Thread: RSTH episode last night RIVER CROSSINGS

Originally Posted by Trout

Good call on turning back from river crossing after hind shot.Fast water above the knees in the dark asking for trouble.Keep up the filming Dave,good show.

Ha just what I was telling my kids, fast water above the knees is a big no no. I remember that from a kid, going to school in Chch (Form 3 or 4 I think) we were taught how to do river crossings. I don't think any schools do that any more.

Also wondered why he didn't secure the rifle to his pack, and no pole. They should do a followup episode with some basic river crossing information, if it saved just one life it'd be worth it.

Originally Posted by MSL

You nutted out the best route to cross that river from a few minutes of footage?


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Dont know about 'the best route to cross' but there was a much safer crossing upstream. I would never never ever cross at the top of a rapid / gut where the gradient drops and the water velocity doubles or triples and most importantly where there is no safety margin of good self recovery area below the crossing point.
I was taught always to go across and down at 45 degrees going at the same speed that the water is flowing - that way you cant be knocked off your feet and to allow a good margin of safe water above the rapid just incase you do slip.

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

Dont know about 'the best route to cross' but there was a much safer crossing upstream. I would never never ever cross at the top of a rapid / gut where the gradient drops and the water velocity doubles or triples and most importantly where there is no safety margin of good self recovery area below the crossing point.
I was taught always to go across and down at 45 degrees going at the same speed that the water is flowing - that way you cant be knocked off your feet and to allow a good margin of safe water above the rapid just incase you do slip.

In the case of the TV river crossing they would have to run like Peter Snell to do the same speed of the water flowing...

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

I dont know why they didnt cross starting 30 metres upstream in slow water instead of in the head of the rapid / gut where the water is going twice as fast, then angle across and down at 45 degrees

We spent a good hour or two walking up and down that damn river trying to find somewhere suitable, as it was quite deceptive in places. We thought we'd found a great spot by using the drone to survey downstream, but once we got there, the outflow of various tributaries and streams that joined the main branch made it even worse.

Good on you for showing the footage. It looked pretty dodgy but illustrates well the dangers of those SI rivers with spring snowmelt.

Bet the water wasnt warm either.....

Originally Posted by MSL

You nutted out the best route to cross that river from a few minutes of footage?


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Mate, he's a moa hunter, of course he did!

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

Dont know about 'the best route to cross' but there was a much safer crossing upstream. I would never never ever cross at the top of a rapid / gut where the gradient drops and the water velocity doubles or triples and most importantly where there is no safety margin of good self recovery area below the crossing point.
I was taught always to go across and down at 45 degrees going at the same speed that the water is flowing - that way you cant be knocked off your feet and to allow a good margin of safe water above the rapid just incase you do slip.

I picked the same as you mate, 25-30m upstream looked better and gave you more margin for outage if it turned to shit. I've done a couple of Land SARS crossing courses with the NZDA and this was an area that was focused on, the entry point and angle of crossing.
Good stuff tho' for Dave & the boys to focus on it an not take is lightly.

150-200 years ago drowning whilst crossing rivers was known colloquially as "The New Zealand death". For a very good reason.

And yip, I too remember being taught how to cross rivers waaay back in Intermediate school, age 12. Then many times again at various bushcraft camps when deep into Tramping clubs. We always started teaching in gentle wide rivers in mid summer. Otaki River from memory. But winter temps and dirty fast water with no safe run out, even getting to knee height can be dodgy

“Experience” normally something you get after you needed it!

Plenty of us have done stuff in the Outdoors we’d think twice about doing again, climbing down through bluffs when we should climb back up and around, river crossings, etc I thought it was great they put it in, good decision to bivvy the night out, generally there’s less snow melt in the rivers in the early morning if it’s freezing overnight, that runout looked awful though, I’m sure the boys would approach it differently next time.

Good viewing. Brought back some memories of ''Nearly went bad-crossings'', . I learnt the hard way and am lucky to be here writing this. Teaching others may help save a life or two.
Looking forward to your Island episode.

I enjoyed that episode, principally because of the river crossing dilemma, and the issues around it.

I don't do subtle well at all, so am interested in others views about the Tahr S&D activity they covered. Obviously they weren't in a National park as they had the dog, and it seems they were not wanting to piss off DoC too much (understandable as they need to work with them for concessions etc.) so the control activity was attributed to 'the Government'. They did however identify culled bulls, and near the end commented they had found 11? So did anyone else interpret that stuff as a polite way of calling DoC bullshitters for saying they wouldn't target bulls outside the National Parks?

Originally Posted by Maxx

I enjoyed that episode, principally because of the river crossing dilemma, and the issues around it.

I don't do subtle well at all, so am interested in others views about the Tahr S&D activity they covered. Obviously they weren't in a National park as they had the dog, and it seems they were not wanting to piss off DoC too much (understandable as they need to work with them for concessions etc.) so the control activity was attributed to 'the Government'. They did however identify culled bulls, and near the end commented they had found 11? So did anyone else interpret that stuff as a polite way of calling DoC bullshitters for saying they wouldn't target bulls outside the National Parks?

In addition I enjoyed the subtle dig re the proliferation of Mt Cook Daisy’s despite tahr being in the area.

The best river crossing training I have had was with NZDF Territorials. We did swift deep crossings - crossing the Rakaia main stem, someone swimming a line across first. Crossing really deep still water with our packs INSIDE plastic bags as a floatation device. Rope belays for three man party. All much worse than RSHC. Civil defence, suspended stretcher crossing etc.
I am sure some of the ex RF guys here would have some really good advice on all sorts of crossings from all round the world, but for what its worth if I was with those Red Stag blokes I would have used a rope belay to get the team over.

Originally Posted by Gibo

Mate, he's a moa hunter, of course he did!

Moas cant just fly across