The Peak UK Himalayan Whitewater Challenge

November 28-30, 2008

Monica Gokey and I

The 7th annual Peak UK Himalayan Challenge was a weekend of kayaking and rafting events on the Trisuli River in Nepal.


I was excited to see that this year there was a first ever Nepalese Women's Rafting Team and K1 Division! Thanks so much to Inka Trollsas and all the women who helped with the Nepali Girls Project for helping to make this happen. There was a great turnout this year. About 70 men and 30 women competitors turned up for the event.


The festival was very well organized. Food, transportation and camping were provided for all competitors. There was also a DJ every evening for an entertaining nightlife. Thanks so much to all of the organizers and volunteers for their hard work. Everything went smoothly and all the events were really fun and challenging.

Campsite on the Trisuli River

Day 1 there was a slalom course set up through a rapid at Fishling. It required a few hard ferries and hole surfing to complete the course so it was extremely difficult to make all the gates.

Day 2 there was a freestyle competition at a wave-hole at Fishling.

Day 3 there was a 10 km mass start downriver race which ended at Fishling.

Men's 10 km Downriver Race

Me doing some creekboat freestyling

The catch was that competitors were required to use the same kayak for all three events so there were a lot of creekboats used in the freestyle comp and playboats used for the races. This rule definitely kept things interesting throughout the weekend. Points were awarded for standings in each event to determine the overall winners.

Susmita Sunwar - Nepali Women's 1st Place

Sita Thapa - Nepali Women's 3rd Place


Results

Nepali Women's Division:
1. Susmita Sunwar
2. Anu Shrestha
3. Sita Thapa

Nepali Men's Divison:
1. Shanta Gurung
2. Madan Gurung
3. Pramod Gurung

Nepali Junior's Division:
1. Krishna Sunwar
2. Sailendra Regmi
3. Jeeven Gurung

International Women's Division:
1. Christie Glissmeyer, USA
2. Sophie Hoskins, New Zealand
3. Lilli Winter, Switzerland

International Men's Divison:
1. Ron Fischer, Switzerland
2. Tim Copplestone, UK
3. Jakub Nemac, Czech Republic

Ron Fischer, Tim Copplestone, Josh Neilson

Rain Rain Come and Play! PLEASE!!

It is slim pickin's here in the Northwest with a lot of overcast skies but no precipitation. So to get some scenery a little different than the White Salmon, we got up early and headed several hours north to the Ohanepecosh. Nothing like hitting up a low water Northwest classic!



Kate on one of the many fun drops Photo: Rick Cooley

The Ohanepecosh is a great mix of boulder gardens and clean ledges with a waterfall thrown in toward the end of the run. Unfortunately the high water events in 2006 added some nasty log jams to the upper section and your best bet at this time is to put in at the secret campground a little further downstream.

Rick Cooley on the falls toward the end of the run (low water makes the left side a little harder to get)

Overall the Ohanepecosh is a sweet run with breathtaking scenery and the best part is the shuttle is easy to run or bike so you can take one car! Christie comes home tomorrow from Nepal, I'm hoping she snags some rain somewhere along the way and brings it with her!

Northwest Meets the Far East

First 4 Weeks in Nepal, 8 Rivers, 4 Multi-day trips

Here's some highlights:

The Himalayas

The Annapurna Range

Machhapuchhre

Hiking into the Modi Kohla

Monica getting terrorized by the local kids

We LOVE our porters

the girls

Landruk

Modi Khola at New Bridge

Jake Holland

Nayapul

The Seti River Valley

Dave, Jake, Andy, & Christie

Seti River

The Marsyandi River

Dave Couling

Andy relaxing on the roof

. . . and entertaining the kids

Christie & Monica

The Kali Gandaki

Bus top ride up the Bhote Koshi

The Balephi Khola

Put-in of the Karnali River

Camping on the Karnali

Raft support, yeah!

fish for dinner

. . . and chicken

good surf on the Karnali

Phewa Lake in Pokhara

Chitwan National Park

Kathmandu

*Thanks to Andy & Monica for some great photos

the Nepali Girls Project

The Nepali Girls Project is a program started by Inka Trollsas to prepare Nepalese women for jobs as raft guides and safety kayakers. For more info on this project check out:

nepaligirlskayak.blogspot.com

Monica Gokey and I joined up with the group in Kathmandu to teach the girls how to swim and paddle. Thanks to everyone who donated gear and thanks so much to Carve Designs for sending swimwear for all the girls!

www.carvedesigns.com

Monica teaching Swimming 101

The girls learned how to swim first. Then we got them in kayaks and showed them wet exits and basic paddle strokes. Next we'll get them rolling so we can teach them how not to swim:)