5⭐️ Reasons To Packraft La Venta River
Need reasons to Packraft La Venta River? Jeff rogers has got some ???? Story by Jeff Rogers, photos by Nathan Shoutis & Steve Fassbinder. Feature photo is by Steve of Jeff paddling a big rapid on La Venta. JOIN US ON LA VENTA RIVER JAN 25-FEB 2 Photo by Nathan Shoutis. Photo by Nathan Shoutis.… The post 5⭐️ Reasons To Packraft La Venta River appeared first on Four Corners Guides.
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Need reasons to Packraft La Venta River? Jeff rogers has got some 
Story by Jeff Rogers, photos by Nathan Shoutis & Steve Fassbinder. Feature photo is by Steve of Jeff paddling a big rapid on La Venta.
If you’re reading this and already thinking you might want to packraft the Rio La Venta canyon one day, the most important and useful thing I can tell you is simply this: Do it. Your future self will thank you.
If you’re on the fence about it, know that over that fence awaits one of those adventures that you’ll probably think about and talk about for the rest of your life. A bucket list-type thing if you’re into those.
If you’re still more squarely in the camp of the curious, I’ll tell you why I’m deeply grateful that my own past self bought the ticket, took the ride, had the adventure, and encoded the memories – and why I think you should too. Consider these my, ahem, 5 Reasons You Should Packraft La Venta River.
#5: The natural setting is absolutely stunning.
This could easily and justifiably rank at #1. But I’m getting it out of the way because it’s obvious. Descending the 60-some odd miles of the La Venta river canyon is like paddling ever deeper into a lush dream of vertical-walled limestone.
It starts beautiful and hits the sublime somewhere around the time you reach the Arco del Tiempo – the Arch of Time – and paddle through a surreal cathedral of a cave on Day 4. I mean “sublime” here in the John Muir sense – you feel the almost incomprehensible scale and majesty of geologic time as you pass beneath that arch.
The photos don’t communicate the experience. And I damn sure can’t do it justice here. I’ll just say that it is one of the rare and wonderful places where humans naturally – rightly – fall silent. You’ll feel lucky to witness it.
#4: It’s a perfect off-season expedition.
If you’re based in the United States or anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere with a real winter, the ideal time to packraft La Venta River coincides happily with the part of the year where you’re most likely to be pining for a warm weather adventure.
February paddling through a birder’s paradise in just a merino hoodie and shorts? Apparently doable. And as a newer packrafter, I was also keen to find some way to keep learning and practicing what skills I had through the winter. Getting down to Chiapas offered an excellent opportunity.
FCG started us with a tune-up/shakeout day at Agua Azul on the Xanil River. And then we had six days on La Venta, where the tight/technical maneuvering, abundant eddies, and progressively greater flow day by day offered an awesome environment to practice.
It also offered me a chance – as the least experienced paddler in the crew – to bump every single rock on every single rapid for 60 miles of river canyon. But hey, that was awesome practice, too. (Bless my sweet, long-suffering, and insanely durable Gnarwhal.)
#3: The people you meet on these trips…
I don’t even have to tell you this. You know that you’ll meet people on this kind of trip that you’ll laugh with, cry with, struggle with, perhaps puke with, sing with, dream with, and maybe cherish as adventure partners for years to come. That’s why we do these things together, right? And I write this having recently returned from a few long and gorgeous summer days of paddling on the Payette in Idaho with my best buddy from the La Venta expedition.
So yeah, friends! And I’ll go one further: I don’t know if Lizzy and Steve have explicitly implemented a “no assholes” policy. But a Four Corners crew is a special thing. The clients you paddle with are lovely. The guides are lovely. And the local partners are lovely, too. FCG works with a local paddler/guide/host in Chiapas named Rodrigo Alfonso. Rod combines deep local knowledge and love for the region with a clear sense of care for folks he sees as his guests. He rules. And you know what? I just paddled with Rod in Idaho too. Great community!
#2: On some level, this is almost certainly why we got into packrafting.
As previously noted, I’m newer to the sport. A novice. A regular swimmer. A bumper of every possible rock on every rapid. A guy who runs the line going backward and never on purpose. But I think I get this fundamental thing: packrafting is about connecting the dots and exploring the places that you can only enjoy with these particularly ingenious and weird little boats.
The full Rio La Venta canyon in the navigable low water season is absolutely one of those places and one of those lines. The trip is remote. And the two big portages are – to put it mildly – involved. But the sheer fact that you have a whitewater boat that can be packed and dragged, floated in a few inches of water and then ripped down sweet runs, firelined with your friends through the rockfall at the big portage of the Derrumbe, hauled up and hucked off boulders, only to put in and rip again on the other side… that might be reason enough.
For me, an expedition-style trip like La Venta was a chance to live the dream a packraft promises.
#1: You should do this because with Four Corners, you can — safely, responsibly, radly.
It probably won’t surprise you to learn that on the internet, there is disagreement about packrafting La Venta — who should run it, what the trip overall should be rated as a challenge, and so on. I think this is a good thing. As you descend the canyon, it’s not at all hard to imagine how things could get out of hand with significant rain and suboptimal risk management.
We had pretty great weather on my trip. But more than half of our crew had stomach bugs. I’m a Type-1 diabetic and had a hell of a time keeping my CGM patch on in the constant wet and high humidity (ask me about non-sanctioned skin adhesives!).
Bottom line: La Venta — and I guess any remote, expedition-style packrafting — is not a thing to be taken lightly. Which is exactly why I felt comfortable with FCG.
Steve is a pioneering expedition packrafter. And for a guy whose friends call him Doom, he’s an extremely safety-focused and conscientiously meet-you-where-you-are trip leader.
When I was on the fence about La Venta, largely because of my limited experience, I called Steve and expressed my misgivings. His response: This trip won’t be easy for you, but you’ll grow as a paddler every day. You come to Chiapas, and we will get you down the river safely — maybe with some additional portages. And it will be amazing.
He was right on all counts but might’ve actually undersold La Venta with “amazing.” Get out there, friends.
Read Chris Brinlee’s story, “Transcending the Arc of Time,” for another scintillating description of packrafting La Venta! Or watch a fun video by our friend, Rachel, below.
The post 5⭐️ Reasons To Packraft La Venta River appeared first on Four Corners Guides.
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