alpine adventures

We did the Class IV-V rafting trip on the Skykomish River meeting in Gold Bar. Gold Bar is about an hour fifteen outside of Seattle, so the drive wasn't too bad. Once you get there, you notice that Alpine Adventures is a building, a tent, and some buses/trailers that the guides live in. It also had a funky sweaty smell. Once all of the formalities were taken care of, we got our equipment, all of which was clean and in good condition. We boarded the vans which were actually very dirty which was very offputting. Once we got to the river, we had a safety talk and got into our boats.Our boat was very inexperienced (our family has rafted at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte and the other family except for the adult had not rafted). Our guide was Jojo, and he was great. The highlight was when we initially got on and they stressed not doing anything uncomfortable--"Peer pressure is great...but not here. If you don't want to do Boulder Drop (Class V), don't. We will not make fun of you. We will commend you for making a good decision" or something along those lines. Very professional. When we got to Boulder Drop, we pulled over and they talked us through every scenario. Some members of the boat chose not to do it, so they were walked to the end. The rest of us had a lot of fun and nobody fell out. After Boulder Drop, there was an opportunity to jump off of a huge boulder into freezing water which I did not take advantage of. They have a chicken cookout when you get back which is nice. Jojo was excellent. He fit the bill of raft guide perfectly. The only negatives were the dirty vans and smelly location. I'd definitely recommend AA to anyone who wants to raft, though. The Skykomish is beautiful!

We had a great time rafting the Skykomish with Alpine Adventures. The guides were friendly and obviously enjoyed what they were doing and working with each other. I have white water rafted on several eastern rivers, but, my 17 year old daughter was a rookie. Their attention to detail and safety made me comfortable enough to let her ride the Class V "boulder drop". Our guide Will ran it perfectly even with several older/weaker paddlers(including me). The transport buses were kind of beat up, but who cares? The rest of the gear was top notch and very clean. It was a fun river with skilled and entertaining guides.Well worth the $79 fee. Oh, and the scenery was beautiful too!

These guys are good at what they do! We booked a white water rafting trip with them and totally enjoyed the trip. The guides were skilled and gave very clear and good instructions to us paddlers ! We went there on the last weekend in May and the river was strong ( about 7500 cfs) and needed good guidance down the river.Thanks Trim, Chris and Mike for a wonderful time!

We went rafting the Skykomish for my bachelor party and had a great time! Our guide, Nelson, did a great job. He kept us entertained doing tricks even in the calmer water. We will definitely be going back when the water is higher and flowing faster.

Was visiting the northwest from Colorado and was looking for something adventurous to do. We found Alpine Adventures after a web search on white water rafting and called them to ask what would be a good rafting trip for us to take given that we were based out of Seattle. The first option they gave us was a place about an hour away from Seattle, but that site had class IV+ rapids and we had a newbie in the group so we chose instead to drive the longer distance to the Wenatchee river. When we booked the trip the agent also told us about the alpine village of Leavenworth and the we may want to consider making a day of it given the drive.The gathering point for the trip was a park parking lot in Cashmere, WA. They provided all the gear out of the back of a large van. While this seemed odd, it appeared to be how all of the rafting companies in this area geared up their guests. You locked your valuables in your car and left the keys with company who locked them up for safe keeping.We then drove about 15 minutes to the put in point, near Leavenworth. I noticed that we passed several other companies putting in farther down the river. I can't say for sure but it seemed that they put in a little farther up than the other companies to give you a little longer ride, through one additional, fun, rapid. The only downside to this was that there was a little longer "float" on the front end between this first set of rapids and the one at the end.Our group had 5 boats and a wide variety of guide personalities. For those of you who have been rafting before you know the guide can make the difference between a really fun experience and an average one. I recommend if you have the choice of multiple guides talk to them all and get a feel for their personality and then ask to be on the boat of the one who you feel will be the most fun for you. We got a great, irreverent, guide who fit in quite well with our personalities. And who, most importantly, asked what type of ride we were looking for. For our boat we wanted lots of fun, go through the hard spots, and get wet!! Other boats had families and their guides ensured that they didn't hit the rapids as hard as we did. They really tailored how they went through the rapids to the comfort level of those in the boat.Lunch was, OK. You pulled off where you had to portage your boat around a dam and they had a table set up with the makings for sandwiches, some potato salad, fruit, chips & Salsa, cookies and cake. To drink they had water and lemonade from 5-gallon igloo drink coolers. All in all, I had a blast. We hit some fun rapids (even our guide almost got tossed out of the boat!) and a good time was had by all.Afterwards we spent a couple of hours in a bier garden in Leavenworth, had a yummy dinner, and headed back to Seattle.Suggestions for improvement: I would have bought a souvenir hat or shirt, but it didn't seem they had any to sell.

If you are looking for something fun to do instead of the tourist attractions in Seattle, this is it! Rafting the Skykomish was of course beautiful, but also a work out! The guides did a great job educating us on how to navigate the river, and were hilarious! If I was a local I would definitely go again.

We booked with Alpine Adventures instead of Blue Sky as we prefer to support the "little guy" when possible. They were nice and capable, but didn't really "stand out." We've rafted as a family many times, and we've had experiences which were WOW, and others that were "eh." This was closer to the "eh" group. The river (Wenatchee) was a III+, which was fun, but had quite a few slower spots. All in all, I'm not sure it was worth the 2.5 hour drive from Seattle, but would be worth it if you're staying closer to Cashmere (the meeting place). The least favorite part was that we had to carry the raft quite a distance at the end. Considering that our raft included my wife and two kids, it was a struggle and left a bad taste in our mouths. All in all, the price is fair, the river is fair, and the experience was fair.

Sorry you were disappointed with your trip. The river level on the day of your trip was 9,700 cfs a very high water level and to dangerous to run the ledge wave in Boulder Drop Rapid with the crews we had that day (non swimming). We elected to run the line called the Mercy Chute still rated class 4-5 by the experts. Sometimes my guides make that run look to easy as appears to be the case here. Our only other option would have been to cancel the trip as 4 members of the other group could not swim and 2 were poor swimmers. Alpine Adventures takes pride in our guides and there abilities to keep our clients as safe as possible.

Had a great time rafting with these guys in Leavenworth ... SO FUN!!!