Record-setting snowpack has rafters' optimism flowing
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- Created on Thursday, 28 April 2011 16:59
- Written by R. Scott Rappold
(The Arkansas River, flowing through downtown Salida, is expected to have good flows as the snow melts. Photo courtesy of Price Chambers.)
By R. Scott Rappold
The Gazette
It’s not only skiers who have been watching with delight as the snow piles up in the high country.
With statewide snowpack at 132 percent of the average for late April, and some basins in northern Colorado setting records, rafting guides and whitewater enthusiasts are excited about a possible big water year on the state’s rivers.
A fun summer day on the Arkansas River
“This year we have a lot to be optimistic about, from a water standpoint,” said Johnny Cantamessa, a Breckenridge outfitter and president of the Colorado River Outfitters Association.
Conditions might be dry on the Front Range, but the mountains are a different story. Some ski resorts have received as much as 500 inches of snow this year, and when that melts what rushes down the canyons is liquid adrenaline.
There are two types of people who book whitewater trips, Cantamessa said: the adrenaline junkies, who want to hit the water at peak flows, usually late May and early June, and families seeking calmer late-summer floats.
The adrenaline junkies are more likely to time a trip to the day’s water flows. They helped the industry increase trips by 3.4 percent last year, Cantamessa said.
Families are more likely to be lured by hot weather than big rapids, and they usually don’t visit until summer.
While basins in northern Colorado could see the greatest spring surges — the Yampa and White river basin has set a record with 156 percent of average, as has the North Platte basin with 158 percent — most rafters head to the Arkansas River.
Snowpack there is 109 percent of average, and that probably means a strong to normal runoff year, said Mike Gillespie, snow-survey supervisor for the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
“The story with the Arkansas ... The main stem is expected to produce good flows — average, above-average flows — and things certainly dry out as you go further south,” he said.
The Upper Rio Grande River Basin is at 81 percent and the basins of the Animas, Dolores, San Juan and San Miguel rivers are at 95 percent. Those basins are melting out earlier than usual, he said.
Of the 507,392 people who took a commercial rafting trip in Colorado last year, about 10 percent (49,391) headed to southern Colorado rivers where snowpack is weakest. Nearly half, 211,150, took trips on the Arkansas.
Cantamessa doesn’t expect big flows farther north to change those numbers.
“The Arkansas will definitely be the most popular place in Colorado to raft.
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