11/2 - Rio Paucartambo, Day 1

Day 1 on the river began with an early breakfast and packing. There was also quite a bit of local interest in what we were doing, as many of the people of Challabamba had never seen kayaks before. There were a few kids hanging out, watching us back, one of whom had an oldschool Patagonia jacket. Where do they get this stuff?!

We put on at 8am, which continued more or less as a trend through our trip. We paddled about 30 minutes where we passed under a big orange car bridge. This was probably the putin we were aiming for, but couldn´t find in the dark. About 1:30 into the river we went under a brown and white bridge that had a sort of gauge under it. The river was at 26-27cm, whatever that is. We did a daily flow guess at the start and end of each day to monitor the level. On the Paucartambo it is especially important because upstream rains can make the level in the canyon unrunable. Day one guesses (start/end):

J: 750 1320
B: 800 1200
A: 800 1000
S: 650 1375
T: 700 1200

Around 2:15 min into the day we got out of the initial flatwater, and began some manky class III-IV rapids:
We passed a small village where the entire town came down to the river to see us. Everywhere we went there was quite a bit of local interest in our travels. We came through the first real gorge in the river, the entrance to the Orange Canyon:



We got to the first big rapids at 12:15, right in time for lunch. We ran the first Class V at 1:00 after lunch of pan and avo. This section of Orange Canyon was steep and tight, with big moves and some huge features. The first big rapid has a huge rock in the middle and you need to enter left, then move right of the rock, then back behind it, then back left again. Todd and I totally botched this and ran the far right channel backwards after nearly pinning on the same rock in the far right channel. Baker styling the first:

Next up was a huge landslide rapid coming from the right wall. The left side had a small sneak and then dropping down into the middle down below the landslide. This part of Orange Canyon was dramatic, with shear walls and powerful hydraulics.

We ran down through the canyon at a strong pace till 2:15 when we got to a riverwide ledge/ hole dropping about 7 feet. Andy and I probed the middle with good results. 15 minutes further downstream we got to the first portage, a small one where a house sized boulder on the left bank signals the entrance to the rapid. The lip of the drop on the right looks tempting, but drops 15 feet into sieved out boulders. Carry on left. Right below the first portage is one of the steepest rapids in the Orange Canyon. The rapid is scoutable and portageable on the left with four distinct parts. The entrance is gnarly with a huge hole on the left and small slot drop on the right. The next move is the crux, a 20 foot pool leading into the right cliff wall. The hole and hydraulic next to the cliff is huge. If you drive right to left at the rock on the left corner of the hole, there is a sweet boof into the pool below:


The next move is tricky, sliding over a rock slab center or going left around the slab through some tight slots. The final part of the rapid was three consecutive moves left through some big slots with sticky holes. The second one is tricky, and endered a few of us. Andy, Baker and I ran this serries with good lines. The second move, although intimidating was amazing, flying off the lefty rock below the hole. Sweet move.

Below the big rapid were some other Class IV+ rapids including a sneak line left where there are a bunch of boulders and logs choking the center channel. We ran down until 4:00, camping next to a margianlly runable Class V rapid where the entire river goes under a HUGE riverwide boulder. It was an insane rapid. We all portaged it and were glad to find a sweet small camp amongst the boulders beside it. Deep in Orange Canyon we made our first camp:

Just out of the picture is a riverwide boulder that the entire rapid goes under.