River trekking
type of outdoor activity
River tracing, also known as stream climbing or river trekking, is a form of mountaineering that involves going up mountain streams to their source performed for sport and outdoor recreation. The activity is popular in Japan, where it is known as sawanobori, and is also popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
River tracing usually involves a combination of hiking, climbing, and swimming to ascend stream and its features, including climbing waterfalls, traversing ravine walls, and swimming through gorges. As a rule, the climber moves in the direction opposite the direction of the waterflow. Climbing advanced routes requires being proficient in techniques derived from rock climbing and mountaineering, including belaying, rappelling, and lead climbing. Due to the additional dangers presented by having to navigate the watercourse, additional useful skills include experience in whitewater techniques, an understanding the geographical and meteorological properties of river and valleys, being capable of dealing with sudden bad weather and finding possible exits from the river.
Similarity to canyoning
In the sense that the activity takes place in a steep watercourse, the activity is similar to canyoning or canyoneering. However, the fundamental difference is the direction of movement: canyoneers move downstream with the flow of water while river tracers move upstream against the flow of water.
River trekking around the world
Both Japan and Taiwan have developed industries that support the activity with the production of special equipment, and standardized commercial tours. In Japan, the mountaineering equipment company Finetrack was founded in 2007 by engineers from Montbell with the goal of providing specialized equipment for river tracing expeditions.
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This entry incorporates text from “River trekking” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.