We
woke up at the nice restaurant, hotel/truck stop Roland had found a for
us the night before. It was all in one room! I was exhausted from
paddling and the flu and had crashed out before dinner, but the next
morning I managed to keep down the standard breakfast, chapati bread
and chai tea.
The
previous afternoon we had set a general put in time, and we arrived
right on schedule.
The
first several rapid looked like a nice read and run affair, Phil
Boyer and Rafa Ortiz enjoying the Indus.
Here
are the boys scouting out a rapid that had a classic big water move, a
side to side ferry above a nice large hole.
Phil
Boyer starts the ferry.
Roland
Stevenson looks on.
A
properly decorated Bedford.
Phil
Boyer.
Shortly downstream the team had to get out for another
long scout. Scouting on the Indus takes a long time. Ledge holes like
to hide at the bottom of rapids, and with the rough terrain and long
rapids many scouts were fifteen to twenty minutes one way.
Phil
Boyer dwarfed by the Karakoram at the lip of a massive cascade.
Chris Korbulic at the top of the same.
Chris
Korbulic tries to escape the breathtaking wave of the same rapid.
Our
drivers Mustaffa and Rashid waiting for the group to come around the
corner.
Rafa
Ortiz makes the move.
Rafa
Ortiz with a nice lead during some read and run.
There were a handful of rapids that stood out from the
others during the drive up. This one was distinctly memorable to me
because I didn’t expect to see anything remotely manky in a river
this size, but this one was bad from several hundred feet above.
The
group scouts the sketchy cataract.
This drop was something I would expect to see on a creek
at high water, basically a sieve with some water flowing over it.
I
don’t think it was too hard of a choice for most of the team, but
Rafa Ortiz decided to give it a good long look.
There certainly was a move in the rapid, but it
didn’t look easy. Lead in flows pushed left, and the line would
be driving hard to the right and over a big breaking green wave to
avoid a fold that was also potentially a sieve.
Rafael
Ortiz goes big on the Indus River
It
was early afternoon so all the kids were out of school and came out to
observe.
One
more scout and big rapid for the day, another “death ferry”
above an atrocious ledge hole. Phil Boyer squeaks
past the hole.
Phil
Boyer finishes the day with a big grin.
Boats
were stashed by the river, and we drove a kilometer down to a very
friendly restaurant.
Night
views from the little restaurant.