The crew has been out scouting the Skykomish River with lead guide and long time Sky native Brandon Steele. The river has been on our radar for a while but we have always been consumed by the fun we've had on the Sauk, so we never gave it a lot of thought. We started scouting the Skykomish in March of 2013 and at this point are just about set in our system on that river. It's exciting to offer our guests another river that can be run to the standards of our company; we're honored at the proposition of being able to take some of you down it in the coming season.
The Skykomish River has a reputation for being Class 5 but our teams analysis of it is that it's a strong class 4 river with a lot of hype around one significant obstacle called "Boulder Drop", a monstrous drop about half way down the run. Boulder Drop has gained a lot of notoriety because, as the name suggests, it has large boulders all over in it. Couple that with a steep and sudden drop, and you have some Gauley-esque chutes and technical must-make maneuvers while in the belly of the rapid. This makes Boulder Drop a little more intimidating than a lot of the other rapids in Western Washington, which commonly lack the large boulder features and sudden drops (coastal rivers are more prone to constant gradient and continuous smaller whitewater).
While Boulder Drop is certainly a formidable rapid, our crew feels very comfortable in it. In fact, if you watch the video (below) you can see the crew intentionally lodging themselves onto a rock in order to get a better look at the run. There's a level of confidence and security when our lead guide has over 500 trips down the Skykomish. We're excited to bring this river to our guests and run our kind of trip on a river that's a little more "mainstream" if you will; pun intended. :)
See you on the river!
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