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.

: Bill Tuthill

Typed in essage-ID:

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.

Assuming that one didn't just screw the pooch and swim from the absolute top,
where there is no reason to flip, the swim would be less than 100 yards at
release leaves. You may swim farther than that before you get to shore or back
in the boat, but you are already in the pool below.

Go to AW safety, then standard rated rapids for class VI. Mash and PSH are the
ones that they rate staright class IV at release levels.

Koontz's Flume can be a booger. I think that it gets overrated because of the
danger factor from the river right sieve,
but I don't have a problem with calling it a class IV.

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.

I don't know, but that is what I would assume also. But that isn't really the
case with Lower Gauley. I've ran it at levels above 6000 cfs (release leave is
about 2800 cfs) and although you probably didn't want to come out of your boat,
the difficulty factory didn't go up a lot.



SYOTR
Larry C.