Sorry, I am a bit late putting this on the website, but a good read anyway

The inland 5 star, the pinnacle of the BCU awards for personal skill and competence. But is that just all it is? In fact it is far from it, while yes it skills based, it covers far more than just river running skills - it looks at river leadership, first aid, rescue and advanced rope work, and able to demonstrate both previous training, and the skills themselves over 2 day assessment on grade 3 and 4 white water.

It was because of this that 3 stalwart members of Pendle Paddlers found ourselves in Bonnie Scotland once again, to see if we were able to achieve this award.

Our base of operations was the Invergarry bunkhouse, just north of Fort William. Which is why on Monday 12th November, Mike Riding, Martyn and James Hartley from Pendle Paddlers, John Turner of Clitheroe Canoe Club, and Ian Bell Regional Coaching officer for North West were awaiting the infamous Mr Tom Parker, who was to be our coach, mentor, and come Thursday and Friday, one of our assessors. After a brief intro, a decision was made to go out and paddle the Spean Gorge. The Spean, it is a truly scenic river that runs through an amazing gorge of twisted and shelving rock formations, which create a frenzy of boils and turbulence. It feels very isolated and would be a horrendously difficult climb out should the worst happen. The slightest change in water levels can make the gorge a totally different place in terms of the features. It was for this reason that while we had previously paddled the gorge, we where never quite sure what we would find. So what did we find? Well it was at a medium to low level where it is just starting to become “interesting.”

The first rapid of note is amusingly called Fairy Steps, (Why? - you’ll have to ask someone else, as I failed to see how a fairy could have made such a mess!) It is a tiered rapid compromising small drops and holes, usually moving in a zig zag down with a choice of a boof left, or flare right as your exit from the gnarl (GRRR)

Our first challenging rapid, how would we fare? Would it all go horribly wrong? Would we be embarrassed in front of our erstwhile coach? We all decided to run it - there was that air of apprehension, as we hadn’t paddled anything more challenging than our bathwater for a little too long. Sadly the rust was in evidence and there were a few wobbles, a missed stroke causing a hasty roll from John, quickly followed by Martyn, with a frantic support stroke in the middle, which pushed him off line causing a slight mishap, and subsequent swim. Thankfully the rest of us had cleaned it, and were sat safely in the eddy giving odds on if he’d swim, so perhaps it was our fault that little incident occurred? A quick efficient recovery ensured a collection of winnings (odds 70:30) and we where back off to continue through a few more twist turns and minor rapids to Head banger. This rapid was at the exceedingly nasty, boiling folding water stage, warranting its class 5 grading, which is why we all ran past it, with boats slung over the shoulder.

The river is now very narrow, with soaring rock formations, and narrow channels, with bends and turns a plenty, making line of sight difficult. It was at one such place that our next intrepid adventurer came a cropper. The river splits around a large rock formation, before joining in to an even narrower channel over a little messy stretch of water, and disappears round the next corner. Which side would you pick? John picked the correct line for us, but then decided to drop down the other one himself, for a better view, but was pushed hard into the corner which resulted in a short swim. We christened the feature John’s Folly. Next was the constriction, which is a boat width at best, and at worse, a total blockage of the river. We opted for the strong man approach carrying the boats. Just after this was a short little rapid with a couple of rocks which where able to cause me to tip over and roll. It was entirely the rocks fault and nothing to do with pilot error. Classic Jedi mind trick, the rocks sucking me in and hypnotising me. After this the river starts to open out again, that while scenic, pales in comparison to the majesty of the preceding gorge.

After day one, what had we learnt? Don’t trust Jedi power wielding rocks, fairies have massively scary sized feet, and according to Tom, only 2 of the group where potentially ready for assessment.

Day 2, Tuesday, was a day for rope work, as part of the new Advanced White Water Safety and Rescue. So the first bit was sat in the lodge, drinking Tea and making sure that we could tie the relevant knots, a clove hitch, tape knot (for use with tape) figure 8’s and double figure 8, alpine butterfly, Italian hitch (yes I was surprised this one worked)

Once we had all these sorted we went to the Gloy where we could practice lowering and raising boats and even people. Tom introduced to us a piggy back system rigged on to a Z drag (2:1 pulley system, making it a 4:1 mechanical advantage) referred too as a pig rig.

We all did our best yo-yo impressions raising boats and people up and down the embankment before retiring back to the bunkhouse for (more) tea and medal

Day 3, back on the river, and we went to the classic Etive, a stunning pool drop river with the big one Right Angle Falls, a free fall drop of 20 feet to finish the trip. There is no warm up – it’s straight into the action with Triple Drop. The first 2 come back to back - a steep slide in, then a nice little boof into the second pool, followed by the short run till you get to the third, imaginatively called Pin Ball. This involves a transition from river left, paddling across the lip of the fall aiming directly at the rock wall to flare (turn) of the last curling wave. Well there in lies the plan, if you want to run it with elegance and style, if you don’t you can just fall off the end of the drop!

Running the drops wasn’t the main point of concern; it was Ian, who had an abject terror of anything vertical. We later found out this resulted from a pin years ago on the lip of a fall on the Gamlan. Ian did struggle, but to his credit he ran all of Triple Step and some of the others too.

What follows is a shallow boulder garden to Letterbox, followed by a very short stretch into the ski jump. Letterbox is a shallow drop, and with a nasty rock outcrop looming on your right. The drop after we now called Dither, purely because last time we was there, I spent so much time Dithering it was embarrassing. It is a straight run in, in to a deep flat pool!! But there was no prevarication today, with a cry of “No dithering here, I’ll see you at the bottom!”

The next event of note is the crack of Dawn. We had already been through the crack of Doom, and that was uneventful. The crack of Dawn however, is a very nasty drop, it’s broken, and shallow and lands directly on to sharp pointy rocks. It is often portaged, but we decided to run the chicken chute - a shallow run across the flow and over a lip to the left. Fairly straight forward if you made the line but decidedly bottom clenching stuff if you didn’t. Mike had decide to walk it (who’s dithering now!!), with Ian and they are on the way round the opposite side. Martyn is the last person to run the drop, having spotted the rest of us down. (On reflection, perhaps not the best of ideas). Mike has a good clear view when we got the shout  “Its bad, OH ITS VERY BAD”  Martyn had missed the line, hit a rock and only by the grace of the river Gods, (or a last ditch high support stroke/brace) he didn’t go over upside down!! Miraculously he popped out the right way up, unhurt, and grinning To this day I am not sure how he managed to do that. Martyn’s Comment – OK I clipped something on the approach., but my recovery was solid. I was now too far right, and past the point of no return. If I tried to make the chicken chute, I would pin on the dividing rock on the lip, but could see a nice tongue to the right, so accelerated and blasted off. I tucked into the “Crash position”, skimmed over the rocks, and landed clean in the pool. What were they so excited about?

A few more drops and slides (not forgetting the 20 foot drop over Right Angle Falls) and we were at the get out. Time now for some practical casualty care and handling which involved more improvisation with kit, then a bit of wet work doing spinal turns and the like. I say a bit as it was chuffing freezing!!!  Thankfully it wasn’t long before we were retiring for the evening

Thursday - the first of our 2 day assessment!  Tom had decided on the Findhorn. Being sneaky/enterprising (delete as appropriate) chaps, we checked the guidebook and decided that he was being sporting. Sadly how wrong we were. Not the section we read, but the following Gorge a committing grade 4/5. We split in to 2 groups, one group incorporating Mike, John, and John (the second John was a pleasant chap who had joined us for the assessment days) under the watchful eyes of Mr Parker, and the other group of Martyn, Ian and James under the eyes of Mr Stuart Wagstaff. The first section was a very gentle bimble, a few drifting bends, a few grade 2 rapids, until we got to our first major feature, again entitled Triple Step. Hmm a difficult grade 4 series, several large holes, constricted flows, and the run out obstructed by large boulders. The plan was to run this in stages the first section being relatively straight forward, get your entry right, fairly central, then punch through the hole to an  eddy. Then look at the route out -  James went right to keep line of sight, while Ian ran through, moved over river right, down a tight little drop, through a hole, move hard left around a large pink boulder, dropped out of sight for a few heart thumping seconds and found a good eddy where he could see James. James went next, running it cleanly. Martyn set off, was very hesitant, got to the first drop and was looking for the line beyond, he had no forward speed as he hit the hole, and was sucked back in. It was at this point that he showed undiscovered play boat potential as he was tossed and spun while he maintained an upright, if not stable position, as he fought the stopper. Sadly he was fighting a losing battle as the attendant feeder eddy just kept pushing him back in, until finally he took a swim. Thankfully it was a short lived affair, but for his boat, it would turn out to be slightly longer, as we were unable to catch it before it drifted off round the next bend. Part swimming, part climbing he carried on with us to see if his boat would wash up in an eddy along the way, but sadly it didn’t, and so it was a steep climb out and a long lonely walk down to the get out.

Now we were in the gorge section properly, and the next rapid was a high volume rapid, that I decided to walk. You’re probably asking why? Could I see the line? Yes. Could I make the line? Yes, I was fairly confident I could. Was I influenced by what had just happened? Yes. I was acutely aware that we had just lost one person, and should we now loose another, or another boat, the days paddling would be effectively over and this was on my mind. As for the rest of the river, it was a continuous gorge, interspaced with small drops and rapids (well I say small, all grade 4, with the odd 5). But what was that we could spy in the distance? Something red and shiny? It was Martyn’s boat, beached intact and he hadn’t even managed to lose his sponge!

Friday, the final day off Assessment, back in the Spean gorge once again. While we knew that the river changed drastically with the slightest changes in water, we were hoping that we could remember most of what would appear. As for the trip itself, we were quick and efficient, running through all the drops and rapids fairly smoothly and without issues. We passed KayackoJacko with a group on Fairy Steps. Again we walked Head Banger, but were soon off the water and back in Spean Bridge Woollen Mill for Tea and Medals.  

Ian took the prize for the only one not to capsize, James was the best roller, Martyn the most spectacular close shave!

So now the Club has a couple of 5 Star River Leaders for those of you who want a bit of support on the harder rivers. That doesn’t mean to say that they will lead you down anything and everything – Leadership might mean telling you, that you’re not ready for this one yet. But if you think you might be, then have a chat with Mike or James.

< Prev		Next >