Скачать или смотреть Flipped out in the Royal Gorge! Whitewater Rafting the Arkansas River - Cañon City, Colorado

Easily, the most traumatic experience of my life....

We survived our first Class IV rapid but wasn't ready for what happened immediately after in the longest section of rapids called 'The Grateful Dead'. Our raft came rushing up to a large rock in the middle of the river on my side of the boat (RH) We couldn't get left of it far enough and the boat launched into the air sending me crashing into Silas and down into the rapids in an instant along with the rest of the group...

While underwater, not knowing which way was up I ended up on my back with someone on top of me. I frantically used my hands to walk them off the top side of myself so I could finally come up for air. Once I was up right, it was still a serious situation because it felt impossible to get enough air between the rapids washing over your heads all while choking on the water that was inhaled while trying to take a quick breath.

In these daunting brief moments, the only person I saw was the 16-year-old guy that had been seated behind me, who was also struggling to keep his head above water. We looked at each other briefly as he yelled for help. I couldn't do a thing for him and had this terrible feeling that this kid could potentially drown right now. At that moment I knew that could happen to me if I didn't start trying to get to shore. I attempted swimming the best I could and got closer but couldn't seem to make that final push to get there. The current felt stronger at the edge for some reason. After several attempts I was able to grab on to some tall stem grass growing in the water at the edge. That got me stopped and I was able to pull myself up to the rocks...

Then the unknown really sets in, I looked around and couldn't see or hear anybody from our group. Then I see a flash of yellow as I looked way up stream and it looked like Silas behind a wall of brush and rocks. We climbed up the rugged river bank to the train tracks and Silas walked down to meet me.

Silas' knees got scratched and bruised up from getting washed into several big rocks as he neared the shore. I got a large knot and bruise on my right shin with a 1 inch vertical bash in it, a large bruise on my left knee and lost my left shoe.

Silas was the first one to shore and I ended up 75 yards down stream from him. Come to find out that the three other guys in our group never made it to shore and were pulled into boats even further down. (A dad with his 20 and 16 year old sons.)....

I didn't realize it before we booked this trip but immediately after we made it up to the train tracks it felt like a very irresponsible situation to put ourselves in and I wasn't about to do it again. I emphasized that we had 3 children back home that need their mom and dad and this rafting trip wasn't worth it. I was prepared to walk back on the train tracks even if it took me all night!

It took 2 of the 3 river guides a total of about 10 minutes to convince me to get back in the raft. They ended up rearranged our seating order to better balance the weight and padding ability.

"One more chance" I said... We knew we all had to paddle like crazy if we were going to make it out of here without flipping again. I wasn't willing to take a second chance in the water.

Our crew really paddled with purpose after that! Quote Silas - "Paddling's easier than swimming!"


TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Introduction
00:47 EL CAMARO - Class II Rapid
03:36 PUMPHOUSE - Class III Rapid
04:42 SUNSHINE FALLS - Class IV Rapid
06:59 FLIPPED the Boat - The Grateful Dead Rapids
11:15 Climbing to higher ground
12:28 Flip explanation
13:49 How the others got out.
14:46 Getting back in the rafts
15:02 SECOND CHANCE.
15:29 SLEDGHAMMER - Class IV Rapid
19:36 CAR CRASH - Class III Rapid
22:13 WALL SLAMMER - Class IV Rapid
22:51 The Royal Gorge Bridge - 956ft above us
23:25 BOAT EATER - Class IV Rapid (battery died before we made it there)
25:16 Animated Map of Route!
26:16 Meet the Crew
26:42 END