We drove about 12 hours out of Lijiang over a 14500 foot mountain pass. Everything was covered in snow and we had snowball fights. We put in right above a huge rapid. We spent a little while scouting and those who were running it did and the rest portaged. We continued down through more big water until we reached the biggest and last rapid of the day. It consisted of a lot of water in a very narrow steep space. It created the biggest crashing wave I have ever seen, a wave that you would not want to surf voluntarily. After those who wanted to ran it, we continued down to camp.
The next morning we awoke, packed all our gear into rafts and headed a quarter mile downstream to a rapid that had a super sick wave in it. We spent a few hours surfing and going big.
Mekong Blunt: ISO:200 F-stop:5.6 Shutter Speed:1/1000
David Hughes throwing a big blunt early in the session.
Mekong McNasty: ISO:400 F-stop:5.6 Shutter Speed:1/800
Tino Specht looking over his shoulder to finish a snappy McNasty.
Mekong Blunt2: ISO:200 F-stop:5.6 Shutter Speed:1/1250
Sam Fulbright throws a huge ariel blunt.
We continued downstream after a few hours and spent two more days on the mekong running big water and playing, however none of it compared to the first day's big water and the second day's wave.
Posted by: on Monday, November 19, 2007
How cold was that water?
Posted by: David Hughes on Wednesday, November 21, 2007
The water was cold enough to give you an icecream headache your first time upside down. At the same time our warm-ups include flatwater loops and helixes which require us to go upside down and acclimate. After warmup with solid gear and some pretty stellar sunny weather this trip turned out to be spectacular. Stay tuned for our Salween updates. go Huge, David
Posted by: David Ruhle on Sunday, November 25, 2007
The water is cold, but well worth it. Definitely deserving of a skullcap, pogies/gloves, and multiple layers.