Callaghan Creek Festival 2010

A few weeks ago was the Calaghan creek festival near Whistler,BC. Calaghan creek is a beautiful classic BC creek with sick rapids and beautiful scenery. The festival was to raise awareness about the fact that like most creeks in BC, the Calaghan has a hydropower license on it, and could be dammed soon. Being one of the most beautiful and fun creeks in BC, it would be a terrible thing to lose this river. Some of our most precious creeks are already lost to damming projects, like the Ashlu. We need to fight the damming of rivers like this. The festival itself was a great time. We camped right at the Calaghan takeout. The race was a huge success. There were 18 people in the race altogether and about 10 people paddled the creek that day running safety and enjoying the sunshine. There were about 20 spectators that hiked in to watch the race at the biggest waterfall. I was surprised to find out that Kurt and I won the race because there was some competition for sure. And just like any event it wouldn't be complete without a little carnage, a few swims were had and only a few kayaks were broken. Here are the final race results.

Fred Norquist - Kurt Braunlich - 16:55

Matt Kompass - Ben Hawthorne - 17:09

Mark Basso - Benjamin Hjørt - 17:23

Greg Dashper - Mikael Aubin - 17:29

Jakub Drnec - Matt Mackinnon - 18:17

Jordie Mackenzie - Bryce Shaw - 18:31

Spencer Cox - Sean Allen - 20:05

Ali Marshall - Steve Arns - 23:40

Jonas Grünewald - Leif Embertson - DNF

Cold river cooled beers were had at the takeout followed by a short awards ceremony and then talk from Jakub Drnec of the BC Creek Protection Society. We then started the party up by watching huckin huge's new flick, Haymaker. A good time was had by all, and it was all in the name of saving the calaghan. Steve Rogers shot some incredible photos of the event, check them out.


Steve Arns talking about how the race works.


The scene before the start.


Kurt and Leif chillin pre-race.


Me chillin before the start of the race.


Layin treats on the top 15 footer.


Spectators watching just a regular old spectator sport?


Jakub and Matt coming through a sweet curly rapid just below the first waterfall.


Ali and Jonas chatting about something.


Me in front with Kurt right on my tail. We were running close.


A crumpled nose. Calaghan is not super nice to vacant kayaks.


Observing the damage.


3rd place- Mark Basso and Benny Hjort


Ben Hawthorne and Matt Kompass taking second. Nice work guys.


Me and Kurt taking the victory south of the border to Bham.


Max getting his party on!

Overall the event was a great success. Everyone had fun, and i'm excited for next year. Calaghan truly is a beautiful run!