Thankfully, because of the wonders of the internet, it’s rare to have to run a new river truly blind. Social media is an incredible tool for scouting, level checking and line learning. It does, however, have its limits…
One of the more famous rivers in Chile is called the Rio Claro. The river is comprised of a number of sections, all of similar style. The huge volcanic walls frame incredibly clean waterfalls and gnarly narrow rapids. Known for its most famous drop, “The Devil’s Throat”, the Claro is a pretty intense undertaking.
This experience is intensified when nobody in the group has done it before. Have no fear though, the internet is here. Having located some WiFi and downloaded a POV video of the section, we dropped in. A combination of intense read and run intermingled with scoutable drops took us through the first section and down towards the main canyon.
The walls tighten and now YouTube is our only crutch. No scouting from here. Clean rapids lead us down to The Devil’s Throat; a 40+ft waterfall which turns almost a full 180 degrees.
Nervous but stoked, I went first, keeping my bow up onto the curler. I’m bucked slightly by a rock on the lip and cork towards the right, adjusting my tuck accordingly. I roll up and give the crew a whoop. The boys followed and we all collected ourselves at the bottom, forwards paddling into the spray of the drop.
Behind us lay a narrow gap with a huge boil visible. Upon checking the video we pulled a righty boof stroke up the boil and off of another drop.
Next came the famous slot rapid, a 70ft slot which fires through the deep canyon walls. Like a ridiculous basalt roller coaster I was fired through the slot. All through safe, we carried on towards the takeout.
Up to this point our POV video had been incredibly useful, however, the next couple of rapids had been left out of the video. Perhaps the kayaker in the video wasn’t happy with the line? Perhaps the GoPro ran out of battery? Either way, we had a problem. YouTube definitely has its limitations.
Very blind and without the video’s help, we commit. “Be purposeful and trust your stroke”, I thought. Committing to the unknown is difficult and requires a level of self trust which I often struggle with. Either way, reaction kicked in and to our delight this was a clean and enjoyable rapid. This style continued for a while, blind and uncertain, the canyon lead us down to our takeout.
Local beta had notified us about a siphon filled canyon below the take out. We were conscious not to miss our way out. We took the last few rapids very slowly and carefully, keeping our eye out on river left for a sign of a get out. Starting to be concerned about how far we had travelled out of the gorge, we stopped to try and get a view from the top of a rock shelf. Then from behind us came whoops which were followed by the arrival of a cheerful crew of Kiwis. With relief, we followed them down to the takeout and walked back out to the car.
Some high fives and hugs exchanged, we recounted our YouTube/read and run experience to the Kiwis and then hit the pan-American highway south towards Pucon. Hopefully more treats in store!
Kayak Highlight:
For this trip, I chose to paddle a Medium ReactR. In environments as unique as the Rio Claro, speed and manoeuvrability are key. I love that I can boost up to speed easily and that the kayak performs with agility and reactivity when reading and running. Especially important to me is feeling locked in to my boat, giving me maximum connectivity. The Elite outfitting not only keeps me feeling safe and secure, it is also comfortable on the walk in and walk outs.