Grand Canyon – The self support adventure

Jan 2013. . The coldest month in over 30 years on the Grand Canyon, and I decide it is a good idea to spend two weeks self support kayaking the monster. That means everything I need to survive on and off the river had to fit in my boat. No raft support. No extra stuff.

Looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

Obviously the whitewater and the scenery are fantastic, but what sticks out the most is the simplicity of life and that feeling of being so small and insignificant. All you need to worry about while on the Grand Canyon is sleeping, eating, kayaking, and surviving. There are no cars, no cell phones, no internet. Just the people you put on the river with, and your own thoughts. Nobody cares what shoes you’re wearing, what car you drive, or if you even brushed your hair that day. Life is Simple. There were a couple days it was so cold the ice never thawed from my helmet or drysuit, but the challenge of getting through the next big rapid and getting to camp made every day of suffering that more special.

Would I do in a again. . . in a second.

Back to the real world
Jessica Yurtinus

I may have dropped my camera in a large Colorado River eddy on day two, so all photos were shot by Jeremy Laucks and Dave Fusilli