RIVER SWALE (Hoggarths Bridge to Muker)

[Mark R]

Guide.

[Jim Pullen]

I'll add this extra description of my suggestions for the lines on the drops which I've previously posted elsewhere:

It has been described as being run as grade 3 with 5 portages! But where's the fun in that! ;-)

Wain wath is the first fall and can be run pretty much anywhere, a good boof is useful but you can get away with missing it. I have seen a boat stuck behind the curtain before, but god knows how they got it there!

Rainby is the first biggy. The line is down the tongue near the middle, and leads to a straight forward slide down the shallow bottom. However, hitting the wrong line here would be a very bad thing and could mean landing on rock from 6m. First time go with someone who's run it before to demonstrate the line.

The big unnamed grade 4 rapid is next. Boof off the first little shelf and run centre, heading left at the bottom to miss the big submerged rock/stopper.

Catrake is messy. A double drop. The first is usually run down the slide on extreme right, but can be boofed off the ledge provided you don't mind a hard landing! The second goes pretty much anywhere at normal levels, but always involves a bit of bumping. You might want to avoid get pushed into the big eddy on the right between the two.

Upper Kisdon is next. This has changed in the last few years with a bit of collapse in the middle. In decent water boof or pencil far left. It can be run on the right, but try and avoid going into the undercut on the right, or the curtain on the left!

Lower Kisdon is the main event and by far the most serious and intimidating. The line is towards the right, landing on the shelf and ideally boofing off. I've had and seen a variety of success on this. The last time I ran it, I almost missed the shelf, it caught my stern and flipped me, resulting in landing in the pool on my head from 5m! No harm done, but wouldn't want to repeat it! The cleanest lines seem to be achieved by not putting too hard a stroke in on the lip and then managing to get one off the shelf. It can also be run down the main-line, between the shelf and undercut. Accuracy is key to this! You will disappear at the bottom and there will be an element of chance as to where you resurface. I counted to three when Poke did this in highish water last time! I've done it in very low levels which wasn't too bad.

Hope this helps! In summary, if you can run grade 4, you should be able to do everything, but definitely go with someone who's done it before and maybe aim for lowish levels first time. In high water, extend the run by putting on on Whitsundale Beck.

[Jim Pullen]

Ran the Swale on Saturday 23rd in lowish levels.

Just a note that there's currently a huge tree in the Keld gorge (after the Catrake double drop). It's pretty obvious and you can get round it easily on river left, but be aware in case it shifts during the next set of floods.

[Mark R]

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id= ... 5963251551

[Jim Pullen]

Ran the Swale on Saturday - all clear!

[geyrfugl]

Here's a video that shows the river at about an ideal level - 1m precisely as we passed under Park Bridge. It also shows a lot of the paddling between the drops, just in case people get the impression that there is nothing but waterfalls. We started at Hoggarths Bridge and finished at Lower Kisdon (bottom or top, according to taste and/or adrenaline saturation).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ_MNRG6yow

Lower Kisdon shows two lines - down the middle (and one version where it so nearly could have gone horribly wrong, starting a bit too far left), and bouncing off the shelf. Rory and Sandra took a line on the right on Catrake where I couldn't see them with the video - it looked more elegant than the left line, but harder with more things to worry about if it went wrong.

Andy

[Jim Pullen]

Nice one Andy, glad you've finally got a run in on the mighty Upper Swale! 1m on the gauge is pretty high for a first run down! Things do slow down a bit with less water and the only really difficult portage is Catrake. I see you found the slot on Wain wath! ;-)

[Stu mac]

Hi we ran the swale yesterday 28th april 2012 was only reading 0.3 on the gauge so was quite low but a very nice river eye opener for me thanks. Certain to do it agen!

[slim]

Ran the Swale yesterday (24 June 2012) - 0.6 on the gauge. YouTube Video here

[Jim Pullen]

Ran it today in high levels, about 1.1m on the gauge, great fun. There's work being done on park bridge at the moment and there's a rope across the river below this. Fine in high levels as submerged, but take care in lower levels.

[geyrfugl]

The work seems to be finished at Park bridge, though there's still a bit of rope. We ran it at 1m again at New Year (a day out for all the family, mum, dad and both kids:-). No video of that yet (it was rainy and a bit dark but might make something of the footage eventually).

Should have mentioned there's a shorter video of the run at a lower (easier) level, 0.64m in the sunshine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNk_G3mFirI

apologies for the not always audible voiceover - I had to go next door into a very cold house to find somewhere quiet enough to record and when one or two weren't as good as they should have been, I was reluctant to go back to repeat them ;-(

Andy

Grrr. why does "Quick reply" take all the newlines out ? [Edit to put them back]