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Part 1 - Kitoy.
We have come to the very source of Kitoy. Here, this river looks like a small stream and the road easily crosses it. We unloaded our panties-singlets out of vehicles and packed into the boats. Just couple hours later we floated down to Pervie Shoki (First Cheeks). "Cheeks" is a word locals use for "canyon". We stopped there. Good fishing. No rapids yet.
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The next day we did couple tens of kilometers over flatwater, after which we finally made it down to Verhniy Shoki (The upper cheeks). Little by little water started to get boogier. We floated everything through without scouting when finally we arrived to a turn with a horizon line in a narrowing walls. This was the first waterfall rapid on Kitoy. And this is the place where the real canyon starts. We left our boats at the start of the canyon, got all the belongings and portaged to the middle of the canyon, where we stayed for the night. Walking down the canyon we were enjoying amazing views - emerald river dozens meters down and stream tributaries falling as waterfalls into Kitoy.
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The next day we got back to our boats to finally run some rapids. The waterfall itself was portaged by everyone. But all the rest was ran by everybody. There was this hooooorible class 5 rapid with a terrifying drop with two pockets at the bottom. But turned out it was quite easy to run. But a lot of people flipped for some unknown purpose.
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After that we ve done a nice little rapid "Vint" (The screw) and found ourselves close to where we camped last night. We stuffed our panties-singlets in boats and continued the run. After some more boogie water the canyon opened up and we were facing more flatwater. That night we camped at the confluence with some beautiful but unknown stream and caught enormous amount of fish.
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The next day we finally got the most interesting obstacle of Kitoy river - Motkiny Shoki canyon. The difficulty of whitewater built up quickly and soon it became scary to paddle the center of the river. Everyone started to get more to the chicken chutes. But over all, it was not too difficult at all. We scouted only one rapid - "Palets" (The finger) and stopped to portage the Motkiny Shoki Waterfall.
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The Motkini Shoki Waterfall is the hardest rapid on the run - class 5+. It consists of several drops right in between sheer canyon walls hundred meters high. Once in there - no way to walk out. The rapid was once rafted by Jack Kovalevsky in 2004 (photo) and once by Nikki Kelly in 2005 (Boofing the Iron Curtain). We portaged without doubts.
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We left all the belongings (panties-singlets) near the Finger rapid and portaged The Waterfall. It was hard - about 5 kilometers through taiga. But there was a trail - here everyone portages. At the end of the portage we had to repel our boats down from 50 meters. Then we did several interesting rapids of class 4 on our unloaded boats with a great opportunity to ride a huge hole. Then portaged our camping gear and finally were at Ekhe-Gol.
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Part 2 - Ekhe-Gol.
In an expedition last year Vasilii Porsev an co ran all the Ekhe-Gol river from the source, hiking in from Onot valley, over two passes. This time we have to carry our boats all the 10km up Ekhe-Gol. Ekhe-Gol - tributary of Kitoy with a small flow but big gradient. It's a technical creeking style run ending up with a 15 meter waterfall.
The trail dodged along a steep canyon covered with wood, sometimes disappearing. After several hours of walking, when everybody got tired from this promenade, we got into our boats and ran all the stuff down. The difficulty was not that big, but we found couple of interesting drops.
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The next day we fired up the 15 meter Ekhe-Gol waterfall. It was four of us to run the drop. Vasilii Porsev, Vasia Chesnokov, Vadim from Tomsk and Max Bilbow from London. I declined the opportunity to paddle this shit. I think I m not yet ready for such stuff. The entrance was quite a mess: it actually was a tricky rapid with several drops. It was clear that to run the main waterfall it would be enough just to run the entrance rapid clean... and hopefully get in the center of the drop... and ideally put the paddle along the boat. Everyone did great. Vasya Chesnokov even boofed it, but got his skirt blown and had to swim.
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After the Ekhe-Gol waterfall we stuffed our boats with panties-singlets once again and headed downstream on Kitoy. We had several more mighty rapids before we stopped at the confluence with Biluty river. This was the end of the most interesting canyon of Kitoy - Motkini Shoki.
Part 3 - Biluty.
Biluty was the most beautiful river of the whole trip. And was the hardest one to get to. Once again we had to face two day hike in through wild taiga, log jams, swamps and steep slopes with our boats. We did 12 km in the first day and reached the deep canyon of some stream, which meant that the sufferings will end soon and we ll start to boat. The stream was falling down in the series of falls in some 30+ meters vertical walled canyon. Vasya Chesnokov found a secret stash with a ladder using his GPS. This ladder is stored there by local hunters, not many people know about it. Using this ladder he crossed the canyon and set up rope across the canyon to transfer boats.
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After our glorious canyon cross we got closer to the river and stopped for the night on the only shelf around, surrounded by 100 walls on all three sides. It was impossible to get down to the river for water, so we had to fill our jugs from the stream back at the crossing. Which is about 1km back and 200m of gradient. We used our drybags to carry the water. Right in front of us was the last rapid of Biluty - the Double Drop. And a 6m waterfall was visible right above it.
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The next morning we put our boats on our shoulders again and started hiking up the river to get to the Biluty upper canyon. This was the most brutal hike of the whole trip. The trails was always sneaking away in huge log jams, climbing up high rocks and descending down to stream tributaries, just to climb up some new cliff again soon. But what we ve seen when we finally got there, stunned everyone. Absolutely clear emerald water was flowing down the canyon, maid out of marble. The water falls from steps of various heights and shapes to form series of clean waterfalls. Somewhere closer to the end of the canyon was some mess of whitewater, which was even scary to think of running. But one has to run it, because there is no way out of the canyon after the third fall.
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Finally we could overcome our fears and started to run the first entrance drop. I paddled so hard at the entrance, that I flew off big time in a great boof off of the first waterfall. And managed to do the same with all the other drops. Kostyan even started to call me Boof Master. Some of guys in our crew had problems. Vadim and Antoha swam in the canyon. The rescues were a bit sketchy. The canyon ended with a big hole in which most of us ended. I managed to get around it. Others had backflips and some trashing. Some even swam.
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After Marble canyon and before the Lower canyon, no major rapids were encountered. We paddled down to the start of the Lower canyon, left our boats there and walked to our camp, 100m abouve the river, for the night.
The next day we portaged all of our belongings down after the last 12 meter drop. The name of the drop is Serega, after Serega Chesnokov (father of Vasya) who was among the first people to run the river. We could not get lower then that. Double drop and 6 meter waterfall have to be ran on loaded boats. We walked back to the start of the canyon and portaged the first rapid of the lower canyon, ran a bunch of stuff and portaged again - the whole river flows into a gnarly pocket. After the portage we had to seal launch off of a badly shaped shelf and boof almost right away. I did not push hard enough and smashed my paddle over my face.
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Then we found ourselves in front of "Unrunnable Chesnokov" - a twisted S-turn waterfall. There's no good portage around, but one can seal launch into the outflow of the fall. Its crucial to jump not too far away, to avoid the pocket on the opposite side. And not too close, to avoid the pocket on this side. Then, a quick turn around and boof over a drop with a sticky hole. All in all, Vasilii Porsev styled it, Vasya Chesnokov could noot perform as good, fell into the hole sideways and swam. We got pretty scared. But there was no other way around anyways. So we all seal launched one after the other. Everyone managed well, except for Vanya from Kirov, who got into the close pocket. But he paddled out of there somehow and boofed over the hole.
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We ferried and got out on the rock right above the 12 meter high Serega waterfall. Everyone did the drop. Vasilii Porsev did it 5 times. Even though he had to climb verticall wall and pull his boat with the rope up. I did not positioned myself right and got a smash in the face with my paddle again. Some of us were loosing paddles, some swam, but everyone loved the fall. Easy lead in and clean drop with a deep pool at the bottom.
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After that we had to put all our panties-singlets in the boats and do two more falls. One 6 meters and the Double drop. 6 meters one everyone managed somehow, even tho some flipped at the bottom. I could not boof it properly and flipped. Hate loaded boats. Vasilii Porsev and Max Bilbow went for the double drop. Max kept saying "My girlfriend told me not to do anything stupid. Maybe I should not be doing this." So they had to boof the first drop and run the second one immediately, not to get trashed at the bottom and not to end up in a pocket. Vasilii boofed the first drop, but got spun a bit and fell down the second drop with almost no speed. He got a decent amount of trashing at the bottom, and spat out into a pocket. After a minute he somehow did paddle out of there tho. Max got the first one right and did got into the second drop upright and on coarse but with no speed. He melted the hole at the bottom disappearing completely on his huge Pyranha Carnali. We were absolutely unhappy with what we saw and opted for a gnarlies talus portage.
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After that it was just a small 2meter drop left to run. Then - paddle out of Biluty canyon and float down Kitoy couple more hours to finally reach tourist base with sauna and beer.
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I want to thank everyone who took part in this expedition:
I also wish Peter Malkin, who recently broke both of his legs landing on a rock running a waterfall, would start paddling again as fast as possible.
Palvelev Artyom
10-20 july, 2009.
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