Nepal 2010 Expedition

Every year adventure students at Thompson River University must complete a multi week expedition in there chosen sport. This year we wanted to challenge ourselves to a more experiential international expedition. We are preparing to descend 3 majestic rivers in Nepal. For three weeks we will kayak and raft down the Bhote Kosi, Upper Sun Kosi, and Sun Kosi Rivers.

During the trip we intend to push are whitewater kayaking and leadership abilities on some of the highest rivers in the world while representing the TRU Adventure Studies Department. This expedition will be used as an instrument in which we will gain the knowledge to plan an expedition through the stages of initial planning, execution and successful completion. Through interaction with local guides and experts, the Nepal Expedition is determined to achieve field based education while promoting a cultural exchange of customs, ideologies and technical skills.

The Journey To Nepal  10/05/03 – 10/05/05

To make our way to Nepal we  had a few planes to catch! First it was from Vancouver to Hong Kong, China where we had a 12 hr layover.  After we all checked our carry on bags we bought an express train ticket that would take us from the Airport to  downtown Hong Kong. We all split up and explored the amazing city, with each group going to their own desired locations, and at their own pace. The first thing we noticed walking out side is it feels like the entire ocean has evaporated and is sitting in the air. The humidity was through the roof! The highlight of Jackie, Tyler, Geoff, and my self’s (Lars) afternoon was eating Ginger Frog Legs and Spiced Duck Tongues.  We also wandered around the city’s beautiful botanical gardens and zoo, finishing the afternoon off by experiencing the bustling streets and markets of the SoHo district. We then headed back to the airport and set off on the final 6 hour leg of our journey to Nepal.   Flying to Dahka then Kathmandu, Nepal, arriving safe and sound at 1130 pm.

 

10 Day’s Paddling On The Sun Kosi And Tamur
Day 1 10/05/07
Put In- Suktet / Take Out- Packwarght
We loaded up our old rickety Nepalese bus at 1 am to leave for the Saqute put in on the Upper Sun Kosi. It was 4 hour drive, it was good that it was dark as most of the time we were all oblivious to how close to death we might have been. We arrived at sun rise, with the sun hitting us and the temp. going through the roof as we rigged the rafts drenched in sweat. We made the drive to the put in because the Nepalese Maoists had called for a general strike all across the Nation and everything was closed. We had to pay the bus 4 times the rate and sneak out in the middle of the night. As sneaky as 15 kayaks on a bus can be driving through Katmandu hitting every low power line you could imagine. Once we were on the river all of the political stress was gone. The guides were also amazing and they were able to get all of our supplies except for flour! Absolutely amazing considering that nothing was open!
By Lars Hartling

 

Day 2 10/ 05/08
Put In- Packwarght / Take Out- Ratmata

We got up to a great temperature again and ready for our second day of paddling. The day started radically as Jackie’s boat got pinned on a rock after she swam a rapid. I quickly climbed a rocky face to get a shot of the funny scene with my camera of Sharman and Angela working hard to get it out. They did it successfully after a fare amount of effort. Ather the incident, I realized that what I climbed to get the shot was pretty gnarly. It was super sunny and warm as we stopped for lunch near a little town. A bunch of children came to see what was going on. I tried to impress them by throwing my throwbag but it was unsuccessfull. Then Geoff came and started a full on tug of war with the kids that lasted quite a while. The kids were having a great time and as we took pictures of the funny scene, they got interested in our cameras and were amazed to see themselves in the little screens. They were coming by dozens to get to see their portraits. In the early afthernoon I got out of my kayak to hop on a raft. Indra, the young apprentice guide, was very happy to try out my kayak. He is a great kayaker himself and works as a security kayaker for commercial rafting trips on the Bohte Kosi River. Trying out the raft was a great experience for me. I realized how difficult it was to paddle a fully loaded raft, with all the food and the gear for 18 people for 10 days. I realized also that the raft is a great floating platform to take pictures from. Instead of hopping in and out of my kayak all the time to take pictures, I just needed to ask Kamal (our guide) to paddlewhile I took pictures of the surroundings. The angle from on the river was great as well. I finished the day by braking an oar paddle, which I am pretty proud of.
By Gabriel Cote-Valiquette

 

Day 3 10/05/09
Put In –Ratmata / Take Out – Likhu Khola
Today was a regular start time at 0930. We were going to be running a few class 3 rapids! The past 2 days I swam and was determined not to swim today! As we ran across our first rapid of the day I found myself in a hole yet again! This time I remembered what Jonesy had said “Hold On a little longer” and you’ll be flushed. So I did so and tried my roll but didn’t get it! But I did hear Shawn B. say “I’m here!” so I decided to go for the T-Rescue and I didn’t swim. I was stoked! My roll is much more dialed, and I feel confident in my kayaking ability! The food on the trip had been great so far, and then Kamal our guide pulled out 6 huge beef tenderloins for dinner. I told him how stoked I was for the meal and he asked me if I would like to cook it. So I helped cut and put together the spices for the meat!
By Tyler Olson

 

Day 4 10/05/10
Put In- Likhu Khola / Take Out- Rajhistan Beach
The day began fast with an awesome landslide into the river causing quite a dramatic scene. After this the day became extremely slow and did not seem promising. After hours of paddling flat water in the blistering heat we came upon our lunch spot which was the marker for some action on the water. To this lunch spot we had Brett with a stomach illness in the raft accompanied by Chris who was battling a Flu bug. This change was brought about by the rather large 4+ rapid Hakapur 1. In high water we were told it is a solid class five rapid, as it holds high consequences and evokes terror. After the last three days of our biggest rapid being a class three and countless hours of flat water it made this rapid appear more than intimidating. The right side at the top offered death as well as the massive pourover in the middle. There were two lines. The first line was centre with a hard cut left off a reactionary than straight past the Gnar. The second line was reserved for the ballsy paddlers of the group. With the same entrance, except punching the reactionary and cutting right above the pourover down a small tongue. As you can imagine there were many people who walked, and Lars, Jackie, Steven, and Tyler paddled the raft with Atchyut down both rapids, but we still had a select few who had felt up to the task. Sean Easton, Gabriel Cote-Valiquette, Sharman Learie, Shawn Burleigh and Angela Bueckert all seemed to style it. Sean took the most exciting line as he decided to flip upside down off the reactionary to show off his snappy roll and cut right of the pourover. After Hakapur 1 was the completely original named rapid of Hakapur 2. This was class 4 depending on who is looking at it. It begins with a 3+ entry feeding into what appeared to be a massive hole. After walking it I soon realized that it would have been alright to run as everyone to seemed to punch it without any back surfs. After Hakapur 2 was a fairly cool hole that we surfed on for a while. It was a sticky hole that inspired two swims. One of them being me. After a few successfull surfs and 3 weeks of rolling in some harder stuff I had just finished the thought of “I will never swim again”. Just as this thought passed through my brain I jumped on the hole and the show began. After a few good carves and a back surf I window shaded twice than flipped again and in all the chaos swam. I guess my thought of never swimming again did not last for so long. The rest of the day was pretty good as it consisted of a few more class 3 and 3+ rapids with some super fun surfs.
By Geoff Price

 

Day 5 10/ 05/11
Put In- Little Rajistan Beach Take Out- Above Ripple Rock
The day started with Martin having some stomache bug, it was not all bad as he offered up his C1. I jumped at the chance to try and paddle it after practicing some rolls in an eddy, we headed down the river. Martin had a very creative design on his Necky Blunt using a plastic fence post as a center seat and some cutting boards for a back brace. The boat was comfortable for about 30 mins and then the last 30 mins were agonizing pain. After I jumped into the raft, it took a good ten mins for the circulation to return. I got back into my Kayak and arrived at rapid called Jaws a little late and did not scout it. Chris Jones just said go left or right just not down the middle because you will get worked for a while. It was one of my best rapid runs as it was a read and run and I took one of the cleanest sneak runs of my kayaking career. That night we had a traditional Nepalese meal that the guides had prepared for us. There was Dale (Lentils) Bsate (Rice) Tu Curi (Veg Curry) Papabam (Fried Indian Bread, Similar to nachos) I rated it as one of the top 10 meals on a raft trip!
By Lars Hartling

 

Day 6 10/05/12
Put In- Above Ripple Rock / Take Out- The Water Fall
Today was epic! We ran about nine rapids and I actually had the best paddling day ever speaking on a personal skill level. Ran some huge wave trains, my favorite was Roxy roller and the rhino rock rapid. I actually rolled for the first time in white water today and it was the best feeling ever. It was just a half day on the water from 9am till around 1pm. We stopped and lunched at an amazing waterfall, lounging, swimming and taking photos. Then we ferried our kayaks across the river, while some people had to swim because there boats magically got taken to the opposite side and made camp at a beautiful beach. My tent group bivy’d out under the stars for the first time that night and it was such an amazing experience, especially compared to 4 hot bodies crammed in a tent!
By Jaclyn Collinge

 

Day 7 10/ 05/13
Put In- The Water Fall / Take Out-Past Bunchhola

Today was a pretty remarkable and somewhat special day I would say. In the last days the idea of buying a goat became more and more a topic of our daily conversations. This morning we did not know that this idea would become a reality by the end of that day. The morning started out with the collection of some money for buying a goat – even though we did not really think it was actually gonna happen. Then we went on the river for a fairly mellow and relaxed day on the river ( we arrived at our campsite at around 145 ). In the last 45 minutes before the campsite we started taking little stops on riverbanks where we saw goats walking around and Kamal hopped out of the raft and talked to the locals about the price. The first try seemed to bit quite overpriced so we kept going. The second try seemed not to work out either so the majority of the group kept paddling towards camp. After about 10 or 15 minutes on the campsite we couldn’t believe it – there was a goat on the raft. It was actually going to happen!
Speaking for myself I can say that the experience of watching the goat getting killed and being prepared for cooking it over the fire was a completely new one and that I approached it with both curiosity and a little apprehensively. It was a really interesting process and for me it was the first time ever I saw something like this happen.
The meat we ate that night we ate with a different level of awareness – an awareness completely different from buying precut and prepacked little packages of meat from the supermarket.
Together with the goatmeat we had rice and beans with a sauce made of ginger, garlic, onions, vinegar, mustard and some (nepalese) spices.
By Max Benz
Tyler Olson’s View: A few more highlights of this 9 day expedition for me was when Lars and I joked about buying a goat on one of the days for dinner and suggested it to our guide who said it was possible, but only if we got it for the right price, 5000 rupee’s. On the 7th day, we asked a few villagers and the price was double! Kamal was saying that there was only one more place to try and I said I felt lucky and sure enough the next Nepalese people we saw had a heard of goats. We finally negotiated for 7000 rupees! Needless to say the killing and skinning of the goat was very interesting. We made a marinade for the goat using what we had (ketchup, vinegar, mustard, soy sauce, chile powder, salt and pepper) and cooked it on a grill over a fire pit we made of rocks. Yum yum good!

Day 8 10/ 05/14
Put In- Bunwa Khola / Take Out – Just Past Tumar Khola
We all slowly woke up with the rising sun, on a beach just past Bunwa Khola. It was another beautiful morning, We all went thhrough our usual morning routines of stretching, getting the necessary dose of cafine, Packing up camp, and getting excited for another unforgetable day on the river. Today was one of our longer days we were ready and on the water by 10 am. There were some awesome rapids in the morning, with a few good surf waves, that everyone got to play around on, we also had a lot of flat sections of water today, so there was a bit of floating, relaxing and joking around as we took our time enjoying the beautiful scenery under the hot sun. Around 1 pm we found the perfect spot for lunch right in the shade, with a little creek in the back that had tons of butterflies living there. After we stuffed our bellies once again with the delicious food, we were back on the river floating down. There were some more rapids near the end of the day that were really cool, right around the confluence of the Tamur river and the Sun Kosi river. Feeling the cold water coming into the Sun Kosi from the Tamur got us all excited to paddle a world class river in the next couple of days. We set up camp just after the confluence around 5:30pm. It has been wonderful to experience Nepal this way to see the culture along side the river. It is a great way to travel through a country.
By Steven Wapple

Day 9 10/ 05/15
Put In- Past Tumar Khola / Take Out – Chatra
We set up base camp for the next 2 nights and we left Indra and Achyut at camp to watch are gear that we left behind due to the neccescity of packing light for the single raft with 7 paddlers and all of our gear for our descent of the Tamur the following day. We stopped half way down the river at a Temple village to experience another aspect of nepalese culture. We bought some trinkets, took photos, then descended down to Chatrat to have a delicious traditional Nepalese meal at the Hotel Sun Kose and catch our bus up to the the put in of the Tamur kholi. Along the way we stopped at Charles Look Out Tower which was 1480m above sea level. An amazing view and nice escape from the jam packed bus. We arrived at the Tamur to a packed beach full of locals who were very keen on watching us all night, and first thing in the morning too! It was really interesting waking up at 5am to an audience of little kids.
By Lars Hartling and Jaclyn collinge

Day 10 10/05/16
Put In- Tamur river from Mulgharat / Take Out- Camp at the Sun Kosi just past the Tamur confluence
The Tamur is one of the best rivers I have run so far, 45 rapids up to class 4+ on over about 25 kilometers, all that in a gorgeous landscape dotted with many picturesque villages. Since the river is pretty intense only our instructors and guides, Chris, Angela and Sharman as well as the more experienced kayakers, Brett, Shawn, Sean, Gabriel and myself were kayaking (or, in my case C1-ing), the rest of the group was rafting with Kamal guiding them. The river started with some class 3 rapids as a warm-up before things got more serious. The first few class 4- rapids were read and run, but soon enough came the first of the hard drops of the day. Everyone got out to scout it and figured out their lines. Once in the river, almost everyone found that the water was pushier than what it seemed like from shore. My line was not exactly as planned, but I I made the crux, a tongue through a sticky hole, which was all that mattered. The raft had a small pin in the second part of that rapid, but a quick high-side and it was all good. After a few more fun class 4- rapids we got to another bigger one, but this one we ran again read and run style. In hindsight the easiest and cleanest line would have been on river left, but we found ourselves above a short but steep class 4+ section on river right. That was not really visible from above. I watched everyones lines, and they seemed pretty good. Some people boofed, while others ferried to what seemed to be a tongue just left of the boof. I opted to go for the tongue, and intended to use a small hole right above the boof to ferry across onto the tongue. It didn’t work quite as planned, I spun out, missed the ferry and went over the boof sideways. The last thing I saw before going over was a mess of holes and rocks below. There was no way I was going to swim or even attempt to roll in that mess. I immediately tucked against the bow, pulled my arms in and waited for the beating. I tagged a bunch of rocks on my back, and took a tap of my paddle shaft to my nose. After a few intense seconds things quieted down and I rolled up in the pool at the base of the drop to the cheers of the entire group. I had some nosebleeds from the paddle, and Sean took a picture of my bloodied face before we headed downriver. A lunch stop later we arrived at the next big class 4+ drop of the river. It may have been due to my adrenaline high, but my line there was much smoother than the ones before. The raft had another interesting pin on a rock in a tighter rapid, which took a little while to resolve, but in the end everyones efforts got it off. The run ended in a spectacular short gorge just before it enters the Sun Kosi, where we ended ourrun at the camp from day 8 with our guides Achyut and Indra waiting for us.
By Martin Breu

7 Days  On The Bhoti Kosi, Balephi kosi and Upper Upper Sun Kosi.

Day 1  10 05 19
Lower Bhote Kosi
Put In: Lower Bharabise- Take Out: Lanasargu
Today was the most fun day on the river so far! We left Kathmandu this morning went out for a group breakfast, loaded our paddling gear and boats on the bus and had a long hot bus ride for a few hours to our river side base camp for the week. We set up camp then had lunch and got on the river as fast as we could. Everyone was super stoked to be back on the water. The run was a big step up for the few of us who just started paddling this year. It was pretty technical stuff with some big features in low water where you don’t want to be upside down. I walked the 1st 2 big rapids, because they were solid class 4 and I wasn’t feeling like getting beat up yet. Then I paddled the rest of the run which was so much fun. It was a high adrenaline run and everyone was doing wicked. I felt I had clean lines and I only needed to roll twice. We got back to our awesome camp, kicked back and relaxed, enjoyed dinner, as it started to rain.
By Steven Wapple

 

Day 2  10 05 20
1rst run: Balephi
Put In: Chanoute- Take Out: Balephi
2nd run Lower Bhote Kosi
Put In: Lower Bharabise- Take Out: Lanasargu
Early morning to go paddle an easier river, the Balephi. The drive up to the put-in is crazy. It is an extremely narrow road, full of bumps, turns, creeks, people and even chickens. Way too much going on, all I hoped was that there wasn’t going to be another car coming from the other directions. Big relief to get to destination. The river itself was much nicer. An easy run with a lot of eddys to practice on and nice weather. We got back to camp and had lunch while waiting for the rafts to come back. We then headed to the lower Bhote Kosi where I chose to run the first big rapid, the Great Wall. What a mistake. It was unorganized, everybody went down at once. Eddys were too small for everyone so I ended up running it backwards. Not such a pleasant experience. Nothing bad happened, but that wasn’t the clean line through class 4 rapid I was expecting. I was done for big rapids for the day and walked the second one. Unfortunately when the third one came, I flipped and didn’t roll back in time to walk it as well, so there I was again, going down the rapid. I flipped again before the major hole and that was the big Sharman-panthon move day to get me out of there. While I was trying to roll, he modified the hand of god and straight up grabbed by arm to pull me back up. Lots of excitement through the day, I am still in one piece and well. Another classic crazy day in Nepal.

 

Day 3  10 05 21
Upper and Lower Bhote Kosi
Put In: Above Gerbil in the Plumbing- Take Out: Lanasargu
Today was a beautiful sunny day in Nepal.  The Bhote Kose is a big step up and one that I chose to do in the raft. Max, Tyler, and I went with Kamal for the craziest rafting day of the trip so far.  The river was so fun, super pushy and technical in a lot of areas.  I can’t wait till my paddling is strong enough for a river of this caliber.  The previous day we werent allowed to run the great wall in the raft, we had to walk, but today was our lucky day!  Max walked around it and Tyler and I headed down the class 5 rapid.  At the end of the run we actually surfed the raft in a hole, something I have never done before, and it was crazy.  Everyone was around watching and before I knew it I was flipped out of the raft, with our guide flying out over top of us.  What a blast!  I managed to hold on to the safety line so Tyler easily pulled me back in.  Camp was a 5 minute paddle away and that was the end of another amazing day paddling!
By Jaclyn Colinge

 

Day 4  10 05 22
Upper and Lower Bhote Kosi
Put In: Above Gerbil in the Plumbing- Take Out: Lanasargu
Today started like any other day with a loud yell for breakfast, the routine “good mornings” and the common feel of anticipation for the day of paddling ahead. The only difference today was that we had an option of which rivers we wanted to paddle. The decision of the majority of the group was to head to the Balephi and do a cruisy Grade 2 Class 3 section. The  Easton brothers, Martin, Chris, Nepali Chris and myself chose to due the Bhote Kosi starting approximately four rapids above the class five rapid “Frog in a Blender”. As it was my second day on class four whitewater I was excited for the challenge. With a smaller group and overall higher experience level the run was much faster than the previous day. Being the least experienced of the group I was finding myself in rapids that I had not expected to be in. The most memorable of the day was recognizing the takeout to walk “Frog in the Blender” nearly too late. This may not see like a big issue as the major hazards itself are at the end of the rapid, but the line of entrance to the takeout itself is something that you really do not want to miss, as it has a major ledge pourover nearly river wide, that would surely make you swim right above a class five rapid. I realized this ledge as I was heading for the centre of it and was just able to turn my boat upstream and catch a little hole that surfed me into a rock pinning me long enough to come up with an escape plan. I was able to successfully pull off getting back on line and missing the pourover. The rest of the day went super smooth and was considered “cruisy” for the rest of the group, in contrast to myself left wondering if I should invest in a new pair of shorts. Overall I believe that this run was one of the most beautiful runs I have paddled to date and gave for an amazing day of paddling with friends.
By Geoff Price

 

Day 5 10 05 23
1st Upper and Lower Bhote Kosi
Put In: Above Gerbal in the Plumbing- Take Out: Lanasargu
2nd Upper Upper Sun Kosi
Put In: Below Dam- Take Out: Above Sukute 
Today was just another run of the Bhote kosi. We had descended it multiple times and I was starting to feel like I actually knew the river, and dialing my moves. This feeling went on for the first half of the run until we reached The Great Wall. Everything was lining up as I was eddy hopping my way down to where the river flows into one main shoot in the center of the river. I pulled out of the eddy above and started driving hard to the river right with an aggressive ferry angel. I quickly realized that I would not make it far enough to hit the shoot strait and would have to first bounce off one of the main rocks that forms part of the shoot. At this point a braced for impact and leaned my boat down stream so not to get flipped against the rock. I knew I would be pushed off immediately because all the water was pushing in the direction of the shoot. As soon as I hit the rock I was spun around 180 degrees and started to go down the shoot backwards as there was no way to turn again in time with out being broad sided from the up coming waves I decided to run the rapid backwards.  This technique worked out decently and I was able to eddy out at the bottom of the shoot with only a racing heart.
We finished our run fairly quickly and after lunch we had enough time to run the Upper Upper Sun Kosi and there is not much to say about this run. It is mostly a float with one rapid I have happily named the kayak grater. It is a little drop with the river making a right turn. As the water arcs around the corner it lines the kayaks up to run through these tall long sharp rocks. Lucky for me I did not go up side down but because I hit one of the rocks I put my paddle in for a high brace and smacked one of the other rocks with my paddle blade. This instant stopping of my paddle cased me to slam my face into the paddle shaft! This little easy section of the Sun Kosi turned out to be the most painful experiences of the whole trip. After this exciting drop we pulled out at a large rock where we could jump off the rock into the river and cool off. 
By Lars Hartling   

 
Day 6  10 05 24
Upper and Lower Bhote Kosi
Put In: Above Carnal Knowledge- Take Out: Lanasargu
We got some good rainfall during the night, and the river was subsequently up by a good foot (30 cm). When we put in above carnal knowledge I immediately felt the increase in pushiness and power in the water. At the bottom of Carnal knowledge I immediately found that the hole that was the day before so easy to punch had gotten a lot stickier and actually stopped me dead and surfed me for quite a while, but in the end I managed to work my way out of it. Initially I ran in the middle of the group, but I found that when I had to slow down for the paddler in front of me I lost too much momentum, which is critical in a C1 with only one blade, so I moved to the back to run sweep and was much happier that way, as it allowed me to keep a bit of distance before entering the rapid and to conserve my momentum in them. When we got to the Wall, the largest rapid of the day I felt quite tired and decided to walk the top part of it and only run the bottom. We waited for the rest of the group, which took quite a while to arrive. It turned out that they had some action in the rapid above, where the raft got stuck and surfed in a hole. In Pigtail, the next big rapid I decided to run the entrance further left than the day before to avoid a small pour-over. Big mistake. I missed the staging eddy for the main drop and, instead of running the usual center line, had to run the right side blindly. The line was quite messy, not really recommended, but I managed to keep the boat upright and without any pins, so in the end it was all good. The last interesting situation, was one or two rapids below where Lars was stuck in a hole and looked like he might be stuck there for a while, so instead of skirting the hole I decided to go for it and try to knock him out. I put in a few hard forward stroke and hit his boat. It worked, the impact was enough to knock him loose and out of the hole. Soon after we were at the take out. Another great paddling day came to an end at the camp, where food waited for us.
By Martin Breu
Gabby’s View
Today was a special day for me, with Lars, we were the only two first year experience paddlers to kayak the run. Everything went well, even though it was very challenging and hard work the whole day. It helped me build a lot of confidence about paddling and also confirm that getting some practice before the trip was really worth it. 

Day 7  10 05 25
Upper and Lower Bhote Kosi
Put In : Above Carnal Knowledge- Take Out: Lanasargu
Last day on the Bhote Kosi and the last day of paddling as well for most of us. We had a long drive back to Kathmandu coming up so the game plan was to do the run below the frog in the blender we’ve been doing all week. I chose to jump in the raft today, mostly to try it out since I hadn’t and also to get a little in the mind set of rafting since work is going to start pretty soon. Rafting was a good experience. I’ve noticed that it is way easier to read the water, you are higher on the water and the lines are more obvious. This is good news since the water reading skills are probably going to be the hardest one’s to get for this summer. I got a chance as well to paddle the rapids I had been walking until then. Everyone in the raft had a good time and this was a good way to end the trip. We packed the bus, and there it was. Return to Kathmandu, return to reality and back to thinking about the way home, the good-byes and the summer coming up.
 
By Gabrielle Filiatreault