New packrafting toys!

No, unfortunately I don’t have any new packrafting toys for myself but there have been few very cool new products hitting the market this summer. And even though I’ve tweeted about every one of the new toys they are also worth a blog post as I have readers who don’t follow me on Twitter. (For those readers: It’s an option worth considering just go here and click “Follow”.) A lot of this information is originally from packrafting.de, a great blog worth following!

To get you started here a few pics from the recent trips near Kilpisjärvi, both including a bit of packrafting. Both trips were possible thanks to the packraft rental service by Backpacking North.

My mate Tuomas packrafting the Kummaeno river. A lot of walking followed by easy river with low water level: a trip where a light but sturdy packraft would have excelled.

N floating down the gorgeous Reisadalen after a lot of walking. Again a lighter packraft, or a raft for two, would’ve done the trick here.

Dry suits, designed solely for packrafting!

Dry suit just makes packrafting a lot more comfortable if it’s cold, the water is cold or you’re doing hard stuff in white water. For most use you don’t really need one but might occasionally still want one. We didn’t have dry suits on the aforementioned trips but I did miss mine on the Kummaeno. I have been using an Ursuit AWS 4-tex suit made by a Finnish company Ursuk. They make great dry suits, especially for demanding professional use, and the AWS 4-tex is also a very good dry suit for the use it was designed for. But it has socks and they tend to wear out and start to leak in packrafting use (which includes walking with the suit, often sand, sticks and squirrels in your shoes). And  for the trips where you have to carry your rafting kit over long distances, a lighter option would be nicer…

Tuomas on Lätäseno back in 2011. One of those moments when you really appreciate a quality dry suit.

And da-daa! Now there are two dry suits designed solely for packrafting.

They are both very simple and light weight and instead of socks (or fixed boots) they have gussets in the ankles. The long-awaited dry suit from Alpacka, the Stowaway, hit the shelves this summer and a bit later the European Packrafting-Store launched their own Anfibio line including a dry suit called the Packsuit. I have to say that on the screen the Alpacka Stowaway is more appealing thanks to the zipper on waist (for the need that naturally occur during a long day of packrafting) and a neoprene neck closure (suits better for my skin). But the Packsuit’s zipper seems better for ventilating while on waters (Yes, it’s dangerous so practise at your own risk!) and the price point is really good.

As the Ursuk dry suits are though bastards I don’t see myself investing on a new dry suit any time soon… But if you are looking for a dry suit mostly for packrafting, I’d choose between the two dry suits really designed for packrafting.

As the waters in Finland are already getting colder it’s timely to remind also of the cheaper option for a dry suit: neoprene wetsuit. These are not as comfortable (especially when wet the next day and crispy in the freezing morning air) nor are they as light but they are cheap alternative for stretching the packrafting season towards the winter. For packrafting I’ve used one of the cheapest a sub 40 euro model available from Motonet-stores in Finland. It’s designed for surfing and probably doesn’t excel even for that but it’s cheap and gets the job done. A real bargain.

New packrafts!

I’ve been mostly using an Alpacka Denali Llama which is a great packraft for my needs but occasionally either too small (as me and N found out last summer when trying to packraft with two people and two rucksacks on board) or too big and heavy. The big and heavy part usually leads to leaving it at home if it’s not really needed for the trip but a light raft would be nice for occasional river or lake crossing and generally as a tool to provide more freedom of choise in the backcountry. And now there are options to tackle both of the problems!

The Alpacka Explorer 42. Picture stolen from Packrafting Store website.

For the need of a two-person packraft there is now the Explorer 42:Nearly canoe-like two-person packraft by Alpacka Raft available on Packrafting Store. It’s 32 cm longer from the inside than my Llama and the inner doesn’t taper towards the front which means there should be really enough room for two people and two big packs. Just add few tie-downs to the stern as the big butt easily supports a rucksack or two. It weights only 2650 g (without seats) i.e. 1325 g per person. That’s not bad as the classic solo packrafts from Alpacka weight about 1 kg more! Add a pair of Trekking Pole Blades (140 g) to your trekking poles for canoe style paddling, use your sleeping pads as seats and you have a sub 3 kg packrafting package for two! (Just don’t take it on white water… Though some nice class I might go…)

The Alpacka CuriYak. Picture stolen from Alpacka website.

For the need of a sturdy but light tool for backcountry travel there has always been the Alpacka Scout. But with an inner length of 104 cm and limited buoyancy it’s not really meant for people of my size (186 cm tall). Roman Dial has been using a longer spray-decked special version “the Super Scout” but the design is not available for the public. Instead there is now the all new Alpacka CuriYak! It’s very interesting design with pointy bow and big stern with the standard 12 inch tubes but the tubes in the middle are only 10 inch in diameter. It’s sized like the standard Yak (i.e. has 10 cm more inner length than the Scout) but weights only 1,87 kg (versus 2,25 kg for the Yak). Unfortunately there is no spray-deck available for this one but a MYOS spray-deck is always a possibility… Anyhow, very interesting boat and if I could afford, I would definitely buy this one to accompany my Llama. (Then I could upgrade the Llama with the new spray-deck and skirt, add thigh-straps and so on. To pimp your packraft  take a look at Luck Mehl’s great tutotial.)

And there is also a lot lighter option for this category from Klymit (the company making the weird sleeping pads) the “Light Water Dingy”. As the name suggest it’s really meant for easy water and seems a bit dubious in my opinion but would probably do great job on easy crossings and would double as a very comfortable sleeping pad. Only problem is the 200 pound weight limit as I’m way over that, even without any gear! But for some this is probably an interesting option to the FlytePacker packraft (or for inflatable beach mattresses typically used on Finnish multisport competitions). Oh, it weights only about 650 grams and should cost around 250 euros. Not too bad.

Feel free to comment the post and the topic, especially if you have any first hand experience about the products mentioned here or links to user reports!

Flippin’ the llama

The title of the post emerged from conversation in Mark’s post about Testing the Waters with borrowed Alpacka Denali Llama packraft and it’s very appropriate title for the post as this is about getting my new packraft wet and flipped around. That’s what I did the last weekend.

Friday evening in a pond

Tuomas loading his rucksack with water for some "pool training".

Mostly for the sheer fun of it but also as a training for the upcoming FPE2011 trip me and my good mate (and newly graduated wilderness guide – congratulations!) Tuomas spent the Friday evening in a pond flipping packrafts with and without load and learning to manoeuver them. Big thanks for Hendrik of Hiking in Finland for borrowing his little red Alpacka raft for Tuomas!

A freestyle kayaker playing in the Torminvirta rapid.

Pernoonkosket rapids

Of Saturday we got our rafts in the fun staff: white water at Pernoonkosket rapids in the Kymijoki river near Kotka, a bit over one hour drive from Lappeenranta where I live. I had never visited the Pernoonkosket but I think I’ll be returning there regularly from now on. There is a good description of Pernoonkosket here but it’s in Finnish so I’ll give a short summary in English.

Pernoonkosket is a 1,1 kilometer long stretch of rapids in three stages:

- The uppermost rapid is class II Torminvirta (1,4m/150m) which is also the funniest part of the system.  In the beginning there is a small stopper on the river left (visible in the picture above) and smooth fast current on the right. These are followed by two big breaking waves, followed by smaller breaking cross waves from the front and left and a longish wave train in the end. There are some stones under the waves but nothing especially dangerous. The rapid is easy to portage on the gravel/stone bar on the river right.

- The second rapid is Karkuuskoski (0,8m/100m) with one big surfable wave in the beginning followed by a wave train. There is a big rock just beneath the surface so this is a bad place for a swim! This is a bit hard to portage as the small island in the middle is full of bush and there is some private property on the river right bank but a packraft can be first paddled upstream in the eddy on the right and then walked by the rocks at the neck of the rapid. After the rapid there is reasonably strong current that makes paddling a packraft upstream a bit hard but it’s still possible.

- The lowest rapids flow in three canals with the left canal, Sittaränni (1,3m/200m), is quite enjoyable with big V style wave on the right, a very firm stopper wave in the middle and a good eddy in the left, all followed by smaller waves and a bit rocky bottom. The middle canal of the lowest rapids is called Tukkiränni and there is dangerously powerful hydraulics in the end so it’s best avoided with small boats.Beneath these rapids there is a sandy beach on the river left and some good eddies before it.

- In addition to the rapids I mentioned there are smaller parallel rapids (see the map at the end of the link above). There is a free to use shed for shelter and parking area next to the Sittaränni rapid.

Saturday in the white water

So, we arrived at the rapids around midday and after changing into our wetsuits, pfds and bicycle helmets and inflating the rafts we hit the water. We paddled upstream to Karkuuskoski with some detours, rode the rapid once and played in the eddy for awhile accompanied by some freestyle kayakers. We must have been a weird sight in our rubber boats and bicycle helmets! Tuomas had a near bander snatching in the big sharp stopper wave of the Karkuuskoski but managed it with a quick high brace.

Tuomas surfing in the Sittaränni rapid.

After this we rode the Sittaränni and started to play in the stopper wave. The wave has some real power in it and hold packraft so well that it’s hard to get off from the surf! So we decided to avoid the stopper as it would have been also hard to swim out of it if capsized. We noticed that packrafts can catch and surf even small standing waves very easily – often unintended while ferrying thru the wave trains. We tried to surf the left side of the river but it was hard because of the currents (strong eddy, some rock and strong main current) and lead into what the title of the post suggests: I flipped the Llama three times there and Tuomas capsized twice. On the first times we swam a shore with the paddle and raft but in the end we managed to self-rescue with ease.

Tuomas taking a closer look at the bottom of Sittaränni.

After of playing in the Sittaränni we had a coffee break at the car parked next to the rapid and then we headed up to Torminvirta rapid. There was a group of freestyle kayakers at Torminvirta with some of them very interested about our rafts. They though packrafts would make good training tools for beginners who are afraid of capsizing in kayaks. Well, sport paddlers are likely to miss the biggest advantage of the packraft: the packability and the adventures it enables! We did several runs in the Torminvirta and some ferrying and wave catching in the wave train below it. The rapid was surprisingly easy to paddle despite the big waves. On the last run we both capsized while fooling around. I got stuck for a while in the second big wave and Tuomas was surprised by the breaking cross waves. We both managed to do quick self-rescues. It started to be a routine after playing in the Sittaränni.

Yours truly riding down the wave train below the Torminvirta rapid.

After getting enough we paddled thru Karkuuskoski and Sittaränni back to the car for a quick snack. I capsized in the Sittaräni while trying to catch a big river with too aggressive ferrying in wrong place and hitting my left hip to rocks in the bottom.

My hip after making some contact with the rocks of the Sittaränni.

After few meat pastries and coffee in the shed sheltered from the rain, we loaded our packrafts with about 15 kilo rucksacks and paddled back to Torminvirta. We did several runs and some ferrying in the waves. As predicted the packrafts tracked better with the load on the bow. Tuomas said that the older model Alpacka was much more stable in the rapids with the front load but I didn’t feel major difference in my 2011 model Llama. This is mostly because of the big butt that adds stability. We both noticed that the rafts were more sluggish and slower to respond.

Tuomas riding down the Torminvirta with rucksack on the bow.

At some point we noticed that the clock was around 6:00 pm and it was time to get back home after six hours of nearly constant white water fun. We rode down all the three rapids with no problems,  catched an eddy after Sittaränni and took out. We packed the wet gear in rain, shared a last chocolate bar and started the drive back home. It was a good day: learning new things and having great time! I’m not still too confident about the big drops and long class III stretches that wait us in Lapland but I think we’ll manage. At least our self-rescue routine is already quite good.

Yours truly riding the waves in Torminvirta with rucksack keeping the bow down.

Few words about gear

- As is widely known the 2011 Llama is veeery cool boat. The new hull makes it a lot more stable. I don’t think this is very big deal in class I or II but the difference will be likely remarkable in more challenging white water. But luckily Tuomas is more experienced paddler than I am… The standard spray deck doesn’t work with “leisure boating” style pfds. It might work better with high riding white water kayaking pfds but I think I’ll be adding some velcro to the deck or getting the “Beefy spray deck” upgrade from Alpacka later. I am 186cm long and the Llama is okay for me but for playing in white water I might move the seat forward and swap the backrest into dry sack to move it along with the seat. The seat is attached with cord threaded through four tabs (two on each side) and I think that the seat would be just fine threaded more forward with just one pair of tabs. Then a bottom tab of a dry sack (e.g. Ortlieb PS17, size M or so) could be threaded to the tabs in the back of the boat and the top of the dry sack could be attached to the tie-down plates used to attach the removable backrest. This would move the paddler more forward and create a 20-30 liters of dry space for gear near the center of the gravity.

- The two part aluminum paddle from Welhonpesä performed well enough and is a good pick for the price.

- Cheap wetsuits from Motonet are very useful in colder water. The suit is not especially designed for paddling but works well enough, gives some protection from rocks while swimming and is very reasonably priced. I think I’ll add a relief zipper to mine for conveniency. Cheap neoprene socks (Snow Fox brand) work also very well and have even sealed seams! But the gloves from the same brand don’t work too well for paddling as the seams chafe.

- All the pictures are taken with Olympus Though-3000 waterproof compact camera. I don’t like it too much as a camera but it can take hits and be submerged so it fits the job well. It also takes 720p video, which will likely follow later.

Next time I’ll be trying the Llama in still water with two people and two rucksacks…