Tomato Gorge
Chris Baer
Tomato Gorge, looking at Tomato One,
and knowing that more than 50 % of attempts have landed on their heads.
Looking at Tomato Two,
that has had very few successful descents and has a 150 rappel in. We simply decided to rappel off of a whole bunch of throw bags hooked together, into the gorge below.
The rappel, hand-over-hand climbing adventure and lowering the boats in took about an hour. We paddled into the landing pool of Tomato Two, “Damn, I’m glad I didn’t run that. It looks horrible from here.”
Off into the canyon we went; John got out and scouted the first major drop.
“Well it goes…. it just has a lot of stuff going on on both sides, just go down the tounge.”
We were all pretty fired up at the bottom and it was really fun to watch everyone’s eyes get huge right at the crest of the lip.
There was a hand full of other fun drops and then we came to this:
Jake boofin’ it.
“Just fire off the gorilla pad!”
It was great, a slow roll in to a great launch flake. John even attempted a freeweel off of it.
Next up was a 15 footer with a big hole at the bottom. I got surfed.
Lance getting far left, avoiding the hole.
Another goofy drop. You couldn’t see the landing on almost every drop. When in doubt power through.
Chris Baer looking for the last stroke.
A hand full of other little drops and the river mellows out again. This section is super fun and the quality of the drops was fantastic. Just remember one rule when coming to Mexico: you can never ave enough paddles (John broke 3), and bring a climbing rope.
Chris Baer
p.s.- If you look at Google Earth, there is yet another gorge below this. It has been labeled as unrunnable. I will be back to spend some time looking.
and knowing that more than 50 % of attempts have landed on their heads.Looking at Tomato Two,
that has had very few successful descents and has a 150 rappel in. We simply decided to rappel off of a whole bunch of throw bags hooked together, into the gorge below.The rappel, hand-over-hand climbing adventure and lowering the boats in took about an hour. We paddled into the landing pool of Tomato Two, “Damn, I’m glad I didn’t run that. It looks horrible from here.”
Off into the canyon we went; John got out and scouted the first major drop.
“Well it goes…. it just has a lot of stuff going on on both sides, just go down the tounge.”
We were all pretty fired up at the bottom and it was really fun to watch everyone’s eyes get huge right at the crest of the lip.
There was a hand full of other fun drops and then we came to this:
Jake boofin’ it.
“Just fire off the gorilla pad!”
It was great, a slow roll in to a great launch flake. John even attempted a freeweel off of it.
Next up was a 15 footer with a big hole at the bottom. I got surfed.
Lance getting far left, avoiding the hole.Another goofy drop. You couldn’t see the landing on almost every drop. When in doubt power through.
Chris Baer looking for the last stroke.A hand full of other little drops and the river mellows out again. This section is super fun and the quality of the drops was fantastic. Just remember one rule when coming to Mexico: you can never ave enough paddles (John broke 3), and bring a climbing rope.
Chris Baer
p.s.- If you look at Google Earth, there is yet another gorge below this. It has been labeled as unrunnable. I will be back to spend some time looking.