White Water Rafting in Switzerland

Terror Before Hitting the Water: White Water Rafting in Switzerland
By Sharon Miller

When looking back on trips and adventures, it is often easy to laugh at things that, at the time, seemed terrifying, irritating or even life-threatening. Strangely, when all is said and done, and you know that everything turns out okay, it is actually fun to tell those tales.

On an adventure filled trip to Switzerland, my family and I decided to go white-water rafting in the small town of Boltigen. Due to time constraints, and our plan to go canyoning the next day, we had arranged to take a half-day rafting trip, the afternoon on the day we arrived in town. The night before, we had slept in the sleeper berth of a train, and anyone who has experienced one knows that despite our best efforts, we were all sleep deprived. Nevertheless, our utter exhaustion did not stop us from suiting up in full bodied, The Swiss Adventure Hostel, located in the Hotel Baron in Boltigen, Switzerland caters to the thrill-seeking adrenaline junkies. too tight wetsuits, and lugging our raft down to the river’s edge. Before embarking on our journey, our guide Bart, told us about all of the dangers we may experience while on the river. Falling out of the raft, flipping completely over, and getting our feet caught beneath trees and rocks submerged in the water. He explained the procedures we should follow if any of these things actually happened, and then he explained how we were going to get into the water. You see, we were standing on the edge of a 15 foot rocky slope that led down to the water. At that particular point, the water was only about two feet deep, and it was so clear that you could see other large rocks strewn beneath the surface. The plan of action was to position the raft on the embankment, climb into our respective positions in the raft and gently slide it down into the water. The plan seemed easy enough, so after sliding the front of the raft half way down the slope, we all gingerly climb into our seats, my mom and oldest sister, Kim, in front, Tara (my middle sister) and me in the middle and my dad in back with our guide. We all got situated and comfortable and waited patiently for Bart to gently nudge us, in order to begin our descent. However, something went terribly wrong. We don’t know if the embankment was not slick enough, or if a rock was simply stuck in the wrong place, whatever it was, as our raft began to slide forward, something forced it to stop with a hard jerk. Not at all prepared for the jerk, my father flipped out of the raft, over all of us girls and landed, seemingly on his head, in the shallow water. At that point, everything went into slow motion. All I could see was my dad flailing about in the ice cold river, and I was sure he had broken his neck. Luckily, our guide reacted quickly and jumped into the water, to pull my dad to safety. The rest of us sat, stunned and terrified in our seats, praying that our father was not injured and that our raft would not flip, sending the rest of us into the icy, glacial waters.

Thankfully, due to his natural instinct to tuck and roll, my father did not hurt himself. Somehow, he managed to land just right, so that only his shoulder grazed the rocks. And thanks to the quick reaction of our guide, he was not swept away in the current of the river.

Nevertheless, the incident did not thwart our rafting trip. Although he was cold, wet and shaken, our dad managed to climb back into the raft, and we gently nudged it into the river. Amazingly, the rest of the trip was rather uneventful. We never faced a rapid higher than a Class II. In fact, it seemed so quiet when compared to the terror of getting the raft into the water, that we would purposely paddle into rocks just to add a little excitement.

Although, at the time, I honestly thought my father had seriously injured, if not killed himself, our whole family can now look back and laugh at the incident. Nevertheless, we are all grateful that despite all of the strange and dangerous situations we have found ourselves in, we have all made it out alive.