Respect Rules His Raft Riding Business

This is an article from The Province newspaper featuring Bernie Fandrich and the Kumsheen Rafting Resort.

By Paul Luke, Staff Reporter

One of his first whitewater runs on the Fraser gave Kumsheen Raft Adventure boss Bernie Fandrich a taste of how rough the river plays.

In the spring of 1973, Fandrich and a few buds plopped a five-metre raft into the Fraser at Lytton for a trial paddle downstream.

It proved to be roughest whitewater ride of his life –and Fandrich has since taken some 3000 rides. “It scared the heck right out of me,” Fandrich says.

After messing with the Fraser at High water, Fandrich decided it was best to stick to low-water-volume weeks of late summer.

He also decided to use the Thompson, the Fraser’s more manageable tributary, for the bulk of his new white-water rafting business.

Thirty-two years later, Kumsheen’s river and resort operations make it the biggest white-water rafting outfit, by revenue, in Western Canada.

The company has taken more than 200,000 people on the two rivers – and brought them back, soaked but safe.

From August to early September, Kumsheen runs two-and three-day trips along the Fraser from Lytton through Hell’s Gate to Yale.

His lesson learned, Fandrich now uses large motorized rafts with extra outrigger pontoons to boost stability and buoyancy.

At its high-water peak, the Fraser’s run-off averages about 350,000 cubic feet per second. Only when it eases to 200,000 cubic feet per second is it raftable, Fandrich says.

“It’s a big river and you always have to be on your guard.

“We have a lot of respect for the Fraser, because you can go through a rapid on a regular basis, and then it just throws something at you from left field.”