The region’s most passionate paddlers took to the Colorado River’s Glenwood Canyon on Wednesday, Jan. 1, in an annual pogie-freezing New Year’s Day tradition dating back decades.
More than 140 paddlers kicked off the New Year in their kayaks, rafts and other craft for a freezing float down the Shoshone section of the Colorado River near Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
Shivers aside, the float has become an annual New Year’s Day tradition for paddlers across the state and into Utah. Marking the freezing float’s 35th anniversary, this year’s event was “organized” by Mikey Wrobel of Idaho Springs, who created and send out a Facebook invite and to rafting companies around the region. After the freezing flat, participants warmed up around a gas fire at the takeout.
Among those enjoying a maiden voyage were Moab, Utah, guides from RMWR rafting, as well as members of the Roaring Fork Kayaking Club, which set up a warming tent with hot coffee.
“Our mission is to provide access to the sport of kayaking affordably, we even have a trailer of gear for everyone to use,” the club’s Greg Albrecht told the Vail Daily. “Members of the club have done this event before, but it’s the first year we’ve brought our tent out.”
While an earlier Shoshone Rapids float dates back to the ’70s, this New Year’s float is bigger and better, beginning in the mid-1990s, maintains Gypsum paddler Ken Hoeve, a longtime participant in the event.
“The first year it was a novel idea,” says paddler Peter Holcombe, who has been making this trip to ring in the New Year for over 15 years.. “I was living in Boulder, and wanted to paddle a river every month of the year. So it seemed like a doable and worthwhile adventure.”
“Some people might ask why would I choose to drive 20+ hours to paddle a frozen mile-long section of Class III,” he adds. “It’s because I love this day, and it means so much to spend it with the amazing paddling community that drives in from all over the Rocky Mountains to celebrate time on the river on the first day of the new paddling season. Essentially this is my first river family.”
(Photos courtesy Peter Holcombe/Jackson Kayaks)