Recent content by Survival Boy

The Grand Canyon has a fair amount of flatwater broken up by rapids anywhere from class 1 to class 5. The rapids are big water with very few rocks/other hazards to avoid. Good luck and have fun!

Yeah, I've swam class 4/5 before, and just about everything else as well (except class 6 :eek: ). It's not very much fun and can be very scary, but it builds character so I continue to get in my kayak and go for it.

Here's my favorite whitewater class rating descriptions taken from the AMC Berkshire website. They are entertaining and also very accurate. Revised Scale of River Difficulty Thanks to "cjw" (via Norm Sims) for providing the humor. Someone asked an anonymous boater about his class IV comfort...

Tarps are hardly pointless, a bivy sack is basically a sewn tarp with an entrance and will fly away just as well as a tarp would when unweighted. Tarps are not used in the same way as they are below treeline, above treeline in a storm, they are used in the same way as a spaceblanket, you wrap...

I spent a night at the Beaver Brook shelter on Moosilauke a few years ago and ran into a couple from the Bronx who were section hiking the AT. I was eating dinner with friends when a man came walking up (followed by a dog and his wife) who sat down by our fire and took his boots off before...

My vote goes to IMCS (international climbing school). I took their 3 day basic mountaineering course and learned a lot from it. All the guides are hardcore climbers and know what they are doing.

Check out the Cranmore Mountain Lodge bunkhouse in North Conway. It's a great spot if you don't mind sharing rooms with other people. There's an outdoor hot tub, you get a real breakfast with pancakes and coffee, and it's cheap. Here's the link...