A white-water fanatic

Press, 27 April 1984, Page 14

A white-water fanatic

Although Peggy Haller describes her job with one of America’s biggest commercial rafting companies as producing “more enjoyment than money”, it is pretty obvious that she is content to spend her summers helping other people to enjoy river-running as much as she does Visiting New Zealand for the first time with a fellow-rafter, Craig Lindsay, she sees rivers as “highways into the wilderness”, each with a unique quality. “Rivers can take you into remote areas that can only be reached by water, into different cultures even,” she says. At 28, Peggy Haller has been river-running for 12 years. Weekend trips with friends on the Stanislaus and American Rivers in California developed a passion for the sport and an urge to turn professional. A year ago, after work with other companies, she joined a well-known adventure company, Sobek of Angels Camp, California. Sobek is an African word meaning crocodile,, and the 14 regular staff members and 30 or so seasonal workers are as much at home in and on the water as the company’s lethal namesake. The company is the brain-child of Richard Bangs and has been operating for 10 years on such farflung stretches of water as the Tashenshini River in Alaska, and the Bio-Bio River in Chile. Together with his fellow-directors John and George

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Bangs is now striving to gain a permit for the rivers of China. Peggy Haller attributes her success to early rafting trips with such Sobek associates as Bart Henderson, the man who brought one of the first inflatable rubber rafts into this country and helped Alpine Guides (Mt Cook), Ltd, to set up its commercial trips on the Tasman River. As with many occupations, you need the right contacts as well as the expertise, she feels. There is discrimination

NANCY CAWLEY

women among American riverrunning company employers too, she concedes. “Women need to cook for a long time, and just grovel if they want to get a good position.” She is one of two or three qualified women river-guides working for Sobek. “Only rarely is a woman disadvantaged by a lack of muscle-power in rafting; mostly what is needed is a knowledge of water dynamics and finesse in handling the craft.” A serious river-guide’s qualifications in the American West usually include a course at a “white-water school”, an advanced first aid certificate, and membership of the Western River Guides’ Association. Also, all bona fide rafting and canoeing companies must have permits to operate. Now and again there is a bit of moon-lighting, with “private pirates” taking clients on illegal river trips and earning more than company-controlled operators. Much of Peggy Haller’s work with Sobek has been on the spectacular rivers of Alaska, where the challenge comes not so much from the river as from the wildlife. “It’s not a white-water scene up there,” she says, “instead you are dealing with bear and moose.” For many clients this is their first wilderness experience and the first night in camp is always devoted to the “what-to-do-if-you-

see-a-bear” type of instruction. River-guides carry shotguns to scare off the bears, most of which are large brown grizzlies. If Peggy Haller wants a chance to guide on one of sobek’s more exotic rivers — say the Omo in Ethiopia, or the coruh river in Turkey — she will have to pay her own way to the launching point. The Alaskan rivers and the Omo are so far the company’s best bread-winners, but trips down the extraordinary Zambesi River are also starting to pay off. One reason is that the tourists are already there (transport to and from the river location can be crippling) and there is ready patronage for the week-long trips which begin at Victoria Falls America’s many environment-ally-aware river-guides have been agitating in the last few years against the harnessing of rivers for power. Peggy Haller and Craig Lindsay, with many of their colleagues, belong to a 14-year-old organisation called Friends Of The Rivers, and participate in protest campaigns under its auspices. “Once you take a river for power,” says Peggy Haller, “There’s no turning back, it’s gone for good.” The most recent river to go was the Stanislaus, and now they are fighting for the Tuolumne River which flows out of Yosemite National Park. “There will be several dams, but the main one will destroy a 90-mile section used river-runners,” they say.