QotD: Women's Place
Feb. 2nd, 2018 04:10 pm“Women have their place
in this world,
but they do not belong
in the canyons of the Colorado”
—Buzz Holmstrom in 1938
I ran across this quote while reading a current piece about sexual harassment of women in the whitewater industry. I worked in that industry for a long time, but I had the good luck to begin at the Nantahala Outdoor Center which was one of the most egalitarian river businesses out there. I had been warned but later I found out for myself about residual sexism in the Grand Canyon river industry. I was based in Flagstaff for 7 years in the 2000's, and witnessed river men behaving as if it were still 1938. Time for an update, fellas. You don't get to decide the place of women.
Rowing 2: Graduating to Advanced Beginner
Dec. 15th, 2016 03:53 pmLesson 1: Push More (You Don't Have Pull out of Every Corner)
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Lesson 1: How to Punch Big Waves and Holes
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How People Die in Grand Canyon
Aug. 25th, 2015 12:01 pmby Tom Myers and Michael Ghiglieri
This book logs all the mistakes you can make at the Grand Canyon. There's an interview with the authors here. There have been some changes since the first edition. There are more environmental deaths, climbing deaths down in the canyon, and suicides than when the book was written. There are fewer deaths overall and fewer falls from the top of the canyon. Perhaps the park has improved safety and access to cliff tops to cause this change.
Q: What are common risk factors for death at the Canyon?
A: "Men, we have a problem," Ghiglieri said to an audience at NAU's Cline Library this winter, displaying a graphic with a skull and crossbones.
Being male, and young, is a tremendous risk factor, he and Myers found.
Of 55 who have accidentally fallen from the rim of the canyon, 39 were male. Eight of those guys were hopping from one rock to another or posing for pictures, including a 38-year-old father from Texas pretending to fall to scare his daughter, who then really did fall 400 feet to his death.
So is taking unknown shortcuts, which sometimes lead to cliffs.
Going solo is a risk factor in deaths from falls, climbing (anticipated or unplanned) and hiking.
Arrogance, impatience or ignorance also sometimes play a part.
SOURCE
http://azdailysun.com/news/local/canyon-deaths-and-counting/article_ba588a05-e816-55be-87f6-80f15b76f744.html
Kayaking on this class V section will be permitted, and the management team there sounds quite reasonable about letting management evolve along with use. The use of this river section can be revoked if there is any paddling on Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, where boating is banned.
The run will start at Pothole Dome below Tuolumne Meadows and end at Pate Valley. Exact details about put-in, take-out, portage trails and landing/no-landing zone locations will be determined in the near future in consultation with the boating community, tribal interests and National Park Service resource experts. Boaters making the run will be required to carry their boats 3 miles to the put-in, and carry them 8 miles from the take-out at Pate Valley to the White Wolf trailhead.
Carrying your kayak 11 miles is hard. The info does not indicate that this section of river is a series of long slides over domes of granite. I do not know if anyone has been running it lately, but I do remember that Lars Holbek carried his boat most of the way and didn't want to do it again. I have HIKED down the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne on a 3 day backpacking trip, and it was spectacular. A backpack trip might be a good way to scout the whitewater before committing in a boat. Though it is possible that those California boaters think nothing of this stuff. Looks hair to me.
SOURCE
http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Article/view/articleid/31898/
Sexism on the River
Sep. 4th, 2012 11:45 am( ruminations provoked by another woman's story of becoming a guide )

The road that used to go to the Pearce Ferry takeout now ends miles from the water. The outfitters are upset because they can't get their boats out of the water at the old takeout (Pearce) and it costs them time/$$ to run the boats the extra river miles to South Cove. So the river outfitters (including the Hualapai tribe) have approached the US Park Service offering private funding to build the road extension--under park auspices. So it will be done. Here's a slide show of the intended road route:
http://www.rrfw.org/gallery/displayimage.php?album=11&pos=87
And here's a side show of the new rapid:
http://www.rrfw.org/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=12

The latest Sierra Club project to cross my email is a petition to stop anyone from mining the uranium claims that are inside of 5 miles of Grand Canyon. They say it will cause radiation contamination to the river and everyone downstream. They don't mention how polluted the river already is, or the fact that the radioactive materials leak out of the ground with every rainfall. I wonder if there is some new corporate effort to extract the uranium, or if the claims are in private hands. I'm not saying I agree with the Sierra Club--not enough info yet--but here's what they have to say:
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Obituary: Lars Holbeck
Mar. 17th, 2009 01:21 pm
I learned of his passing from a friend on facebook. He was airlifted out of Grand Canyon last October with acute abdominal pain, and died last Friday night (3/13/09) of pancreatic cancer. Lars was a California boater, a formidable athlete, and a down-to-earth nice guy. Handsome, too. I met him only in passing, but among river runners he is a Legend. He is the only person I know of that has run he Grand Canyon of the Toulumne in Yosemite National Park, and also I believe he paddled the gnarly drops where the Merced River exits Yosemite valley and cascades through a morraine. Lars Holbeck took paddling to a level that few others could imagine, much less accomplish.
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( my thoughts about why I had this dream, and the GC master list )
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