The Rio Claro is a beautiful gem of a river in the Andes Mountains south of Santiago. This river valley is surrounded by, though not entirely huge, impressive rocky mountains with an arid, desert like forest. The river has crystal clear water, by which I mean you can see straight through it down to the very bottom. Which makes jumping off of high rocks and bridges quite scary due to the fact that you can see every rock as if no water lay between. The deep gorges are carved through black volcanic rock and granite to create one of the most unique rivers on earth. The canyons here are anywhere from twenty to a hundred and fifty feet tall, generally no more than ten feet wide, with huge pot holes carved in between drops. There were four sections in which we got to run with New River Academy, Siete Tazas(seven teacups), Garganta Del Diablo( throat of the devil), Entre Saltos(Entry Waterfalls), and Veintidos Saltos(twenty-two waterfalls).
Siete Tazas:
The Siete Tazas or seven teacups are seven of possibly the most perfect waterfalls ever seen. Though in reality there are only really three real waterfalls, and the other four are very fun little two to eight foot ledges. The run starts off with a bit of a hike through the Siete Tazas national park then down a near vertical dirt cliff face down to the river. We would generally carry our boats down a very steep dirt path through some trees and bamboo to a small platform halfway down the slope. From there we would lower our boats down with a throw rope into the deep black volcanic canyon. The canyon walls are vertical, extending far above us. The put in is a small eight foot seal launch and then about a fifty foot paddle over two small rapids to the cauldron above the first drop. The first drop is by far the hardest of all the teacups, it is a waterfall with about a eight foot sixty degree slide to a twelve foot drop into a tight ten foot wide gorge with water boiling off both walls pushing into a small cave on the left as the river bends. Though the cave is not bad while in a boat, it is somewhat unpleasant to have to fight out of it. This flows out into another flat cauldron and then into a sick eight foot sliding boof into another perfect cauldron. Then a small ledge which must be portaged due to a bad placed log across the entire river. Luckily there is a nice little spot where it is possible to push your boat up and over the rocks instead of getting out and walking around. The next one is another fun seven foot ledge, which one can either boof or attempt a pogo flip out of a plug. Then after that is a sick little three foot ledge into an awesome cave right above the first twenty footer. The twenty footer is insanely clean from top to bottom and lands in a perfect, large flat pool. After that is the second perfect twenty foot waterfall with a vertical slide into about a eight-teen foot free fall into a second huge flat pool. Before and after every single drop is a perfect flat cauldron, and every drop is as beginner friendly as it gets. Then the take out is to hike along the edge of a sketchy cliff above a deep gorge to the viewing platform. If one were to keep paddling into the gorge below the last waterfall it would lead into an inescapable gorge which leads into some class V+ rapids and a sixty foot waterfall. Non of which is portagable.
Siete Tazas:
The Siete Tazas or seven teacups are seven of possibly the most perfect waterfalls ever seen. Though in reality there are only really three real waterfalls, and the other four are very fun little two to eight foot ledges. The run starts off with a bit of a hike through the Siete Tazas national park then down a near vertical dirt cliff face down to the river. We would generally carry our boats down a very steep dirt path through some trees and bamboo to a small platform halfway down the slope. From there we would lower our boats down with a throw rope into the deep black volcanic canyon. The canyon walls are vertical, extending far above us. The put in is a small eight foot seal launch and then about a fifty foot paddle over two small rapids to the cauldron above the first drop. The first drop is by far the hardest of all the teacups, it is a waterfall with about a eight foot sixty degree slide to a twelve foot drop into a tight ten foot wide gorge with water boiling off both walls pushing into a small cave on the left as the river bends. Though the cave is not bad while in a boat, it is somewhat unpleasant to have to fight out of it. This flows out into another flat cauldron and then into a sick eight foot sliding boof into another perfect cauldron. Then a small ledge which must be portaged due to a bad placed log across the entire river. Luckily there is a nice little spot where it is possible to push your boat up and over the rocks instead of getting out and walking around. The next one is another fun seven foot ledge, which one can either boof or attempt a pogo flip out of a plug. Then after that is a sick little three foot ledge into an awesome cave right above the first twenty footer. The twenty footer is insanely clean from top to bottom and lands in a perfect, large flat pool. After that is the second perfect twenty foot waterfall with a vertical slide into about a eight-teen foot free fall into a second huge flat pool. Before and after every single drop is a perfect flat cauldron, and every drop is as beginner friendly as it gets. Then the take out is to hike along the edge of a sketchy cliff above a deep gorge to the viewing platform. If one were to keep paddling into the gorge below the last waterfall it would lead into an inescapable gorge which leads into some class V+ rapids and a sixty foot waterfall. Non of which is portagable.
Last drop Siete Tazas Jordan & Clay Whitaker- Photo- Jason Terry
Garganta Del Diablo:
Our last two days in the Rio Claro valley, the coaches decided to take all of the more experienced paddlers down Garganta Del Diablo, or the Throat of the Devil. They decided to split up the group so there would not be so many people in the canyon at one time and so the other half of the group could get pictures and video. I got video of them on the most famous drop in this run and then ran it the next day. This run is further up river from Siete Tazas, though is separated from the Seven Teacups by a class VI, unrunnable gorge. The run begins immediately after Entre Saltos ends. The first drop seems to fall off the face of the earth into a huge ominous cavern with mist exploding up from the bottom of he drop. From above the drop, it truly feels as if you are dropping into the Throat of the Devil. As soon as you drop into the gorge there is almost no chance of being able to get out of he canyon until you have finished the run. The first drop is called the ski jump, and it is a sick twelve foot slide into a twelve foot boof. It is definitely one of the cooler drops I have run. Once I hit the huge boof I was stuck in the gorge. When in the gorge it does not feel much like a regular river canyon, it feels much more like being in a cave. The cliff walls extend far over our heads and only ever so often can I see the sky. Just around the bend is one of the most famous slides in the kayaking world. As we came around the corner we spotted all of our fellow students who had run the drop the day before waiting to get their shot. Each of us down in the water took turns drifting up to the edge of the drop to peer over and attempt to see the slide. When you see the pictures and videos, even when you are just standing on the cliff above looking down at the drop, you have absolutely no idea what this water fall actually is. When you see a picture of it, it seems like the sickest drop known to man, in reality, it is far better than you could tell from any picture. The curving slide itself drops around twenty-five feet into a free fall of another twenty-five feet. Now when I say this I don't think one could possibly understand how big this is, especially after looking at a picture. The amazingly perfect banking slide, is almost less of a slide and more of a vertical waterfall. By the time I reached the bottom of the slide I had already fallen twenty-five vertical feet in less than twenty horizontal feet. The hit at the bottom is very hard and feels much like hitting a brick wall. Once at the bottom of this drop the supreme feeling of awesomeness hits me. By that I mean it just feels really good to be at the bottom of this amazing drop in the most amazing gorge I have ever seen. There are several more drops in this generally less than ten foot wide canyon. There are two rapids in which requires a boof into a four foot wide, barely wide enough for your boat slides, one is about seventy feet long and I managed to flip halfway down it and get dragged on my face until the end when the river widens back up to seven or eight feet wide. There are a few more boofs placed randomly throughout the rest of the run. At one spot in the gorge a huge waterfall falls from the darkness high on the cliff wall and creates, if you believe in it, one of the most spiritual places on earth. Siting behind behind this waterfall with windy spray sparkling on ones face in the darkness of the “cavern” with black walls stretching far far above me pushes me into pondering the marvels of mother nature.
Garganta Del Diablo Jordan Poffenberger- Photo- Jason Terry
Entre Saltos:
Entre Saltos is an extremely fun, no particularly hard run with some fun rapids and a very fun waterfall. There is a short class V+ section near the beginning that we always walked with New River Academy. Then as soon as we put in after walking around the class V section, we put in right above the biggest drop on Entre Saltos. The drop is about a seven foot boof/slide into another twelve foot boof into a large pool at the bottom. After the big drop are a bunch of smaller ledges and drops between two and eight feet tall. Then there are three tougher drops at the end. One, I call Gnardrop is a very tough drop, you have to push your self over some rocks and then charge left as the river turns right, most of the water goes into an undercut wall, so you have to boof this very sketchy ridge rock that sticks out on the left side of the river. Most of the time a line through this will not look very clean, the ridge rock isn't exactly a straight forward boof, and to make it even worse there is barely any water flowing over it. Also, because the rock isn't a straight drop off all the way around, when one boofs it, one tends to reconnect with the rock right before landing, which is a pretty terrible feeling. The next drop is called Cool Eddie drop, once again, named by me. As in the name the drop has a very cool Eddie. It starts off with a cool six foot slide and then the river makes a hard left turn into a five foot boof into a large hole in a small seven foot wide walled in canyon. There is a huge pot hole eddie on the right guarded by a really cool curler made by the slide. One can catch the eddie in between the first slide and the second five foot boof. The eddie is perfectly calm and as a overhanging wall over stop of it. The last drop, I call Boca drop for some reason or another, is a twelve foot near vertical slide into the pool immediately above the entrance to Garganta Del Diablo
Biggest drop on Entrea Kai Wen Pai- Photo Jordan Poffenberger
Veintidos Saltos, in English, means twenty-two waterfalls, and is definitely one of the coolest runs on the planet. It starts off with a class V seal launch right above the first eight foot waterfall. If one were to screw up this seal launch one could end up going over the waterfall in some very strange positions, as the landing of the seal launch is less then three feet above the lip of the drop. As soon as you drop off the seal launch you are already deep in yet another, for the most part, inescapable gorge. There are eighty foot tall vertical cliff walls around, all the way until the end of the run. Almost nothing is scout-able and the run is completely committing with no chance of escape from this amazing gorge. After the eight footer which has sick boof line off of the left side which lands in an eight foot wide canyon, roll around the corner into a small cauldron right above a large horizon line. This is the twenty-five footer, possibly the cleanest twenty-five footer known to mankind. The line is center left, or center right, or anywhere one could want to go. It is possible to boof or to pencil, the waterfall lands in a massive pool with almost no consequence at all. After that, there is some fun little boulder gardens with small boofs hear and there. The entire time on the Rio Claro, nearly every rock that makes up these rapids and waterfalls is easily visible because the water is just so pristine and clear. After some boulder gardens the Veintidos Saltos Ski jump comes up. The Ski jump starts below a really cool little pool under an over hanging wall, the top of the drop is about a six foot gentle sloping slide, the right side of the slide simply drops off, where as the left side rolls up the side of a wall and kicks the water out and away from the twelve foot drop. If one banks up hard on the left side, it is possible to launch yourself off and have one of the biggest boofs of a lifetime. The Ski jump lands in a perfect pool with a large rock shoal that one could hop out to get pictures or empty a boat. The water rolls around the right side of the rock shoal under another overhanging wall. There is a large rock, most of the water is going through a small crack between the overhanging wall, and the huge rock. A kayak may or may not fit through that crack, so in order to avoid finding out, it is best to run into the small channel in front and to the left of the boulder in the middle of the river. Then on the other side of the rock the best way to have a clean line is to get backwards into the water flowing out of that crack and hit a left boof in about two strokes to avoid the undercut wall on the right side below the ten foot drop. Below this, paddle through the steep narrow canyon and come upon a small horizon line right before the river makes a hard right hand turn. About five feet past this three foot boof around the blind corner there is an eddie on the right that is worth catching to take a quick look at a massive horizon line that appears to be heading straight into the cliff wall a little less than five or six feet downstream of the eddie. Now the reason it appears to be running directly into the wall, is because it is, at least partially. This is the thirty foot waterfall, and the right side does bank off the wall, though the left side is not much better as it connects with rocks halfway down. So the best line is to attempt to go right off the middle and simply tuck. Now after this traumatizing experience of surviving one of the scariest thirty footers in chile, paddle on down to the final hard drop on the river, it's the double drop. It starts off with a weird little ledge into a hole that drops immediately off into a eight foot ledge that lands in a small pool right above another seven foot, very clean drop. The first half of the rapid is nearly impossible to do cleanly. Though it is fun none the less. After this it is a short paddle through the rest of the canyon which slowly fades down. Paddle the last few small drops and then hope out right above this bridge that crosses the river, which also happens to be the put in for Entre Saltos.
Ski Jump Jordan Poffenberger- Photo Tino Specht
For more photos- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2102816&id=1466030811
