Yangtze River Adventure

Home
Yangtze

Continued

 

On to Dege

RapidOne large rapid gave me a chance to get buried in water. We were able this time to pull over and scout the hole, as Paul Sharpe paddling a kayak was out ahead radioing back that it was time to pull over. From the cliff we looked down on 100 yards of standing waves that went right into a rock at a turn. The water piled up against the rock and the idea was to pull hard to the center of the river and stay off the rock. I rode through it first with Ken to get an idea of what could happen then he put me ashore and I went back for my raft. I wasn't able to stay off the rock and the water piled over me, filling the raft with another ton of water. A quarter-mile downstream I finally made it to quiet water and shore.

The scenery was stunning, with the surrounding mountains coming to a steep stop at the river, which wound around great projections of land like a snake, making the distance between two points stretch from a quarter mile into 5 miles. Greenish brown slopes were interrupted by small villages and fields planted in what could have been oats. The fields looked like brown 32-hole golf courses. The homes were made of mud brick, rocks, and small timbers, with racks for hay drying on the roofs.

The whitewater sections were plentiful but not impassable, so I never had to get out my climbing gear and climb the canyon walls. That is why I got to go on the expedition. When I first met Ken and Jan I was on a Sports Illustrated assignment to photograph them and all the equipment stacked in their driveway ready for shipment to China. I asked Ken if he needed anymore team members and he said the photographer position was filled, but he did need a climber. My heart raced, YES! "I climb," I told him.

The next day, after sending the film off to SI, I met with Ken for a couple of hours, going over my climbing history. After a while we shook hands, I was the team climber, ready to string ropes or climb out of a canyon should the water become impassable. As big as it did get, I never had climb the cliffs for that reason. Instead, I helped the film crew tote tripods and gear to the cliff edges for shots that we were able to set up, looking down on rafts plunging through the cataracts. For instance, the one we called Three Boat Rapid.

Three Boat Rapid

Three Boat RapidThis one stopped us. It was too big for single rafts and we thought we had better portage. My raft was picked for the attempt at an overland haul. We spent hours getting the gear out and then dragging, tugging, lifting the18-foot gray mass over the boulders. Strewn along the left shore, in an eddy below the stopper hole, was all manner of broken rafting and personal gear. It looked as though this was one place the all-Chinese team met disaster.

The effort at portage was so difficult that Ken and Ron reevaluated the situation. Ron suggested lashing the remaining three rafts together, to form a craft three boats wide. This they did, and were able to run the maelstrom. Ron rowed the left side, Chu Siming climbed in the middle raft for the Chinese half of our team, and Ken was on the right oar as the three rafts slid toward the center slick. The drop was about 15 feet, a slanting tongue licking a giant boulder in the center where the rafts disappeared momentarily. They emerged with a cascade of water pouring out of the boats and then crunched the left rock wall, where they were again inundated, scrunched onto another rock midstream, and then, clear. Ken radioed back that we should refit the portaged raft and catch up with the three-boat rig, which they would row to shore at a likely camp site. Easier said than done.

 

 

First Descent
Death on the Yangtze
Yushu
To Dege
Three Boat Rapid
Cold Night
Dege
River of Doom
Bigger Better
Aftermath
5 Day Camp
Meanwhile
Adventure's End
Overland
Map

 

Continued