Existing comment:
Hance Rapid:
The rapid far below you in the Colorado River is Hance Rapid, one of over a hundred major rapids in Grand Canyon. The rapid is almost a mile in length; the river drops more than 30 vertical feet in that stretch. Seen from the rip, rapids appear tiny, and it is difficult to grasp their awesome power.
What is it like to run such a rapid? On his pioneering river trip in 1869, Major John Wesley Powell avoided Hance Rapid by "lining" past it (using ropes to work his boats along the shore).
But Major Powell couldn't line past another major rapid a short distance downriver. He described his experience:
"...down and up on waves higher and still higher until we strike one just as it curls back, and a breaker rolls over our little boat. Still on we speed, shooting past projecting rocks, till the little boat is caught in a whirlpool and spun around several times... The open compartment... is filled with water and every breaker rolls over us... Hurled back from a rock, now on this side, now on that, we are carried into an eddy... the breakers still rolling over us."
Early expeditions tried to avoid Hance Rapid. ... [You could also remove your supplies and try to run the lightened boats through that way. A 1923 survey did this.] Edith Kolb rode in one of the boats [in the 1923 survey team], becoming the first woman to run a major Grand Canyon rapid. The mules arrived via Hance Trail. |