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Biluty was the most beautiful river of the whole trip. And was the hardest one to get to. Once again we had to face two day hike in through wild taiga, log jams, swamps and steep slopes with our boats. We did 12 km in the first day and reached the deep canyon of some stream, which meant that the sufferings will end soon and we ll start to boat. The stream was falling down in the series of falls in some 30+ meters vertical walled canyon. Vasya Chesnokov found a secret stash with a ladder using his GPS. This ladder is stored there by local hunters, not many people know about it. Using this ladder he crossed the canyon and set up rope across the canyon to transfer boats.

After our glorious canyon cross we got closer to the river and stopped for the night on the only shelf around, surrounded by 100 walls on all three sides. It was impossible to get down to the river for water, so we had to fill our jugs from the stream back at the crossing. Which is about 1km back and 200m of gradient. We used our drybags to carry the water. Right in front of us was the last rapid of Biluty - the Double Drop. And a 6m waterfall was visible right above it.

The next morning we put our boats on our shoulders again and started hiking up the river to get to the Biluty upper canyon. This was the most brutal hike of the whole trip. The trails was always sneaking away in huge log jams, climbing up high rocks and descending down to stream tributaries, just to climb up some new cliff again soon. But what we ve seen when we finally got there, stunned everyone. Absolutely clear emerald water was flowing down the canyon, maid out of marble. The water falls from steps of various heights and shapes to form series of clean waterfalls. Somewhere closer to the end of the canyon was some mess of whitewater, which was even scary to think of running. But one has to run it, because there is no way out of the canyon after the third fall.

Finally we could overcome our fears and started to run the first entrance drop. I paddled so hard at the entrance, that I flew off big time in a great boof off of the first waterfall. And managed to do the same with all the other drops. Kostyan even started to call me Boof Master. Some of guys in our crew had problems. Vadim and Antoha swam in the canyon. The rescues were a bit sketchy. The canyon ended with a big hole in which most of us ended. I managed to get around it. Others had backflips and some trashing. Some even swam.

After Marble canyon and before the Lower canyon, no major rapids were encountered. We paddled down to the start of the Lower canyon, left our boats there and walked to our camp, 100m abouve the river, for the night.

The next day we portaged all of our belongings down after the last 12 meter drop. The name of the drop is Serega, after Serega Chesnokov (father of Vasya) who was among the first people to run the river. We could not get lower then that. Double drop and 6 meter waterfall have to be ran on loaded boats. We walked back to the start of the canyon and portaged the first rapid of the lower canyon, ran a bunch of stuff and portaged again - the whole river flows into a gnarly pocket. After the portage we had to seal launch off of a badly shaped shelf and boof almost right away. I did not push hard enough and smashed my paddle over my face.

Then we found ourselves in front of "Unrunnable Chesnokov" - a twisted S-turn waterfall. There's no good portage around, but one can seal launch into the outflow of the fall. Its crucial to jump not too far away, to avoid the pocket on the opposite side. And not too close, to avoid the pocket on this side. Then, a quick turn around and boof over a drop with a sticky hole. All in all, Vasilii Porsev styled it, Vasya Chesnokov could noot perform as good, fell into the hole sideways and swam. We got pretty scared. But there was no other way around anyways. So we all seal launched one after the other. Everyone managed well, except for Vanya from Kirov, who got into the close pocket. But he paddled out of there somehow and boofed over the hole.

We ferried and got out on the rock right above the 12 meter high Serega waterfall. Everyone did the drop. Vasilii Porsev did it 5 times. Even though he had to climb verticall wall and pull his boat with the rope up. I did not positioned myself right and got a smash in the face with my paddle again. Some of us were loosing paddles, some swam, but everyone loved the fall. Easy lead in and clean drop with a deep pool at the bottom.

After that we had to put all our panties-singlets in the boats and do two more falls. One 6 meters and the Double drop. 6 meters one everyone managed somehow, even tho some flipped at the bottom. I could not boof it properly and flipped. Hate loaded boats. Vasilii Porsev and Max Bilbow went for the double drop. Max kept saying "My girlfriend told me not to do anything stupid. Maybe I should not be doing this." So they had to boof the first drop and run the second one immediately, not to get trashed at the bottom and not to end up in a pocket. Vasilii boofed the first drop, but got spun a bit and fell down the second drop with almost no speed. He got a decent amount of trashing at the bottom, and spat out into a pocket. After a minute he somehow did paddle out of there tho. Max got the first one right and did got into the second drop upright and on coarse but with no speed. He melted the hole at the bottom disappearing completely on his huge Pyranha Carnali. We were absolutely unhappy with what we saw and opted for a gnarlies talus portage.

After that it was just a small 2meter drop left to run. Then - paddle out of Biluty canyon and float down Kitoy couple more hours to finally reach tourist base with sauna and beer.

I want to thank everyone who took part in this expedition:Vasilii Porsev for organization and safety;

Vasya Chesnokov for being a local guide and for GPS navigation;

Our friends from Irkutsk Sanya Myaktov, Batya and Vova - for transport and help

Fishermen for fish

Photographers for photosKostyana for food

Max for patience and desire to learn Russian www.maxbilbow.com

Other kayakers for snickers and adventures, because of which (adventures) it was so much fun, dudes.

I also wish Peter Malkin, who recently broke both of his legs landing on a rock running a waterfall, would start paddling again as fast as possible.

Palvelev Artyom