The Paddler Autumn/Fall issue 2017

ThePADDLER 138
Two days earlier we had left our tented
encampment at Sarchu and put-in the Tsarap at
the bottom of the Gata Loops on the Leh
Manali Highway. The open vista as you seal
yourself into your boat belies what is ahead.
Day one, the box
canyons
Six or eight of them depending how you count
your boxes, but, truly, there is only one box
canyon, number four on our calculator! The
open nature of the river changes after two
hours of floating. The river’s flow constricts
between narrowing walls and you enter box
one, a swirling mess of boil, whirlpools and
funky water.
Exiting to a rapid offering multiple lines we are
now committed to the river and the problems it
presents. George was here just last week; the
levels have dropped to the high side of medium
flows. I am losing track of the boxes, more open
than I had anticipated, when we drop into what I
later discover is our box four. No mistaking this,
barely wider than the length of our boats, sheer
sided polished rock walls compress flows, things
start happening, fast!
I look ahead and to my eye the river pretty
much stops a hundred metres ahead, George
disappears round, through the ‘blockage’ a wall
of white water created by a kink in the route
of the canyon. Seconds later I am through the
same stopper, ooof, pull through and into a
surging eddy above a very obvious horizon line,
I am informed this drop is new this year. Left of
centre, there is an obvious window.
Zanskar Valley monk’s view.
Photo: George Younger