riverman wrote:

Which brings us to the REAL question: is a rating for a rapid, or for a
line? I think that it should be for the line, exactly how climbers rate
climbs, not mountains. Saying "Zungo Rapids" is a IV could mean several
things: the easiest run through is a IV, the most common route is a IV, or
the 'average' route is a IV. These have vastly different ramifications, so
instead, it would be wise to say "the popular route down the middle is a IV,
the sneak route on the left is a II, and there's a class V run if you go
down the right." I think most boaters talk to each other that way all the
time, but the guidebooks seem out of synch.

That's something we don't often have to worry about in Britain, most of
our rapids only have one line on those terms. That is to say you can hit
the same features in a variety of ways or places but mostly they are
either riverwide, or the difficulty doesn't change across the river :-)

When we talk about good or bad lines, we are normally talking about
those few inches that make a difference between styling and hurting!

Just thinking about some of the multi-line rapids over here, and almost
all are clearly described as such in any existing guides. Orchy chicken
chute: 3 left 4 right and centre, Tyne chicken chute: 2 left 4 centre 3
right, wow I can't easily think of any others where different routes
have different grades and I think I just noticed another clue in the
names of the ones that do :-)

Now different grades at different levels always amuses me, I like the
way that on the Orchy some rapids are harder at high flows and some are
easier :-)

JIM

I always liked the way of describing grades as

grade 1 take the mother in law
grade 2 take the girlfriend
grade 3 take the wife
grade 4 take the mistress
grade 5 take the photographs
grade 6 take the mother-in-law

Change to suit your sex

old joke I know but someone might not have heard it
--
Dave Manby
Details of the Coruh river and my book "Many Rivers To Run" at
http://www.dmanby.demon.co.uk

snipped

Ah yes, fond memories of the Sun Kosi and Rob Hind saying, "Bit of a
class II coming up, nothing but a few waves really..." Or Green
Slime saying, "The next rapid? Dunno, really...can't be much of
anything, can it?"

Many years of paddling with slime this is incredibly true to me. I
paddled in BC with him and he could remember almost every twist in the
road to get to the put in, he had paddled there a couple of years
earlier, but on the river he could not recall a single rapid till the
bottom of the run and then he would say "Oh yeah I remember that run,
I'm sure the take out is just round the next bend"!


--
Dave Manby
Details of the Coruh river and my book "Many Rivers To Run" at
http://www.dmanby.demon.co.uk

Dave Manby writes:

I always liked the way of describing grades as

grade 1 take the mother in law
grade 2 take the girlfriend
grade 3 take the wife
grade 4 take the mistress
grade 5 take the photographs
grade 6 take the mother-in-law

Change to suit your sex

Not sure that'll work; women might have intentions toward members of
the opposite sex that go beyond either wanting to impress them or
wanting to kill them. Just guessing...

--
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::
Mary Malmros
Some days you're the windshield,
Other days you're the bug.

Having walked off high-flood 5's on winter N CA water - never along the road
(can you spell "dragging boats up 200 foot cliffs with throw ropes and/or
walking miles in wet tennies in the rain across hill country farmers meadows
dragging your boat behind you "). I concluded that I was a true dolt, since
I let it happen more than once a year. Good exercise though. And we were
always so happy to be out of the river.

Then, of course, there were the spring and summer shallow exploratory 2's
that turned into rocky 5's and impassible 6's. "No, let's scratch that one
off the possible list." "Nice day, though." "Lovely boat hike."

The lesson: take good comrades along.

John Adams

"Dave Manby" wrote in message
...
I always liked the way of describing grades as

grade 1 take the mother in law
grade 2 take the girlfriend
grade 3 take the wife
grade 4 take the mistress
grade 5 take the photographs
grade 6 take the mother-in-law

Change to suit your sex

old joke I know but someone might not have heard it
--
Dave Manby
Details of the Coruh river and my book "Many Rivers To Run" at
http://www.dmanby.demon.co.uk

John Q Adams wrote:

Then, of course, there were the spring and summer shallow exploratory 2's
that turned into rocky 5's and impassible 6's. "No, let's scratch that one
off the possible list." "Nice day, though." "Lovely boat hike."

The lesson: take good comrades along.

Sounds more like you need to take *strong* comrades along... ;-)

I've climbed out of a gorge once when I spent more time in my new
playboat being vertical than horizontal. Taught me a good lesson about
trimming before paddling... :-)

--
Wilko van den Bergh
Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe
Look at the possibilities, don't worry about the limitations.
http://wilko.webzone.ru/

In message , Mary Malmros
writes
Dave Manby writes:

I always liked the way of describing grades as

grade 1 take the mother in law
grade 2 take the girlfriend
grade 3 take the wife
grade 4 take the mistress
grade 5 take the photographs
grade 6 take the mother-in-law

Change to suit your sex

Not sure that'll work; women might have intentions toward members of
the opposite sex that go beyond either wanting to impress them or
wanting to kill them. Just guessing...

Joyce Mckinney has just returned to the radio station I listen to, as a
subject of conversation, she was the woman who kidnapped a Mormon
missionary and chained him to her bed and had her wicked way with him.
In the trail she came up with the immortal line -'I would have skied
down mount Everest naked with a rose between my teeth for him' - such
was her infatuation!


--
Dave Manby
Details of the Coruh river and my book "Many Rivers To Run" at
http://www.dmanby.demon.co.uk