorts and T-shirts instead of thermal underwear and layers.
That same afternoon, for the first time in many weeks I saw a significant horizon line come into view instead of another string of mountain peaks. I yelled out to Brian "say goodbye to the Himalaya" and that we did. We proceeded to cross into a bizarre bio realm where the pine trees were interspersed with banana palms and tropical birds could be heard.
Most of Southern Yunnan has been run by 3 previous expeditions organized by Shangrila River Expeditions, yet with the water rising by as much as a foot per day we estimate that by the time we return from a brief side trip to the Zongdian horse racing festival the river will be approaching peak rainy season flows. It is unclear exactly how difficult this will make the dozens of class IV and V rapids reported by previous expeditions but what we do know is that we will be running the same rapids with at least 3 times more water volume than was reported previously.
To give an idea of the scale of rapids we expect to encounter: All members of a previous expedition through the area who had paddled the grand canyon claimed that the white water encountered was bigger than anything that could be found on the Colorado which is widely accepted as the biggest volume whitewater run to be found in the USA. Times the volume of water they paddled in the Mekong x 3 and one can logically expect a style of white water that can only be found at a select few locations on earth.
Bring on the big stuff!!!"
Tomorrow: The big mountains are gone, but Mick is forecasting upcoming "runs that theoretically should dwarf those found in the Grand Canyon."
"I know it's fun to watch the crazy round-eye paddle, but why are we all watching him have a pee..."
"We agreed to meet the next day at a specified bridge down stream where Mr. hands and Young would already be waiting. I arrived there late that same afternoon after an uneventful run through several gorges that did not contain large rapids. Mr. hands and Young were nowhere to be seen and the village, which on our map should have been down by the river, was actually high up on a ridge. Assuming that they would be waiting in the village I trekked up to it. Avalanches blocked my path several times and I was force to backtrack twice to find alternative routes. Four hrs later I reached the village to find that the road marked on my map did not actually exist and my friends weren’t there. I tried to call the guys by Sat ph many times to no avail and by 10.00 am the next morning I decided to push on into a dangerous section of gorges called "the big bends".
As I encountered the big bends I immediately had flashbacks to the hellacious gorges of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. Again I was about to enter a point of no return on my own, not knowing what lay around the next corner. There was no way to trek out once the big bends had been entered. The only consolation was that they only extended for a few kilometers. I proceeded as cautiously as possible down a succession of class III rapids until I could see the water building up at the first corner. I simultaneously spotted an eddy on river right and made for it to inspect what was to come.
I dragged my kayak up onto a jagged boulder and proceeded to take a look. "Nothing too difficult" I thought to myself and just then I heard two "plops" in the river and then a rock the size of a yo yo bounced heavily off a boulder and into the river just seven meters from where I stood. They were falling from far above. The gorge was so steep and sheer sided that I could not tell from which side they fell but it didn't matter. It was time to get out of there. I quickly climbed into my kayak and seal launched half sideways into the river. As I paddled away I felt my legs getting wet. My first thought was that my spray skirt was not clipped on properly but it was. With each stroke through the next class III rapid the boat became heavier with water and I made my way to the nearest eddy. I inspected the boat to find a gash some 12 centimeters long had been torn into the hull of the boat by the jagged boulder. I looked up and down the gorge for a way to trek out, no chance!
I had to mend it as best I could inside the gorge. Using duck tape (Thanks Wick!!) and a dry bag I managed to plug the hole significantly enough to continue although water seeped in. On the 3rd day on my own and with a badly leaking boat under my arm I finally met the guys. They had been waiting at a village called "Lancang Jiang" rather than "Latsaa Jiang". Using 16 tubes of epoxy resin, 36 screws, a length of truck inner tube and a piece of scrap metal we found on the road we managed to plug the hole. To our utter surprise when we filled the kayak with water to test the seal, nothing leaked out!. With only 14 days of white water left in Yunnan and insufficient funds to get the spare kayak sent up in time I decided to put my handy man skills to the test and paddle the ailing kayak through the rest of China.
With each passing day the waters of the Mekong rose significantly. We paddled past the snow-capped mountains of Melei Xue Shan for another 3 days and as suddenly as one can change a TV channel we entered a new climatic realm. One moment a brisk temperate breeze of the high Himalaya chilled our faces and hands the next a humid and significantly heavier type of warm air engulfed us. The temperature rose by 10 degrees Celsius and from that day forth we could wear shorts and T-shirts instead of thermal underwear and layers.
That same afternoon, for the first time in many weeks I saw a significant horizon line come into view instead of another string of mountain peaks. I yelled out to Brian "say goodbye to the Himalaya" and that we did. We proceeded to cross into a bizarre bio realm where the pine trees were interspersed with banana palms and tropical birds could be heard.
Most of Southern Yunnan has been run by 3 previous expeditions organized by Shangrila River Expeditions, yet with the water rising by as much as a foot per day we estimate that by the time we return from a brief side trip to the Zongdian horse racing festival the river will be approaching peak rainy season flows. It is unclear exactly how difficult this will make the dozens of class IV and V rapids reported by previous expeditions but what we do know is that we will be running the same rapids with at least 3 times more water volume than was reported previously.
To give an idea of the scale of rapids we expect to encounter: All members of a previous expedition through the area who had paddled the grand canyon claimed that the white water encountered was bigger than anything that could be found on the Colorado which is widely accepted as the biggest volume whitewater run to be found in the USA. Times the volume of water they paddled in the Mekong x 3 and one can logically expect a style of white water that can only be found at a select few locations on earth.
Bring on the big stuff!!!"
Tomorrow: The big mountains are gone, but Mick is forecasting upcoming "runs that theoretically should dwarf those found in the Grand Canyon."
"I know it's fun to watch the crazy round-eye paddle, but why are we all watching him have a pee..."
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Orange II Transatlantic Record Bid--Looking Dubious: Bruno Peyron and his merry crew are still celebrating the fact that they are the first to sail more than 700 miles in a day (how long do you think it will take modern boats to start thinking about 800 miles? 3 years? 5 years? Never?). In fact, their math--which needs to be confirmed by the World Sailing Speed Record Council--now shows that they racked up an incredible 706 miles. But the great French sailor can't drink champagne yet. He's still trying to get his big cat across the Atlantic in record time, and it's not going to be easy. At the 0900 time check this morning, Peyron and Orange II had 777.7 miles to go, and only 30.25 hours to do it in. That will require an average speed of 25.7 knots. That's easily within this rocket ships capability...IF they have good winds. And right now they don't. The average for the past 24 hours is down around 22 knots. We'll see what comes, and you never know when ol' Neptune will smile on you. But I'd wager that if Peyron comes out of this run with only a 24-hour record he won't be too grumpy about it. The boat will have shown its potential, nothing major has broken so far, and his main aim is to go out this winter and win back the Jules Verne Trophy and snatch the round-the-world record from Fossett....
"Ok, Bruno. Enough singing of the Marseilles. We've got more than 700 miles of hard sailing ahead..."
"Ok, Bruno. Enough singing of the Marseilles. We've got more than 700 miles of hard sailing ahead..."
Big, Big, Bigass Croc...: Check out this set of pics sent in by TWC correspondent-at-large Dave Ross. They were taken by a news helicopter over Cross Lake, near Shreveport, Louisiana. Yes, that's an entire deer in the crocs mouth. Which would make that snaggle-toothed baby, oh, about, umm, to be scientific about it, f*cking huge...
"I wish that damn helicopter would buzz off. Loud noise always puts me off my mid-morning snack..."
"I wish that damn helicopter would buzz off. Loud noise always puts me off my mid-morning snack..."
"Mekong" Mick's Wildass Adventure--Chapter 10: In which Mick continues down the Mekong through Yunnan, and demonstrates that while the river can almost kill him once, he's going to do his damndest not to give it another shot...
Melei Xeu Shan is comprised of a magnificent set of peaks above 5000 meters running north south along river right of the Mekong. Huge glaciers feed steep creeks in the area, which in turn carve, out steep sided valleys and the occasional piece of flat land inhabited by Tibetan and Naxi villagers. We decided to inspect one of the glaciers called Minyong.
When we approached Minyong glacier on foot the next day we were surprised to see just how fast it was melting. Like a block of ice in the desert the glacier dripped and dribbled from every corner as shades of ice could be heard snapping off and falling into the many crevasses. As we looked on two avalanches took place only a couple of hundred meters from where we stood. Was this just part of the annual cycle of are the glaciers of Melei Xue Shan in the process of disappearing forever as global warming persists?
That night when some locals heard that we were making a documentary on the Mekong Valley they offered to put on a performance of song and dance in our honor. Six beautifully dressed Tibetan girls entranced us with a wonderful display, which was made even more enjoyable due to the fact that they were having such a good time themselves. It was great to see a group of locals enjoying their traditional heritage so much and it is certainly something they can be very proud of. Tibetan culture is so rich and unique, it amazes me that some people can claim that the lands of Tibet have always just been another part of China. After 3 days of exploring the forests, glaciers and temples of Melei Xue Shan snow mountain we returned to the Mekong to take on the threatening gorge rapid.
Again the water level had risen significantly and this time it made the rapid even more treacherous. A long class IV bend followed by a lead in of boils made the only potential line into the class V rapid extremely difficult to hit. The line we had chosen previously had disappeared completely and the only option left was to attempt to bash through a massive "flushing" hole that took up half of the river. Although from our vantage some 60 meters directly above the rapid the hole appeared to flush the water through it was impossible to accurately gauge whether or not a kayak could bash through it. If not the kayaker would be re-circulated until he bailed out and then there would be a long, long swim to shore with little chance of rescue.
After analyzing it for a long time, and considering the long swim I had taken just two weeks previously I decided not to run the drop, as did Brian. It was the only full rapid we were forced to portage in Yunnan. We drove several kilometers around the rapid to the nearest put in. There were loads of fun but manageable runs along the way until we came to the most violent rapid yet in Yunnan we called "full stop". As with many of the other more difficult rapids full stop was located in a sheer sided gorge, was caused by an avalanche and could not be scouted properly.
Negotiating the main drop consisted of a risky class V move from right to left above a particularly violent set of holes, surges and boils that extended for hundreds of meters. One mistake would end in an ugly scene with little chance of rescue. But this was only half of the rapid. The second half was so messy that we decided to chicken run it on river left between a huge surging eddy and the violent main stream.
I successfully run the first half of the rapid catching the eddy before attempting to run the lower half as Brian filmed. I tried six times to paddle along the line we chose but the eddy was just too powerful. Eventually Brian also tried for 30 minutes to no avail. After scouting the rapid from every accessible angle we both decided it was too dangerous to run down the middle so the only option left was to portage it.
For 3 hrs we searched for alternative routes out of the near sheer sided canyon. Eventually we spotted an avalanche about 600 meters up stream and by pure chance a succession of eddies on river left allowed us to paddle and portage upstream until we could ferry across to it. It was a lucky break. We could find no other way out and if the eddies did not provide a pathway upstream against the swift waters, or if the avalanche was not in that particular spot we would have been forced to leave our kayaks there and make a dangerous climb out that would have taken 2 - 3 days. A grueling 2 hr climb up the avalanche ensued as we hauled the kayaks up one by one with our throw bags.
We checked out the maps while we caught our breath and noted that we were about to enter another significant stretch of gorges even less accessible than where we were. Brian decided not to continue on this stretch due to the risk of encountering an unportagable class VI rapid in one of the gorges. I decided to push on alone.
Tomorrow: Mick dodges falling rocks, and proves (yet again) that duct tape is the greatest invention ever conceived...
"Rollin, rollin', rollin' on the river..."
(Photo: Courtesy Lynley O'Shea)
Melei Xeu Shan is comprised of a magnificent set of peaks above 5000 meters running north south along river right of the Mekong. Huge glaciers feed steep creeks in the area, which in turn carve, out steep sided valleys and the occasional piece of flat land inhabited by Tibetan and Naxi villagers. We decided to inspect one of the glaciers called Minyong.
When we approached Minyong glacier on foot the next day we were surprised to see just how fast it was melting. Like a block of ice in the desert the glacier dripped and dribbled from every corner as shades of ice could be heard snapping off and falling into the many crevasses. As we looked on two avalanches took place only a couple of hundred meters from where we stood. Was this just part of the annual cycle of are the glaciers of Melei Xue Shan in the process of disappearing forever as global warming persists?
That night when some locals heard that we were making a documentary on the Mekong Valley they offered to put on a performance of song and dance in our honor. Six beautifully dressed Tibetan girls entranced us with a wonderful display, which was made even more enjoyable due to the fact that they were having such a good time themselves. It was great to see a group of locals enjoying their traditional heritage so much and it is certainly something they can be very proud of. Tibetan culture is so rich and unique, it amazes me that some people can claim that the lands of Tibet have always just been another part of China. After 3 days of exploring the forests, glaciers and temples of Melei Xue Shan snow mountain we returned to the Mekong to take on the threatening gorge rapid.
Again the water level had risen significantly and this time it made the rapid even more treacherous. A long class IV bend followed by a lead in of boils made the only potential line into the class V rapid extremely difficult to hit. The line we had chosen previously had disappeared completely and the only option left was to attempt to bash through a massive "flushing" hole that took up half of the river. Although from our vantage some 60 meters directly above the rapid the hole appeared to flush the water through it was impossible to accurately gauge whether or not a kayak could bash through it. If not the kayaker would be re-circulated until he bailed out and then there would be a long, long swim to shore with little chance of rescue.
After analyzing it for a long time, and considering the long swim I had taken just two weeks previously I decided not to run the drop, as did Brian. It was the only full rapid we were forced to portage in Yunnan. We drove several kilometers around the rapid to the nearest put in. There were loads of fun but manageable runs along the way until we came to the most violent rapid yet in Yunnan we called "full stop". As with many of the other more difficult rapids full stop was located in a sheer sided gorge, was caused by an avalanche and could not be scouted properly.
Negotiating the main drop consisted of a risky class V move from right to left above a particularly violent set of holes, surges and boils that extended for hundreds of meters. One mistake would end in an ugly scene with little chance of rescue. But this was only half of the rapid. The second half was so messy that we decided to chicken run it on river left between a huge surging eddy and the violent main stream.
I successfully run the first half of the rapid catching the eddy before attempting to run the lower half as Brian filmed. I tried six times to paddle along the line we chose but the eddy was just too powerful. Eventually Brian also tried for 30 minutes to no avail. After scouting the rapid from every accessible angle we both decided it was too dangerous to run down the middle so the only option left was to portage it.
For 3 hrs we searched for alternative routes out of the near sheer sided canyon. Eventually we spotted an avalanche about 600 meters up stream and by pure chance a succession of eddies on river left allowed us to paddle and portage upstream until we could ferry across to it. It was a lucky break. We could find no other way out and if the eddies did not provide a pathway upstream against the swift waters, or if the avalanche was not in that particular spot we would have been forced to leave our kayaks there and make a dangerous climb out that would have taken 2 - 3 days. A grueling 2 hr climb up the avalanche ensued as we hauled the kayaks up one by one with our throw bags.
We checked out the maps while we caught our breath and noted that we were about to enter another significant stretch of gorges even less accessible than where we were. Brian decided not to continue on this stretch due to the risk of encountering an unportagable class VI rapid in one of the gorges. I decided to push on alone.
Tomorrow: Mick dodges falling rocks, and proves (yet again) that duct tape is the greatest invention ever conceived...
"Rollin, rollin', rollin' on the river..."
(Photo: Courtesy Lynley O'Shea)
Monday, August 23, 2004
Annals Of Adventure--703 Miles Sailed in 24 Hours: Wow. Bruno Peyron and his latest gen maxi-cat Orange II is halfway into a transatlantic record bid and just picked up the 24 hour record along the way. Peyron had to bail last winter on his Jules Verne attempt, so this is the first major record he's gone after since, and Orange II is looking hot. She's sailing with 10 crew, and they took 3 tons out of the boat in Newport before starting, so she can't be in much better shape for this run. Peyron and his team are trying to break Steve Fossett's 2001 record of 4 days 17 hours 28 minutes. Fossett picked up the 24 hour record (sailing 680-some miles; which was subsequently improved to 695 by Maiden II) during that attempt as well. So when Orange II found herself in winds of 25-30 knots, Peyron put the pedal down. Here's a summary of the run so far:
— Last night, the ORANGE II maxi-catamaran skippered by the French yachtsman Bruno Peyron and his crew beat the world record for the longest distance sailed in 24 h*. At 10.30 p.m.(CET) yesterday evening, Orange II had achieved an average speed of 29.29 knots since Saturday evening at 10.30 and had thus covered 703 miles over the previous 24 hours.
- The giant Orange continued at this pace for the whole of the night, only rarely falling below 30 knots on the speedo. She may well therefore better the time of this first record.
- At 3 a.m. GMT (5 a.m. CET) this morning, ORANGE II also crossed the half way line, after 53 h15 mins sailing since the start back in New York. This puts her slightly in the lead, in comparison with the Atlantic record time* held by the American Steve Fossett.
Peyron is expecting to find trickier weather ahead (in contrast to PlayStation which simply rode a single weather system all the way across), so the transatlantic record is by no means in the bag. But being the first to break 700 miles in 24 hours is huge. Orange II may be ugly. But she is also f*cking fast...
"Hey Bruno! I think we took too much weight out of the port hull...."
— Last night, the ORANGE II maxi-catamaran skippered by the French yachtsman Bruno Peyron and his crew beat the world record for the longest distance sailed in 24 h*. At 10.30 p.m.(CET) yesterday evening, Orange II had achieved an average speed of 29.29 knots since Saturday evening at 10.30 and had thus covered 703 miles over the previous 24 hours.
- The giant Orange continued at this pace for the whole of the night, only rarely falling below 30 knots on the speedo. She may well therefore better the time of this first record.
- At 3 a.m. GMT (5 a.m. CET) this morning, ORANGE II also crossed the half way line, after 53 h15 mins sailing since the start back in New York. This puts her slightly in the lead, in comparison with the Atlantic record time* held by the American Steve Fossett.
Peyron is expecting to find trickier weather ahead (in contrast to PlayStation which simply rode a single weather system all the way across), so the transatlantic record is by no means in the bag. But being the first to break 700 miles in 24 hours is huge. Orange II may be ugly. But she is also f*cking fast...
"Hey Bruno! I think we took too much weight out of the port hull...."
Wetass Lives--Tim Bluhm: Here's a guy who's got it nailed (thanks to Karl in DC for tipping me to him). He's a San Francisco musician and outdoorsman, and he's currently surfing, hiking and skiing his way across the Golden State. He's posting a diary called the "TB Sessions" of his adventures and non-adventures that is understated, offbeat, and occasionally just weird. Which is to say, it's a lot of fun to read. Here's his latest report, "Eggs At Montara":
"Mark Kafoury and I headed out to Montara. I kind of knew better, and I had passed Pomponio and was glassy, if tiny, but Montara was more on my way. There were at least fifteen guys spread out along the beach and it was crummy at best. The wind was onshore and the waves were small and mushy and the sky was grey. The sand there is singular,though, in its consistency and color. It is large sand, but very even and smooth, and it it almost orange in color. It is worth going to Montara to see and feel it even if the waves aren't that good (which is usually the case.) Also of note were six chicken eggs sitting in the sand near where we changed into our suits. I have picked up a lot of trash on beaches and seen some odd items, but this was near the top of the list. It isn't even close to Easter."
Don't think I'll be travelling cross-country to check out the large sand at Montara. But it's always nice to know it's there...
Do chickens surf...?
"Mark Kafoury and I headed out to Montara. I kind of knew better, and I had passed Pomponio and was glassy, if tiny, but Montara was more on my way. There were at least fifteen guys spread out along the beach and it was crummy at best. The wind was onshore and the waves were small and mushy and the sky was grey. The sand there is singular,though, in its consistency and color. It is large sand, but very even and smooth, and it it almost orange in color. It is worth going to Montara to see and feel it even if the waves aren't that good (which is usually the case.) Also of note were six chicken eggs sitting in the sand near where we changed into our suits. I have picked up a lot of trash on beaches and seen some odd items, but this was near the top of the list. It isn't even close to Easter."
Don't think I'll be travelling cross-country to check out the large sand at Montara. But it's always nice to know it's there...
Do chickens surf...?
"Mekong" Mick O'Shea's Wildass Adventure--Chapter 9: Well, while I was sucking down the Guinness in Ireland and trying to convince my 2 and a half year old daughter that sailing in the rain is fun, Mekong Mick was continuing on down the Mekong River. When I got home, I found two dispatches in my e-mail box, courtesy of Mick's excellent Mum, Lynley. So after Mick's near-death experience in the Mekong Gorges the story continues into Northern Yunnan...
"A few days of R & R in Zongdjian done wonders for my aching body. It was there that I met up with our new director Brian Eustis. Brian and I had worked together on a tiger tracking survey on the remote Nam Pha River of northern Laos in 2003. On that trip Brian proved his abilities as a solid class 5 kayaker and a team player with a good eye for capturing the essence of an expedition on film. Like me he thrived on the challenges we encountered en route making him the right guy to capture the first ever expedition down the entire Mekong River.
In Zongdjian we located an enthusiastic local lad called "Young" to be our translator through Northern Yunnan and our driver who wore a pair of immaculate white gloves whenever he got into the support vehicle. He became known as "Mr. Hands". Mr. hands was a cool character and possessed the amazing ability to turn any 3-point turn into a 33-point turn. He loved singing and crashed his car twice over the next 10 days while we were with him. Fortunately I was on the river most the time and I had best get back to that side of the story because this entire dispatch could easily end up being devoted to Mr. Hands.
The four of us, and the project coordinator Yutah (Also my beautiful fiancé) squeezed into the Toyota 4x4 and begun the drive back up towards the Tibetan Border. The drive from Zongdjian to the Mekong near Dechin is magnificent. After crossing the Yangtze valley we steadily gained altitude through thick stands of old growth pine in the 3 parallel rivers world heritage site before eventually passing above the tree line and over a 4200 meter pass into the Mekong valley. The snow capped Tibetan spiritual mountain of Melei Xeu Shan could be made out through the clouds on the opposite side of the immense valley and far below the Mekong raged through canyons as deep as 1500 meters.
We spent the evening in the town of Dechin perched on a steep sided valley carved out by a Mekong tributary. We headed off early the next day, our destination was the exact same place I had taken a life threatening swim only a week before. The first priority before challenging that rapid again was to pop in and give a special thanks to the lovely old couple who had taken me in during my hr of need.
"Amma" (Mother) as the granny preferred to be called was over the moon to see me safe and sound and I greeted her with a gift of chocolate bars, something she had never tried before. We had a chat over a pot of Yak butter tea via our translator Mr. Young and eventually I invited her and her husband to come and watch me re-run the rapid.
As we approached the drop I noticed that the river had risen several feet over the course of a week and the hole that had thrashed me almost into oblivion was now semi flushed out. It was transformed into a huge crashing wave. It could be run right down the middle.
We geared up, Brian in his new Bomber Gear radiator dry suit and me armed with an awesome new "AT IV" bent shaft paddle from AT paddles. In the Himalayas there is no room for equipment failure and we are fortunate enough to be sponsored by some of the best manufacturers in the adventure industry. Special thanks to Bomber Gear and AT paddles!
I had no idea that Amma would be so distraught when I tackled the rapid. She had obviously never seen a human being place himself in such obvious danger and was convinced I would die. Apparently when the crashing wave slammed down on me (flipping my kayak momentarily before I casually rolled up) Amma screamed loudly and started crying. I looked across and spotted her 72-year-old husband running along the bank in an attempt to rescue me. I eddied out and tried to explain that I was fine and there was nothing to worry about. He tried to get me to pull my kayak out and looked baffled when I explained that I wanted to continue down stream to take on the other rapids. They were such a sweet old couple. It is heart warming to experience the genuine kindness and concern displayed towards a stranger who simply turned up on their doorstep one day in need. I felt terrible for making them worry so much and look forward to sending them a copy of the documentary when its finished so that they can rest assured I made it.
Brian and I proceeded to paddle down stream through a succession of class III-IV rapids. We encountered one particularly chunky class V rapid that managed to flip both of us at exactly the same place. We called it "double take". The days paddling was a great introduction to the Mekong for Brian with plenty of action yet nothing too gnarly.
We were now firmly in the 3 parallel rivers world heritage site. This incredible area where the Mekong, Salweeen and the Yangtze flow parallel with each other through some of the deepest gorges on earth is also one of the most diverse bio-regions on the planet. It is estimated that half of the world’s biodiversity can be accounted for in the reserve making it one of the worlds most important in terms of conservation.
We pulled up for the day in a small village above a gorge containing ferocious class V compression rapid. As we scouted the run from above the landslide to river right began periodically slipping into the violence. Although it looked a bit sketchy we decided that a tricky line that skirted below the avalanche would be runnable (As long as the avalanche did not slip as we passed underneath) but it would have to wait until after our detour to the glaciers of Melei Xue Shan."
Tomorrow, Mick scares himself. Again...
Uhh, no. Mick didn't run this baby...
(Photo: Courtesy Lynley O'Shea)
"A few days of R & R in Zongdjian done wonders for my aching body. It was there that I met up with our new director Brian Eustis. Brian and I had worked together on a tiger tracking survey on the remote Nam Pha River of northern Laos in 2003. On that trip Brian proved his abilities as a solid class 5 kayaker and a team player with a good eye for capturing the essence of an expedition on film. Like me he thrived on the challenges we encountered en route making him the right guy to capture the first ever expedition down the entire Mekong River.
In Zongdjian we located an enthusiastic local lad called "Young" to be our translator through Northern Yunnan and our driver who wore a pair of immaculate white gloves whenever he got into the support vehicle. He became known as "Mr. Hands". Mr. hands was a cool character and possessed the amazing ability to turn any 3-point turn into a 33-point turn. He loved singing and crashed his car twice over the next 10 days while we were with him. Fortunately I was on the river most the time and I had best get back to that side of the story because this entire dispatch could easily end up being devoted to Mr. Hands.
The four of us, and the project coordinator Yutah (Also my beautiful fiancé) squeezed into the Toyota 4x4 and begun the drive back up towards the Tibetan Border. The drive from Zongdjian to the Mekong near Dechin is magnificent. After crossing the Yangtze valley we steadily gained altitude through thick stands of old growth pine in the 3 parallel rivers world heritage site before eventually passing above the tree line and over a 4200 meter pass into the Mekong valley. The snow capped Tibetan spiritual mountain of Melei Xeu Shan could be made out through the clouds on the opposite side of the immense valley and far below the Mekong raged through canyons as deep as 1500 meters.
We spent the evening in the town of Dechin perched on a steep sided valley carved out by a Mekong tributary. We headed off early the next day, our destination was the exact same place I had taken a life threatening swim only a week before. The first priority before challenging that rapid again was to pop in and give a special thanks to the lovely old couple who had taken me in during my hr of need.
"Amma" (Mother) as the granny preferred to be called was over the moon to see me safe and sound and I greeted her with a gift of chocolate bars, something she had never tried before. We had a chat over a pot of Yak butter tea via our translator Mr. Young and eventually I invited her and her husband to come and watch me re-run the rapid.
As we approached the drop I noticed that the river had risen several feet over the course of a week and the hole that had thrashed me almost into oblivion was now semi flushed out. It was transformed into a huge crashing wave. It could be run right down the middle.
We geared up, Brian in his new Bomber Gear radiator dry suit and me armed with an awesome new "AT IV" bent shaft paddle from AT paddles. In the Himalayas there is no room for equipment failure and we are fortunate enough to be sponsored by some of the best manufacturers in the adventure industry. Special thanks to Bomber Gear and AT paddles!
I had no idea that Amma would be so distraught when I tackled the rapid. She had obviously never seen a human being place himself in such obvious danger and was convinced I would die. Apparently when the crashing wave slammed down on me (flipping my kayak momentarily before I casually rolled up) Amma screamed loudly and started crying. I looked across and spotted her 72-year-old husband running along the bank in an attempt to rescue me. I eddied out and tried to explain that I was fine and there was nothing to worry about. He tried to get me to pull my kayak out and looked baffled when I explained that I wanted to continue down stream to take on the other rapids. They were such a sweet old couple. It is heart warming to experience the genuine kindness and concern displayed towards a stranger who simply turned up on their doorstep one day in need. I felt terrible for making them worry so much and look forward to sending them a copy of the documentary when its finished so that they can rest assured I made it.
Brian and I proceeded to paddle down stream through a succession of class III-IV rapids. We encountered one particularly chunky class V rapid that managed to flip both of us at exactly the same place. We called it "double take". The days paddling was a great introduction to the Mekong for Brian with plenty of action yet nothing too gnarly.
We were now firmly in the 3 parallel rivers world heritage site. This incredible area where the Mekong, Salweeen and the Yangtze flow parallel with each other through some of the deepest gorges on earth is also one of the most diverse bio-regions on the planet. It is estimated that half of the world’s biodiversity can be accounted for in the reserve making it one of the worlds most important in terms of conservation.
We pulled up for the day in a small village above a gorge containing ferocious class V compression rapid. As we scouted the run from above the landslide to river right began periodically slipping into the violence. Although it looked a bit sketchy we decided that a tricky line that skirted below the avalanche would be runnable (As long as the avalanche did not slip as we passed underneath) but it would have to wait until after our detour to the glaciers of Melei Xue Shan."
Tomorrow, Mick scares himself. Again...
Uhh, no. Mick didn't run this baby...
(Photo: Courtesy Lynley O'Shea)
![[Valid Atom]](http://www.wetasschronicles.com/artwork/valid-atom.png "Validate my Atom feed"){kind=small}
