CANADA
HIGHWAY 37, THE ONE AND ONLY BRIDGE ACROSS THE STIKINE RIVER DISAPPEARED RAPIDLY OVER THE HORIZON. FOR THE FIRST SIX KILOMETRES THE STIKINE FLOWED ACROSS A WIDE, GRAVEL RIVER BED. STILL, NO CANYON IN SIGHT.
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THAT’S WHEN IT GOES FROM ZERO TO 100 IN THREE SECONDS. Called “The Mount Everest of kayaking”, the grand canyon of the Stikine in northern Canada marks the pinnacle of difficulty in expedition kayaking: 60 kilometres long, 460 metres deep, flowing at a rate of 350 cubic metres per second, and boasting 30 top-grade rapids, many of them through narrows, the Stikine lives up to its “Everest” reputation. The gorge, with its challenging narrows, hidden bends and roaring maelstrom of whitewater, creates conditions that would make going through a high-speed blender seem safer. The Stikine’s location in Canada’s wilderness - among grizzlies, wolves and mountain goats offers one of the most amazing displays of untouched nature that you can experience by boat. No surprise then that the Stikine is rated as one of the toughest yet most beautiful wildwater trips on earth.
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Most of the falls in the canyon run through narrows. In this terrain, it is actually impossible to escape, get out and carry your kayak past. It’s full-on commitment. Wasson’s Hole is one such narrow, an infamous rapid in which John Wasson almost lost his life during his first attempt to paddle these waters. We exit at the last possible eddy before Wasson’s Hole to climb high and gain perspective on the narrow. What we see terrifies us: a considerable vertical drop with a powerful diagonal wave running in the centre and a huge breaking wave at the end on the left wall.
STIKINE
Down river, the beautiful Stikine becomes a kayak tourer’s nightmare. “Unnavigable by all craft,” reads the warning sign at the entrance to the area. A huge rock chasm reminiscent of Mount Mordor from “Lord of the Rings” swallows the pumping river quicker than you could ever imagine. The water flows in placidly and peacefully, offering a sense that there might even be plenty of opportunities to turn around. But it’s actually a trap. Just around the corner, between two sheer vertical walls, you encounter Entry Falls: one of the most difficult sections of the Stikine. It calls to mind the opening sentence of a favourite documentary: “The river enthrals you with its beauty, infatuates you with its grace - and kills you with its force.” Darin McQuoid, our photographer, and I climb high to the canyon rim and crawl through the undergrowth to the edge to take a look at the waterfalls below. From above, the scene is a thundering chaos of rock and water. We move into our positions and roll the cameras. Sam Sutton (NZL), Gerd Serrasolses (ESP), Jared Meehan (NZL) and Aniol Serrasolses (ESP) stay on the river and have to paddle down first. When they appear an hour later, we are shocked at the dimensions. Their kayaks are dwarfed, looking like tiny toy boats, amid the shocking mass of water. What appears from our angle to be a small entry wave crashes several metres on top of them. They paddle like machines to maintain as perfect a line as possible, zigzagging into the first eddy below. Aniol’s kayak is caught in a breaking wave and he is forced into a roll. One thing is clear, the Stikine is no kids’ party and whoever enters this maze will have to face a truth within their inner selves.
The choice of line was easy: centre-right. As soon as the path was determined, we suppress our rising fears by taking immediate action. With your heart beating so loud that you think you ought to be able to hear it echoing in the canyon walls, we boarded our boats and headed on our line: centre-right. That was when we noticed that the whole approach was on a slant, sloping over to the left … and straight into an apocalyptic hole. With all our strength we just managed to stay on course along the middle of the flow and we barely swept past a treacherous wall of water. Out of the corner of our eye we catch a glimpse of the biggest wave of our lives …
TEXT: OLAF OBSOMMER PHOTO: DARIN MCQUOID
Find out whether the team can handle with the biggest wave of their lives in the iPad® magazine app: adidas.com/outdoor/magazine
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