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| Damin Singh getting his lean on the Upper Pindar |
Put In: GPS (30°06'07.2"N 79°54'57.7"E) Note: small bridge
Take Out: GPS (30°01'16.5"N 79°40'46.3”E) Note: new bridge not on map yet
Class: Day One class 3-4, day Two class 5, day Three class 4
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| Mount Nanda Devi |
Description:
The Pindar River flows from the glacial expanse on the southern escarpment of the Nanda Devi Mountain (25,643 feet) the second-tallest peak in India. A full-day drive on fairly good roads (for India) brought us (Arjun Sagoi, Daman Sing, Georgia Farmer, and myself, Chris Baer) to a pass with a significantly worse road and spectacular Himalayan views. Up and over the pass we went into the Pindar Valley and to the tiny village of Khati. We stayed in the loft of a local merchant, who made us a nice breakfast the following morning. The hospitality of the mountain folks is genuine, giving.
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| Arjun Sagoi sliding into the Upper Pindar |
Day one
Arriving at the put-in bridge, we were joined by a portion of the town that was very inquisitive about our whitewater costumes and our ability to shove all of our multiday equipment into the stern of our kayaks. Once the population of Khati was satisfied with group photos and words of warning, we put on.
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| locals of Khati looking on as we prepare our equipment |
This first section is relatively mellow; most of the river meanders through a beautiful, dense forest, with massive trees that occasionally canopy the entire river. The whitewater is mainly class 3 with one or two class 4 moves. We traveled five miles to our riverside camp (30°05'48.2"N 79°51'15.2"E) under a bridge, and just outside of the village of Dhaula. I certainly wouldn’t say this was my favorite camp. The bridge looked to be in an ever-evolving state of disrepair and clattered loudly with every person, donkey, or vehicle that crossed. l awoke the following morning to the clatter of the bridge and chimes of bells. The bells were attached to donkeys (I assume the bells are used to track the donkeys when they invariably wander off into the jungle). The donkeys were being used as beasts of burden to haul sand from the beach for the construction of concrete structures in the neighboring village.
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| Arjun Sagoi getting pitted on the Upper Pindar |
Day Two
The river passes through a large sedimentary deposit. We are paddling in the dry season, but during the monsoon season, the river erodes a new path through this soft sedimentary section every year. This means we are paddling between massive boulders; there are siphons and undercuts in every rapid. With the combination of a high noon start and very difficult scouting options, our downstream progress was exhaustingly slow. In four hours, we made it only one mile downstream, spending the majority of our time scrambling over massive boulders in the attempt to get a limited peek at the next horizon line. We managed to paddle all but one rapid in this difficult and dangerous sedimentary section. We set camp amongst the giant boulders with one last significant rapid to paddle in the morning. We quickly started to refer to this last rapid as Breakfast Rapid, as we would get to enjoy it the following morning.
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| Damin Singh putting together one of the longer and relatively sketchy rapids |
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| Damin Singh finding his route amongst the sieves |
Day Three
Breakfast Rapid deserved a solid scout; thankfully, it paddled fairly well and was a great way to end this boulder-laden section. The river then mellows in difficulty, but not in scenery. Deep rocky gorges with sheer cliffs and fun class 4 rapids are in store. Some of these rapids are fairly hard to scout, and the rock structure continues to be fairly undercut. After five-ish miles of beautiful canyons, the river starts to open. We found ourselves in shallow glacial deposits, where the river would shoal out. These shoals are not fun. There is a new bridge that would make a good take out option GPS (30°01'42.4"N 79°44'50.3”E). Our shuttle logistics got a bit mixed up, and we made our way down a total of 13 miles on day three to yet another new bridge. The crew was all a bit cold and excited for dry clothes and a good meal.
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| Damin Singhwith a pretty wheelie on the last ledge of Breakfast Rapid |
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| adventure by Chris Baer |
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