C-Forum

Clickity Click

This should be interesting, I'm not sure if I'll manage to catch it live, but I'd like to.

Apparently it's coming down at 12:00 PST (so 15:00 EST, 14:00 CST or 13:00 MST)

This is all so great.

I just cannot beleive that in Quebec we are still daming rivers like the Romaine and other projects on their way... Oh what a shame

It was cool to see that live. Wonder how long it will take for the lake to drain?

I just watched it too! They blew a hole at the base of the dam to drain the water. That's a lot of water filling that gorge right now. A river is on the way back to its natural state.

I wish I could watch dams removed via explosion everyday.... Let the rivers run free!

just wondering if everyone would be so pro-removal if it meant giving up recreational releases or the green.....

oopsiflipped wrote:just wondering if everyone would be so pro-removal if it meant giving up recreational releases or the green.....

I've wondered about that too. I hate dams, but there are a few that are responsible for letting us paddle in the dog days of August. The Green is a perfect example of the kind of synergy between dam owners and paddlers that can be awesome and that can put a river and a town on the map. Does anybody think there'd be a Green Race without the dam, or that it would have one tenth of the popularity it does have if it did not run dependently 300 days a year?

That said, Quebec has done some really terrible things to beautiful pristine watersheds like the Rupert and the Romaine. Half of Labrador is underwater because of the Churchill Halls dam. It breaks my heart every time something as beautiful as a wild, natural river is impounded behind steel and concrete.

oopsiflipped wrote:just wondering if everyone would be so pro-removal if it meant giving up recreational releases or the green.....

Yep on that. Its a paradox but what is better toward our survival?

it's pretty scary what the reservoir will look like after all the water is gone. the riverbed will probably remain (relatively) unchanged but the surrounding landscape will no doubt require extensive rehabilitation. it's still great progress and a huge win for paddling and conservation groups everywhere.

KrikkitWars man, thanks for finding the video. I got to show my wife the reason for me (and our daughter) to sit around the computer and stare at the monitor this afternoon.

There is a vid of a guy running that dam when water was flowing over the top. I believe he was the only one to run it, video is called "first and last descent of Condit Dam". This is going to be a fun thing to watch develop to see how it plays out.

I almost didn't believe there was a video of someone running the dam, but you're right. Here it is: http://vimeo.com/31164380

Smurfwarrior wrote:There is a vid of a guy running that dam when water was flowing over the top. I believe he was the only one to run it, video is called "first and last descent of Condit Dam". This is going to be a fun thing to watch develop to see how it plays out.

It was first d'd by a bloke in a raft skip to 2.05

First Glimpse of the new Brown Water Rapids;

It's going to be a while until all that sediment washes out eh?