The Upper Champi River - Extreme kayaking and Fear in Laos
Yesterdays plan involved running the1st descent of the upper section of the Champi River. The maps we had purchased suggested that the river would be gorged in and not too steep.
About to put on the Champi River. We did not anticipate such a grueling day
The section of river below the falls was low volume and provided relatively boring boulder gardens. On two occasions we had to portage trees which had been chopped over the river to form bridges.
After about and hour and half paddle we ended up staring at a fierce horizon line. We climbed out on river left to find a resort being constructed. We left our boats to take a look; the waterfall below was a massive double drop which bares much more interest to tourists than kayakers as it is a very difficult obstacle get around. Lucky for us, the developing resort had a flight of steep stairs running down the cliff face. The climb down took much longer than anticipated and left us tired at the bottom.
Next up, just below the stairs and viewing platform on the river, stood a 40 footer landing onto rocks. There is a line that could be attempted in the correct circumstances where a spout clears the rocks by a couple feet. In order to get around this drop Lachie and I had to abseil down the cliff between the two channels of the waterfall. This hiccup was not an issue as we had brought climbing gear along in case of similar scenarios.
Abseiling into the gorge.
Soon after the abseil we set out into the gorge. The first 500 hundred meters or so held some of the most spectacular rapids I have ever kayaked. There was on 20footer in particular which will remain as one of the most amazing rapids I have ever seen, it consisted of a spout between two walls landing in a magnificent pool. A couple rapids later Lachie and arrived at another terrifying horizon line. This time there was no path for us or any people around to give us assistance. We were stuck on the right bank with forest and cliffs in all directions.
We climbed out on the river right bank and managed to get onto a ledge in the forest about 10 feet above the water. From here we realized where we were. We were stuck on the river right with a cliff above us and a 50 or so meter waterfall below us and almost no way of getting across to the other side where we could climb out.
Our knife was needed. Over about an hour and a half Lachie managed to cut a path along the ledge upstream to a location where we were able to ferry glide to the river left. In this time I was organizing the roping of boats onto the ledge and across. I must admit, the moment where I realized where we were and what we had got our selves into. It was one of (if not the) scariest moments of my life.
Lachie feeling just as scared as me on the ledge above the waterfall
We managed to get the trail cut and both managed to complete the seal launch and the extremely high pressure ferry glide across to the left bank. We gave a little “high five” as we had completed step 1.
Pulling the kayaks along the Lachie made path. Very scared at that point
Step 2 – here we had to walk upstream to find somewhere we could climb out the gorge. Stumbling along slippery rocks above a waterfall is not a mentally relaxing thing to do. Only a few meters up we found a gully that looked navigable. We opted to climb out the river left side because we knew, with the aid of the inaccurate maps, that there is more farm life and a road that runs parallel to the Champi.
The first 150 or so meters of our climb was done individually with both of us dragging our kayaks. It was at this moment that I realized the importance of us wearing long pants. Long pants, not only protected us against the harsh scratching from the trees but also helped prevent snakes and spiders from biting us. We saw hundreds of spiders and one snake on our climb, but I am certain that there were many more.
The hill became even steeper so, at times, we ended up crawling up the face holding onto vines and small trees. At one point Lachie found an old used drinking straw. I can remember the hope it gave as it suggested that people have been there before and hopefully meant that people live around there.
Despite all our objections and cursing, the climb got even steeper. Here we could not drag the boats any longer so we tied roped to the boats and ascended higher to setup a “Z drag” system (A Z drag uses leverage to pull a rope with greater force than one can give, it uses pulleys and staps. This technique is used globally by whitewater kayakers as a rescue technique).
This system is not that effective when it comes to pulling two kayaks up a mountain where trees and vines cause the kayaks to get STUCK. So one of us, usually me, would run up and down freeing the kayaks.
We slowly started to see the crux of the mountain through the trees. This site gave us a second wind as we started speeding up our, nearly perfected technique of attaching the kayak to someone while the other one pulls from an anchor uphill.
At around 6pm we were at the top of the hill. It was getting dark soon and, despite bringing a tarp along, I really didn’t want to spend the night with what Laos has to offer. We were in a coffee plantation and so knew that if we walked in one direction we would find a road and some people. After about 2 or so km of dragging our kayaks along paths and plantations we found a little hut with two Lao teenagers in it. We managed to get them to give directions to our driver on my cell phone.
The hotel managers expression told a story as we arrived in the darkness covered from head to toe in mud. We were cut and bruised and were clearly not keen to talk to anyone. We dumped our gear on the balcony and after short shower we went out for a cold been and lots of food for all we had eaten throughout the day was a small breakfast and 3 Oreos at the start of our Z drag efforts.
Due to our exhausting day yesterday we unanimously decided that we are not going to do anything more strenuous than climbing the 18 stairs to our room. Hopefully tomorrow we will feel like boating a little more.
Portage around the first huge waterfall. Spectacular
Good Lines
Craig Rivett
