wherewewent

Bhutan sandwiched between India to the South and Tibet to the North is a small Buddhist kingdom that boasts some of the most pristine whitewater in the world. Here the team headed to spend 13 days paddling 8 runs on 5 different rivers including 3 first descents.

Our original objective was the Pa Chhu river flowing from the base of Chomolhari mountain in the Western edge of the country but on a preliminary scout proved the water a little too low and the temperatures rather cold. Fortunately Bhutan has numerous hard rivers and lots of uncharted water.

The team met in various places in Asia, A two day journey overland from Kathmandu,with alot of boats brought the bulk of the team to Skikkim and a warm up on the Teesta River. A beautiful medium volume run, with lots of Indians watching. From the Boarder at Phuentsholing we traveled North along the main highway and the Wang Chhu river. Picking Chris Hipgrave up at the airport in Paro the team headed over the 10,500 foot Dochu La pass into the Mo Chhu, Po and Puna Tsang Chhu Valley. This valley offered us a variety of paddling to warm up before we headed up Po chhu river for our first descent. We even managed to wiggle in a first descent on the upper Dang Chhu, an exciting day ensued with this small creek, it showed us what paddling extreme water in the Himalayans was like. We had lots of drama - swimming, boofing, scouting, and loosing paddles. The sort of stuff you would expect on a first descent of a small creek in Bhutan.