Kayaker Waterfalls - Canada

Keyhole Falls isn't your typical waterfall. The 3,000-cubic-metre-per-minute flow shoots out of a massive rock wall situated on the Lillooet River in BC, Canada. Subject to constantly high water levels from coastal mountain snowmelt, it's nearly impossible to see, and tough to scout. Simply getting to the waterfall is a challenge – you can't paddle into it, as the river above Keyhole Falls is impassable. Setting up for the drop means abseiling in from 100m above.

It gets its name because of the way the water has cut the wall over centuries of erosion – it looks like an old-fashioned, but very over-sized keyhole. “‘Among kayakers, it is a well-known waterfall,” says Spanish kayaker Aniol Serrasolses, “But nobody had ever tried this before.” Despite it being no secret among kayakers in the Pacific northwest and British Columbia, for the reasons above, it has never been run by anyone.                                                            
                               
The waterfall taunted Serrasolses as he trained over the past two years on the nearby Stikine River, considered by many to be the 'Everest of kayaking'. The Stikine's torrential whitewater, smaller waterfalls and serious rapids provided plenty of entertainment – but still, the Keyhole called.

                               
The first attempt was aborted before it began. “The first time we got to the falls, the water was just too high,” says Serrasolses. Serious waterflow – the velocity of which was increased by the narrow slot canyon Keyhole Falls runs out of – made it unsafe to even think about. “We aborted the mission, and headed back to Spain.”