First Descent of Upper Perisher and Third Descent of Finns Creek, Australia

October 18, 2007

So I decided that any boating is better than no boating which meant I would take my slightly abused playboat down a few creeks in the Snowy Mountains of Australia. This is by far the coldest place I have ever been as below freezing conditions made for interesting runs. The Snowy Mountains in Australia are the highest mountains on the continent, complete with ski fields and all. It’s Spring here and although snow still falls, some snow is making its way to the creeks and rivers.

I met up with a few good mates including Chris Darlington who is an Australian cross country skiing representative and competes in comps all around the world. This guy is very acclimatized to the high altitudes and made me feel somewhat unfit as I sucked in the o’s throughout the week. There is nothing more annoying than having to stop hiking because of the lack of oxygen, and then look up to see your paddling buddy bounding off without any strain to his breath.

We started things off with a run on the Snowy River from the Power Station. The group launched their big creek boats off a couple of meters drop with no worries. Unfortunately this was the start of an abysmal day of yacking for me. I landed on my head in the water which instantly gave me the worst brain freeze of my life.

Next up we took on Finns Creek. This creek has only been run by less than five people and was the third time anyone had hiked up to it. It is what I would call a very technical, small, low volume and narrow creek. It is extremely consistent with no flat parts at all and at times you really have to work for eddies. Micro creek is an understatement as the creek dropped away a great distance in a short period of time with low flow. I got stuck a few times and at one time briefly got my whole nose pinned as the water backed up behind me. My boat was stuck and pushed vertical. Only then I managed to have enough force to push my boat out of the rocks. I also found that paddling over waterfalls unintentionally backwards or on my head made for a very interesting day. At one stage my playboat was flipped at the lip of a waterfall. I only just managed to right it to find my boat heading backwards down a couple of meters directly onto a piton rock. My boat struck the rock hard, and got wedged under an undercut rock below. Bugger. This will for sure make the carnage section of our Skippy Films video. The stern of my Jackson Kayak was bent, however after a day of leaving it out in the sun was back to normal and ready to go. Nice 🙂

We also completed a first descent of the upper Perisher Creek, a creek that is again low volume, very narrow, steep and technical creek that runs into the Snowy River. This is one of the highest altitude creeks in Australia. Some amazing low volume rapids were hit up and I have to admit after taking out I found myself in a very cold position. A cold front passed over and this fast became the coldest I have ever been on a river in my entire life. We packed up and I headed back to Sydney however it honestly took me an hour of sitting in the car with the heat on full to get back to normal temperature. Bloody cold indeed. You will have to wait to see the best pictures of the run in Kayak Session Mag.

Jez
Jackson Kayak Coordinator of Karma