Vertical Challenge ”paddling for a purpose”

[paulh]

If you don’t have reason enough to quit your job during paddle season here it is, the EddyFlower Vertical Challenge which benefits First Descents, a nationwide whitewater kayaking program for young adults with cancer. The Competition is intense: you and your paddling buddies paddle as many runs as you can endure from May 15 – June 15. At the end of the 30 days, the team with the most vertical feet is crowned champion.

EddyFlower and First Descents have partnered together to raise the funds needed to provide a whitewater kayaking experience to a group of very worthy paddlers. What better reason to paddle for 30 days straight when every stroke you take raises money for young adults with cancer! Sign up and share the love!

Open to all paddlers from all states of all skill levels. Compete for prizes in divisions (Open, Class IV, and Class III) that best match your team's skills. Keep in mind, all runs must have a write-up on eddyflower and must have a put-in and take-out elevation to be eligible.

Prizes include Dagger boat, WRSI helmets, Tech4O watches, KEEN footwear, Voz Sports shaders, Paddling Life schwag and Funnel videos. Special thanks to Alpenglow Colorado for picking up a big chunk of the event costs.

The Awards party will be held at The Spot in Golden Thursday June 21.

Click here for event details - http://www.eddyflower.com/VerticalChallenge.aspx

Sanctioned by the American Canoe Association

[raftus]

Is there any way to sort runs by gradient or total vertical? That would be a really helpful feature on eddyflower for this challenge.

Does anybody know what the steepest raftable stretch is in Colorado?

[erdvm1]

Vallecito has to be on that list as one of the steepest raftable....hard to get laps since you'd have to hike.

[danger]

steep rafting: obj, that stretch on the crystal (north fork?), ssv, valliceto (sp?), cheesman, lake fork, and other rarely run gnar. more reasonable runs include bailey, black rock on the clear creek, the encampment, gillman gorge, and lsb. bailey and black rock might be the most practicle; it's close to the city and the shuttle isn't that bad.
-dan

[lmaciag]

Click on 'Gradient' in the link above for vertical scored by run.

[danger]

must be some discrepancies:

Cache la Poudre River, North Fork Lower Poudre North Fork 2155 feet

Anthracite Creek Ruby Fork 2075 feet (how much of this do you paddle? i've heard it's a great portage w/ some paddling)

Wolf Creek 35 feet (is this a single drop?)

still looks like bailey could be the ticket for rafters and kayakers if you double up on it. tripple runs?
or bear creek if it runs; 6 of those wouldn't be too bad.
10 runs on the source.
i'm surprised the source is more than the west fork since the west fork is longer.
dan

[WhiteLightning]

Are commercial raft guides allowed to use raft trips?

[raftus]

The rules say that you can only use an individual run five times - but I didn't see anything about commercial trips on there.

[paulh]

It might make sense to yank runs from the Vertical Challenge like Anthracite Creek Ruby Fork that are mostly portaging. Wolf Creek is also another we should consider yanking from the VC.

We will double check the put-in and take out elevations for Lower Poudre North Fork .

Any others that should be on the chopping block?

[atom]

How about having a weekend warrior contest for those of us stuck inside most of the week? Every Friday through Sunday perhaps? Bonus points for an after work run during the week? I don't know to many folks that will be able to boat every day for a month. Just my 2cts. Atom...