With only a couple of days left on the Slave before the long drive back to British Columbia I thought I'd use my chance on the 'inter-web' to complete my report about the Slave and try to provide as much information as I can about the sets of rapids on the Slave and the rapids within the sets of rapids!
Rapids of the Drowned
This is the final set of rapids in the 4 sets of rapids. The Rapids of the Drowned were named so as 5 paddlers from a Northwest fur trading company came by these rapids in 1786. The 5 paddlers eddied out above the rapids, 2 of them going downstream to check if they were runnable. The story goes that they were meant to fire one shot if the rapids were good to go, unfortunately the 2 people downstream saw a duck and fired a shot causing the 3 paddlers to come down the wrong channel and resulted in them drowning, hence the name The Rapids of the Drowned.
These are the rapids most tourists can see from town and appear very big and intimidating, once you have seen Pelican, Cassette and The Mountain Portage Rapids they look nothing more than easy wave trains or as some paddlers call them the Garbage Rapids!
We put in on river left above the rapids and walked down a trail leading to a large eddy, we had to run one wave train before eddying out on river right then ferried across to the other side of the river. This was a pretty tough ferry as the water was boily and it was quite a distance, my arms were burning by the time we got to the other side.
We were however rewarded with a nice wave/hole which was unnamed. Shane later named this hole Brown Star. It was a great sticky wave for clean spins, blunts and Leif even did a pistol flip in there.
Jacqui Whitehead on Brown Star Photos: Jon Blyth
After a couple of hours here we walked over some rocks to get further upstream on river right and found yet another steep wave which only a few people were game to surf. From here we worked back across to river left and went down another channel with 2 waves called Rough Stuff & Tough Stuff. We then ferried out into the main channel into the middle of the river and all tried to hit a large wave called the Monster Shitzer Wave but it was so hard to see once we ferried out that most of us missed it and were trying to avoid the numerous large holes in the main flow.
Rapids of the Drowned is really like one big circuit as we were able to get back to Brown Star and do the hole run again!
Mountain Portage Rapids
During the time we spent on the Slave we pretty much experienced a whole season of water levels - starting at a whopping 5400cms dropping to below 3700cms in our last days on the river. We were fortunate to experience the thrills of Sweet Spot and as the water levels dropped other waves such as Hang Over Cure (located on the rapid Chico) came in.
Leif Anderson surfing Sweet Spot Photo: Jacqui Whitehead
We also explored a variation of lines down this set of rapids such as instead of going far left after Avalanche we went slight left down a rapid called Land of The Giants. This rapid definitely lived up to it's name with gigantic waves and very boily eddy lines. It is still possible to make your way over to Chico after finishing this rapid by eddying out on the left and portaging over the island.
Scouting Molly's Photo: Larry Sparks
Other variations instead of going down Avalanche was Sambucca (a nice little shoot with some waves), followed by Flipper (you will approach a horizon line with a play wave on the right and a hole on the left and it all feeds into a wave train here with a few whirlpools at the bottom). Again from here we ferried across Land of the Giants in the next channel on the left and portaged across the island to get back to Chico.
We also explored another channel called Turn Pike instead of ferrying over to Molly's. This is a class 3 drop which feeds into a couple of breaking waves. The preferred line is to then go right, behind the island to the right of these waves. If you continue down this wave train instead of going right it will feed into another rapid called Maelstrom, this rapid is rarely run as it runs close to some of the protected Pelican islands (which are protected islands which you have to stay 100m from as they are breading grounds for the endangered White Pelican).
A couple of other alternatives to Molly's and Turn Pike include Rocking the Hard Place (a 4 foot drop located between Pony Monster & Molly's), and the English Channel (located far left) which can then be followed by Pre-Edge & The Edge.
Pre-Edge is similar to Avalanche but the Edge is the one that will make kayakers weaken at the knees. The Edge gets it's name because it is a massive hole and at certain levels a shoulder forms on river right allowing kayakers to surf the edge of it, once in a while playboaters may find themselves in this hole for a beating!
Cassette
Cassette is probably one of the most 'Slave-like' sets of rapids in the sense that some sections of the river could be as far as 3 km wide and there are so many channels on this section of river offering everything from big water boating to river running to creeking (yes there are a couple of waterfalls!). The first 2 days on Cassette we explored the rapids Carborator Cleaner (a steep tongue that feeds into a nice surf wave), TSN (a small wave train which we ferried over to river left of), Can of Beans ( a playhole which is possible to loop, cartwheel etc in). From here you can continue downstream or hike over a few rocks and paddle into the channel on river left, followed by a ferry glide into a large eddy below an island of river left of this alternative channel to get to a wave called Outrageous (below outrageous you can either go river left to Dave's Demise - a hole on the right, or down the right of the island through a set of waves). We explored the right hand line (right of the island) and later downstream came to a channel with a rapid called Rock Em' Sock Em'. This rapid contained a retentive hole on river right (which I was allowed to name Face-Rape after getting recirculated pretty violently in it) at the entry of the rapid, the 2 holes (one river left, one river right - called Rock Em' and Sock Em'), there is a small window in between these two hole. Below this is The Bitch - a large hole in the centre which a few people had the guts to surf (some controlled but most uncontrolled!). The alternative to Rock Em' Sock Em' is to either go down the next channel to the left (Snooze Button) or the next channel over to the left (Alarm Clock). Finally below all of these channels is the prize: Roller Coaster!!! A great wave train with a wave called Roller Coaster which give surfers huge air and possible to do any type of aerial move. You can either sit on the island rocks with out being maimed by mosquitos!! The only downside from here is the take out is about a 45min paddle out (ferrying to the left) mostly through flat water but the scenery definitely makes the paddle out worth it (and also the rapids!!!).
Jacqui Whitehead on Rollercoaster Photo: Leif Anderson
Leif Anderson on Rollercoaster Photo: Jacqui Whitehead
For a more exploratory route instead of going down the channel which leads to Carborator Cleaner you can also take the next channel over to the right which leads into a labyrinth of narrower channels which are more river running, creeking rapids. There is a lot of flat, slow water then steeper rapids consisting of a single drop or if you get to 5-Ways there are 5 channels which meet together, most of which are class 4+ boating such as Split Rock, Petrice Falls, & Rumplestiltskin. It is then possible to hike out on the river left bank of Rumplestiltskin to below Carborator Cleaner and either go the normal route through the rest of the rapids or take the channel below TSN - Information Super Highway which will take you to above Rock Em' Sock Em'. There are heaps of channels to explore and we would have spent a good 5-6 hours navigating and exploring through 5-ways and the surrounding rapids.
Shane exploring Rumplestiltskin Photo: Larry Sparks
Pelican
The Pelican rapids are located above the Mountain Portage Rapids and is one of the biggest wave trains I have seen in my life! The wave train is a very huge class 4-4+ wave train with a simple enough line (down the middle!) - the main problem is to get to these waves one needs to do a huge ferry above (starting in the eddy on river left) and fight the whirlpools and boils to avoid a large hole at the entrance of the wave train on river left. If you are unable to run this rapid you can always put in below the entry of the wave train (below a ledge) and try to ferry out lower in the wave train into the smaller waves (although these are still very large).
During our visit to Fort Smith & The Slave River we were fortunate to experience the Slave at super high water (5400cms) and at lower levels (below 3700cms) - and these water levels were only over 2 and a half weeks! We also got to see most of the playspots at varying water levels, many of which those who came up to the Slave River Festival missed out on as they only stayed a maximum of one week on the Slave. Also big thank you to Jon Blyth & Leif Anderson also for showing us around the river as without them we would have been totally lost and would have missed some of the gems this river has to offer.
