5 minute read
Chasing First Descents
Lowman’s own Sean Glaccum
BY MIKE MCKENNA
When people find out what Sean Glaccum does for fun, they usually think he’s crazy.
Traveling around the world in search of first river descents in a kayak is not normative behavior for most of us.
But the more you get to know Sean, the more you realize he’s not totally deranged. No, he’s more like a delightfully “mad scientist,” and running wild rivers is the focus of his studies.
I’ve always loved the thrill and the challenge of first descents and I still do.
“I’ve always loved the thrill and the challenge of first descents and I still do,” Sean said over coffee in Ketchum one afternoon. “My brain just loves the challenge.”
Sean’s record of first descents runs from the backcountry of Idaho, at places like Lady Face Falls and rafting the Secesh River, to the Himalayas. He has chased after them in moving waters from India to Africa, from Peru to New Zealand, including nearly a dozen trips to Nepal, where he worked as a river guide early in his career.
As Sean explained, the process of first descents or running any river can be a lot like life. It involves following a well thought-out plan, while being prepared for some chaos.
“You scout it and create a plan. Taking what you’ve learned and following your plan out on the river is the main skill, because it always looks different once you’re in it. And sometimes you have to roll through Plan A, B, C or D,” said Sean, who wrote the guidebook, Idaho Paddler
“Water is a funny thing,” he added. “Once you start going down a rapid you can’t just hit the stop button. It’s going to happen whether you want it to or not.”
Sean grew up in Triumph, Idaho (where another famous resident was his former babysitter, Olympic skier Picabo Street). His dad first took Sean rafting on the Main Salmon River when he was just six. By the time Sean was nine, he was paddling inflatable kayaks on multi-day whitewater trips and started hardshell kayaking when he was 12.
As is often the case in extreme sports like whitewater kayaking, Sean had a few key mentors who helped guide him along his journey.
Sean credits the late Tom Montgomery, a former U.S. Marine and Ironman triathlete, with pushing him to become a strong kayaker. They ran the Murtaugh section of the Snake River countless times, but Sean will always remember his first run on that swirly stretch.
“I must have rolled a hundred times that first time,” he (somewhat) fondly recalls.
As soon as Sean graduated from Wood River High School in Hailey, he started working as a river guide and safety kayaker, including spending six years on the world-famous waters of the Middle Fork of the Salmon. At just 19, Sean became a lead guide on the South Fork of the Payette River. That’s about the time Sean became friends with a couple other mentors in his kayaking life, Gerry Moffatt and Guy Robins.
Moffatt is a world-renowned kayaker originally from Scotland who’s called Idaho home for nearly four decades. He hired Sean to be a guide in Nepal where he also worked with Robins, who is originally from England and has now long been a popular fly fishing guide. Sean and Robins racked up countless river miles chasing first descents in Nepal.
Those experiences really helped stoke Sean’s passion for rivers and it was on just such a trip that he met his now wife, Ginger. A friend had asked Sean to keep an eye out for Ginger. And as she explained, “24 years later, he’s still looking out for me.”
Ginger is the one who is often looking after Sean, serving as both photographer and bank-side support for their whitewater exploits around the globe.
“I really thought he was going to grow out of it, but he hasn’t,” joked Ginger, who grew up by the banks of the Coeur d’Alene River in Harrison.
The couple spends their winters either in Ketchum, where Sean has been a ski patrolman for Sun Valley for almost two decades, or traveling and chasing waters around the world. They spend their summers in Lowman, running Payette River Company (PRC). Their “mom-and-pop” rafting company offers day trips on both the Kirkham and more rugged Canyon stretches of the South Fork of the Payette as well as a combo overnight option that includes camping on their custom built campsite.
Now in their 19th year as owner-operators, nearly 80% of PRC’s guests are return visitors and have become like family to the Glaccums.
Sean serves as the bus driver, lead guide, safety kayaker, photographer, and chef and he didn’t miss a single trip last season. He was happily on the water for 90 straight days.
“It’s so much fun, I couldn’t miss one,” he said.
While big whitewater certainly isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, for the Glaccums and Sean especially, it’s a big part of what makes life here in Idaho so great. If you talk to him, it’s pretty easy to see why he’s so crazy about rivers,
“Not everybody is as stoked as I am,” Sean said. “So anytime I can share these places with other people it’s super special.”
