JACKSON, Wyo. — The results are in! Dave Hansen Whitewater‘s sixth annual High Water Heyday Contest has a winner.
High water mark guesses flooded in while the Snake River flowed with snow melt. Eager boaters hoping to score the grand prize raft submitted a spectrum of guesses as wide as the Snake River is long, from 5.65 to 883,550 cfs (cubic feet/second).
The Bureau of Reclamation confirmed flows hit their peak for 2024 at 20,676 cfs. This year’s contest ran from April 1 to May 31 to account for the high snow totals and lingering winter.
And now, a round of applause for…
Jeff Gottschalk of Jackson, Wyoming! Gottschalk guessed that the river would reach its peak at 20,658 cubic feet per second. His guess was just 18 cfs off the official mark!
Gottschalk snagged his grand prize, an NRS STAR Outlaw 142 Self-Bailing Raft (MSRP $2,795), on June 28 from the Dave Hansen Whitewater office staff. He’s excited to hit the river and bring a few pals along for the ride (or row!)
“Our raft was a bit old and finally at the end of last year, we had to retire it,” Gottschalk said. “So winning this raft worked out well!”
The out-of-area winner is Denise Bloomer. Hailing from Los Angeles, CA was the closest guess for our out-of-area entries (20,019 CFS). Bloomer wins a rafting trip with Dave Hansen Whitewater for herself and up to seven friends.
The under 18 division winner is Lucas Goewert. Lucas’s guess of 19,876 cfs wins him a trip down the Snake with up to seven friends.
“We absolutely love doing this contest, especially during a year when we’ve had such a long high water season and there is so much buzz about how high the river will get,” Dave Hansen Whitewater owner, Bud Chatham said. “It is pretty cool to be able to give a raft to a local. It is even better to give it to someone who we used to play kickball against back in the day!”
Keep an eye on the Dave Hansen River Report, good luck next year and raft on!
