For skiers who live by the credo "no guts, no glory," a whitewater rafting trip that would promise a roller-coaster-of-a-ride always seemed like the perfect off-season activity. Finally, after many years of just talking about it, Bob Gittleman volunteered to organize our First Annual Whitewater Rafting Trip. Interest in the trip was overwhelmingly positive, and it sold out quickly. On Saturday, August 20th, on a cloudless, warm (but not hot!), and absolutely beautiful blue-sky day, 25 WASC members and guests gathered at the Pocono Whitewater Center in Jim Thorpe, PA, ready for the big adventure.

We sorted ourselves out into four raft groups, sat through an orientation (which at times sounded a little like a survival lesson!), and elected a "captain" for each raft who would be in charge of giving (and sometimes yelling...) commands to keep us on course, and most importantly, to be the decision- maker whenever things got a little hairy (and occasionally, they did...).

A shuttle bus took us up to where we would begin our down-river journey. After a short hike through the woods, we arrived at the river's edge. We carried our rafts down to the "launch pad" and soon we were all afloat and paddling. Several guides accompanied us on the river to lead the way. We stopped before each major rapid so that our "main guide" could give us very specific instructions on how to navigate the rapids immediately ahead of us. This was not only helpful, but pretty darn essential if you didn't want to end up in the water, or caught in one of those river eddys where you might just spin 'round and 'round forever!

Wow. What a ride. Kind of like negotiating moguls made of water and rocks. In a raft. With oars. And there certainly were sections that were very much like roller coaster rides (up and down and up and down...). Nothing incredibly scary (mostly Class II rapids), but just enough to get the adrenalin rushing a few times. Whee! After five hours, 12 miles, 17 rapids, and a short stop "on shore" for lunch, we arrived at the end of our ride. And believe it or not, most of us were sorry to see it end and wanted more!

Oh, by the way-it's important to note that there were no casualties. Everyone returned safe and sound. As a matter of fact, our guides told us that we were one of the best groups they'd ever had ("it's great-you guys really know what you're doing," he said). He also said that we were definitely one of the fastest. Gosh, I wonder if that had anything to do with the fact that some of our fastest skiers-like Mark Mintz, Cathy Nevins, and Anna and Paul Yanicak-were "raft captains." I think so! After all, you can take the skier off the mountain, but you can't take the speed demon out of the skier...

by Kathi Edelson Wolder