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Re: Epic Swim -- We ran this a few years back at slightly
Submitted by dgg on 26/Mar/2012 in reply to Epic Swim posted by Jonathan on 25/Mar/2012
190.136.99.177
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lower water and remains one of my favorite all time runs especially since we were running it totally blind. We had also car scouted the river but once on the river I couldn't remember anything I had seen from the car.
I distinctly remembering that if you swam at near the top of a rapid you might not survive because the rapids were very long and continuous and I didn't think I could have swum into an eddy and I didn't think anyone could pull you into an eddy quiclkly enough. Bottom line, swim and there's a good chance you will flush drown.
Looks to me like (except for missing a roll) they did the right things considering the conditions--this river is faster and more powerful than the Upper Gauley with longer rapids and a lot fewer eddies. It's much easier to rescue someone in Lost Paddle which has numerous eddies, than in most of the rapids of the EF of SF of the Salmon.
While I'm certain that Mike did not "plan to swim",fortunately, he had the good sense to "plan for a swim". Without the full drysuit he would have been in real trouble.
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