Kookork
10-25-2011, 18:43
The Art of River Crossing:
River crossing is more the domain of anglers than hunters or hikers. Hikers cross the river because they need to, anglers because they want to.
Where I grew up there were tens of fast flowing rivers that once were full of trout. We used to cross them while fishing trout sometimes hundreds of times a day. I spent a good portion of my life fishing hence I spent a good portion of my life crossing wild sometimes raging rivers.
Those days we used to cross crazy rivers to catch record trout. Yeah, you do some crazy things when you are young and you got to be lucky to survive those stupid acts of youth. Then you feel obliged to talk about those experiences with others hoping that they will take something more than luck and survival instinct to fight raging rivers like you did back then.
I considered myself a top river crosser/jumper until one summer day when I happened to walk and fish along a river downstream with a 17 years old 150 pound 6’3 guy as the company for about 15 miles. That particular walk needed crossing the river hundreds of times. My company was born and raised in a Bungalow right beside that mountainous forest river.
You can find some shots of the river I am talking about in the link below( and you may enjoy watching some others from the same Album):
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1194604568036757536XtBeWN (http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1194604568036757536XtBeWN)
He was not better than me. I was left in dusts. There was no contest. He got me with his first jump.
That particular day, I forgot about fishing and focused mostly around learning his magnificent smooth moves crossing the river. It was so effortless.
In highest levels, river crossing leans toward art.
Nowadays I hike more and fish less. I am tens of thousands of miles far from those rivers who I grew up crossing them. One thing has not changed though, I still cross rivers while hiking and I still use his techniques. It works everywhere regardless of continent and terrain. He is my river crossing Guru and I owe him to teach others some of his advices:
Next time when you are trying to cross a raging high volume river and you think it is impossible or too dangerous put your both hands over your both ears and press it to stop hearing any sound of the river. Push it as hard as you can to the point that you hear nothing. Now look at the same river again. It is not that scary anymore and you are not that tense like before.
Keep your hand pressing and now look at the river and the whole terrain again. And now plan your cross.
The sound of rivers makes them look scarier and stops you to focus on river and not their sound. Keep in mind you need to cross the river not the sound of it.
The most dangerous part of the river is not always the scariest looking part of it. Sometimes you better cross the scarier option to avoid the more dangerous one. You might get wet more but you will be safer.
Do not be greedy. Choose a route that may soak your shoes but is safer than jumping over some wet rocks to avoid any wet shoes.
You need to know getting wet and getting hurt is two completely different entities while crossing rivers. Be prepared to get wet in order to avoid getting hurt.
Better to be wet than sorry!!
Your safety is more about how you are going to react when you lose your grip of riverbed and less about if you lose. Losing the grip of your feet while crossing a river is an over rated problem in most of the cases.
You better not to lose it but if you know how to take the control of yours after losing the grip then you have a much better chance of keeping hassle and injury away.
The rule is simple, in cases of being carried away, first find your balance then start to regain your grip to the river bed. Most people try too soon to regain the grip, forget the grip and focus on maintaining your balance. Regaining the grip before regaining the balance of your body normally leads to another failure.
Do not try to regain your grip too soon or in a panicking mood.
When you plan crossing a river you need to plan your escape route if initial plan fails. Imagine what is going to happen to you if you fail. What is dangerous downstream and how you can avoid them. Plan the failure scenario first. It gives you the sense of security you need to cross some wild rivers knowing you have a plan to follow in cases of failure at least in theory and you are not facing unknowns. It stops you from panicking in failure cases.
Is it really that scary if you lose your grip or you are too concerned about it? That could be a good question in extreme conditions to ask.
Be prepared for gasping reflex.
There are some cases of river crossers who hurt themselves because they are not aware of the gasping reflex when their body suddenly hits a cold stream of water. I have seen their scared face while they are struggling for the air and start to swallow some water that leads to more panic. They are busier with gasping for air and are not focused on surrounding danger and how to cope with it.
The first few seconds are the most important moments after losing the grip and you better be ready to cope with gasping for air. Just don’t panic. It is a natural bodily reflex when a person suddenly hits cold water and starts to gasp for air involuntary. The problem is that the first gasp for air could be some mouthful of water if you are under the water.
This reflex happens to all people in different degrees; it is temporary and it is dangerous if not controlled by the willpower of the hiker and his or her awareness of it beforehand.
Next tip is about your backpacks. Even the heaviest stuffed backpacks are mostly buoyant if you spend a few seconds before crossing a river and close all their zippers carefully. All you need is a few seconds of buoyancy for your backpack to help you free yourself out of the bad situation and most if not all the backpacks provide that few critical moments for you to escape. Undo the waist and chest straps of your pack for a quick exit in case you fall over.
Being tense while crossing a river is another mistake. You better be generally relax and use your limited muscle power on areas that needs to work tensely and not all your body. Getting relaxed is even more critical after you are carried away.
That thing that you were worried from now has happened to you. Deal with it.
Nobody can help you but you and you cannot help yourself in panicky mood. Just relax where and when possible even for a few seconds. If you are relax enough you find your way to safety. Being tense just worsens the situation.
Keep in mind one important rule when you plan a dangerous river crossing. Be prepared to turn back before it is too late. Failure is an option.
Your life is not dependent on crossing that river in that moment or is it? If not when you find the stream too powerful then turn back before it is too late to plan another safer way to cross it. What about making a cup of tea and then making another plan afterward when you are more focused and less tense?
Sometimes crossing the part of the river that is totally white due to turbulence is much easier than you think. The water seems white there because it consists of more bubbles than water and so the resistance you face is not as serious as it seems. Try to test this fact first in smaller streams to find out what I am trying to say and then you can apply it to more serious rivers and fast streams.
Remember, By no means I am trying to convince you that white fast flowing streams are not dangerous, they are but sometimes they offer you the cross route if you know them better.
Last but not least, while crossing a fast stream do not fight the current, work with it.
Sometimes when a fast current is near to sweep your legs off the river bed you can stop fighting the current and start to lean on it. Leaning gives you the break you need to make your next move to cross the river.
Have you seen hikers who freeze in one spot of the river for so long to fight the current that finally their feet gives up and they fall over? Leaning on currents keeps you away from that muscle exhaustion.
Remember, the safest river crossings are generally noiseless and do not include splashing water and jerky movements. They seem effortless.
Keep in mind, most of the tips I mentioned here are for extreme conditions where you have no choice but do something extra ordinary to cross a stream to save your life or get out of a difficult situation. Some of them apply only in extreme conditions. Do not risk your life crossing raging rivers when unnecessary.
The most realistic rule about crossing raging river is that in some cases our first mistake could be our last. Be safe and use brain and muscle power combined.
My Guru would be glad if he finds out his lessons has spread worldwide and somewhere some hikers are avoiding injuries due to his lesson to me. He is still living in that bungalow beside that serene mountainous river and I think he will for the rest of his life.
Good luck and thank you for your time to read this lenghty article of mine. I see you yawning but it is ok...
River crossing is more the domain of anglers than hunters or hikers. Hikers cross the river because they need to, anglers because they want to.
Where I grew up there were tens of fast flowing rivers that once were full of trout. We used to cross them while fishing trout sometimes hundreds of times a day. I spent a good portion of my life fishing hence I spent a good portion of my life crossing wild sometimes raging rivers.
Those days we used to cross crazy rivers to catch record trout. Yeah, you do some crazy things when you are young and you got to be lucky to survive those stupid acts of youth. Then you feel obliged to talk about those experiences with others hoping that they will take something more than luck and survival instinct to fight raging rivers like you did back then.
I considered myself a top river crosser/jumper until one summer day when I happened to walk and fish along a river downstream with a 17 years old 150 pound 6’3 guy as the company for about 15 miles. That particular walk needed crossing the river hundreds of times. My company was born and raised in a Bungalow right beside that mountainous forest river.
You can find some shots of the river I am talking about in the link below( and you may enjoy watching some others from the same Album):
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1194604568036757536XtBeWN (http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1194604568036757536XtBeWN)
He was not better than me. I was left in dusts. There was no contest. He got me with his first jump.
That particular day, I forgot about fishing and focused mostly around learning his magnificent smooth moves crossing the river. It was so effortless.
In highest levels, river crossing leans toward art.
Nowadays I hike more and fish less. I am tens of thousands of miles far from those rivers who I grew up crossing them. One thing has not changed though, I still cross rivers while hiking and I still use his techniques. It works everywhere regardless of continent and terrain. He is my river crossing Guru and I owe him to teach others some of his advices:
Next time when you are trying to cross a raging high volume river and you think it is impossible or too dangerous put your both hands over your both ears and press it to stop hearing any sound of the river. Push it as hard as you can to the point that you hear nothing. Now look at the same river again. It is not that scary anymore and you are not that tense like before.
Keep your hand pressing and now look at the river and the whole terrain again. And now plan your cross.
The sound of rivers makes them look scarier and stops you to focus on river and not their sound. Keep in mind you need to cross the river not the sound of it.
The most dangerous part of the river is not always the scariest looking part of it. Sometimes you better cross the scarier option to avoid the more dangerous one. You might get wet more but you will be safer.
Do not be greedy. Choose a route that may soak your shoes but is safer than jumping over some wet rocks to avoid any wet shoes.
You need to know getting wet and getting hurt is two completely different entities while crossing rivers. Be prepared to get wet in order to avoid getting hurt.
Better to be wet than sorry!!
Your safety is more about how you are going to react when you lose your grip of riverbed and less about if you lose. Losing the grip of your feet while crossing a river is an over rated problem in most of the cases.
You better not to lose it but if you know how to take the control of yours after losing the grip then you have a much better chance of keeping hassle and injury away.
The rule is simple, in cases of being carried away, first find your balance then start to regain your grip to the river bed. Most people try too soon to regain the grip, forget the grip and focus on maintaining your balance. Regaining the grip before regaining the balance of your body normally leads to another failure.
Do not try to regain your grip too soon or in a panicking mood.
When you plan crossing a river you need to plan your escape route if initial plan fails. Imagine what is going to happen to you if you fail. What is dangerous downstream and how you can avoid them. Plan the failure scenario first. It gives you the sense of security you need to cross some wild rivers knowing you have a plan to follow in cases of failure at least in theory and you are not facing unknowns. It stops you from panicking in failure cases.
Is it really that scary if you lose your grip or you are too concerned about it? That could be a good question in extreme conditions to ask.
Be prepared for gasping reflex.
There are some cases of river crossers who hurt themselves because they are not aware of the gasping reflex when their body suddenly hits a cold stream of water. I have seen their scared face while they are struggling for the air and start to swallow some water that leads to more panic. They are busier with gasping for air and are not focused on surrounding danger and how to cope with it.
The first few seconds are the most important moments after losing the grip and you better be ready to cope with gasping for air. Just don’t panic. It is a natural bodily reflex when a person suddenly hits cold water and starts to gasp for air involuntary. The problem is that the first gasp for air could be some mouthful of water if you are under the water.
This reflex happens to all people in different degrees; it is temporary and it is dangerous if not controlled by the willpower of the hiker and his or her awareness of it beforehand.
Next tip is about your backpacks. Even the heaviest stuffed backpacks are mostly buoyant if you spend a few seconds before crossing a river and close all their zippers carefully. All you need is a few seconds of buoyancy for your backpack to help you free yourself out of the bad situation and most if not all the backpacks provide that few critical moments for you to escape. Undo the waist and chest straps of your pack for a quick exit in case you fall over.
Being tense while crossing a river is another mistake. You better be generally relax and use your limited muscle power on areas that needs to work tensely and not all your body. Getting relaxed is even more critical after you are carried away.
That thing that you were worried from now has happened to you. Deal with it.
Nobody can help you but you and you cannot help yourself in panicky mood. Just relax where and when possible even for a few seconds. If you are relax enough you find your way to safety. Being tense just worsens the situation.
Keep in mind one important rule when you plan a dangerous river crossing. Be prepared to turn back before it is too late. Failure is an option.
Your life is not dependent on crossing that river in that moment or is it? If not when you find the stream too powerful then turn back before it is too late to plan another safer way to cross it. What about making a cup of tea and then making another plan afterward when you are more focused and less tense?
Sometimes crossing the part of the river that is totally white due to turbulence is much easier than you think. The water seems white there because it consists of more bubbles than water and so the resistance you face is not as serious as it seems. Try to test this fact first in smaller streams to find out what I am trying to say and then you can apply it to more serious rivers and fast streams.
Remember, By no means I am trying to convince you that white fast flowing streams are not dangerous, they are but sometimes they offer you the cross route if you know them better.
Last but not least, while crossing a fast stream do not fight the current, work with it.
Sometimes when a fast current is near to sweep your legs off the river bed you can stop fighting the current and start to lean on it. Leaning gives you the break you need to make your next move to cross the river.
Have you seen hikers who freeze in one spot of the river for so long to fight the current that finally their feet gives up and they fall over? Leaning on currents keeps you away from that muscle exhaustion.
Remember, the safest river crossings are generally noiseless and do not include splashing water and jerky movements. They seem effortless.
Keep in mind, most of the tips I mentioned here are for extreme conditions where you have no choice but do something extra ordinary to cross a stream to save your life or get out of a difficult situation. Some of them apply only in extreme conditions. Do not risk your life crossing raging rivers when unnecessary.
The most realistic rule about crossing raging river is that in some cases our first mistake could be our last. Be safe and use brain and muscle power combined.
My Guru would be glad if he finds out his lessons has spread worldwide and somewhere some hikers are avoiding injuries due to his lesson to me. He is still living in that bungalow beside that serene mountainous river and I think he will for the rest of his life.
Good luck and thank you for your time to read this lenghty article of mine. I see you yawning but it is ok...