Someone suggested the idea that smaller river guides use raft ladders to help get larger guests back into rafts. I would love to get thoughts and opinions about this.
I can definitely see the use case for ladders on multi-day trips, easier Grade 1-2 float trips, and potentially for fishing trips. When it comes to anything intense I wouldn’t want an extra hazard potentially impacting and injuring someone or opening more risk for entrapment.
Guides working on any river of any class should be held to a standard of recovery. A guide should be able to recover themselves, their clients, an overturned or stuck raft, and any equipment they are carrying. On easier stretches that might look different than Grade 4/5 and different standards for multi-day vs day trips.
I’ve seen the raft ladder put on a raft, specifically for the guide themself to use based on their size and weight on the Upper Gauley. As another guide on that trip, I’d be concerned not with the ability for them to self rescue, but also their ability to help my clients and the rest of the team if an event happens. As a manager/senior guide with a company I’d want my guide staff to be able to self rescue into a raft without extraneous aid and I’d want them to be able to pull clients in whenever and wherever necessary.
Just to compare to some rivers I work:
Ocoee: I would say it’s more of a hazard than help, flips are common and having a metal hazard attached to the boat could do more harm than good. Guides should be able to right their raft, pull themselves in, and pull in all their clients - even if having a more “fit” client pulled in first to assist with pulling in “less fit” clients.
Tongariro: It’s a NZ standard to be able to pull yourself on top of an upright as well as a flipped raft without extraneous aid. If you can’t, you can’t earn your NZRA Award.
Gauley: In such a high adrenaline environment, quick recovery is necessary and pulling yourself in or on top of a boat needs to be possible from any point around the perimeter or at least either end. It would take too long if the guide wasn’t next to the ladder when they get ejected.
TLDR: Great for super-recreational boating like Grade 1-2, family trips, and fishing trips. Not what I’d want to see on a boat entering difficult whitewater.
I feel like there are two different discussions going on though I may be misunderstanding:
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Should raft guides be able to pull themselves back in a raft without a ladder. On this topic I agree, but I do not believe they should have to do it on a naked raft and in fact in general I like seeing guides setting up their rafts to make it easier to climb back in since you don’t know how cold and tired you’ll be when you need to pull yourself back in.
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The idea of using a ladder to help pull guests back in. Having played minimally with ladders on rafts, I find them awkward because your feet end up going under the raft. While they help some, for a large heavy person that needs help getting back in I’m not sure it would make that big of a difference. In the past I have taken a raft to shore to have the heavier person get back in the raft from shore since I couldn’t pull them back in or wouldn’t pull them in because I was concerned about potentially injuring myself or the guest.
So, if people have a method that works well and they aren’t concerned about the ladder becoming an entrapment issue or getting snagged on something while rafting why not. That said I’d like to see a video about how it is sued before saying I think a potential technique appears to be a good long term idea.
Aaron - thanks for making the distinction between the 2 different discussions. In this case the idea was presented as a tool that smaller river guides could use to assist larger guests back into a raft and avoid possible injury.
For multi-day trips where folks are in a framed boat, I think moving this direction can make a lot of sense. I have seen people sit and roast in the sun or wait to pee because they are embarrassed by the process of getting back in the boat. I also think pulling people in near a frame is not without risk. When these ladders are big enough and especially the rigid one, they are awkward but they work and are certainly better for most folks than pulling them. On a paddle boat I don’t think they make very much sense.
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I am personally against this from a commercial point of view. A guide should be able to recover their own raft and customers. If a small guide has been given customers that they are unable to rescue this is down to poor trip management and you have to ask why has the guide been given a crew in which they physically cannot pull back into a boat.
My main area of concern though is that by encouraging the use of a ladder you are encouraging a swimmer to put their feet down therefore increasing the risk of a foot entrapment in a rock on the river bed or in the ladder it’s self.
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