River CARNAGE

In the rafting community we have this term -carnage- that refers to a river absolutely dominating a raft, tossing its occupants, flipping the boat, and then scattering its gear for miles. Guides both love and hate carnage. We love to hear great carnage stories and watch videos of fellow rafters getting blasted, but then we hate having to experience carnage firsthand with our own boat.

The lower Animas river (and more specifically the Smelter/Pondarosa rapid) has been chewing up boats and thrashing commercial companies here in Durango for the last few weeks as the water levels have been 3x what they were last year at this time. Conditions have been such that the largest rafting companies in town have completely avoided these rapids over the past few days.

Today, we finally sent our boats back through this Smelter rapid group and we could not have been more pleased with the result. You see, and we were able to see a different kind a carnage. Instead of the Animas dominating our Kivu rafters... WE DOMINATED THE ANIMAS. And one lucky boat got to have the experience of a lifetime!