SUMMER2016
MOUNTAINLIFE
63
“That is the trickiest thing inmyposition,”
says Squamish-based filmmaker, Bryan Smith. “We ride that line, where
our success and failure parallel the success and failure of the athletes
almost perfectly. If they decide not to go, we fail. If they go and fail, we
probably fail too. And if something happens, in that place, there is no
infrastructure. No one can help you; the people are beautiful and the
landscape is beautiful, but there is nothing there to lean on.”
‘That place’ is the Island ofNewBritain, a crescent-shaped slab of jungle
that punches up from the South Pacific like the spine of some ancient
green leviathan. Eighty-eight kilometres east of Papua New Guinea,
New Britain is home to five active volcanoes, and with a high point of
2,438metres, (7,999 feet) it’s essentially a 520-kilometre stretch of rain-
slammed limestonemountains blanketed in thick,wet, crumbling jungle,
cut deepwithnear-bottomless river gorges.
And themost near-bottomless of all isBerimanRiver, a 40-kilometre run
of vertical cliffs, imposingwaterfalls and overall jungle chaos nicknamed
“The Grand Canyon of the Pacific” by expedition/exploration kayakers
like Ben Stookesberry andChris Korbulic.There aren’t thatmany rivers
LEFT
Pedro andBenny enjoy“peripheral entertainment”above the first canyon, above the first
waterfall, above total commitment. CHRISKORBULIC.
TOP
Ben Stookesberry - “What the
f**kwas I thinking?”… Just kidding, helicopters go fast, so Stookes hangs ontohis headset and
looks for options inone of the canyons. CHRISKORBULIC.
RIGHT
PedroOlivawaits to receive
a boat down to river level after a two-stage, 76-metre (250-foot) rappel.Aftermany days ofwork
tomake gains up and away from the river, Pedro hoped to stay high and continue to portage.
The groupdecided to return to river level. BENNYMARR
