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River dance: Running rapids equals excitement -- and risk
By GREG JOHNSTON 
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Adrenaline was still surging after we attacked the roaring plunge of the rapids named El Niño on the scenic North Fork Skykomish River, running high with snowmelt and crashing through its rocky channel.
After we "eddied out" in the backwater downstream, rafting guide Jerry Michalec advised the crew to be ready: "We might need to make a rescue."
El Niño obliged, flipping another raft with two aboard like a flapjack in a roadhouse grill.
"Forward all! Let's go get 'em," screamed Michalec.
Paddles flailing and spray flying, in seconds that seemed like minutes we were at the upside-down raft, its oarsman hanging onto its running line, his head barely above the churning green water.
He grabbed the side of our raft and we hauled him aboard by his life jacket, and as he slid in I noticed the rapids had sucked a wet-suit boot off his foot.
"Bryce, jump on the raft, jump right on top of it," yelled Michalec above the swirling din to Bryce Tedford, a guide trainee on our raft. Without hesitation Tedford was on the overturned raft, and soon he had grabbed hold of its running line with both hands on one side, and with his feet on the other he stood up and began flipping it over sideways.
For an eternity of seconds, the raft teetered almost on its side, before Tedford finally levered it over and righted it. In doing so, he landed in the water with a splash, then swam back to our raft and quickly pulled himself in.
But his work was not done. "Can anyone row a river boat?" Michalec yelled as we held onto the righted raft and continued downriver into somewhat gentler water.
Again without hesitation, Tedford lept into the other raft, which was equipped with a rowing frame, its oars still tethered. A minute or so later, we were all eddied out downstream, along with two kayakers, one of whom had rescued the other.
Somewhere in the midst of this confusion, I had spotted the missing bootee floating limply down the river and reached it with a paddle. This I flipped with a smile to the sodden oarsman, who looked spent but fine.
The excitement of El Niño proved an appropriately dramatic event for the occasion, an annual float focusing on safety by members of Professional River Outfitters of Washington. The association's members sense a new urgency and scrutiny in light of a licensing bill passed by the state Legislature this year, as well as two fatalities on guided rafting trips last year.
The legislation was steered to reality -- as surely as a seasoned guide negotiating a boulder garden -- by Brian Brunner of Covington, whose 12-year-old son, Ryan, was killed on the Wenatchee River in 1994 during a guided float.
"It's a great sport and I'm sure it's exhilarating and stuff," says Brunner, a former Navy pilot who flew A-6 jets from aircraft carriers. "But people need to know about both sides of it. The brochures are all wonderful and make it look like Disneyland.
"But they should show them hauling a body out of the river and putting it in a bag, because that can happen. That could be the outcome of their afternoon fun."
It was the outcome last year for two more: a young mother who disappeared under a logjam April 27 when the raft she was in flipped on the Toutle River, and a middle-age man who drowned June 23 after the main Skykomish's daunting "Boulder Drop" dumped his raft.
Brunner says of the licensing bill, "It was the right thing to do, and I think the rafting companies realize that. I just want them to treat their customers like they would their mothers and fathers and sons and daughters."
The law now requires that whitewater rafting companies:
- Obtain a state license;
- Post their insurance policies;
- Keep safety records;
- Employ guides who are at least be 18 years old and have taken a life-saving course and 50 hours of training in reading the river, river rescue, boat preparation and rigging, river scouting and communicating with clients.
Brunner, who won $7 million in a lawsuit against the rafting company that had hired an inexperienced guide and put an adult life jacket on his son, thinks that had the bill been in effect, it would have saved Ryan's life.
But outfitters, most of whom accept the bill, say no amount of regulation will prevent fatalities.
"The legislation is good," says Chris Jonasen, operator of Index-based WaveTrek. "It sets guide training standards. But it is still part of the customers' responsibility to know the outfitter they're going with and know their own limitations.
"There are definitely people who should not go whitewater rafting."
Adds Michalec, owner of North Cascades River Expeditions, "Accidents are inevitable. Somebody pays the price for the fun we have. Sooner or later, when you put people in moving water, somebody is going to get it."
When the rescue man of the moment on the North Fork Sky returned, we gave him hearty hand slaps.
There were no others dumped that day among our party of five rafts and three kayaks on the scenic North Fork, despite almost continuous rapids and some mega-waves.
The stretch we ran, upstream of Index, is rated during spring flows as Class IV-plus, on a scale of I to VI -- I being frogwater and VI a cataclysm. It is not for the timid, loaded with boulders, logjams and sweepers -- fallen trees out over the flow. But its character runs deeper than its channel; after rafting it, you feel a sense of accomplishment.
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Not all whitewater rivers are so rampant with obstacles, so "technical" as river people say. Outfitters say it is important for customers to choose a river that fits their physical and mental preparedness.
On advanced rivers such as the North Fork and main Sky, you must be prepared for strong, disciplined paddling and be able to fight off panic when the going gets tense, particularly if your raft flips.
Whitewater rivers for beginners -- such as the Wenatchee and Methow -- have large and exciting but forgiving rapids, and lack trapping obstacles. At the same time, accidents can happen on any river. Brunner's son, for example, was killed on the Wenatchee.
That's why it is important to choose a solid outfitter.
Before you do, ask about guide training and guide experience. Do the guides practice righting a dumped raft? How many years of experience do the guides average?
Make sure an outfitter provides wet suits for all rivers. Helmets are a good idea anytime and are considered mandatory on advanced rivers.
Ask for references. Better, talk to acquaintances who have run rivers with outfitters and get their recommendations.
"Research it -- ask them for their safety record, certification of guide training, a copy of their insurance binder," advises Brunner, who acknowledges he has never gone whitewater rafting. "Ask questions as if your life depends on it, because it does."
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