So there are a couple things I have learned about Costa Rica so far, There are a lot of unrun hard sections out there, and the hard sections the Ticos do run are pretty damn fun.
I took a week off to travel with family and managed to take an actual "vacation" got to see some of the classic Costa Rica attractions and even got to swim around in a rip current for a bit.
the old growth trees were never cut down because they were too big
Navarro,
I met up with Mauricio Mora Lindo for a couple days and we took a ride to check out some runs in the Orosi Vally, It had been raining for a bit and everything was on the high side of crazy. At that point Mauricio turned to me and said, " O I got something for us, it might have a little wood". We showed up to a tiny tributary with a fair amount of water in it, the Navarro. Immediately it was off to the races, blind corners, fun boofs, and more then a little wood. During our run Mauricio and I both had close encounters of the wood kind.
just monkeying around
Rio Macho Ferdinand and I met back up, and it was time to get one of his favorites, the Rio Macho. This run is less a river then a pile of rocks on a steep hill. It starts off quick and stays at a feverish pace, tight boof into tighter slot, around a sieve and off an even smaller boof onto a tiny piece of water backed up by a sieve. The Macho stays at that kind of pace for close to 4 miles. Needless to say the first time you do this run you are totally disorientated, tired, and dealing with a huge altitude loss. Ferdinand claims the gradient some where in the 700fpm range, with only one drop over 6 ft, the Rio macho is just plain steep.
Pozo Azul
Ferdinand on the second 20 footer
Next up was the Pozo Azul, or Blue Pool, the run that Ferdinand named his company after. After a hour long hike through muddy pasture land we arrived at a tricky 20+ footer. At this point Ferdinand said, it is either class 5 or 2 today, nothing in-between. His description was spot on. We would run a water fall or complicated rapid and it would flow into meandering class two. There are a couple cool rapids in the valley one is a narrow hall way, and another that is named Swiss-cheese, aka "sieved out". The climax of the run is a 30ish footer that has a tendency to have a rather hard landing. Ferdinand and I had good lines and paddled down to the confluence with the Sarapiqui with smiles on our faces.
Ferdinand getting his nose down on the 30 footer
Ferdinand hard at work in his Blue Pool work shop
Patria,
5:30am putting on the Patria
The Patria is an absolutely amazing run. It has also dealt out more then its fair share of random beating. This river has created epic stories for most of the lucky few that have ever entered into it's beautiful pristine valley.
Ferdinand surrounded by big holes, and bigger rocks
The Patria, we skipped the upper canyon and hiked down from the main road for 3 hours through super dense jungle. There was plenty of cursing as we slid, crashed, and donated plenty of blood to the hike in. Upon arriving to the river Ferdinand told me we had to bump our way down the side creek that we were on for a 1/4 mile to the true Patria. Bouncing down the tributary was painful at best. I got pinned a couple times and my ankle started aching from a couple small pitons. It took a while but we finally made it to the Patria. The water level looked a little low to me, but as we headed down stream tributary after tributary entered into the creek.
the boof above pushed all the water into the nasty sieve river right
My energy level was nearing empty. Between waking up at 4:30am, a three hour hike in, and another half an hour bouncing down a 30 cfs creek, it was taking all of my mental strength to put together ok lines.
Lady slipper
We pushed on, one rapid after the next, as we got further into the canyon the added water started to clean up some lines but added sticky holes to others. I got rolled a couple times and we took a time out for food and water. It took everything I had to stay calm and put together lines through the next 6 miles of class 5 white water. As we exited the remote and absolutely gorgeous canyon, all I could really think about was how soon I could have my head back on my pillow.
Orosi
Last but not least is the Upper Orosi, the put in rapids are steep and sieve laden, but quickly the run tames into fun class 4. This is one of Ferdinands home runs, and he gave me the proper locals tour. We would come off a boof charge to the far side of the river, drive up onto a rock, slide into a micro eddy, and then back to the far side of the river.
I have gotten to run a ton of different rivers around the world and one of my favorite things is to get the true locals tour. No scouting, bizarre lines, and paddling partners that are laughing all the way down the river.
I was rather captivated by his eye coloration, double click the photo for a closer look
Stay tuned, next adventure is going to be of GRAND proportions.
Partial First Descents of Rio Division and Sevegre
Todd Wells doing the first descent dance
Rio Division
Ferdinand showed me a you Tube video of a couple of people trying to do the first descent of the Division river. These people were in a raft and a ducky, it looked laughable at best. It turns out the joke was on us. 2 days, 5 hours of hiking and scouting, and we accomplished just a bit better results then the rafters.
So where are we going?
I was sitting in the town square of San Isidro, when Ferdinand and Todd pulled up. We went and had breakfast, the conversation was filled with what do you think we are really getting our self's into. We planed for a two day trip, deep canyons, rope work, and just about every untold possibility.
A few minutes later Felipe showed up he was to be our shuttle driver and local beta guru. We hoped into his Toyota Land cruiser and we were off to Santa Eduviges.
Felipe's 4x4 of fun
Upon arrival we did a little pre put in scouting, we decided to skip some class 4 warm up and head right into the meat of the run. We took our time packing our over night and rescue equipment. The time was 12 noon, we had 5 hours of day light before we needed to camp, and everyone was pretty excited about the run.
Ferdinand, in a warm up drop.
We put on and went a mere 400 meters before we reached the first, previously unrun drop. It was a 20 footer that landed in a odd shaped cauldron. The walls were definitely undercut and the water boiled up 30 feet away from the drop. One by one we took our chances, and amazingly enough every one had relatively good lines.
Todd, sending the 20 footeer
We went another 100 feet, and saw the lip of a drop that looked absolutely amazing. Unfortunately it fell 30 feet onto a rock shelf, not to mention it was the start of a very containing canyon.
We took our time scouting the upcoming canyon and it was one horrendous looking drop after the next. There is no doubt in my mind that without some amazing rope work this canyon will never be ran. We had managed to move 500 meters in 5 hours, something had to change. The beta we had said there was another canyon ahead and it looked as containing if not more from the topographical map. It was time to skip the next canyon or anticipate spending a second night, with few calories somewhere deep in the canyon. After appraising our options, it seemed best to hike 500 vertical feet back up to the road and a half a mile to the town of Santo Thomas. Upon reaching Santo Thomas it was getting cold and dark. We meet a few locals and Ferdinand immediately started negotiating a truck ride down stream around the second canyon. An hour or so later we piled our equipment into a pick up truck and started the drive. As the rain pounded down we arrived at a shed, I was so happy to have a mildly dry place to lay my bivy sack.
Home sweet home
hiking back into the canyon
We awoke to beautiful views 1500 feet above the river. One of the locals told us he could hike into the canyon in 20 minutes, we anticipated just over an hour with the kayaks. What we encountered was a 2-3 hour hike through coffee fields, then banana fields, then the ground gave way. It got too steep to plant anything and the vegetation returned to native Costa Rican Jungle. We lowered our boats with ropes for the last 500 feet to the river. Upon reaching the river I was delighted with the sights of clean steep whitewater.
look close or double click to check out the 200 meeter waterfall
We had about 9 kilometers of river to paddle to get to our planed destination, the town of Savegre. We reentered the canyon about a kilometer or so above where the other group had. Therefore we had a kilometer of amazing, steep, first descents in front of us.
Ferdinand, with another cool rapid
The group had a new energy back on the water, we paddled well. Drop after drop we scouted and ran great lines, the white water was steep and technical.
Ferdinand having a little fun
There were no portages and most rapids had multiple fun lines. We paddled for less time then we hiked the day before, and we had the Savegre bridge in sight.
putting some calories back in our bodies, at the Sevegre bridge
Ferdinand made a phone call to Felipe, he was over an hour away so we decided to push on to the town of El Brujo. We were greeted with news that the next 9 miles to Brujo were class 4 and had been ran not that long ago. This took the group moral to new heights, and before you knew it we were boofing off random rocks, and running obscure tight lines. Just over an hour later we saw Felipe on the side of the river, it had been a long but very rewarding day.
Todd, picking up his bow
There is absolutely no way this will ever be a classic, but with a little work you could make this an amazing one day adventure.
Todd, sending another first descent
With a nights rest and a good meal in El Brujo we tackled another big mission.
The Savegre
So Felipe's father lives on a piece of land near the Los Quetzales National Park, and was speaking highly of a back yard run. Ferdinand was more then excited to pick off another first descent, and so was I. Todd, Ferdinand, and I loaded boats onto horses in the morning, and hiked back into the jungle. The horse trail was beat down, deep mud, and deeper ruts the entire 11 kilometers up to Felipe's house. Once at the house, Felipe's mother brought us a great hearty lunch. It was already just past noon and we had 11 kilometers, 5 or so of which had never been paddled before to descend. My energy was circling the drain, but I was excited to see some more quality white water. 10 minutes into the run I crested a pour over to see a retentive hole. I cranked out a hand full of strokes aiming for the right side of the hole. I hit the hole got stern stalled and felt the water pulling me back in for a ride. I took a couple good rides, and got on the foam pile, a few strong strokes and I was heading back in for another ride. A few more seconds later, and my low energy had gotten the better of me. I slid my knee out of the thigh brace and popped out of my boat.
It took a couple minutes to recover my gear, and I tried to get my head back in the game. Around the bend was Felipe and the whole family, they were there to watch us run the "big one". It was an ugly left to right drop that had a odd looking hole at it's base. Ferdinand fired it up first and got blown hard left into a pin rock. He dug in with a strong brace, and pulled himself around the pin rock and into the pool. Todd caught a lower eddy and made a strong move left to right but got spun out near the lip, and fell into the drop with almost no speed. This resulted in another entertaining run. I peeled out of the top eddy supper low and kept my momentum down the drop, I managed to cut through the nasty first hole, just to get immediately flipped in the compression hole behind it. Our exhaustion was starting to show in our boating.
Ferdinand lining up the "big one"
Ferdinand deep in the crease
We headed down stream picking off other drops and keeping a relatively fast pace. As we got further down stream Ferdinand informed us that we had already paddled more then half the gradient in the first third of the run. This put us all in a state of calm, we started goofing around again. A few more kilometers went by and the recognition of what we had done started to come over me.
In three days we paddled 23 miles, hiked 10 miles, kayaked 5 miles of first descents, and had an amazing time exploring a beautiful corner of Costa Rica.
a cool centipede
The video Ferdinand showed me, and are only real beta.
Chris Baer, contemplating the hardest drop of my life.
First descents.
Ferdinand and I had made it through the getting to know you stage, now it was time to do some serious exploring. I hopped in his car once again and we took off to explore a couple runs that have never been done before.
The morning bird show
Canas, 300 fpm class 4+ with one sieved out class 5 move.
I would have never guessed we were about to do one of the steepest class 4 runs in the world as we were driving through the pineapple fields of Costa Rica. Ferdinand had the Rio Canas on his to do list for two years, and I was lucky enough to get to run it after knowing him for only three days. We stopped on the side of the road walked down to the river and looked into the river corridor. The Canas looked good, steep boulder garden style rapids with a couple fun boofs in sight. The level was a bit low, but the water channelized really well. As we headed up stream we stopped at a few more places, and it all looked good. We found an easy access spot, and Ferdinand checked the elevation on his watch against the topographical map. It all was adding up, we had just over 3 kilometers of unrun boulder gardens to negotiate to get to the next good access point.
We headed down stream scouting countless blind horizon lines, most of the times all it took was standing up and you could see a couple fun boofs and a nice eddy at the bottom. Our pace was quick as we headed down through tight slots and fun little boofs. About 2/3 of the way down the run we encountered a fun 5 foot boof directly above a pin rock and a nasty sieve. I took a quick look at it and found a thin line on the far left. I got back in my boat flew off the boof and slipped just past the pin rock. Ferdinand liked my line and fired off the drop right behind me. The pace stayed rather quick and before we knew it we were at the original take out bridge. We both were having a good day and there was plenty of light left so we pushed on, and ran another kilometer of equally fun white water. This run would be great for solid class 4 boaters look to up there skills.
Ceibo canyon, 400-500 fpm
The night before the Ceibo mission Ferdinand and I spent the night looking over topographical maps and planing the assault on what looked like a meandering river, that came out of a slot canon. As we drove up the river valley, the river looked minuscule, my first impression was it was just too low. After talking to some locals we got the information we were looking for, keep on going up stream the river lives in a canyon up there. We locked the hubs on Ferdinand's little Suzuki and went up a ridiculously steep hill with supper loose rock. My head was bouncing off the roof, and I was holding the O'shit Handle out of necessity. We finally made it to a relatively flat area and stopped the truck. The river was a thousand feet below us. It was emerging out of a basalt mini canyon, I got really excited. We left the truck at the flat spot, and hiked another kilometer up the road, to the top of the first canyon.
As we entered into the canyon we didn't get more then 50 feet before we came around a blind corner and spotted a nasty class 5 sieve pile caused by a land slide. Ferdinand was deservingly hesitant, I saw a "hairy fairy" right in front of a sieve and a marginal line bouncing down a pile of junk rock. We continued through the canyon scouting constantly, and found a hand full of great rapids. The 15 foot slide to boof and fun linked double slide were the highlights of the run. As we exited the canyon the character changed, we were now in a bouncy boulder garden, and the water quickly sprawled out. We paddled another couple hundred yards and got to a swinging bridge and pulled out of the river. After getting the first descent of this beautiful canyon, I am definitely planning on returning to check out some of the upper canyons. Two days and two first descents down, I was feeling a little physically tired but mentally I was on was on fire.
Ferdinand, in the midst of Ceibo Canyon
Caterate Casuela and the Cloud Bridge section of the Chirripo Pacifico, is a hike and huck
A few weeks ago I scouted this section and, my original opinion was that almost all the drops on this run where, marginally runnable, at best. Over the last couple weeks I have scouted almost every vantage and access point. When Ferdinand offered to set safety I was both excited and nervous. The morning came, and I was going through my mental readiness, stay calm, eat a light breakfast, listen to an upbeat song (Katy Perry "I kissed a girl"). Before I knew it Ferdinand and I jumped in his truck again. We cruised up to the Cloud Bridge reserve, and parked the truck. From that point on, there is no motorized vehicles allowed. We started our two kilometer hike into the reserve. We had a fan club following us, John and Jill from the hostel Casa Mariposa, the care takers of Cloud Bridge, and a couple other folks all came up to watch. As always it took a while to get cameras and safety in place. Then Ferdinand gave me the thumbs up, the Katy Perry song came back to the front of my head, I did a little happy dance, and new I was ready.
Caterate Casuela might be the most complicated big drop I have ever ran. It starts with a small slot on river left, that leads you across the creek to a 8 foot drop. At the base of the 8 footer is a huge curler that explodes off the right wall. That curler drops another 15 feet into a cauldron, the cauldron is about 10 feet wide and rotates back under the curler at a proximately a hundred miles an hour. Then, the water falls off a beautiful 40 footer into a shallow pool. I am amazed I wanted to run such a messy drop, but as I have traveled and gotten better, I have fallen in love with "roller coaster" drops. The more dynamic the rapid the greater the reward for me. The idea of dropping 8 feet bouncing off a wall another 15 into a cauldron and then running a 40 footer all in the mater of 2 seconds was too much of a draw, I had to fire it up.
I hopped in my boat, checked my life jacket, helmet, spray skirt, did my supper quick stretch routine, and gave Ferdinand a loud whistle blast. A couple seconds later I heard Ferdinand whistle back, (safety and cameras were ready). I looked down at the shaft of my custom Blunt Family Paddle, and right there in the middle are the words "FIRE IT UP!!!". I gave the paddle a quick nod as to agree. I paddled back to the middle of the pool, rolled my neck, shrugged my shoulders, and started humming the song again. Out loud I reminded my self to just float over the first drop. I paddled to the slot with a nice right hand angle, and as I came through the slot I picked up a ton of speed. I was flying toward the first 8 footer, leaned forward and rolled over the first drop. A nano second later I got a quick left sweep stroke and the nose of the boat up on the curler. I followed it with a quick right stroke and was blinded by the spray of the curler, about then I felt gravity kick in. I got my left paddle blade ready for a brace and before I knew it I cleared the curler and was a foot away from the lip of the 40 footer. I didn't even get a chance for a stoke off the 40 footer, I did push my weight forward and cleared my paddle to one side. A half of a second of free fall and I entered the landing zone. I glanced off a rock about 9 feet under the surface and paddled away from the drop with a huge smile.
Chris Baer, about to hit the curler, Caterate Casuela
Chris Baer, reemerging from the curler, Caterate Casuela
Chris Baer getting the nose down, Caterate Casuela
I took a couple minutes to shout in celebration and a couple more to reflect on the scale and difficulty of the drop...
looking back up at the hardest drop of my life
dumbfounded that it went so well
Soon enough I gain composure and headed down stream. The next drop looked very marginal, I charged for a small rock flake and got pushed off early. I dropped 10 feet and glanced off another rock. The following drop looked absolutely horrible and Ferdinand and I both walked. Putting back on the river, I paddled another 15 feet to the next horizon line and saw another very marginal drop. The river in this section drops about 1000 fpm and was looking very unrunable.
Just another rapid on the upper upper Chirripo Pacifico
Ferdinand and I had a quick pow wow, and decided to abandon the project. All said and done this is one of the hardest hike and hucks I have ever seen, and I am absolutely stoked to have gotten the first descent of this amazing drop.
