Dall sheep ewe, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

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A dall sheep ewe stands on a ridge above the Chittistone Valley, in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

OK, I’ll stop with the photos from Chile, taken a year ago. Here’s another image from this past summer, of a Dall sheep ewe we saw on the Skolai to Wolverine trip. We saw numerous Dall sheep along the way, but this one I was able to get close to and make some decent photos. It took me quite a while, as it usually does shooting Dall sheep in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, because they’re pretty skittish. Hunting is allowed in the preserve, and is allowed in the park by subsistence permit only – meaning locals are allowed to hunt pretty much wherever they choose, provided they don’t use motorized transport to get there – so they can’t fly in via bushplane to a place like this and hunt, but they can come in and hunt here if they travel on foot – not very likely. However, even though hunters don’t get in to a place like this very much, the sheep are still very wary – I guess word gets around. Also, so few wildlife photographers spend any time in the park, the animals don’t learn to trust people, so the remain pretty skittish.

One more post for 2007!

Cheers

Carl

Rock Jumping, Futaleufu River, Chile

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Rafters take a quick break for a rock jumping session on the Futaleufu River, Patagonia, Chile.

Hey Folks,

Sometimes we’d run a full river trip down the Futaleufu instead of the more common “Bridge to Bridge” section, which is the standard day-trip, about 12km of solid whitewater. On the full river section, we’d usually make it an overnighter, and enjoy the flatwater runs between the various sections of whitewater. Halfway along the trip is this killer place to go rock jumping. A nice sunny day, a deep, flat pool of water and a high ledge made for great fun for everyone. You’ll notice Gabby in the orange Jackson kayak just downstream, in position in case anyone got hurt jumping and needed some assistance. As always, safety first.

Cheers

Carl

Cara del Indio, Futaleufu River, Chile

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Cara del Indio, which translates in English as "Face of the Indian", a rocky outcrop that resembles a face of a wizened old Indian, the Mapuche. Futaleufu River, Chile.

hey Folks,

I’m a little tired, so I’ll make this brief. This image is of a rock form called “Cara del Indio”, which translates to english as “Face of the Indian” – because the rock form resembles the profile of face of a wizened old Indian; the native people of this area were the Mapuche, who were mostly wiped out by the Spanish Conquistadors. The word “Futaleufu” by the way, is a Mapuche word that translates as “Big Water”, and yes indeed, the Futaleufu River is Big Water. Chile.

Cheers

Carl

PS – Oh, I should’ve added: this feature is just before Mundaca. Generally rafting trips will pull over on to a small beach below Cara del Indio, have a quick rest, and the guides will go over the plan for running Mundaca – it also allows the safety boats, like the cataraft and a kayaker or 2, to get ahead and set up for safety, if needed.

Cataraft flip in Mundaca, Futaleufu River, Chile

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A cataraft flips over in the massive Class IV rapid, Mundaca, on the Futaleufu River, Patagonia, Chile.

Hey Folks,

So, I’ll wrap up my Mundaca Series here. This is a safety boat, a cataraft, that runs the river ahead of the whitewater rafts, and gets set to pick up folks who might fall out of the rafts. Of course, that’s the plan, but if the cataraft flips, then the safety is shot. Generally, using a series of hand signals and keeping a watchful eye out, something like this will be communicated back upstream to let the guides of the rafts know they have no safety. In which case, they generally wait until the cataraft is either flipped back over, or they’ll continue on down the river, but run a more cautious line. I shouldn’t say there’s no safety – on a river like the Futaleufu, each whitewater rafting trip Continue reading →

More Mundaca fun, Futaleufu River, Chile

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Whitewater Rafting, Mundaca, Futaleufu River, Patagonia, Chile.

Merry Xmas Folks!

Here’s a similar shot to the one I posted of KC going vertical in Mundaca.

The guide is Manu, from Switzerland. Manu was the king of going big on the Futaleufu in 2007. Nobody had the number of big hits that Manu did. And he cooks up a helluva storm too!

It’s awesome being around people who get so excited about what they do – Manu’s eyes lit up everytime we got to Cara del Indio, a little beach right before we’d hit Mundaca. The excitement builds, and everyone just knows he’s going big. – right down the center.

Awesome stuff.

And, because it’s Xmas, I’ll post a couple of shots to show you what happens after your raft hits this rapid, IF it doesn’t flip over: Continue reading →

Highsiding – Mundaca, Futaleufu River, Chile.

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Raft flipping in Mundaca, Futaleufu River, Chile.

Hey Folks,

I got an email today from someone asking about the term ‘highside’, I mentioned in yesterday’s post. This photo shows a guide pulling a classic ‘highside’, alas, to no avail. His raft flipped moments later. The guide, nearest the camera with the blue helmet, is diving to the high side of the raft. If his crew had done the same, instead of falling out to the left, the boat may not have flipped – though I suspect it was going to regardless. You can see why folks wear a helmet on the Futaleufu. The poor soul in front of the guide, Brent, got smunched before the boat even flipped.

This is another shot from Mundaca, possibly the classic rapid on the Futaleufu. It’s not the biggest, which is why it’s so cool. Some of the bigger rapids are ‘Terminator’, ‘Throne Room’ and ‘Casa de Piedra’, among a few others. But they’re SO big guides generally have to play it safe – Terminator is at least a 1/4 mile long of solid whitewater, Throne Room is even bigger, and Zeta is a narrow slot canyon full of nasty undercuts and holes that keep bodies a long time – most commercial trips walk Zeta unless the water level is way down.

I promised myself I’d get to bed earlier tonight, but I got to watching the film “Crash” again, and here it is kinda late. What an awesome film.

On another side note, anybody notice anything else new about the ole blog today?

Cheers

Carl

Whitewater rafting, Mundaca, Futaleufu River, Chile

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A Whitewater rafting trip on the Futaleufu River hits a Class IV rapid, Mundaca, and goes vertical. Futaleufu River, Patagonia, Chile

Hey Folks,

Ahhh – the days feel longer already. It’s like Boxing Day for Solstice.

I told you I’d show a couple of photos of how big Mundaca is. This is my friend KC, from New Zealand, guiding a 16′ raft through the entrance wave of Mundaca. One guide plus 6 people in a heavy raft and the wave stands it up almost totally vertical. Some awesome power in the water here. KC’s a killer guide, he’s worked on rivers all over the world, including the Zambezi and the White Nile in Africa. Not too bad for a Kiwi!

Shooting whitewater rafting photos is kinda hard – I found the hardest thing was to not fill the buffer – mostly because the rapids were so big, I could shoot the whole series and still miss stuff. The D2x has a buffer of 17 shots when shooting raw files, and it’s amazing how quickly they go by when you shoot 5 frames per second. Continue reading →

Mundaca Rapid, Futaleufu River, Patagonia, Chile

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The rapid known as Mundaca, a Class IV kayaking and rafting rapid on the Futaleufu River, in Central Patagonia, Chile.

Hey Folks,

Happy Winter Solstice!

Here’s a look at the rapid from yesterday’s photo, Mundaca. This photo is looking up at the top section of the rapid, where the river narrows rapidly, hits a few pretty large boulders, and goes every which way but loose. This angle doesn’t really give you a great look at the rapid (pronounced Moon – Dahka), but I like the scene. You can’t see down into those holes and waves, but I’ll make a few posts over the next couple of days showing the rapid a little better, as well as some action from there. We had some pretty big hits on Mundaca last year, with a bunch of rafts flipping. I proudly can tell you that the company I worked with had the most flips of the season at over 16. Pretty cool!!! Go big, or go home.

As the summer progressed, the everyone became more familiar with Mundaca, and also the water level changed enough to make it safer to go straight down the middle. At high water levels, flipping is more dangerous for a few reasons:

* the water’s flowing faster. Continue reading →

Kayaking on the Futaleufu River, Patagonia, Chile.

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Kayaker Getting trashed, MUndaca, Futaleufu River, Chile.

Hey Folks,

Well, as I sit around and deal with html code and other assorted things web related, I thought I’d post a few images from throughout the year. This one is another from the Futaleufu River, in central Patagonia, Chile. One of the best known rapids on the river is called Mundaca, named after the gentleman who owns the land alongside the river at that particular rapid. The rapid is wicked. Earlier in the summer, at higher water levels, the main section of the rapid is this huge infusion wave, before you actually hit the main rapid. Sometimes, this wave catches folks by surprise, because they know Mundaca is in the middle of the river, and they think by skirting the rapid down river right they’ll be fine – and right as they cross this little drop, the wave surges and they get nailed. This guy here got totally worked in the hole before rolling back up and then got nailed in Mundaca. I’ll post a few more images from Mundaca in the next few days – it’s an awesome rapid, and lots of folks got hammered there, particularly rafters. Mundaca gave some big rafts a pounding! It’s amazing how much power is reeling in those waves, and only when you hit them full in the middle do you realize how absurdly powerful they are.

Cheers

Carl