MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Summer 2019

49 T he Nahanni National Park Reserve protects over 30,000 km 2 of Dehcho Region, Northwest Territories. The park is home to the South Nahanni, a Canadian Heritage River that flows through some of Canada’s deepest canyons and over the 96-metre Virginia Falls. Commercial outfitters operate canoe adventures here out of Fort Simpson on the Mackenzie River. A recent expansion added the Ram River and its Scimitar Canyon to the Park. The Scimitar is known by the locals and pilots who have flown over it, the geologist who named it, and by explorer Mike Fischesser who has made three attempts to gain the ultimate vantage from its floor—once by river, once overland, and once in winter with ice-climbing gear. The Canyon was massively off the radar of the whitewater kayaking world. But photos and info passed hands, and finally in 2017 I was part of a crew of kayakers who would make an attempt to descend. August 21, 2017: High fives and high stoke on a small loading dock beside a DHC-2 Beaver in Fort Simpson. While we made our plans to depart the next day, Jonathan Tsesto, Superintendent for Nahanni National Park, approached the dock with a warm smile. After a brief introduction he informed us that he had some concerns with our proposal. He wanted to meet with us the next morning to discuss. Who knew that we needed permission to even get in the park, and that permission would be granted or declined based on a safety assessment from Tsesto with advice from those who would have to perform a rescue? After driving two vehicles over 20 hours from Dease Lake, with the fourth team member en route from Oregon with a sponsorship from MEC, our team faced a major planning blunder. In Tsetso’s office the next morning we exchanged greetings and Tsesto started off with a banger: “Aniol Serrasolses’ Worst Swims of 2015 —what was that!?” (It is a YouTube video with 60k-plus views of Aniol’s rowdiest moments that year.) Aniol put up his hands and said with his Spanish-accented English, “I was younger then, I am more careful now, I swear.” Tsesto outlined his concerns and gave us a discouraging 99 percent no-go on the expedition. We understood his concerns. A potential rescue, injury, or fatality within Park boundaries, on a high-risk trip he endorsed? Not happening. All river trips, whether a day run, a multiweek canoe trip, a trying weeklong expedition, have risks that need to be mitigated. Before the hull hits the water is the most important opportunity to minimize risk. The team needed proper introductions with an emphasis on our professionalism. Tsesto’s first impression may have been that the crew was young(ish), thrill-seeking, Instagramming types willing to go high risk for high experience. Not untrue, but there was a lot more depth to the crew. Chris Korbulic, who halted transit from Oregon in Calgary to wait for approval, is a highly experienced first-descent kayaker who has explored many hard-won canyons. Aniol Serrasolses is competitively decorated with many firsts including world championships, but that doesn’t define him. He is one of the smoothest most intuitive and technically accurate kayakers in the sport, and he does it for the love. Aniol’s older brother Gerd Serrasolses is also a world champion racer and unshakeable in critical situations. The team began to earn Tsesto’s trust. The next step was to pick apart the canyon and its whitewater piece by piece and provide Tsesto an action and safety plan outlining all possible scenarios and how to deal with each one. A unique cut in the canyon dubbed the Lightning Bolt narrows the Scimitar’s walls and the river LICING THE SCIMITAR Ontario pro kayaker Ben Marr’s account of the first descent of NWT’s Scimitar Canyon words :: Ben Marr