Clark Fork perfect for 'playboaters'

When winter closes in on the mountains of Western Montana, it often means the end of any and all water sports until summer shows its sunny head.

When the temperatures drop, it is simply too cold for most people to brave the already chilly waters of the area's rivers and creeks. This is not so for local whitewater kayakers.

Area boaters are braving some icy conditions to hit the rapids of the Alberton Gorge of the Clark Fork River because right now it has some of best playboating conditions kayakers can get all year round.

Playboating is a type of whitewater kayaking involving a small kayak that allows boaters to do tricks using the force of the water.

Modern playboats are usually less than seven feet in length and are individually designed to fit certain weights and body types. Kayaks designed for smaller people and children tend to be shorter and have less volume while kayaks for larger people are longer and have more volume. The right kayak, along with lots of practice, allows boaters to do tricks like cartwheels and flips in the water.

The Alberton Gorge on the Clark Fork River is a haven for playboaters. Any time of the year that they are brave and well equipped enough to hit the water, the Clark Fork will have excellent play features. The only time it is too cold to kayak for many boaters is when there are ice dams in the river, which can be extremely dangerous. Apart from ice dams, it is only a matter of how cold the kayaker is willing to be.

One of the most important aspects of kayaking is the level of the river. Playboaters use waves and hydraulic features in the river to perform most of their stunts, and these features need to be at a specific level to be useful to the boater. When the water is too high, a hydraulic feature can become too powerful and a kayaker can be trapped and re-circulated by the river. Waves wash out at certain levels and turn into flat fast moving water, and can become too steep to be useful as a play feature at other levels.

River levels change day to day, depending on the amount of rain and snow-melt the river's drainage area has had.

In this part of the country, melting snow has the biggest effect on river levels. In the early summer, the rivers are the highest, and the rivers are extremely low in the fall and winter. With the extraordinary amounts of snow that has fallen this year, most kayakers are excited for an above average snow melt.

In order to safely navigate a river, kayakers learn how the water levels affect each feature. Since each wave and hydraulic feature is unique, it takes a lot of practice and observation to learn exactly which levels are best for each one. The most important tool for any kayaker trying to learn a specific river is the United States Geological Survey's data on stream flows. The USGS keeps accurate information on river levels year around online. Kayakers can access this information at any time, and with experience know exactly what the river is doing. The USGS measures the activity of a river in cubic feet per second, so if a kayaker wants to play on a specific feature on the river, they need to know what level that feature will come in at. They can then check the river level and when it is just right, they hit the water.

Kayakers in the Alberton Gorge area are particularly lucky to have one of the most versatile rivers available right in their back yard. At almost every river level, there is an excellent playable feature somewhere in the Alberton Gorge. When the water gets too high for one feature, another one comes in, and vice versa.

Whitewater kayakers use many different pieces of equipment to combat the cold weather and even chillier water.

The most important piece of gear for any cold weather whitewater kayaker is their dry top, a paddling jacket that has rubber gaskets on the wrists and neck to prevent water from coming in. The entire waterproof piece of gear is the outermost layer that a kayaker will wear to keep warm in the winter. When temperatures get especially chilly, kayakers can wear dry suits, which extend over the whole body and use rubber gaskets over their ankles as well.

Another option for kayakers in cold conditions is the use of a wet suit. There are a variety of different kinds of wet suits available, but many kayakers shy away from them because in order for a wet suit to be affective, it needs to be thick. Thick wet suits are often too bulky and inhibit the paddler's movement.

According to American Whitewater, cold weather is one of the top causes of death for whitewater kayakers. They recommend that kayakers wear a wet suit or dry suit any time the water is below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Since water evaporating off of the body pulls heat away from a person much faster than simple cold air, these two layers are essential to keeping kayakers safe out on the water.

Underneath a dry top or dry suit, kayakers choose layers carefully depending on the temperature of the day, and how hard they will be working. All layers are non-cotton because wet cotton tends to pull heat away from the body. Fabrics like fleece, wool and many synthetically designed products can still retain heat in the body while wet.

These pieces of gear are some of the trickiest pieces of clothing to figure out for a whitewater kayaker. Since it is extremely difficult to safely change clothes while out on a whitewater river, kayakers need to determine the correct amount of clothing to wear for each situation. If a paddler is wearing too much equipment, they will begin to sweat underneath their dry top. Sweat will act just like any moisture and actually cause the kayaker to be colder. However, if the paddler does not put on enough gear, the experience could be just as chilly.

Whitewater kayakers also wear helmets and personal floatation devices at all times. Not only do these pieces of equipment protect the paddler from head injury and drowning, when the weather gets cold, the helmet helps keep the boaters head warm and the PFD acts as another warming layer.

As western Montana continues to warm up, more and more kayakers will be flocking to the area to sample the world-class playboating in the Alberton Gorge, but the locals have been there all year round.

For more information on winter kayaking and whitewater rivers, visit www.americanwhitewater.org.