Fantasy Falls High Ass Water/ Cold Ass Air

Fantasy Falls
(Main River)

Days 3
Miles 25 (5 on reservoir)
Vertical Drop 3400
Level High end of High (1500 at the lake)
Portages 4
Peeps Toby MacDermott, Fred Coriell, John Grace, Nikki Kelly,
Tanya Faux, Daniel DeLaVergne, Nate Helms, Ryan Bell, Travis Richardson, Alex Ransom, Jason Parker



We were facing a long cold stretch in the High Sierra and our plans of heading straight to the Royal Gorge were somewhat stymied by a low flow on the North fork of the American.



Going out a limb, we speculated that we could sneak into the Fantasy Falls section at low enough water due to the abnormally frigid conditions above 7000 feet. We arrived at Ebbitts Pass to temperatures in the 40s and 50s and way to much snow in the headwaters of the river.




The flow in the river was higher than any of us have ever seen it, but it seemed good. We made it through the first day by the skin of our teeth; with the afternoon gush overtaking us we made camp. At about 9 pm John Grace and Daniel made an inspection of the flow and conceded that we would most likely walk the rest of the river if the flow remained at this level.




Thankfully the temps dropped into the 20’s and the level receded to a marginally runnable level.




Amazingly we ran almost everything we normally run.

Of note is Daniel’s hell-a swim out of the bottom hole at the big slide on day three (see video).

Click Here

And a bit of some other fools trying to run the big Island slide, there were no other contenders.

Click Here