HOW TO CROSS A RIVER


Some hazards during hiking arouse more respect than the others. People are afraid of bears, snakes or lightning - "active threats", that can seek and harm you even if you are doing nothing. River crossings are often underestimated because the river is just doing its thing and you can enter it on your own terms, you have things under control. At least for a while, until you lose balance. Seemingly innocent situation can then escalate very quickly.

In this guide, I will try to sum up everything I know about river crossings, based on my research as well as on my experience. Will split it into several phases,  covering everything you should do when you come to the river and there is no bridge in sight.

Choose the right spot

When hiking, you usually follow some kind of a trail, so when you reach the river, you have some reference point. However, this default crossing place, while sufficient under normal circumstances, might not be optimal when the water level is higher (also, riverbed may change over the course of years). So, if you reach the river and don't feel comfortable, you will need to look around for a better place. Some things you should consider:

  1. Narrow river doesn't mean easier crossing. Quite the opposite, since its discharge is concentrated over a smaller area, the current here is the strongest. You need to look for places where the river is as wide as possible, ideally if it splits into several branches with small islands in-between.
  2. Never cross below or above rapids. Below rapids, the river current is still concentrated into smaller, but much more intensive flow, making crossing dangerous. When crossing above rapids, if you slip and the water takes you, you will immediately find yourself in grave danger.
  3. Try to find a straight section of the river. On these sections, there is a higher chance that the discharge of the river is distributed evenly over its whole width. If you try to cross at the river bend, the current at its inner bend will be much stronger.
  4. Scout for possible exit points downstream. When crossing, you should know about places you should aim for in case you lose balance and the river takes you.
  5. Pay attention to the riverbed. Crossing a flat riverbed consisting of tiny rocks is easier than one with larger rocks, where you can’t find a spot to safely place your boots.

OK, you know all of this, but how can I find spot fulfilling all these requirements? To identify it, open your map and pay close attention to the gradient of the terrain - how close are contour lines to each other. You need them as far as possible - that means that the terrain is not that steep and water current is not as swift. That also means that the river has more space to expand and it could be wider and even split into several smaller streams.

Wait or turn back if necessary

OK, so you scouted the best possible spot, but the current seems to be too strong for your liking. Should you cross? Or wait? And will it even help?

In case of fast-flowing mountain creeks, safe depth is usually up to knees. Above, it starts to get interesting - with some level of acceptable risk, it is usually OK to cross creek with water reaching up to thighs (about 15 cm above knees, but this should be judged individually, each creek is different). If the water level is even higher, I would wait.

Of course, we wait only if there are reasons to think that conditions for crossing will eventually improve (or that someone with a horse shows up :)). Did it rain recently, but the weather is already good? Is the river water muddy and brown from soil particles? In this case, it´s obvious that this is not the usual water level and it will drop - how fast, that depends on variables such as size of the river watershed, the larger it is, the slower is the decrease the water level. Another case are rivers fed by melting glaciers - their flow increased during the day, as sun heats the exposed glacier, so the best time to cross them is in the morning.

Prepare yourself for the crossing

First of all, and that is not relevant only for water crossing, your essential items should be in water-proof bags. Especially those which take long time to dry, such as sleeping bag, or can get destroyed by water, such as electronic devices.

For the actual crossing, switch to shorts even if you are wearing long pants - those would soak fast, hinder your movement and overall provide greater resistance to the water flow, something we don't need. Also, remove your boots and put on hiking sandals or something similar. You shouldn´t cross river barefoot - stepping on the sharp rock is the distraction you can´t afford when you are fighting the current.

With sandals on, what should one do with heavy hiking boots? An ideal solution would be to tie them tightly to your backpack, one at each side. But I must admit that I am often too lazy for that. So, if the stream doesn´t look dangerous, I just tie them together by laces and tie them to my backpack, so they are be around my hip level, high enough so they don't get wet. Don't hang them on your neck, if you fall into the river, they could hit you in the face or even strangle you. Another option is just to throw them over the river, but only after someone crosses, you would feel like an idiot if you later found out that the river is not passable :)

Next, you should unbuckle groin and chest straps of your rucksack and loosen shoulder straps - if you lose balance and the river takes you, you might have to get rid of it, and fast. And that's it - tie to grab your trekking poles (or any other stick) and enter the river.

Cross the river

While crossing the river, I face the current and slowly sidestep across. That´s because human leg is much better accustomed to face frontal pressure than the pressure from the side - its profile reduces resistance to water while the shape of the foot and the way knee bends gives you better back-forward stability.

My feet are about shoulder-width apart, I slightly lean forward, holding a hiking stick in each hand. Then I move my outer foot to the side, widening my stance by about half a foot - first test the riverbed with the tip of my foot, then put the full weight on it. Only I feel I have a good stability, move the outer hiking stick and place it at the same level as the outer foot. Then follows the inner foot and finally, the inner stick. And repeat this process until you get to the other side.

At any time, keep three fixed points to maintain your balance and move only one foot/stick at a time. Move the outer foot first, widening your stance, only then close the gap with the inner foot. Work witbh your center of gravity, bending your knees a bit to lower it if necessary. Never cross your legs during sidestepping! If you put both your feet in line with the vector of the water current, it is much easier to lose stability.

If things go wrong

Even if you follow all precautions, things can go wrong, you can lose your footing and fall into river. What to do next?

That mainly depends on how deep the river is. Luckily, those couple of accidents I observed took place in a rather shallow creeks. In such case, you might tumble once or twice, but should be able to regain your balance rather fast, even if you have to drop on all four. These situation are dangerous only if you hike alone, accidentally hit rock and lose consciosness. Keep this in mind and even if you lost your balance, try to turn so you see where you are falling.

If the water is deeper, that's completely different situation. The key is to drop your backpack, turn on your back (so you can see what is ahead), going feet first (to protect your head) - basic things they teach you at rafting courses. Then, once you regain your composure, you go down the river and look fort he exit point, where you might be able to get out. But I don't want to play wise here, this never happened to me so far and I do not ever plan to ford the river this deep, in such a such, I would turn back.


My travel insurance

As you can see above, trekking in Georgia is not particularly risky compared to the rest of the world. Still, it would be reckless to travel without an insurance (I think you already see where is this going - I would be a very lousy travel blogger if I didn't try to sell you some travel insurance ). During the last 15 years I spent hiking and trekking, I used two insurances.

When I was younger, I used to have more time and could make several long trekking trips a year. My main priority was to protect myself and my relatives from unexpected costs. Because of this, I used to be a member of Austrian Alpine Club (Alpenverein). After paying the yearly membership fee of about 60 EUR, I got an insurance tailored for mountains which covered rescue costs, medical treatment as well as the repatriation costs (tho my parents didn´t look too relieved when I stressed this fact before travelling abroad).

Then my priorities shifted. Since I have a family now, I spend less time hiking and need an insurance which not only covers everything mentioned above but will also provide for them in case that something happens to me. Because of this, I started to look for more general insurance for specific dates. For my summer trekking trips, I use SafetyWing travel insurance since I am very satisfied with the coverage it offers for its cost.

SafetyWing also offers Remote Health - a more robust, full-fledged health insurance which, unlike their travel insurance covers also home country and pre-existing conditions and illnesses.




Disclaimer: Those SafetyWing links are the affiliates. That means that if you click it and buy some insurance from them, I will get a small comission. But that's not why I am promoting them, they simply look the best to me (compared it with local insurance companies as well as global ones such as World Nomads).





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