Thursday, November 26, 2009

Rio Carhuello with Demshitz









I'm settled in here in town, working with the best people in town
(Mauricio, Ema and Rodrigo) and sharing a casa with Jared and Todd. We loaded up and headed out to the Rio Carhuello, a super-steep micro-creek that rarely has enough water to run. Before putting on, Jared and I gave a thorough look at the manky drop at the take-out, which had never been run before. It appeared to be "runnable."
The Carhuello is famous for its incredibly stacked Cuatro-Drop, and after styling clean lines through that crux section, we were fired up to give the take-out drop another look. Jared decided it needed to be done, and he put-in to run the clean but steep entrance rapids. He caught a tight eddy at the lip, took a moment to steady his nerves and sent himself flying off of kicker rock into the manky mess at the top of the falls. We both thought it to be possible to make it right, into the deeper channel, but the unforgiving seams at the lip of the drop sucked him into the ugly side, which eventually landed on some rocks. Fortunately for El Diablito, his kayak took most of the impact, but his left elbow also took an exreme impact. 8 stitches later and a couple of beers into the night, Demshitz is fine. He'll be back on the stouts in a week.
As Rodrigo says, "Bring your balls...and your elbow pads. You gonna need 'em."

Los Piscoleros return to Tres Saltos!

Tyler Bradt...Just his size.

Todd Richey with his first run off The Salto of Tres Saltos. photo by Diablito



This was my 6th run off of the mighty falls. So good. photo by Diablito



EG always brings steeze to the stouts. photo by Diablito



The Diablito, Jared Seiler, perfecting the paddle toss method.



Adrenaline Rush Sturges. The man, the myth, the legend.

I finally made it back to the promised-land that is Pucon, Chile. This big one in the Tres Saltos waterfall park is a mandatory mission for anyone who loves big, clean waterfalls. This was my first stop after my arrival, and I will happily return!
All of the boys put on a good show, and Tyler even ran her twice. We were missing our local legend, Rodrigo Tuschner of Kayak Pucon, but I'm sure we'll see more of him out on the rivers and creeks here as soon as he finishes teaching the local raft guide classes.