I sadly have other plans so I can't boat.  But I wanted you all to know that according to my inside sources it looks like the Green should be at least 1400 cfs this wknd and maybe as high as 1800 cfs.  The flows should hold steady on Saturday.  Sunday has more of chance for a decrease, but it not currently planned and probably won't happen.  However, if a decrease was made Sunday it probably won't affect those on the river during the morning.

Have fun!

Bests,

Kristian

boater-boy thats a good question:

have you run boulder drop on the sky? if you have run boulder drop at any level higher than 2,500 cfs, you are probably good to go for the green.   ( there is nothing as technical as BD on the green below 3,000 cfs, just using that as a benchmark of skills)

Hiking out of the green gorge would be very challenging.  the gorge is steep and fairly remote once you are in there.  you can bail after the first 2 rapids when you are still in the park, but after that, bailing is increasingly difficult.

i have heard of stories of people hiking out and taking many hours.

ok, now that all the cautionary tales are on the table:  most of the rapids do have recovery pools when the levels are between 1300-1800 for collecting people and gear.  above 2000cfs, and the difficulty kicks up a bit.  though the river is deeper which makes it good if you are rolling at all, but it is also more powerful and much faster.

Mercury and the nozzle and lets make a deal are in pretty close succession to each other. at levels around 1500,  the water is moving much slower in between so can be a bit forgiving.

the thing about most rapids are that you cant really scout much. i have never been able to scout mercury though maybe if you can bushwack to do so.  it would be sweet to get a trail cut out there to scout to make sure no wood is in the nozzle. i have came flying down mercury at 2500cfs to see a huge log pinned in the nozzle and catch a fast eddy and portage. it was intense!

I think a good comparison would be the middle middle at 3,500cfs would be equivalent difficulty to the green at 1500 cfs.  though it is kind of hard to compare a granite river bed to a tighter sandstone river bed.  they are simply different character.  the green is still more technical. 

You should have a confident roll and good technical ability, it should be treated as a class 4 run. if you go with the right crew, especially a crew that knows your ability and how to guide you, im sure you would do well. 


dave4 made a post earlier this week about he is going to boat the green gorge and he might be too fat to roll up these days.  disregard most comments coming from him.  you should have a good roll going into the gorge


Edited by not-very-clever - 24 Oct 2014 at 1:52pm

up to you, but you probably want to paddle you big boat first on something you are familiar with before taking it on a new run.  creekers handle a lot different than playboat/river runners, and you don't want to find that out when you need to role up quick and hit an eddy.

that said i only every paddle my playboat since the Green is the toughest thing i run anymore.