The most difficult river to raft. Rafting is the most dangerous route. Karelia and the Kola Peninsula

Rivers for rafting on catamarans flow in abundance in our country. There are forest or lowland reservoirs in all regions, so every water guide will find at least one route for a relaxing hike near their city.

Recreational rafting does not require exceptional skill or special equipment, but once you start... Most water tourists still want to try white water. This article has a route suitable in difficulty for everyone.

How to choose a place for a boat trip

Choosing a river for rafting is a non-trivial task for beginning watermen, so you can’t do it without help on your first trips. To begin with, you can contact the Tourist and Sports Union of Russia, whose specialists develop category routes for all types of tourism. It is worth taking a look at the main classifications of rivers.

All rivers of Russia on the map

Experience Orientation

The first thing that needs to be taken into account is the experience, both rafting and tourist, since the tests on a trip are not only water ones. Setting up a camp, navigating the terrain, installing belay and providing first aid - all rafting participants should have such skills.

For beginner watermen you should prefer the simple but picturesque routes of Karelia and the Urals. There are a dozen well-trodden paths in the Caucasus, but they have their own peculiarities: they are complicated by canyons or local rapids, which only a trained group can pass. Before the hike, you need to find out the current water level on the planned section of the route.

Experienced tourists prefer the Caucasus, Altai and Sayan Mountains. These three regions for rafting in Russia contain the most difficult and legendary rivers. But it should be remembered that on rivers of the highest category of complexity, any mistake can be fatal.

Purpose and interests of the trip

The second criterion for choosing a region for water trip on a catamaran are its goals:

• Specific river. If a group wants to pass a certain river without considering other options, the issue of choosing a region will be resolved automatically.
• Increasing difficulty category. The group climbed, for example, several 4-class routes. and wants to level up. Rivers 5 k.s. There are several places, so you have to choose between them. Usually they prefer those that are closer, where it is easier to transfer and there is the possibility of emergency exits from the route.
• Educational and contemplative interest. Hiking provides an excellent opportunity to get acquainted with various sights, and watermen often choose a river, for example, in the Sayan Mountains to see Baikal, or in Karelia to visit Kizhi.

Remoteness of the rafting point

Usually the trek takes a week or more, but sometimes the round trip by train can take just as long.

Tourists often have to choose rivers that are faster to get to (short vacations, May holidays). In May, water workers from the European part of the country usually go to the Caucasus or Karelia, where they can be reached in a day. In the summer, when you have more time, you can go to Altai or even the Sayan Mountains.

Best places for catamaran rafting by region

There are especially favorite rivers that have been studied inside and out. This is where you should start gaining experience in water trips.

Where can I find out rafting routes and their difficulty category?

The Sports Tourism Federation publishes a special one, which contains a section with a list of all water routes in the Russian Federation and adjacent regions with an assigned category (about 560 in total). For your convenience, the most significant of them are listed in the tables below, for each region; read the rest in the document at the link above.

Karelia and the Kola Peninsula

There are no high mountains in these northern regions, so the rivers are quite simple (2-3 class), although they are not without sporting interest. The river is popular Kutsajoki or bunch Umba-Kolvitsa on the Kola Peninsula. Their difficulty is rated up to the fourth category, depending on the water level.

The region is favored by kayakers, but it is ideal for rowing catamarans and anyone who just wants to relax on rafting. No special experience or equipment is required, and there are no problems with casting in and out, so experienced tourists take beginners on trips around Karelia who have never had the opportunity to sit on a catamaran before.

Here beautiful nature, you can swim, sunbathe and fish. Almost all rapids are of a local type, which simplifies belaying, but there are a lot of stretches with weak currents. Sometimes you even have to cross lakes, which forces you to lean on the oars, especially in the absence of a tailwind.

People usually go to Karelia and the Kola region in the summer, since it is still too cold here for the May holidays. The exception is southern Karelia. Every year at the beginning of May Tokhma, Uxa, Loimola And Collas They meet numerous watermen who are not afraid of snow in the forest and lakes covered with ice.

A vast region stretching from the Arctic Circle to the southern borders of Russia. In the middle and southern parts, most routes have 2 k.s., and the largest sporting interest present Inzer And Iset, or rather, their thresholds Aigir And Howler.

Closer to the Subpolar region, the mountains are higher and the rivers gradually become more difficult, with rapids up to 4 k.s. appearing on them.

For catamaran sailing, the Urals are interesting primarily as a region where you can have a great rest. Beautiful views, ease of casting and discarding, and the absence of rowing on lakes will appeal to anyone. And those who prefer more extreme rafting can go to the rivers of the northern part of the Ural Mountains.

Central and Southern Urals Water workers visit in the summer and on the May holidays, when there is more water and the rapids become more powerful, and Polar and Subpolar only in the summer.

Caucasus

In the Caucasus there are rivers of any complexity category. Eg, Teberda or Zelenchuk – great options for training and teaching beginners. It is worth remembering that the Caucasian routes have a very intense background, which makes the rafting more dynamic and interesting. Here is also Belaya River, famous for its 6 class canyons. and the annual Interrally competitions.

The region is good for water trips on catamarans because it offers a varied selection of routes. The rivers in the Caucasus are short, so tourists cross two or three in one trip. This is not difficult to do, because things are going well with the drop-off and drop-off, and thanks to the proximity settlements You can always buy the necessary products or medicines.
All of the above along with warm climate And beautiful views makes the Caucasus a desirable travel destination that will never get boring.

The region is visited in the summer, on May and even November holidays, with spring being the favorite time. The fact is that water workers from the European part of the country can quickly get here, but at this time there are no alternatives to the Caucasus: the nearest category rivers are in Altai.

Mecca of water tourism, where every waterman dreams of visiting. This is where these are located famous rivers, like Argut, Chuya, Chulyshman, Bashkaus. Here, too, it’s easy to find a simple route up to 2nd station, but usually they are only used local tourists, everyone else prefers more complex options.

As for the type of rivers, they are varied in Altai: from wide, full-flowing, with powerful rapids (for example, Katun) to narrow slalom ( Shawla). On these routes there are any vessels, but most often - catamarans and rafts.

You can get to many rivers using regular transport, but sometimes you have to hire an SUV, or even walk.

The rafting season here begins with May holidays and ends in autumn, that is, the region is attractive for catamaraning until the rivers freeze.

Picturesque region high mountains and wild rivers are popular with tourists all over the country. Even water workers from Kaliningrad are ready to travel across the whole country to pass Urik, Kitoy, Biy-Khem or Onot.

For visiting tourists, complex routes are primarily of interest, but there are also simple rivers in the region where you can admire the beauty of nature, relax and go fishing.

The rivers and rapids here are varied: Kitoy waterfalls, slalom Zhomboloka, powerful shafts Oka Sayanskaya. This choice allows even the most sophisticated and experienced catamaran operators to plan a route from which they will be able to get vivid impressions.

The specificity of the region is a difficult casting. As a rule, you have to go high into the mountains, storm fords and swamps, and this is only possible with special transport. Even if a tractor doesn’t help and you have to walk, local carriers offer to hire an escort with horses. You can load some things on them to make walking easier.

The places listed above are a kind of golden list of must-sees. There are enough routes in these parts, but if you want something exclusive, then in our country there are others, no less interesting places for rafting on catamarans, for example, the Putorana plateau or the Kamchatka river.

They may vary unusual nature, beautiful waterfalls and other qualities that attract tourists, and if these are not enough, a suitable river can be found abroad.

The answer is simple - its essence is in struggle, and not only in overcoming water obstacles and fighting the elements, but also in victory over oneself. And those who felt this excitement, extreme, will no longer be able to forget the feeling of going beyond their capabilities. No one remains the same after rafting.

Why is rafting good?

River rafting is good because it is suitable not only for experienced water tourists. It is actively developing, becoming more and more popular among extreme sports enthusiasts, as it requires them to have high coordination of actions, endurance, a considerable level of physical endurance and, most importantly, to quickly take right decisions while rafting down the river, but also among ordinary vacationers who decided to test what they are capable of.

The only assistants in rafting are the equipment and experience of the instructor, who is often also the captain of the team. This is an extreme and difficult activity, but all the difficulties overcome bring a lot of positivity and pleasure, which brings not only the process itself, but also the places where it takes place - after all, the sight of pristine nature, untouched by man, can leave few people indifferent.

Among professionals, two related concepts are distinguished:

1. Rafting is a descent along the waters of a mountain river, which can last, depending on the route, from a couple of hours to one day.
2. Rafting is a descent along a flat river, much less extreme and difficult. It can last for several days in a row.

For rafting, the age of the participants is not so important. More important are arm strength, endurance and the ability to work as a team, as well as the fortitude of the descent participant.

Rafting categories

Depending on where the river flows, in the mountains or on the plains, the degree of difficulty for rafters varies. There are only six of them, and they are designed for people different levels preparation:

1. The first, easiest category is absolutely nothing complicated. The rafting takes place along quiet sections of rivers, with slow currents and shift-type crossings. Along the entire route, the only dangers can be posed by rocks protruding from the water and shoals.
2. The second category includes descents of moderate difficulty, which include more difficult obstacles: barrels (sections with reverse flow), complex shivers, small drains are possible.
3. The third category is already difficult routes, on which there are many stones protruding from the water, chaotic swells, elevation changes and steep rapids that will require remarkable strength from the participants. Without an experienced instructor, only experienced athletes can complete such descents.
4. The fourth category is clearly not for beginners. Quite experienced rafters are allowed to access it, as the descents are replete with unpredictable obstacles, powerful currents and difficult rapids. You cannot take such routes without preparation, preliminary inspection and planning. But even if the safest route is chosen, participants will need professional skills in maneuvering and avoiding all kinds of obstacles.
5. The fifth category is not just for experienced rafters - it is for professionals. Such descents are never started without a preliminary inspection of the route, because they include the most difficult barrels, narrow passages between rocks, drops over small waterfalls, steep canyons and sometimes do not even have one section with calm water where you could take a breath.
6. The most difficult, sixth category of rafting is determined by the presence of rapid rapids of upper passability, and the possibility of rafting itself depends on the water level. This category is extremely extreme, it is only for the most experienced rafters who like to take risks - after all, even the smallest mistake can cost their lives. Many of these routes still remain untraveled.

Types of rafting

Rafting has amateur, sports and professional branches. Types of rafting are as follows:

1. Tourist rafting. It involves descents along calm rivers, no higher than the second category, where special training not required. It is the most common type of rafting, which is available to any novice tourist. Each vessel, which can accommodate from four to twelve people, has an experienced instructor who gives simple commands, which participants must carry out as accurately as possible. The duration of such swims usually does not exceed several hours.
2. Hiking rafting is a cross between sports and tourist branches. In this type of rafting, trips can last more than one day, interrupted only by sleep and short rest, and therefore the approach to choosing equipment is more rigid than in a tourist one.
3. Sports rafting. Like any sport, it consists of a system of various competitions in various categories of difficulty. The competition program may include slalom, sprint, marathon (long descents on 14-pound rafts), kayak races. This is a young, but very rapidly developing sport, where athletes, as in other disciplines, undergo daily training and prepare for championships.
4. Separate branches of rafting are scientific expeditions to remote and inaccessible corners of our planet and rescue operations on rafts.

There is also a seasonal classification - summer and winter rafting.

Posted Mon, 23/10/2017 - 07:20 by Cap

The most popular rivers for rafting in the world

Exciting sense of danger, close-knit team spirit and refreshing splashes ice water mountain rivers - these are the main features of rafting, which every year increase the number of fans of the extreme sport. Attracts rafting and people mature age, and children who go to conquer the elements with their parents.

And if some people are simply attracted to beautiful mountain rivers, then others, in search of extreme sports, go to the most remote places on the planet. Some rivers are considered incredibly dangerous for rafting due to the changeable currents and the abundance of difficult rapids - they become the target of experienced extreme sports enthusiasts.
For competitions, athletes also choose the most dangerous river rapids in order to have the opportunity to fully demonstrate their skills. If you have long felt at one with an inflatable boat, then it’s time to go on a trip to one of the most dangerous places for rafting.
Water procedures strengthen the body and strengthen the spirit, especially if we're talking about about extreme rafting. This original way dating water element will quench the thirst for adrenaline even in the most desperate daredevils - high speed, raging waves and dangers that await around every turn.

For fans of extreme rafting and simply lovers of active tourism, we have prepared a selection of the most dangerous and interesting river routes in the world.

Franklin River. Tasmania, Australia

“The Franklin River has a special energy - in its waters you forget about all your problems,” writes Martin, a rafter from Australia. Franklin is one of the deepest and long rivers"Green Continent". It's scary to think, but just 25 years ago Franklin could have been killed. Local authorities wanted to build a dam in its waters, but after a long struggle the guards environment managed to prevent this.

Now Franklin is a popular place among lovers of active tourism. According to the international sports classification, rafting on this river is classified as the highest category of difficulty. The river often changes its course, and the route is complicated by fallen tree trunks. In addition to forest debris, pitfalls and river rapids, tourists will have to overcome the psychological factor - the rafting takes place far from civilization, and in the event of a disaster, rescuers will arrive only in a couple of days.
The best time for rafting is from October to April. Travel agencies Australia offers rafting programs lasting 8 and 10 days. An eight-day rafting trip will cost about $2,500.
Franklin flows through National Park Franklin-Gordon-Wild Rivers. You can get there from the state capital of Hobrat along the B62 towards New Norfolk in 1 hour.

- a river in the central part of Altai, the right tributary of the Katun, one of the largest.
Length 106 km (without the Akalakha River), basin area 9550 km².
Argut begins at the merger of Jazator and Akalaha. The abundance of glaciers determines the character water regime: 40% of the runoff comes from glaciers and eternal snow, 34% from seasonal snow, 17% from rain, 9% from The groundwater. It freezes in November and opens in April. The average slope of the river is 10 m/km, the average annual flow at the mouth is 112 m³/s.
Argut has a high water flow, which is highly dependent on tributaries flowing mainly from the glaciers of the Katunsky and Chuysky ridges. In the Argut basin there are calm rivers and streams of the Ukok plateau, powerful milky-white tributaries with boiling whirlpools starting from glaciers, and transparent, clean, swift streams flowing from lakes.

confluence of Argut and Katun, Altai

Argut is one of the few places in Altai where Snow Leopard(irbis). The largest group of Siberian ibex in the Altai-Sayan region also lives here.

The highest densities of mountain goats are recorded here, grazing on the steep mountain slopes. There is good fishing on the Argut and its tributaries - Karagem, Yungur, Shavla. IN upper reaches Grayling is caught in the tributaries, and in the lower reaches there are also usch and taimen.

The valley of the Argut River is also rich in archaeological sites. Burial mounds are found everywhere here. Many of them are adjacent to winter huts - square structures, usually with a flat roof, covered with logs and turf. In addition to mounds, you can find stone fences, balbals, and stone women. In some places ancient drawings have been preserved on rocky ledges. There is such an abundance of archaeological sites here that, for sure, life was once in full swing here. Now these places can be called wild. Of the populated areas - only the village of Belyashi, one of the most remote villages of the republic, and Argut or Arkhyt, a small village of several houses, as well as winter huts, which are inhabited only in summer time(cattle are driven to the Ukok plateau for the winter).

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According to statistics, the rivers of Karelia are considered the most popular among groups of tourists - watermen.

Karelia provides a large selection of waters where you can improve your skills in turbulent streams both on catamarans and on kayaks and paddle boards. You can choose a variety of routes, starting with simple ones, the most beautiful rivers, to difficult rapids for highly qualified tourists and athletes.

International assessment standards water trips make up six categories and relate only to wild rafting rivers. What does each number mean in the description of the route difficulty? Let's figure it out.

Category I: Water trips in this category are rivers with a small current and completely simple crossings. Danger on such quiet rivers Only a sudden shoal or protruding stones - boulders - can be imagined.

Category III: Complex rivers with high and disorderly shafts, a large number encountered pitfalls and other significant obstacles. The need for this water trip the ability to maneuver professionally, bypassing “barrels” and “siphons”.

Category IV: Challenging rivers with unpredictable obstacles, powerful currents and challenging rapids. During a water trip of this category, you should be able to maneuver professionally, bypassing “barrels” and “siphons,” and you should also preview the route along the river.

Category V: Extremely difficult rivers, the rapids of which can include waterfall plums, difficult to pass rifts and barrels, as well as completely narrow passages. This category of passing some sections of such a turbulent river can carry enormous risk and danger to life.

Category VI: Stormy rivers of the upper limit of passability. Mistakes here can cost lives - obstacles on such rivers are passed either by those who know how to take good risks, or sections remain unclimbed.

The complexity of a river (water trip) depends on the changing circumstances of nature: water level, debris from logs after a flood, etc. Therefore, when assigning one category or another to a river, those complex or simple individual sections are determined that can receive their own description.

For example, The difficulty of a particular rapid on a river is indicated as an index. To make the description of the river more accurate, in some cases a combination of one or another category or half of one is used: III+, IV- or III-IV. Therefore, even roughly indicating complexity of river rafting, the international scale includes three simple and effective criteria:

• identification of obstacles;
• movement lines;
• safety in case of difficult passage consequences.

Every field of activity has its own degree of professionalism. Each river rafting participant must take into account his own strengths and capabilities, and therefore should familiarize himself with the available difficulty levels (classification) of rapids.

Of course, you can take into account international classification, but it is presented in the form of dry technological language. In practice, they usually take into account the water flow in the threshold, the nature and density of obstacles.

1st category

Obstacles of the first category are characterized by fast-flowing water with small swells. All obstacles are easily passed. It is almost impossible to fall out of the boat, but if this happens, the shore is close. In this case, all equipment remains safe. The first class of obstacles corresponds to recreation on the water. When rafting, catamaran or kayak, there are almost no extreme sensations ( Southern Bug in Vinnytsia region at low water levels).

2nd category

The second category is created for amateurs. In this case, you can overcome straight rapids with clean and wide passages between the stones. You will be able to meet “plums” and “barrels”. Unprepared participants can raft on inflatable kayaks, which can be very interesting (until the first capsize). Rafting on rafts is more calm (Southern Bug, Black Cheremosh at low water levels).

3rd category

Disorderly and high shafts predominate. There may be numerous stones and small suvodi (calm area of ​​water on the threshold). Medium level of difficulty. Rafting on an inflatable kayak for beginners is quite difficult, but interesting; capsizes are inevitable. Rafting on a raft brings a lot of pleasure, coups are practically impossible (and the Carpathian rivers (with high level water; rivers of Georgia, North Caucasus, Norway).

The fourth category includes extreme sports. You need to be prepared for powerful and intense rapids that require precise maneuverability when passing them; the flow varies in power and can be unpredictable. Inflatable kayaking is very challenging, even for advanced participants. The Raft inspires confidence with its reliability and appears in all its glory, but you must be able to operate it correctly. Sometimes upheavals occur (Prut at high water levels, Caucasus, Kola Peninsula, Norway).

5th category

The fifth category includes the passage of water obstacles, the passage of which can cause serious harm to health. In this case, not only maneuverability is important, but also preliminary reconnaissance of obstacles, since some sections of the river may pose a danger. The rapids include complex barrels, clamps, and waterfall plumes. Rafting on rafts and catamarans is possible if you have extensive rafting experience (rivers of Georgia, the Caucasus,).

6th category

The sixth category is considered extremely difficult. The risk is enormous! This category of obstacles can only be completed by professional athletes. Most often, such obstacles remain unconquered (rivers of Georgia, the Caucasus, Norway, the Kola Peninsula with high water levels).

Typically, a river and its individual sections are assigned a certain category, which helps to more accurately determine the category of complexity (c.s.). For example, a river 4 k.s. with elements 6 k.s.