JACKSON HOLE, WYO – The river-running season is off and running thanks to a quick warmup this spring. But when temperatures soar into the 80s in early June, runoff is a concern.
A group of teens from Utah State University (Heber City) flipped a raft yesterday on the Snake River somewhere after putting in at West Table.
According to Bridger-Teton National Forest river manager David Cernicek, a raft full males ranging in their late teens overturned their raft somehow and made a swim for it before being rescued by a commercial rafting company.
“The most experienced guy with them had been on the river once two years ago. None of them knew the names of anything [river features] or could explain how they flipped,” Cernicek said.
While not the runoff experienced last spring after a record winter, this spring’s high waters rank right up there with anything we’ve see in decades. Bureau of Reclamation is calling it one of the top five highest overall flows on area waterways in a hundred years.
Many of us living at lower elevations on the valley floor didn’t have to break out the snowblower but s few times last winter, but the snowpack up high is deceivingly significant. After a soggy May, which saw triple the amount of rain we usually get in that month, fast-rising temps has snow melting quickly. Rivers are high and fast.
Cernicek said even those experienced on waters like the Snake, Hoback, and Greys rivers need to be on the lookout for ever-changing conditions, especially downed trees in the water. Most of the Snake River whitewater is Class III rated.
Many commercial whitewater companies like Dave Hansen Whitewater are playing it cautious early this spring, using larger boats and prohibiting smaller children.
