11/4 - Rio Paucartambo, Day 3

Day three started early at 7:45 with the anticipation of a big day of whitewater. The first 30 minutes were mellow until we reached 'Go Left and Flip II', a big move left of a boulder into a hole. The river backed off again until 9:00 when a steep creek entering on the left signals the entrance of 'Steep Bouldery Canyon Rapids'. We scouted the first series here on the left, which had a tricky entrance down the left side into an ender hole. I got squirted up and Todd got flipped over backwards here. Then it moved through the center passing some huge holes, and ending with a tricky move right in front of a boulder. We scouted this series for an hour or so and the rapids below it. It was 250 fpm gradient with close to 2000 cfs. Epic:
Todd running the move at the bottom:

The second part of this series involved a hard move into a narrow slot, off a 3 foot boof into another manky channel that dropped rapidly into a minefield of holes. Todd and Baker run the mank:

Scout right, portage right. The holes at the bottom are monsterous. Below the first few monster holes, the river mellows to steep gradient, high flows, and lots of super high quality lines. We loved this section of the river. Almost every hole was big and pushy, but they all went for at least a mile, maybe a few miles.

At 10:45 'Dos Amigos Creek' entered from the right, and we had a great run down 'Balls to the Walls Left' (just like the Wind River, only 5x bigger!):




We ate an early lunch at 11:15 at a beautiful creek on the left. It was our first day of Manhar Blanco (carmel) and jam on totillas, a nice change from bread and avo.

We boated down a bit more to a line of huge boulder across the river. We knew this had to be the 'portage grande' as described by Gian Marco. The entrance to the portage was pretty obvious, with boulder choked channels and sieves everywhere:

The full portage took us a little more than an hour using ropes, teamwork and going over and under the huge boudlers. It wasn´t very dangerous, but carrying 80lb loaded boats over sharp rocks is quite difficult. At the bottom of the portage is another rapid that Gian Marco recomended we ferry left and then portage. Andy saw a line and we both ran down the center with no problems. Jonathan running the portage line:

With the 'Portage Grande' behind us, we were happy, but knew there was one more canyon up ahead. 15 minutes later we approached a vertical walled canyon choked full of huge boudlers. We scouted left and felt pretty stuck with some lines we couldn't run, walls we couldn´t climb, and a sketchy portage situation. The line on the right looked like certain death, with the entire flow going under a house sized boulder. The line on the left went off a ledge and directly into another rock ledge, posibble pin or piton.

We portaged the entrance on the left, and then Andy did a sketchy climb out of his boat onto rocks above the meat of the rapid. He figured out a line that looked iffy to the group, so everyone portaged and he and I ran. Andy seal launched off the rock into the wall, pinnaing vertically out of the water. Ben had to come pull him out. Then we ran the line down the middle, through the first hole and off the left of the second hole. My line was pretty bad, but went through the two huge holes without getting worked. The rapid below was sweet, and there was an amazing slot canyon on the side of the canyon we were paddling through. I don´t know how many people have ever seen this canyon, but it couldn´t be much more than 100. Truley amazing spiritual place.

We found a perfect camp of black sand right below the canyon at 4:15. We had a celebration dinner of pasta with mussels, garlic and soup. Perfect way to end an incredible day of whitewater.
The final canyon on Paucartambo: