The Upper Bhote Koshi

Flowing from high in the mountains of Tibet, the mighty Bhote Koshi winds it's way across the boarder from it's source on the Zhangzabo glacier into Nepal before becoming the Sun Kosi and continuing it's journey in to India. In 2014 a landlside of gargantuan proportions occurred in the Lamo Sangho area, depositing an estimated 13.5 million tonnes of rock upon the town thats was there. The dam that resulted drowned much of the landscape upstream and the river was changed dramatically.

 The river still offers world class whitewater, however, and is one of the most famous runs in the himalaya, offering quality commercial rafting trips on the lower sections and harder test-piece kayaking in the upper gorges.

 Teaming up with Jack, Jamie and Dom, who were fresh back from their trip to the Thule Bheri we headed over to paddle the upper section from above the main gorge and down into the town of Barabise. This area was also one of the most badly affected in the earthquakes earlier on in 2015, and much if the town is still rubble, with evidence of reconstruction and earthquake damage everywhere you turn. The local school is still in tents, as is the police station, and there is several NGO and UN outposts offering aid.
 We stayed at a small and basic guest house which the other brits and spanish had stayed the few days previously and met Florian there who had run the river several times with the other teams and gotten to know the section fairly well. Unfortunately for us, we arrived late to the town without time to paddle that day, having had a bit of a nightmare in Kathmandu with transport, no surprises there! The fuel crisis still continues here and overcrowded buses and dangerous black market fuel have been making the journeys even more difficult and dangerous, not to mention expensive! We have now been finding that bus drivers are reluctant to take us at all, knowing that our kayaks will take up precious roof space to carry passengers.

 After the nights stay, our friendly host called his friend with a truck and we arrived at the put on in good time.
The paddling was challenging from the outset, being into class 4 and above right from the put on. Unfortunately for me, i took a duff line on a blind rapid with a sticky hole and as i dropped in to the hole my paddle wedged immediately in between boulders and was ripped from my hands resulting in a quick exit and lost paddle! We tried to reach where it was jammed but with sheer sided gorge it was going to be impossible, so out came the emergency splits! The rest of the river went well however, with continuous quality grade 4-5. Several of the rapids being very high consequence and not a place to be making any big mistakes. An incredibly steep gradient meant it kept us on our toes, and i was glad to have a strong team of peers on the water. The character of the rapids where often big, chunky and messy lines, but there was also plenty of set piece rapids and drops and we all got our fill of flares and boof moves!
 Really psyched to have gotten this mega classic run ticked and a big thanks to the guys for the good times.

Holy Waters - The Upper Kali Gandakhi

Despite the fuel crisis here in Nepal myself and all the other kayakers here have been making the most of the 2015 season. Those that can afford to have been sucking up the additional cost and venturing in to the expeditions runs of the Humla Karnarli and Thule Bheri, much to my envy. The team of Spanish paddlers who i had teamed up with earlier on in the season for the Madi and Modi Kohla runs (belayed blog to come on that) even hiked in to Simikot with their gear to get an early season run on the Humla and scout out the upper gorges, as well as some tribs, due to the cost of flights. Keep an eye out for Mino and Mikels impending blog posts about what sounds like an incredible adventure!
 Water levels here in Nepal have been dropping off perhaps a bit earlier than in a normal year, having had a relatively dry monsoon and many of the "regular" sections are now un-runnable, or too low to be of interest. It has spurred us, however, to look further upstream to some of the lesser run sections.
 Bastien, Mariano, Freddy and David had taken advantage of this drop in levels to head to the Upper Kali Ghandakhi and after reporting it was good to go, me, Joe and Ciaran made a hasty dash back west to get it done!
The Kali's valley system is definitely one of the most stunning places i've ventured to in my time in Nepal, and the higher up you go, the better it gets!

 We struck it lucky on our journey to Beni from Pokhara, being approached by multiple drivers at the bus station all offering fair prices, something totally out of the norm from our other travel experiences of this year! After agreeing to ride on the roof of the next public bus to come along as it was the cheapest option by a long shot, we prepared ourselves for another bumpy uncomfortable journey to Beni. However, as we were loading our kayaks, a delivery of mattresses was hauled on to the roof beside us.
"Are these going to Beni?" We asked.
"Yes" Was the Answer.
"Awesome!" Our response.
The mattresses provided us with a comfortable ride, so much so Joe even managed to fall asleep! (Not something i recommend whilst riding on the roof of a bus anywhere in the world!)
 The Next day we had a very contrasting experience and after a terrifying (standard) bus journey from Beni early in the morning, we arrived at the small village of Tatopani, which translates as "Hot Water". Probably unsurprisingly after that hint, hot springs emerge from the ground here and a strong smell of sulphur field our nostrils as we geared up surrounded by an incredible mountain vista.

 On recommendation from the other team we planned to do this short section over two days, savouring the water and giving us plenty of time to scout and portage if needs be. In hindsight we could've easily paddled this section in one day, but it was nice to take out with time on our hands when we arrived at our take out, the beautiful village of Tiplyang, and spent the evening playing cards and drinking cold beers at a really nice guest house, located at the northern end of the town.

 The white water was genuinely world class, with a real mix of style of paddling. Sections of bigger volume rapids were interspersed with steep drops, all mixed up with alpine like easier gradient rapids to let you catch your breath. I've seen photos of the river in higher water, and no doubt it would be a lot harder, but the level we paddled still gave us fantastic rapids, most of which around grade 4 (plus or minus) and several sections of grade 5. One of which we all decided to portage, due to the super high consequences of siphons and undercuts.

 We made three mandatory portages as well as the aforementioned rapid, which were un runnable at this level due to narrow passages and siphons, although may be passable in higher water. The first of these was within the first Kilometre of putting on, and certainly kept us on our toes with a taste of whats to come, with some must make ferry glides, and eddies to hit before major drops, portages and rapids.
Taking out back at Beni was a certain anti-climax, the river here becoming no more than a rubbish dump for locals. Clambering out near the bus park where we found our transport to Tatopani was definitely un appealing, but rewarding, as we found a relatively fairly priced jeep back to our base in Pokhara without much hassle.

 Thinking back this river has given me one of the  most enjoyable experiences of my time in Nepal, both with the quality of whitewater, and the scenery. But with dams planned on most major water ways of the country and many already constructed, i have to question again, how much longer can the whitewater aspect of the tourism industry survive?