Safety Starts With Our Guides
Safety innovation has been the ethos of Earth River for 36 years, from inventing foot cups in rafts to developing the safety cataraft for large-volume rivers like the Futaleufú. We were among the first to use tail frames for oar/paddle assist on multi-day trips like the Futaleufu and to instruct our guests to swim on their stomachs toward safety, rather than float on their backs with their feet up. Earth River installed the first water gauges on the Futaleufú, was the first to develop routes through the rapids, and established high-water safety cutoffs that are still followed today.
Safety Starts with Our Guides
“Swift Water Rescue”, “Wilderness First Responder,” and expert whitewater skills are a given for any professional river guide at Earth River. But character and judgment matter just as much. Our guides understand that their most important role on a trip is providing for the safety and well-being of our guests, on and off the river.
Guiding on rivers like the Futaleufú and Magpie also means adapting to who’s in the raft. From multi-generational families to first-time rafters of all ages. We welcome children as young as 8 and guests in their 70s and beyond. If our guides determine that a younger or older guest would be safer outside the main raft, or that the group’s biggest lines wouldn’t be appropriate for them, we bring an additional safety cataraft onto the water. That cataraft runs at the back of the trip, often taking sneak lines around the largest rapids. This allows those guests still experience the excitement of the river with very little chance of ending up in the water. It’s how we make sure every family member can take part, without changing the experience for guests chasing the bigger lines.
We Invented the Safety Cataraft
In the early days, we ran trips here with some of the best kayakers in the world. Eric Hertz watched how long it took to rescue a swimmer using kayak-based rescue alone. It was slow enough that he considered stopping operations on the river altogether.
Then he saw what the cataraft could do. Repurposed specifically for downstream safety, a use that didn’t exist in whitewater rescue before this. The cataraft’s speed, agility, and upstream power made rescues faster and safer than anything kayakers alone could achieve. That realization is the reason Earth River kept running the Futaleufú. It’s been part of our rescue capability ever since, and today, running with safety catarafts is the minimum safety standard mandated for every commercial outfitter on the river. Read the full story →
What Our Guests Say
Guests notice our approach to safety long before they get in a raft, and they tell us about it well after the trip ends.
“I’ve rafted with Eric Hertz down some tough rivers—the Futaleufu in Chile, the Colca in Peru. He’s one of the best in the business—obsessed with safety.”
—National Geographic Magazine
“Their expertise on the river is world-class, making us feel very safe and confident even on the big Class V rapids.”
—Verified Review on TripAdvisor