It's now official: More than just the powder-hounds were pleased with the epic '07-'08 snow season; river rats had their fun, too.
In the valley - and across the state - rafters, kayakers and even whitewater sledgers enjoyed what many claim was one of the best seasons in recent memory. As late as April 1, the snowpack for the Roaring Fork River basin was at 148 percent of average. Compare that to April 1, 1984 - one of the biggest runoff years in recent history - where the snowpack was at 139 percent.
"It was pretty incredible," says Gary Pera, owner of sledging outfit Aspen Seals. "We definitely saw a lot more people coming out and hitting the rivers with us this season compared to last season and the rapids were pretty amazing all spring and summer long. And it was nice to see people coming out in such large numbers even when the risk was high."
The Colorado River through Cataract Canyon (home to the famous Big Drop rapids) was running at approximately 60,700 cubic feet per second in early June, and even the Roaring Fork below Maroon Creek was running as high as 2,500 cfs at its peak during the last week of June. But in addition to the higher-than-average flow levels, a cool spring reminiscent of winter created nearly ideal conditions for a slow runoff that had area rivers running high but remaining within their banks.
Some Basalt homeowners stacked up sandbags and one Glenwood Springs trailer park owner even hacked down trees along the Roaring Fork River. But the flooding threat soon passed, and river enthusiasts were instead able to enjoy a season that extended weeks past "closing days" of years' past.
"We normally stop running the Roaring Fork two to three weeks into July," Pera said. "But this year we were able to go until the middle of August."
Outfitters across the state had similar reactions to Pera, and Tom Kleinschnitz, chairman of the Colorado River Outfitters Association, which represents more than 50 licensed outfitters across the state, believes that 2008 might just be another record year for passenger traffic.
"Many of the outfitters we represent reported some of the best conditions they've seen in a while," he says. "And even better for Colorado, the number of people coming to Colorado to raft is on pace to be a new record."
In 2007, 539,000 people went rafting in Colorado, a 5.7 percent increase of 2006. Those visitors collectively spent $153 million during their raft trip, a 10 percent increase over the prior year and an industry economic impact record. The second largest number of rafters in the past two decades was 525,537 visitors in 1999. Kleinschnitz is hopeful that when fully compiled, this year's numbers will set an even higher record.
At least one rafting outfitter in the valley - Blazing Adventures - is still running trips on Shoshone on the Colorado River upriver from Glenwood Springs.
damien@aspendailynews.com
