By Laurel Brown For Columbia Gorge News HOOD RIVER — Whether you prefer paddling rivers, climbing mountains, or surfing the wind, there are endless ways to get outside and experience nature in the Gorge. For lovers of hiking, climbing, and swimming, there is a new adventure waiting — canyoneering. Cascade Canyon Guides (www.
cascadecanyonguides.com), a Pacific Northwest guide company, started four years ago by Hood River local Andrew Jiminez, offers excursions to the bottom of beautiful canyons in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and beyond. Canyoneering, also called canyoning, is a sport that combines rappelling, swimming, climbing, hiking and scrambling to descend into deep canyons and explore rivers, pools and caves.
Ropes, neoprene, and harnesses are a must in this extreme outdoor sport. Though he is a professional now and a self-proclaimed low-risk taker, Jiminez first found fascination with canyons while road tripping with friends in his early 20s, working at various restaurants and coffee shops along the way. “I just started exploring canyons with friends wherever we were camping,” he said.
At the time, they were not using proper safety equipment or established routes; instead, Jiminez and his friends would descend only with ropes and excitement. As he saw more people doing the sport with helmets and harnesses, he realized everything they needed to learn. Jiminez moved to Utah where he started his true canyoneering journey, eventually spending time exploring canyons in Mexico, Honduras, and Puerto Rico.
He has been professionally guiding for eight years and earned his certification as an American canyoneering lead guide in 2018. “It’s all I want to do,” he said. He helped develop the American Canyoneering Association’s (ACA) Swiftwater Canyoneering curriculum and spent two years working for the president of ACA, from whom he learned a lot.
Jiminez’s company also offers swiftwater courses, private canyon tours, team building excursions, guided waterfall and wildflower hikes, and more. Jiminez has a small team of professionals that help make this operation possible. His wife, Emily, also helps with the company, prepping lunches and other logistics for tours.
Guides provide instruction, encouragement, and safety as guests rappel down waterfalls and jump into pools of spring water. After three years of good behavior, Cascade Canyon Guides received an eight-year permit to guide in the Gifford Pinchot. Tom Costello, an avid adventurer and lover of canyoning, works for Cascade Canyons and is up for anything.
“I got addicted to canyoning pretty fast,” Costello said. Fiji Pools, the tour offered out of Trout Lake in July and August, is a favorite of both Costello and Jiminez. “We named it Fiji Pools for two reasons: To protect the location and because it honestly looks like you’re in Fiji,” Jiminez shared.
With the highest rappel at 60 feet, this tour is available to all guests, whether experienced or first-timers. “It feels like an amalgamation of what I love to do in the Gorge,” said Becca Moskowitz, another guide with Cascade Canyons. “It’s a unique way to be in the thick of it, being in the pools and hugged by the canyon walls, a perspective not always granted.
” Jiminez, Costello, Moskowitz and the other guides are focused on safety and fun, always checking in with each other and their guests to provide helpful feedback and encouragement. They strive for perfection on their tours, keeping everyone engaged and attentive while triple-checking harnesses, ropes, and anchors. “Tours are a game of testing people all day to gain as much information as possible about each guest, their mobility and balance and all that.
We want to make it safe and let guests have fun too,” Jiminez said. Hazards on tours include slippery rocks, heights, cold water, and loose trees or rocks. Cascade Canyon Guides offer adventures around Portland, the Columbia Gorge and Mount Rainier, with plans to expand to more canyons soon.
They equip guests from head to foot, including harnesses, carabiners, helmets, and neoprene suits and socks. They also provide transportation options, snacks, and lunch. Repeat guests have access to even more routes with steeper rappels and more strenuous hikes.
Though canyoning in the winter is still an option, Jiminez shifts gears in the off-season to work for CultureSeed, a nonprofit that offers outdoor excursions and mental health support to youth who might not otherwise have access to such experiences..
