Mendenhall River Raft Trip Gets Exciting

[tee_harbor]

Things got a little too exciting on this popular excursion yesterday.

I see people ask about it all the time, and it's often evaluated as 'too boring' and 'nothing but looking at people's backyards.' Well, it got exciting and those people came out of their backyards to save folks!

We had two days of simply pouring rain and the flood advisory is still in effect. This is after a dry, hot summer. I'd actually wondered to myself if the float trips would be running, and it looked like they risked it.

This is yet another note that the Great Land doesn't like people assuming that she's Disneyland. A boater visiting from out of state also died in a skiff overturning. I didn't hear any helicopters going up the past two days and I wonder if the whale watching boats bothered to go out; it was rough seas for Juneau.

ETA: I recommend reading the comments on this story to see what locals think of the tour company's judgment.

[Vlmac]

We're scheduled to take this excursion on 9/16/09. Wondering if anyone has information about the safety record of this excursion.

[choozin' cruzin']

Very scary!! Thank goodness no one was hurt more seriously or died.

[tee_harbor]

Originally Posted by Vlmac

We're scheduled to take this excursion on 9/16/09. Wondering if anyone has information about the safety record of this excursion.

I've lived here a while now, and this is the first time I've seen something like this happen with them. However, I think it was incredibly poor judgment on someone's part to send out the rafts that day. Juneau was under a storm and flood warning that day and it had been pouring for two days straight.

I was very surprised to see there's only one guide in a raft with eight passengers as well, I assume to paddle and steer the boat. Generally the river is very tame and the term 'float trip' pretty much covers it. I would not expect the 'guides' to be a licensed white water rafting guide who could have either made the proper call not to go, or could have kept the raft upright, but someone in the organization should have been able to properly judge the conditions that day.

I would hope there would be some repercussions from cruise ship companies to rectify this situation with the tour company, but at the same time, other than the wise cruisers who come here and other boards, no one ever knows of these incidents.

If I were you, I'd wait to get to Juneau to decide about this trip. Like, it's absolutely pouring again today; I would not be out on the river. September's weather is generally like this, and although there can be some nice fall color with the trees, the float trip is even more dull than normal once the wildflowers are gone. I'm sure you could book once you got here if it happened to be a nice day. But seeing how it's already down to sixty degrees, and raining more and more, I can't imagine this excursion would be much fun at that time of year.

[PennyAgain]

Well, you are right, it was incredibly poor judgment to send tourists out on a day when wise locals wouldn't go!

Idiots! I hope this company is busted for this.

Brings up the question of whether the tourists should have gone out by their own decision.

[Yukon]

Originally Posted by PennyAgain

Brings up the question of whether the tourists should have gone out by their own decision.

Well-trained guides would have had no problem with the river - even in flood condition it's easier than even the Tanana Gorge. When the river is calm to the point of being boring 99% of the time everybody gets complacent.