Almost every creeking community has a pinnacle steep creeking run that challenges the best of boaters. White Salmon, Washington has The Little White, The West Kootenays has Upper Pingston, and Whistler, the Callahan, etc. Such runs exist after numerous gruelling attempts in the past by boaters who saw a line and knew it could be done. In Ecuador, where I have the pleasure of spending my winters and showing the line to tonnes of stoked paddlers, we have the Lower Papallacta. This run is seriously full on, bring your A+ game on this one for sure. If steep continuous creeking floats your boat put this one on your bucket list.
The run starts pretty fast, no chance for a warm up on this baby. The put-in is directly above a bridge with a steep staircase of holes ending in two potential pin rocks. If you are lucky and the water is at a medium or lower level you may have the luxury of eddying out after the drop. Take a breather because the next two kilometres are continuous and steep with big boulder boofs, giant ledges and of course ass-kicking holes. About three kilometres into the run is a very consequential rapid, the best landmark is a large table top rock on the left and one of the many horizon lines. The rapid starts with a tongue and a piton rock on the left, all the water pushing right and four slots at the bottom, the two on the right mean, at the very least, a pin, possibly broken legs or worse, so yeah; go left fighting the current the whole time, next up a series or stern squirting holes. Yeee haw!
I would love to tell you that it starts to cool down a bit at this point but that is not the case. The run continues to surprise with even more big, steep rapids and crazy must make moves. For example, some of the names of the rapids are -- “Trust the pillow”, “It get's better”, and “Boof Alley”. About half way down the river it does actually calm down a little bit, you will know you are there because you will see a cow pasture on the left and a gravel bar on the right, take this time to empty your boat if you are not paddling a Jackson, hehe. Seriously your brain may start to hurt at this point from being overwhelmed with the continuous, committing nature of the run. Have a granola bar and some V220 (Ecuadorian red bull on steroids) the fun doesn't stop here. For the remainder of the rapid the river channelizes a bit and you will experience some STEEP LONG drops with numerous boofs. No problem hitting the centennial boof mark on the Papallacta as there are classic one to three metre boofs EVERYWHERE! One of the last drops is especially awesome, it is one of those rapids that you may not run if you have a boo at it. The total drop is about twelve metres high in three stages. It all starts out on the left with some sweet little boofs and techie moves, the next drop is best run with a hard drive centre and a two plus metre boof into a series of arm ripping holes. Right before the end of the run and the confluence of the Quijos river there is a challenging class IV+/V drop called Quijos-Huyco. After a thrilling entry rapid you find yourself staring at a horizon line on the slot second from the left. At lower levels the smooth slanted boof rock is showing on the right side, the line is to drive centre of the slab rock and boof straight into a huge black rock downstream, take this three metre boof with a righty, land with a left pulling away from the pillow. Then next move if you are on it, is a second two metre boof to the left over a typewriter hole, eddy out and pinch yourself. I suggest you run Cheese house too if you have the energy, it makes for an easier shuttle and it's a nice cool down but still a challenge.
There is one memory that stands out from my numerous runs on the Papallacta. The first time I ran the Pap was my second day in country with Marco Colella, he had run it the year prior and I was itchin' for some creeking. In preparation of our acclimatization Marco and I decided to drink mass amounts of water. I mean we were chugging water steady the whole drive there. So after the most demanding run of my life we were wiped, I swear I felt like a kid in the back of a family car on a long ride asking papa Marco --”How much longer?” To which he should have replied -- “I'll turn this car around!” After a couple of hours of given' er we reached the confluence rapid. Marco turned to me and asked if we should scout the upcoming class IV+, to which I replied; “no I am too tired lets just go!” Not the smartest answer of my boating career. We pretty much ran the rapid backwards, upside down and on the wrong line. We rolled up at the bottom and for some reason my hands were stuck to my paddle, I tried throwing the paddle but could not release. I turned to Marco and he had one hand locked on the the shaft of his paddle and the other crimped into a perma-claw. We looked at each other in astonishment and in unison shouted; “My hands are stuck”. Apparently, if you drink a load of water without also consuming salt you imbalance your potassium/sodium levels and you may experience muscle cramping. We were informed of this after running the next section, Cheese House, in absolute total pain, by Marco's dear personal trainer wife Jenny. So, the moral of the story is this -- Do not make haste decisions because you are to tired to get out of your boat and have a look, and drink lots of water but make sure to balance it out with some extra salt on the fires or some good ol' salty Ecuadorian Gatorade.
Disclaimer time! This is merely a story based on my experiences on the river, it is NOT a guide book. I have been paddling for over 15 years, instructing for 13, and running the shit for over 6 years. For this reason I am able to run the Papallacta. Since the Twitch videos, starring the likes of Tao Berman and Marco Colella, creek boating has hit the mainstream and many class III paddlers are thirsting for more and taking the huge leap to becoming a class IV+ paddler. Creeking on the level of a class IV+/V is a serious commitment. You are putting your life on the line and the life of your friends every time you hop in your boat on a serious creek run. DO NOT take this lightly. I suggest nailing your local class IV creek run without rolling about 90% of the time before you take the next step, rolling on class V can be lethal. You may not be a class V boater if you are rolling down creeks and surviving them instead of styling them. The ability to huck a big waterfall into an easy pool does not make you a class V paddler. I also suggest you adopt the Colorado rule, s/he who rolls the most on any given run buys ice cream for the rest of the paddlers. Practice your low brace! As Tao says; “Rolling is bad, you should not spend anytime upside down on anything above class IV+” Thanks for the advice Tao I have made this my mantra while creeking, since then I have paddled the Papallacta without any rolls, something I am super proud of.
See you on the river,
Chris Ryman
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