Christopher McCandless

I personally am not planning on making a sojourn out to the bus Chris lived and died in - but has anyone ever thought of bringing some kind of inflatable raft out there just in case the river is too swollen for a crossing? (Excuse me if this idea has been set forth before.)

I had read there is (or had been) a rope tied across the river and was thinking one might be able to hold onto the rope while sitting in the raft, guiding themselves across by hand, holding onto the rope.

Probably a laughable idea as the strength of the river's current can be so strong apparently. Just thought I'd put the idea out there though.

-Rich

Hi Rich,

The idea is actually a really good one. They make rafts specifically for backcountry use, designed to be carried in a backpack in addition to other gear called 'packrafts.' They are 5 lbs and can be rolled up to the size of a bread loaf.

New Alpacka (brand name) rafts are rather expensive, costing 800 before the spray skirt, paddle, PFD, etc. There is another brand though, NRS that makes one you can get for 550 on REI ( http://www.rei.com/product/816817/nrs-packraft .) The latter is not quite the same white water eating beast as the alpacka, but it would be suitable for river crossings of the Teklanika type.

The cheapest option is to just rent one. There are places to rent them in both Fairbanks and in Anchorage and they both charge (last I checked) about 35 dollars a day.

http://www.alaskapackrafts.com/
http://pacraftalaska.com/

Also, there's a little bit more about this in my article ( http://stampedetrail.info/crossingthetek.php ) and you are correct in assuming that the use of a rope with the raft would be more of a hassle than a help. Rope in general is pretty bad idea, and is the main contributing factor to the fatal accident last summer. There are ways that it can be used safely, but they require multiple people skilled with rope and mountaineering techniques to be done right and safely.

In the submitted papers section of this website, a guy said in his paper/story that he cut down the rope, if I remember correctly?

I believe so.

Ropes go up all the time though. People that use them as a hand rail aren't really putting themselves at significant risk, (unless you somehow get snagged on it.) It's just that the rope is going to bounce and sway unless it's under tremendous tension, so a stick is still a better option. Where it gets dangerous is if you tie in to the rope. That can easily turn deadly.

Many people have had similar ideas about using a packraft to cross the Tek. Krakauer mentioned Roman Dial in the book and this is because Roman has been using packrafts since the mid 1980s. See my forum post about crossing the Tek and other river crossings using a packraft: http://www.christophermccandless.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3429