Worser Wesser, Nantahala R.
<BTO>
me think a little harder about something I witnessed Sunday on the Nantahala
River in NC. Has anybody from a commercial rafting company ever run Worser
Wesser (the reputed Class VI downstream of the Nantahala Outdoor Center)?
I was down at the surfing spot right above the car bridge at NOC. A raft
went by its intended destination, the last commercial takeout on river right
just past the NOC store. People started yelling that they needed to get off
the river and directed the rafters to the NOC takeout on river left a little
further down, before the picnic pavilion. The raft, apparently without a
hired guide, bumbled over to the takeout.
Before too long, another raft bobs down through the surfing hole. I tell
them they need to paddle hard- NOW!- for the river left bank, and a lady in
the raft sneers, "yeah, we know." They proceed to get hung up on a rock
below the hole. A guy who appears to work for one of the outfitters comes
down and gets them unstuck. I don't know what he says to them or if he
watches to make sure they get off the river ok. Next thing I know, they are
bobbing on past the river left takeout, and people are screaming and diving
into the water. The group in the raft bumbles and drops a few paddles.
Worser Wesser looms ever closer. Somehow, they make it over to the bank on
river right, a steep bank covered by boulders and kudzu. They did manage to
avoid actually running the drop.
A little while later, a ducky with a man and a woman in it drifts past the
same commercial takeout, through the same hole. They are paddling towards
shore, through a few small drops, and though they are only a few feet away,
they aren't making much progress. A kayaker who just got off the water
grabs the end of their boat and hauls them into shore.
What is the problem here? These people did not appear to be in boats from
NOC, but from another local company (don't know which one) and as I said,
did not seem to have a hired guide. I think that most people would agree
that the Nantahala is a suitable rafting trip for beginners. So: are they
not being adequately briefed about the takeout? Are there too few people
working the takeout, or are they poorly trained? Does there need to be some
super humongous sign on the river saying, Get Out NOW? or am I just
overreacting? HAS anyone been hurt on Worser Wesser?
Details appreciated,
Tanya Talbert
Rivervison
to understand needing to get to the side.. i'm not sure if anyone has been
hurt.. but it does scare me that so many, excuse me, idiots are running so
close to big wesser.. the rafters have no idea what is below them.. and to
listen to people.. they act as though they know all.. i figure someone is
bound to get hurt one of these days..
-brooke
CKk1boater
summers ago on the Chili Bar run of the South Fork American out here in
California.
As were were gearing up our kayaks, a buddy observed a very large guy,
probably 250-260 pounds, loading 4 kids, ranging in age from about 6 to 14, in
a cheap, vinyl raft. Their pfd"s consisted of those thin horsecollar type of
life jackets. And, the big guy was gonna follow down stream on a 99cent air
mattress, with water wings as his pfd!
Clothing? Cotton shorts, cotton t shirts, and flip flops. BTW the South Fork
is dam controlled, and summer water temps never get much above 50 degrees.
Now, big guy knows it all, and when Steve asks him if he knows what is
downstream from the put in, he more or less tells him to butt out, of course he
knows what's up. Well, about 1/2 mile down fairly good Cl II to II+ water
comes Meatgrinder, a 1/4 mile long Cl III+ rock garden with mondo waves and
holes, with lots of barely subsurface rocks, and a pretty good gradient,
probably drops 30-40 feet.
The typical run through Meatgrinder calls for lots of manuvering, quick eddy
turns and peel outs. Sure, those little kids can handle that, and that air
mattress has gotta be the best craft afloat!
What happened was inevitable. We found them below the rapid with a ripped
raft, no air mattress, and still no clue! At least the kids were onshore, but
big guy is standing IN the water, bewildered, and asking "what the heck is down
here anyway?" Kinda changed his tune.
They lucked out, and a fellow kayaker came by who flagged down some commercial
rafts and got them loaded on various rafts for the trip out the following 5
miles of fairly intense rapids, including Troublemaker, which verges on IV at
some flows.
So, stupidity is universal, and I guess that Darwin was trying to clean out the
gene pool that day, but kinda late,big guy had already reproduced!
Happy boat'n.....
See you on the river!!!
CKk1b...@aol.com (Conrad)
chris manderson
when i was guiding over there, back in the 80's, we had a high water day in
june. very high water, maybe 6 or 7 feet. they dumped the dam and it got
to us as we were about half way down the run and came up to this level from
about 4 feet. to make a long short, our trip flipped 2 rafts in a row at
the falls, one of which was mine. if you have seen the falls a 7 feet it
is a giant wave, and we flipped end over end, longways. people landed on
me in my guide seat.
i got mine back, but the other raft had 2 geeks swim all the way down to
and over big wesser. one was a kid and was fine. his mother was cut up a
bit on the legs but lived, and really only required minor first aide,
luckily for all involved.
rafters do go over it; just not very often
manders
Leland
> I was saddened to hear of the two deaths recently on the New River. It made
> me think a little harder about something I witnessed Sunday on the Nantahala
> River in NC. Has anybody from a commercial rafting company ever run Worser
> Wesser (the reputed Class VI downstream of the Nantahala Outdoor Center)?
a few years back (ok, maybe like 8 or 9) there was at least one commercial
rafting company that was running through the falls regularly - all guided
rafts. saw a whole string of 'em go through there one day.
never heard of anyone being hurt, but i don't know why they quit doing it.
just as a note - wesser is really only class IV - the line is easy to hit and
requires no moves on the way down. if wesser was rated class VI because of
sharp rocks in the riverbed then a large portion of the whitewater i ran in
colorado this summer should be rated class XIX or something. a raft going
right through the middle of wesser would have a fair chance of making it with
all parties still in the boat - guide or no guide.
--
Leland
Lel...@home.com
http://members.home.com/lelandd
828-275-8383
Michael Deyer
or highway dept. dumped major amounts of concrete, studded with rebar,
in at the falls quite a few years ago. The drop itself is huge water,
but looked to me like someone out there could do it. Trouble comes when
you get skewered by the rebar after the first drop. IMO, that warrants
a VI.
-Mike
DOUGH453
fantastic job in helping those rafters out. Wish I could have given him a big
pat on the back. He was playing in the wave train below the shop and somehow
got those people to the side. Great Job. I had the pleasure of watching him
come through Lesser Wesser cartwheeling the whole way. It was fun to watch.
It is nice to see people help out even the rafting hordes that fill that river.
I wonder if those people know how close they came to a very unpleasent
experience. Once again if that yakker is online "YOU DA MAN".
Feeling better about humanity
Dough453
OC-1
Paul Scrutton
surpised to see that it looked nothing like what I remembered
it looked like a few years ago when I last viewed it as a newbie. I
recall it looking like an exceedingly nasty very steep bumbling mess as
a newbie.
When I looked at it a few weeks ago, it looked like class IV tops,
rather reminiscint of a rapid say on the New. I can understand the VI
rating if there's rebar, or sharp rocks from dynamiting (which is a
couple of the storys I've heard).
I wondered, has it changed lately, or was my original perception of it
way off base, and clouded by it's class VI rating and too much reading
of Nealy's guide books?
Paul Scrutton
Dag Grada
Michael Deyer wrote:
> From what I understand, Worser Wesser is rated VI because the railroad
> or highway dept. dumped major amounts of concrete, studded with rebar,
> in at the falls quite a few years ago.
When the railway was built, the river ran through an oxbow to the north of
it's present location. Rather than go to the expense of building two
bridges, they simply blasted a new channel for the river through the spur of
rock that created the oxbow. The river has not had time to smooth the edges
of the dynamited rock that lies beneath the surface at Lower (Worser)
Wesser. The original river channel can be seen at the eastern edge of the
NOC compound.
> The drop itself is huge water,
Compared to the rest of the Lower Nanty, yes. Compared to the rest of the
world, not really.
> but looked to me like someone out there could do it. Trouble comes when
> you get skewered by the rebar after the first drop. IMO, that warrants
> a VI.
You may be surprised at the quantity of potentially hazardous debris beneath
the surface of the rivers we paddle, most notably the ones that have a rail
line or road beside them. Theoretical rebar doth not the class VI make.
Known rebar or other debris may effect the objective difficulty of a drop
but still do not warrant a class VI rating based solely upon that fact.
Perhaps what you meant to say is that you don't feel any personal need to
attempt this rapid. That's fine. Assigning an arbitrary rating based upon
assumptions and accompanied by sensationalistic visions of impalement
doesn't serve anyone well.
as ever, Dag Grada
Rivervison
>it's present location.
isn't payson and aurelia's house on this oxbow? or right near it?
-brooke
Michael Deyer
Compared to the rest of the Lower Nanty, yes. Compared to the rest
of the
world, not really.
I guess I should have said that Worser Wesser *looked* huge, and then I should have mentioned the circumstances. I was about to take my first ever rafting trip about 3 years ago. On the way to NOC, my brother and I saw something (sign? turnout? people? Can't remember...) which mad us stop. We hiked out to the overlook, looked down, and both said "Holy S**T!!!" It was probably the largest rapid / fall either of us had seen, and it was (at the time) awe-inspiring.
Upon our arrival at NOC, we proceeded to look around. There was a board (I think) which listed the rapids and their ratings; Worser Wesser was listed as a VI with the note "DO NOT ATTEMPT!". We also talked to our guide that day about the drop, and that is where I heard the rebar story.
Theoretical rebar doth not the class VI make.
Known rebar or other debris may effect the objective difficulty
of a drop
but still do not warrant a class VI rating based solely upon that
fact.
Well, perhaps not. I have to agree that some nasty stuff along the river bottom does not *automatically* make that river or section a VI, but from what I understand of the rating system, a class VI is rated as such because swimming is almost certain to cause injury or death. (Oops, I just read the list on AWA's page, and it states: "The consequences of errors are very severe and rescue may be impossible...". Not what I remember.) But, keep in mind that I thought this rebar was a sure thing, and considering that, an error (flip or bad line) could mean severe injury. Guess I need to check my facts before I base anything on them.
Assigning an arbitrary rating based upon
assumptions and accompanied by sensationalistic visions of implement
doesn't serve anyone well.
I agree, assigning a rating based on rumor or assumption is wrong. Just stating what I had read and heard. But weren't those visions of implement scary? I sure thought so. I have to disagree with you conditionally on this point, though. Scaring the hell out of someone for no good reason serves nobody well. Attempting to scare people with little common sense (or too much testosterone) by embellishing a little bit may well save some lives. The people who have lazily drifted past the takeout, had they read warnings or heard stories, would likely have paid more attention to where they were. I think that perhaps exaggeration can be good, in the right context and situation.
Sorry if my post raised the hair on the back of your neck. I'll
be more careful from now on...
-Mike Deyer
<BTO>
chased the raft that went the furthest as I described. I don't know what I
would have done, besides NOT running Worser Wesser, but no other boaters
were headed that way.
Tanya
DOUGH453 <doug...@aol.com> wrote in message
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Sir Heimer
levels. Usually it is the big bumbling mess you remember, but at times
it is smaller. At one point this summer (for about two weeks) the lake
was so high worser wesser was gone and was replaced with a small Class I
ripple.
Sir Heimer
In article <37B9D3F5...@americasm01.nt.com>,
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
Steve Cramer
>
> Worser changes frequently as the lake below it gains and drops in
> levels. Usually it is the big bumbling mess you remember, but at times
> it is smaller. At one point this summer (for about two weeks) the lake
> was so high worser wesser was gone and was replaced with a small Class I
> ripple.
>
it?
Steve
--
Test Scoring and Reporting Services
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-5593
WILDH2PRO
that it was the class III Nanty Falls that the guidebook mentioned.
Unfortunately, I had unknowingly blasted through that one moments before. I
actually got out and scouted Worser for like 20 minutes, picked a line, and
went for it, BUT...if you want to hear the whole story, drop me an email and
I'll send it to you (it's in Word). It was an article I sent in to my club's
newsletter (that I now edit) and I don't exactly feel like re-typing it here!!
Also, my buddy Lee took a sequence of 5 shots of me running the drop--I don't
have them scanned yet but I can.
Jeff Oxley
Jeff Oxley "No, I don't open boat anymore...GOTTA change that screen name!"
Michael Deyer
That is something I REALLY want to read about. And please do scan the
photos; they would be great to take a look at!
-Mike
James P Johnson
re-typing or bulk emailing. I'd like to see it though... email is fine with
me.
--
MisterJJ
"Why do you wanna go mess with that river for?"
"Because it's there!"
Deliverance, by James Dickey
WILDH2PRO <wild...@aol.com> wrote in message
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