10/26- Rio Cotahuasi, Day 3

Day 3 on the Cotahuasi began stout. There was some steep read and run rapids until we got to Marpa, the said biggest rapid on the trip. We all got out and scouted it and it was longer and bigger than anything we had seen on the Cotahuasi:

The paddle raft went first and made it look easy, which was great cause we were all like, 'Sweet, so now Drew is going to style it like he does everything else.' All the kayakers were placed along shore with throwropes near all the big hydraulics. Christina near the bottom of Marpa:


Ben stylin the bottom of Marpa:



As the signal went up that Drew was running the rapid, I saw Todd blow his whistle three times signaling a problem or emergency and we took off running upstream. Drew had pinned the gear boat in the top drop of the rapid, right above the gnar between a rock and the undercut wall. This was around 10 am.

Drew had done a stellar job rigging the boat, so most of the gear stayed in, even though the boat was fully underwater. The kayakers ferried across to river right to help get the boat off. After unloading a bit of the gear, we set up a zdrag and started hauling. The boat didn´t budge and we broke a few polypro and spectra lines hauling. Around 2 pm we decided to camp there with the pinned boat, hoping the river would take care of it for us. I swam over with Andy and we started unloading more gear. It was intense being out there on the boat because the water would surge and the boat would go further under water. It was also right above a big rapid, so if I got washed out or fell into the river, my only safety was Ben downstream in his kayak. I was greatful to have such a strong team with Andy upstream and Ben downstream. As I loosened the straps and took off the oars and gear, the boat began to move and buckle a bit more. The more I took off, the more it moved. I started to jump up and down on the bow, pushing off the rocks. The boat was moving! A few minutes later it came off and I jumped into the eddy upstream of the wrap! As Gian Marco put it best, 'Now! We are a lot less fucked than we were 5 hours ago!'


We were all tired and had lost a lot of gear and food. The coolers were empty and most of the pasta and tortillas were soggy at best. As Todd added, 'Its not really an expedition until you run out of food!' We were getting close.

We ate soggy pasta for dinner because that was all we had. It was a quiet night at camp. We camped there beside the largest rapid on the river. It was a long day.