# Grand Canyon of the Stikine - 1999 Descent with Rob Lesser



## speexchile (Sep 25, 2007)

More epic Stikine River footage: 

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Description: Rob Lesser returns to the Grand Canyon of the Stikine with Gerry Moffatt, Reggie Crist, Doug Ammons, Charlie Munsey, and Wink Jones. In the eighteen years since Rob Lesser's first descent ony eleven other paddlers have completed a successful run of the Grand Canyon of the Stikine. Featuring: Entry Falls, Wasson's Hole, Guard Dog, The Hole that at Chicago, The Hole that ate the Hole, Site Zed, and Gerry Moffatt's epic run and close call at Scissors. 

Here is the link: 

http://www.exchile.com/kayakchilehistoricalvideos.html 

More coming soon, 

Enjoy! 

Chris Spelius 
http://www.kayakchile.com


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## COUNT (Jul 5, 2005)

That was amazing. Thanks for doing such an awesome job getting this stuff up, Chris.


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## ToddG (Nov 29, 2003)

speexchile said:


> In the eighteen years since Rob Lesser's first descent ony eleven other paddlers have completed a successful run of the Grand Canyon of the Stikine.


Fun vid. 

But off the top of my head, I can easily name at least 11 friends who've successfully run the Stikine .. & well over that considering people I don't know. The latest estimates of paddlers who've run it numbers into the 40's, with 5 groups attempting it this this year alone. There's no longer room on the board at Site Zed to add more names. 

Maybe 08 will be my year ..


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## ToddG (Nov 29, 2003)

oh, i get it ... the number was 11 in 1999 .. 

that's a bit confusing cuz it's not 1999 anymore.


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## TimmyHo (Jun 24, 2005)

C'mon Todd, everyone knows you're supposed to party like it's 1999....

Sweet video, thanks for posting it!


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## phlyingfish (Nov 15, 2006)

Good to catch a glimpse of the late, great Conrad Fourney in some of the opening footy. There may not be any more room on the board, but you best believe his is on there. V-drive anyone?


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## IDwink (Jun 30, 2005)

by the way, this descent was in 1998


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## james fleming (Nov 13, 2006)

WOW, what a flim. Great effort from those guys.


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## ActionJackson (Apr 6, 2005)

Ditto above comments. Like the Huallaga, that's some meaty adventure. Wasn't familiar with the rapid names on the Stikine, but those are some great ones: The Hole that Ate Chicago, and The Hole that Ate the Hole. Also very cool that Lesser made that run when he was 53y.


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## richp (Feb 27, 2005)

*Need Help*

Hi,

Somebody help an old rafter who's not afraid to embarrass himself with a question that may be self-evident to others. 

I note the rather long, high-volume boats used here, even though this took place in '99, when there were a lot of the smaller volume boats around. I thought that more volume made it more likely that you would hang in a hole, which seems to be something they were very much interested in avoiding.

Other than needing a big boat to accommodate their cohones, what am I missing here?

Rich Phillips
VP, GPCBA
gpcba.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gcpba/messages


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## Cutch (Nov 4, 2003)

The volume of the boats they are in is about the same as most modern creek boats that we use today. The length of the boats is much longer. This helped them go faster than most kayaks, therefore punching holes. Since 1998/99 creek boats have remained a similar volume, but have become much shorter and now have edges/chines that make them more manueverable. You can't punch holes as easy, but you have more controlled ways to go around them, through them, and more ways to work yourself out of them. Today paddlers use modern boat designs such as Jefes, Burns, etc.


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## richp (Feb 27, 2005)

Hi Kyle,

Thanks for the reply. So it's a tradeoff between volume and the ability to punch through as fast and clean as possible. Would that be about right?

Rich


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## raftus (Jul 20, 2005)

I also thought it was interesting that they were using Overflows and I think I saw Corsicas. I thought it might have something to do with gear capacity. 

Thanks to Spee for posting this stuff - it is great to watch. 

Does anyone know if there is footage of Mark Kramer's Cataraft attempt floating around?


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## IDwink (Jun 30, 2005)

we were all in overflows, except for doug, who had a matrix that he borrowed from someone in whitehorse. the overflow was the big water boat of the day back then - it was relatively fast and it performed really well loaded down. you could punch some really big holes with an overflow full of gear.

spee - thanks for posting this stuff and the first descent footage as well. i haven't seen that forever . .


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## slickhorn (Dec 15, 2005)

*cramer footage*

Mark Cramer put together a DVD about his attempt, I have a copy. 

Iwould try posting to the idahowhitewater yahoo list and seeing if someone can put you in touch with Mark. If not, drop me a pm. 

I don't know if any of the footy online anywhere, and I haven't seen any footy from his second attempt. The footy I have is turnback, devil's canyon, and some chopper scouting of the GCS. 

Pretty sick stuff, and Mark does an awesome job taking you into not just hte canyon but all that went into making the attempt. Not LVM style, but the real deal.


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## speexchile (Sep 25, 2007)

*help on this*

Get me in touch with Mark, I would like to post his video.




slickhorn said:


> Mark Cramer put together a DVD about his attempt, I have a copy.
> 
> Iwould try posting to the idahowhitewater yahoo list and seeing if someone can put you in touch with Mark. If not, drop me a pm.
> 
> ...


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