Los Pinos 2nd Descent Video
Los Pinos is a river that runs from the top of the continental divide outside of Creede, CO down into Vallecito Reservoir near Durango then continues on down to eventually meet with the Animas and then the San Juan. Before last year, there had been very minimal exploration (kayak wise) of the upper stretch of this river. A good class IV roadside section just above Vallecito had been done and that was about it. Well last year, a couple of my close friends (John Wade and Dan Steaves) along with Scott Baker made the first full descent of the Pinos. They encountered 3 class V-V+ gorges with a lot of IV and V inbetween.
This year the run was included in the new Whitewater of the Southern Rockies guide book with one full page photo of John and several smaller photos. They had planned on going back in this year, but weather, flows and time off of work didn't really coincide very well, unfortunately. The week after their trip was planned, Ben Stookesbury (i.e. No Big Names, Twitch, etc.) shows up with Rafa Ortiz and several other pros looking to bag the Pinos. Flows didn't quite work for them at the time either, so they fled down to the Rio Brazos in NM and then came back, hooked up with Scott Baker and some other local boys such as Evan Ross and Brad Higinbotham and got it done (much to Mr. Wades disapointment since he was stuck working).
Anyway, long story short, they made a video of it and it exists at www.oregonkayaking.net
In short, it kicks ass, so check it out.
Somebody with more skillz than I can imbed it to this thread if they want.
