CASCADE SADDLE - DART RIVER

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CASCADE SADDLE - DART RIVER

Postby ninjapuppet » Wed 08 Dec, 2010 2:14 am

The 4 of us went up to cascade saddle from the Matukituki valley and camped by cascade saddle for a night. beautiful.
Its a 1400m climb which which sounded daunting with full gear but we took our time and made stupid lame jokes all along so it didnt seem that bad. I felt that marions lookout on the overland was harder but thats probally because i had a 35kg pack earlier this year.

Some sections were quite steep due to the track wearing away from the recent earthquakes
P1010031.JPG


and some sections were hard to follow because the orange poles that marked the path were totally covered undersnow or just jutting out abit at the tips. A GPS helps in this circumstance

DSC04303.JPG


unaware of the dangers, we had actually camped right in an avalanche zone the previous night because there was a river there for water supply. Only after we packed up in the morning, did we realised how dangerous it was. the red spot was our camp spot the previous night and you can see an avalanche falling down. DOCS did say that you cant camp anywhere except on the saddle itself, but who listens to DOCS anyway?

DSC04351.JPG


Then we rafted down the dart towards dart hut which was pretty easy going. a few portages due to low water levels but nothing too hard. The only scary bits were the constant avalanches all around us. one probally fell within 100m of us.

Right after dart Hut theres some pretty funky rapids that we chickened out which was probally a sensible idea. however from cattle flats onwards, it seemed really easy going..... until one part a few km after the cattle flats swing bridge where theres a massive boulder that hides the rest of the river. we thought it was easy going so we continued around it, only to find some pretty hardcore rapids. I'm not going to gloat and claim it was class 4 or 5 but i remember that it was simply all whitewater, very fast, and much scarier than the class 3 i did with a tour company. I was yelling Yeee haaa going through all these rapids then there was this whirlpool type of thing in the river that spun me round and round for quite a few turns and dunked me. i fell into the rapids and then the river kind of goes under all these massive boulders which i got sucked down underneath with it.

some reason i was pinned underwater by my paddle to the front of me and white water behind me. it was totally dark like in aan underwater tunnel or something. seemed like a minute had passed and i was running out of air after taking 2 gulps of water when i managed to free myself and got ejected out through a little 50cm opening and managed to cling onto a rock. half an hour had passed before i managed to leap frog back to where i got dunked only to find my raft still spinning round and round, so I was lucky nothing was lost (including my life)

2 friends who were behind me luckily saw me get dunked from behind and had already docked to the side to avoid the whirlpool but one mate who also got stuck in that whirlpool was on the other side of the river without his raft, with cliff faces on both sides and rapids in between. we chucked over 6 lots of 1.5mm glo cord to tie to him and winch him over which was a stupid idea because they all snapped under the rapids but luckily he got to the side again before falling into that little tunnel where i got trapped. (what ever you call it). unfortuantely it was that other side and not our side.

i think that near miss freaked him out and there was no way for him to climb the cliffs to get to the next or previous swing bridge, so we just popped the epirb and call in helicopters.
http://www.odt.co.nz/regions/southland/137824/hunter-had-broken-leg

the incident nearly made me sell the packraft ... but nah! fun outweighs the dangers.
lesson learnt: when in doubt, scout!
The helicopter rescue guy said he's saved quite a few people from that section of water. it puzzles me because unless they're packrafters, i wonder how they got their rafts into that spot in the first place. Its highly unlikely hikers would be found climbing down the cliff into that section of water.

other than that rocky section, the rest of the river from the helicopter looks fairly easy sailing.

below is a pic of that dangerous section of water. theres no signs there to warn of the dangers so maybe i'll contact DOCS to make a sign there for stupid rafters like us. It really is an easy trap to fall into when you think the water is calm and then it suddenly turns into a raging drown machine.
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Re: CASCADE SADDLE - DART RIVER

Postby Lizzy » Wed 08 Dec, 2010 6:37 am

Sounds like you guys were VERY lucky! Love the packrafting photo- looks amazing!!
Would love to do the Cascade Saddle- but that looks like a bit too much snow for me....
Cheers
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Re: CASCADE SADDLE - DART RIVER

Postby Lindsay » Thu 09 Dec, 2010 1:33 pm

I'd say not so much lucky but experienced and intelligent enough to know when to call it a day. Looks fantastic though, and so deceptively calm and inviting in the picture.
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Re: CASCADE SADDLE - DART RIVER

Postby Lizzy » Thu 09 Dec, 2010 2:52 pm

Lindsay wrote:I'd say not so much lucky but experienced and intelligent enough to know when to call it a day. Looks fantastic though, and so deceptively calm and inviting in the picture.


Don't get me wrong they were well prepared carrying a PLB- I meant lucky in terms of having the ability to be able to call for a helicopter & be rescued.... too bad in the old days when that wouldn't have been an option, but then again maybe they wouldn't have done this trip then? Good on them for having an adventure but I am wondering if they were actually experienced & then the age old question of how much experience do you need???? I am glad they made it home safe...
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Re: CASCADE SADDLE - DART RIVER

Postby nickL » Thu 09 Dec, 2010 10:45 pm

NP

amazing pics

i think getting ejected out of an eddie like that is luck! sounds like some good decisions made though and lessons learnt

thanks for sharing
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Re: CASCADE SADDLE - DART RIVER

Postby ninjapuppet » Fri 10 Dec, 2010 10:44 am

Just found out about all the technical names of these water features. Quite interesting which I never knew they existed.
I spoke to some pro kayaker who suggested EVERYONE who rafts any whitewater go and do their 3 day river safety course.
Thats on the cards for me in 2011, and i would suggest anyone who is thinking of getting a packraft also do some safety course if you're going to attempt some moving water.

so according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitewater#Strainers
the whirlpool i referred to was an eddie?
and that tunnel i got trapped in, is called a strainer (i think)
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Re: CASCADE SADDLE - DART RIVER

Postby isoma » Sat 11 Dec, 2010 7:53 pm

ninjapuppet wrote:I spoke to some pro kayaker who suggested EVERYONE who rafts any whitewater go and do their 3 day river safety course


Any more details on this ninja ?
This packrafting stuff looks like a lot of fun.
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Re: CASCADE SADDLE - DART RIVER

Postby ninjapuppet » Sun 12 Dec, 2010 5:46 pm

Yep. packrafting is very fun :D
I find normal spin/lure fishing pretty bland especially when fish dont bite and would rate it 1/10 for enjoyment factor.
Hiking upstream following a river + flyfishing would give me fun factor 9/10
but packrafting a class II or III rapid would be right up there around 10/10 for me.

The course I had been recommended to do is a 3 day course which covers learning how to read whitewater and techniques such as eskimo rolling.

http://www.nzkayakschool.com/content/view/16/31/
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Re: CASCADE SADDLE - DART RIVER

Postby ninjapuppet » Wed 23 Feb, 2011 12:22 am

Just came across this story about 4 guys climbing the cascade saddle after being told their original plans to climb Mt Aspiring was not recommended by DOCS

I know its bad, but it made me laugh my head off to think about their apiring goals of Mt Aspiring.
Not because of the unfortunate injury, (because that can happen to anyone), but because of their leaking tents, cotton clothing and lack of adequate gear.
Mt Aspiring is an alpine route where mountaineering skills are mandatory. If they didnt have gear for cascade saddle, how are they supposed to climb Mt aspiring?

http://www.odt.co.nz/your-town/wanaka/146390/warning-about-nz-weather

http://www.odt.co.nz/your-town/wanaka/146391/trampers-rescuers-real-heroes
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