Larry Cable wrote:

Not at all, I am just stating a realistic view of the difficulty of this rive.
Rafting companies do tend to dramatize the difficulty rating, bu there is
nothing class V about the Lower Gauley. With the exception of Mash and Pure
Screaming Hell, most of the rapids are very straight forward. Even the rapid
that started this thread, Gates of Heaven, only requires that you miss a hole
on the right and not let your boat get pushed too far to the left at the
bottom, it just a matter of paddling down the middle. Big waves don't increase
the difficulty rating on a river.

They do increase the intensity of a swim, however. On the other hand,
swimming in big water might be safer (except for the problem of hypothermia)
than swimming in low water, because there's less possibility of entrapment.
I've been surprised in recent years by the length of swims taken and survived
by rafters wearing drysuits. Several rafters swam for several miles (IIRC)
below Green Wall on the Illinois river in Oregon.

Larry, the AWA Lower Gauley description says that Koontz Flume is IV/IV+
although there's a sneak on the left, not advised due to kayakers waiting
their turn to surf Five Boat Hole. The description does not mention that
The Mashes are class IV. It does say Pure Screaming Hell is class IV+.

http://americanwhitewater.org/rivers/id/2379/

But why does the description assign difficulty as III-IV (V)? Is the (V)
a high-water rating? Usually I take that notation to mean that there is
one class V rapid on the run, usually portaged.