Mount Whitney + Kern River Skirafting

       The Kern River is the anomaly of the Sierra Nevada - its upper half follows a range-parallel pathway along an old fault system, so it is greater in length and less insane in gradient than other adjacent river systems, though there is still plenty of class V.

    The Headwaters of the Kern River also happen to sit directly underneath Mount Whitney, so the linkup possibility is obvious to the packrafter, especially with such an advantageous hiking to paddling ratio. This summer route is probably completed by at least one party each year now in good snow years.

    The Skirafter in me had been attracted to this idea for a long time, but it requires an uncommon event for the Sierra Nevada - a Normal snow year. Drought years prevent both snow coverage and sufficient flows, while wet years like 2023 yield insane runoff (the Kern spent most of March to July between 4,000 and 40,000 cfs). This year, 2024, was a perfect setup with 100% snowpack from mostly cold storms (sufficient midelevation snowpack mid-spring).

    My largest uncertainty was whether there was a timeframe when there was enough water at the top (the put in barely has any upstream terrain below 10,000' elevation) but a manageable flow downstream for the Forks run or the roadside gnar (Canyon, Thunder Run). ~2500 cfs ended up being manageable for our team downstream, and the top ended up being on the low side of good. Perfect.

    Our original plan was to ski the west chutes of Whitney as a side trip after hauling our gear over the Whitney-Russell saddle, but the route conditions and time of day considerations caused us to switch to the Mountaineers route at the last minute. Skiing the SW aspect with full packs, plus hauling our full kit over the summit of Whitney, still seemed faster than any other option.

    At this stage we were still worried about the Kern River rising too much, so there was a silver lining to encountering frozen and manky conditions on the upper ski route.

Meltoff was in full swing even with moderate temps as we approached treeline.

    One of our micro-navigation goals was to seamlessly integrate north facing corn with dry trail after crossing Wallace Creek. 

    This worked out perfectly, and 3.5 miles of easy trail led us to the put in at the mostly dry Ponderosa flats in Junction Meadow. Even though we had only travelled about 15 miles since our start at Whitney Portal, skiing with a 45lb pack had highlighted my lack of training so I was ready to float!

    The upper high gradient section, ending above Kern Hot Spring, had a great medium/low flow. We portaged one slide move due to continuous manky/pin potential in the runout.

    The steeps below the Kern Lakes (no pictures) ended up being the real deal. Sharp, complicated, and continuous. It was almost all runnable, but too high consequence for us. Any swim would be a certain disaster. We ran less than half of that 1-2 mile long section.

    The Forks run was plenty filled in and super engaging at 2500 cfs. I ended up with about 3 portages and 2 swims, but the rest of it went well for us. We ran from the Little Kern to Salmon Falls in a day - by far the most whitewater, and the most read and run, I've done in a day. I was ready to call it quits before I was too mistake prone from mental exhaustion.

Needles behind, on the Forks run

    We stopped very little for media at these flows and a team of two, so video gives a better flavor of the overall experience:

Click to play Youtube video

    This adventure to me felt like the pinnacle of technical skirafting in the lower 48. There are still some grand traverses left to do in the northern US rockies, but it felt great on this adventure to combine ski mountaineering with significant technical boating with skis along for the ride. I have no qualms about this crossover sport even at the higher ends of difficulty for me as a whitewater paddler.

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   A great deal of thought was put into riding the knife's edge of weight vs. safety and comfort on this adventure. To simplify things in the realm of gear selection, here is a list of the critical equipment we used. My starting pack weight (6 days of food) on skis was 45 lbs.

    Hyperlite 4400 pack

    Western Mountaineering Versalite sleeping bag

    Thermarest Xtherm pad

    Homemade Dyneema 2-person mid (10 oz)

    Montbell plasma down jacket

    Outdoor Research Deviator Hoody

    Outdoor Research Echo Hoody

    MSR reactor stove

    

    Scarpa F1 LT boots

    Movement Racepro 71 skis

    Black Diamond Helio 200 bindings

    Black Diamond Vapor Carbon ski poles

    CAMP corsa ice axe

    CAMP skimo race crampons

    Arva beacon

    Arva carbon ultra shovel

    Arva carbon race probe

    Salomon pertex rain shell

    

    Alpacka Valkyrie (V3)

    Aquabound Whiskey Paddle

    (Old) Alpacka ultralight drysuit

    Astral V8 type III pfd

    Sweet Protection Rocker helmet

    Sockdolager ultralight uninsulated pogies

    Salomon Speedcross shoes

    NRS 75ft throw rope

    

Class V Packrafting: Middle Kings

 

   Through the 2019 spring season, having pulled off successful runs on serious backcountry creeks and rivers in Colorado's San Juan mountains (Vallecito, Brazos, Pinos) on the heels of Bull Lake Creek I finally started to believe that I was up for the next major milestone, the Middle Kings: a legendary remote, unrelenting and punishing river that cuts a yosemite-like valley while dropping from over 8000' along the PCT down to 1000' in the Sierra Nevada foothills. This river, one of the benchmarks of North America class V expedition kayaking, had been our stated goal for that year.

    Even though our 2019 Middle Kings run went better than we had expected, I had never felt more drained of adrenaline, worn down and beat up.

The Exit of Waterfall Gorge, 2019 (Photo John Baker)

Here's my video from that first trip:

(Click for the 2019 Video)

 In the continuing spirit of exploring new-to-me terrain in the 2020 season, I had my eye on a couple of missions in Canada, Idaho and other Sierra Nevada runs. Every time Dan and I discussed ideas I would present a different one, but Dan settled into consistent promotion of another crack at the Middle Kings. We warmed up on a Cherry Creek lap followed by a low flow trip through cherry bomb, after which Dan humored me for a headwaters exploration run in a nearby drainage:

but I eventually relented and saddled up for Middle Kings round two. This year we had a much shorter and more scenic approach (the standard one over Bishop Pass), superior boats (Valkyrie prototypes) plus more confidence in our own selves. Allen joined us from Durango for his second packraft trip, his first being the Animas-Vallecito Skiraft linkup.

    Subject to an inflexible schedule and meteorological whimsy, we ended up with a much lower flow this year - 600 cfs at Rodgers Crossing. But first, and possibly unique among Middle Kings paddlers, we got to fully enjoy our hike in over the Sierra crest.

Slab camp next to the put-in just above Palisade Creek

    And we're off on the Middle Kings! 

    The first few warm-up slides helped suppress the butterflies enough for Dan and I to take a crack at an oft-portaged drop: Squeeze Play (of course aided by half the flow kayakers typically have):

A tricky entrance resulted in this somewhat successful contortion

Clip of Squeeze Play

This gave us hope that some of the bigger features further down would go. We were right.

Money Drop

unnamed slides

    Dan and I had portaged the above series of drops in 2019, while John took a ride in a weir hole just below the drop where Dan is pictured above. This year it proved problematic in different ways - I hung up on a boulder at the bottom and had to roll off it, while Dan took a faceshot to the large undercut boulder on the bottom left (!). Fortunately we were able to shake it off.

    Dan had showed us portagers up on Money Drop and lead the charge down Breakfast Slide, a tempting but very long slide with a tough pothole at the bottom:

Dan probes Breakfast Slide

The pothole at the bottom of Breakfast slide is a difficult off-camber hit

    The standard (kayak) line involves skirting the left side of the pothole, but with packrafts and low flows that part of the slide just wanted to roll you over your right side into the pothole landing. Dan's difficulty with this standard left line gave me pause and I eventually settled on a wall-tapping right line

Breakfast Slide POV

    Waterfall Gorge was relatively easy to pick apart at low flow, but still demanded a scout and safety below the marquee waterfall given the boxed-in terminal hole lurking just below the large pool

Dan takes the plunge

Allen's last big feature before succumbing to a nagging shoulder injury

    We camped just below the waterfall, and Dan and I were treated to some fantastic slides to start the day.

    Dan and I ran some sections and portaged a good bit below here, careful to avoid Raw Dog gorge which looked incredibly spicy at this flow (or any flow). Allen, with his somewhat injured shoulder, decided to walk from Simpson Meadow down to Tehipite valley, skipping the Middle Four (and would hike out to a trailhead from there - no trail exists along the Bottom Nine below Tehipite)

    It turned into a very long day pushing the whole way through Simpson meadow and the Middle Four to get to Tehipite, a splendid camp. Taller than El Cap!! We expeditiously avoided photo stops until the next day as we proceeded towards the start of the infamous Bottom Nine.

The last of the low gradient beneath Tehipite Dome

...and she disappears after the Bottom Nine starting line

    Whereas our first run in 2019 had filled us with great intrepidation, Dan and I were now filled with great intrepidation and a little bit of confidence. These new boats were much superior even to the Alpackalypses we had used previously, in control, speed through features and rollability.

    However, despite fewer portages and scouts than the previous year, the grueling nature of the Bottom Nine caught up to us. Whereas the upper slide sections on Days 1 into 2 had the air of thrill and glory, the Bottom Nine on Day 3 turned into an onslaught. Both Dan and I each had a particularly ugly swim as the day wore on, with Dan now nursing an injury (developed on Upper Cherry's Kiwi-in-a-Pocket) that cast a question mark over his ability to continue paddling. I was in no mood to take pictures or even video, and right after a scary swim where Dan plucked me out of a mid-river eddy just above an awful drop, we had no choice but to call it a day.

Dan assess his assets at the final camp. Upside-down no-longer-live-oak for scale.

    In the morning we continued. Only a few of the more challenging rapids remained, and an overnight recovery had worked wonders. In the end, we had successfully paddled the Middle Kings, in packrafts, with only a handful of portages on the Bottom Nine.

Confluence!

Here's my 2020 Video from the Middle Kings run:

(Click for 2020 Video)

Even at lower flows, the 'runout' on Garlic Falls is a serious affair

Finishing on fumes, we both agreed to take a year off from this one, and this time we meant it.

NOTE: the Middle Kings (sans Bottom Nine) was also packrafted in 2021 by another team around 1100 cfs. No media from that trip except a selfie with Dane Jackson at Tehipite.