DESCENTS

FIRST DESCENT, HIGH FALLS, NORTH CAROLINA, USA

Dupont State Forest, NC: Mid-spring Ryan Mcavoy and Michael Ferraro began scouting High Falls like a sick obsession, drawing lines down photos of the rock dome trying to negotiate a path down. This slide drops a total of 300 feet in elevation in about 100 horizontal feet, making it pretty darn steep. The drop also contains three crux moves. The first crux is after entering far right driving across the flow to get as far left as possible. The consequences of not making it left are possibly fatal due to a rock shelf on river right. After this, there is a 15 to 20-foot vertical section of slide with an exploding flat reconnect at the bottom that could be gapped. The last crux is staying in “control” enough to land right side up in the rocks at the other side of the pool at the bottom. On April 15th, 2018 rain fell all day, and Mcavoy and Ferraro staked the falls out. At about five pm they walked up and put in above the falls. With safety and cameras rolling Mcavoy claimed the first descent followed immediately by Ferraro. Both had clean lines with no injuries. The next day at a sub-par water level Levi Rhodes made the third descent and sustained minor injuries. There have been several other feats accomplished in North Carolina extreme kayaking. However, due to the legality and regulation of extreme sports in North Carolina, those endeavours will be disclosed at a later date or maybe never.

Report: Mike Ferraro - Photography: Heather Peterson

GREAT GAMSBY: THE SECOND FULL DESCENT OF A FAR OFF GEM, BC, CANADA 2018

Located deep in the B.C. bush lies the largest continuous tract of coastal temperate rainforest in the world, the Kitlope Heritage Conservancy. The conservancy is 795,700 acres, making it the largest conservancy of its type. That’s nearly one million protected acres in just one little slice of BC! Once owned by a large industrial extractive resource company, the Kitlope region was lobbied for and designated as a provincial park in 1996 with the help of groups such as Patagonia. While smaller industries such as ecotourism were allowed to thrive for some years, larger, more aggressive industries in the region were halted. Now, the only way in or out of the park is by human power fueled by blood, sweat and hundreds of mosquito bites. Kyle Smith (ID), Mike Bond (ID), Sam Wells (ID) and Chris Madden (CA) headed North from the Payette, bound for the Stikine, but due to fires, ended up finding something much further from the beaten path; a pristine river requiring bush-planes, bear spray, boat rides and lots of bug netting. The river is five days of mostly III/ IV with a few class Vs. The difficulty and risk are compounded by the remote nature of the run and made even more difficult if a can of bear spray detonates inside of your kayak... Multiple gorges offer amazing views and stout scouting through devil’s club, huckleberry patches and steep