‘9 till 9’ - the Creek Boaters working weekend

After a very dry few months in the UK the weather forecast we had all been waiting for finally came. Rain, albeit one small band, was about to hit North Yorkshire, actually to be more precise, 1 small part of Yorkshire, the Swaledale valley, for a few hours, on a very windy Saturday morning and again on Saturday afternoon. This was awesome news to water deprived creek boaters in the UK.

photo by Jen Chrimes

Here is a quick summary of how the weekend went...

9am till 9pm Saturday 26^th & Sunday 27^th Nov 2011

*2 ½ hours driving each way each day a total of 10 hours on the road

* 6.5km paddled including over 400ft vertical descent. 28 drops off a variety of waterfalls with 3 personal first descents, a total of 4 new lines.

* 4.5km walk outs, climbing over 100m of accent carrying an 18kg kayak and kit

* 20 + boaters, 1 Valley, 2 Rivers

* 60 mph winds and cold, very cold!

A fantastic weekend with ‘a great variety’ of friends.

Here is the link to a ‘sick’ video from the weekend’s antics by Sam Ellis. Can I suggest you skip the first 2 minutes and last minute and just watch the awesome boating footage in the middle of the film.

http://vimeo.com/32922996