The Ashlu Whitewater Festival
This past weekend was the annual Ashlu Whitewater Festival.
This festival is about raising awareness about the threat posed to the rivers in this area from hydro electric power projects.
The Ashlu river itself has just recently been accepted as the sight of a micro hydro project which will drain the water from the river to provide power. Construction has already begun in the Valley with the road being widened for trucks to pass through. A security guard has also being placed at the entrance to the valley as opposition to this development was so strong the construction company feel under threat of reprisal.
Despite this sad blow to the local community, hundreds of kayakers and supporters turned up to paddle, hike and just soak up the beauty of the Ashlu valley. The Festival was a huge success thanks to local activist, Stuart Smith, who pulled the whole event together.
Being my first season in the area, I got chance to explore some of the amazing runs in this valley. I was amazed by the beauty and quality of the whitewater to be found. Lush green canyons with hard bedrock ledges create complex rapids for the kayakers to navigate. This valley alone contains more than five world class creek runs, all of which run at the tail end of the season when the usual Whistler runs are hitting their lower end flows.
This short sighted power project will destroy a valley which is host to some of the most spectacular whitewater the world has to offer and take away an eco system which sustains a currently healthy Grizzly bear population. Sadly the Ashlu is not the only river under threat and may be only the first of many with other runs like the Callaghan Creek in Whistler also being proposed.
Thanks to Stuart Smith for organizing this event and doing all that was possible to fight this project. To contribute to help this fight follow the link to join the Whitewater association of BC who fund the fight against these projects.
http://www.whitewater.org/
Thanks to Paul Sherman and Vladimir Jan for all of the below images.
All images copyright Bread and Butter 2006
