Engulfed in the Abyss Shangrala Photo: Evan Ross Photo: Evan Ross
Our plan
With a budget that wouldn’t allow a flight over the canyon, and topography maps that actually showed the river going uphill in the crux of the canyon, all we could do was plan for the absolute worst. I took solace in the fact that we had the most experienced and talented team possible for the task at hand. Ryan, Evan and I had faced these particular circumstances during our 2004 first descent of the Chebdar River in Russia.
While the heart of the Huallaga had not been explored, we did have the advantage of a video from The Rang Life (the previous team to attempt the descent), documenting the river’s character up to the Chockstone Gorge.When the team members had arrived at this gorge, they only had four days of provisions remaining, which subsequently was a major factor in their decision to hike out.
A low volume of water within the river would be the most critical aspect for a successful descent. If the water came up on us in within the gorge, it could be deadly. Prior to our departure for Peru, we had received reports that the Amazon was at a record low level due to draught and receding glaciers in the Andes.The dry year had left certain towns stranded from the outside world since the only means of transportation and delivery of goods is via the river.While this low-water season had a negative affect on tens of thousands of people in the Amazon Basin, this unusually low water level boded well for our expedition.
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