Sitting in DRY California at mid-night with no rivers flowing Nik Boyes and I decided to hit the road and drive for 16hrs to Squamish BC, we loaded the “Get Away Van” with two Mystics and turned the key only to hear the sound of a sorry battery. So 45mins later we had got a jump and we hit the road loaded with energy drinks and some heavy beats to keep us awake. Tank by tank we drained half of our $400 gas plan. We arrived in Squamish, BC 18hrs later with the first rain we had seen in 6 weeks. It just happened to be that one of our best schoolmates was a climber and had been in Squamish for the summer and at the same time it was his Birthday what a coincidence.
We had luck on our side and we were ready to hit some grade V creeks. As we awoke to a monsoon of rain I was looking forward to seeing what new creeks would open up with the flooding, so we called Even Garcia who we had been paddling with in California and is a paddling encyclopedia and the ultimate guy to have on any river trip. He was cru zing with Cheese one of the most fired up paddlers roaming North America, they told us to come up to Whistler and check out 21Mile Creek, Unfortunately our luck had changed and it was cranking to the point that it would be “Survival Boating” at it’s best. With the look of every thing being to high our hopes of having a week of solid BC Class V boating had been washed down the Creek. Evan and Cheese headed to Skook while Nik and I hung out with our mate.
We spent a day searching for a perfect 70 foot waterfall we had heard about, we drove up a dirt road for a couple of miles and found a place that we thought it might be unfortunately it said Trespassers will be Prosecuted however this did not stop the quest to find the Gem for our mate Sam and Nik and sure enough halfway over the fence a warning alarm was set off.
After laying low in the forest for a few hours we headed back down the road and after reassessing the topo maps we found it.
The perfect 70ft was in huge flood and was washing directly into a cave and we defiantly didn’t have what it takes to huck into a suicide pool.
So two days later the skies opened up and the light shone down upon us. We were off on our way to check the big guy out, as we were driving to the BIG FELLA we spotted a nice 35ft drop it looked shallow and 7m away from the drop was a river wide siv but Nik and I were determined to fire it up and do some paddling.
Feeling nervous about braking ankles or my back I jumped in my boat, paddled off the drop and slightly lifted the nose then flew through the air before the final stomping of my ankles to save the back and BOI YA styled it felt awesome. Nik was next, he saddled his boat up and charged off it stomping it as well, and luck was back on our side.
Felling fired up we headed up to Mamquam Falls A.K.A Big Fell Falls it looked awesome it had perfect water flow and a nice aerated pool with little current in to the undercut wall. We got dressed planed our safety procedures and lowered the boats to the top of the drop.
After a game of Paper Rock Scissors I came out as the Gunnies Pig. Quick stretch of the back and a nervous slide in my kayak I was in the Zone and ready to “HUCK LARGER THAN LIFE”. It was a strange feeling paddling up to a Horizon line when the bottom is some 22m away but I put the size behind me and thought of what I was doing, rolling off the edge I tucked hard in to my kayak for minimal impact falling I was thinking to my self “man this is a long free fall” then impact! Blown around by the turbulence of the water I was ripped straight out of my kayak DAMM that was heavy, popping up I pushed away from kayak and swam towards the exit trying to avoid getting sucked into a cave just managing to swim to the exit I was sucked under the wall I managed to push my self off and eventually come to the surface.
My kayak how ever was stuck in the cave, but don’t worry Luck was on our side! Our friend Sam who was with us was an excellent climber and in no time at all had abseiled down into the cave and clipped a rope onto the kayak. After finally retrieving the kayak it was getting late and we decided to come back the following day for Nik to fall off the edge. Arriving back the next day I was so happy I didn’t have to do it, Nik saddled his boat up put an air bag in between his legs to try keep him in the boat then rolled off the edge and tucked then up he came with a quick roll he was up and celebrating.
Happy Day’s
Happy Day’s
Nik Driving the Get Away
Sam Dropping a nice 35 footer
Nick Stomping it
The Big Boy from the bottom
Nik at the top
Nik 1/3 down 2/3 to go
Nik loving it at the bottom
