General Rafting Questions
Should I go rafting? I’ve never been!
It’s important for you to know that most of our guests are first timers and we’ve designed our trips, equipment and safety briefings to be “first timer friendly”. All we require is that you have a good desire for fun and adventure and you’ll have a terrific time…and likely be back for more!
I’ve been rafting before…will it be exciting enough for me?
The Kicking Horse is a class IV to IV+ river through most of our operating season. If you’ve been rafting before, but never on the Kicking Horse, you’ll be impressed by the continuity of the river…lots of rapids and very little “calm time”. Also, unlike other rivers, no paddling is required to get from one rapid to the next! If you’ve been rafting before, we want to make sure you get the right trip, so just contact us.
Why you guys?
Excellent question and we’re glad you asked! The Kicking Horse River is renowned as a great river for rafting and, of course, there are others who run the river. While fun on the river is always what we strive for, we believe there is more to it than just that. You want to know that we are “Serious about Safety”. (See our “Guides” section below.) You want your trip to run on schedule, be greeted with friendly, happy, helpful and knowledgeable staff and get great value on your trip. That’s what we’re known for. We know that you want clean gear that gets replaced and upgraded frequently, clean facilities and a secure place for your personal items while on the river. You’ll get that from us, just the way that we’ve been doing it now for 27 years…it’s what we love to do and how we earned the trust and loyalty of our many return guests, sales agents, wholesalers, tour operators, fine hoteliers and locals who faithfully recommend our rafting trips year after year and wouldn’t consider anyone else.
Who will be my guide?
Our staff are truly the key to our past and future success. (Thanks to all of you out there!) Our guiding and driving team are MPHIA Certified (Mountain Parks Heritage Interpretation Assn.) so they know their stuff when it comes to area information! The team consists of men and women who possess a wealth of experience from numerous years of rafting and leading a variety of outdoor pursuits around the world. Check out these stats. Combined, we have professionally guided rafts on nearly every continent, 21 countries, 116 rivers…and enough river miles to easily go TWICE around the world at the equator! That’s a lot of guiding and risk management experience for you to benefit from, don’t you think? We generally require a minimum of three to five seasons of prior rafting experience before we see if new guides are up to our standards. Our guests constantly comment that they love our guide’s enthusiasm and cheerfulness for what they do, and the professionalism with which they do it. We love rivers and rafting and enthusiastically welcome each opportunity to share that passion with you and others like you.
Of course, all of our guides meet or exceed industry standards and we have on-going in-house training and safety meetings daily and throughout the season to constantly maintain and improve our skills and our Risk Management procedures.
Do we paddle or hang on?
You choose! If you prefer to assist your guide by paddling, that’s great! If you would feel more secure and enjoy your trip more by simply holding on to the safety lines positioned inside and around the raft, perfect. We encourage you to participate at a level that is comfortable to YOU! (“All-paddle” trips can easily be arranged if that is your preference, so just ask!)
How many people per raft?
We choose to carry just 8 guests per raft, plus your guide, rather than pack people in rafts to maximize profits as we see others do. We will sometimes go to 9 passengers per raft if it is a group that would like to stay together, or on our Gentle trip where we often have youths. Our rafts are rated for up to 12 people.
