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DISCLAIMER: DO NOT ATTEMPT. We ran an extremely popular, commercially-run section of river, had all the required safety gear, met guides on the water, AND consulted with whitewater experts to plan a route we could take at multiple different water levels IN ADVANCE of our attempt.
Safety might not look sexy on camera, but off-camera I take it extremely seriously - if at any point the boat or river became too dangerous to continue, we would have stopped and we were all prepared to hike the 7 miles to the pull-out at the end of the river.
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SPOILERS AHEAD (read after watching):
Further explanation and FAQ:
Why didn't you plan to take a guide with you?
We tried. For a variety of reasons, it didn't work out -- and if we had determined that a guide was necessary for safety, we would not have run this river.
Instead, we handled safety ourselves, as I do for most every video. Here's how:
- My brother and I had already run this exact stretch of river several times each prior to this with a guide, and we've also run multiple other rivers. We're not experts, but we're experienced -- and we know this particular river quite well.
- We consulted with a number of raft guides and expert whitewater kayakers from outside WV about safety, reading the water, planning and running lines, etc. When we asked, based on our level of experience, if we could run this river safely in this boat -- they told us YES.
- We mapped out our lines for all water levels and memorized them prior to arriving at the river, AND then gave ourselves a refresher before entering the river.
- We brought all of the required safety gear including a throw bag, PFDs, helmets, etc.
- We're all confident swimmers in good physical condition.
- If anything too serious had happened to the raft, we would have stopped immediately. We were all prepared to take a 7+ mile hike in either direction, and we had enough people to make sure we'd each have a buddy.
- When we arrived at the river, we made friends with everyone in sight and let them know what we'd be doing, just so people would at least be aware that we were out there. The guides we met offered to run it with us not because they were concerned for our safety, but because they thought what we were doing was cool and they wanted to see if the boat would last. Their expertise absolutely helped, we all had a great time pulling this off together, and off-camera they even invited us to come out again for Gauley season in the fall.
WHY am I telling you all this?
I HATE fake stakes on KZfaq, which is why any challenge or stunt I do on this channel is 100% real. However, with that said, I take safety VERY seriously. No matter what you see me doing in a video, know that I am 99.9% confident that I'm WALKING away at the end of the day, with no more than a scratch or bruise at worst. Doing that means managing safety in advance -- but this is KZfaq, and nobody wants to hear about all the safety checks we did.
That doesn't mean the risks aren't real -- everything I do is still VERY real, and should NOT be attempted -- but it means that I'm taking known risks, and that I've made a clear plan to mitigate them.
One last fact to put your mind at ease: Out of the MILLIONS of people who've been down this river since 1980, only about 22 have actually been injured or passed away in an accident. The risk is still very real, and needs to be taken seriously (as we did), but deaths and severe injuries on the new river are quite rare, and many are simply due to people running the river without the required safety gear.
Source: www.americanwhitewater.org/co...