Last week I lost the Grand Canyon permit lottery for the twelfth year in a row, which sent me thinking about the great sneaks in Grand Canyon history. One was Fletcher Anderson’s solo descent in about 1977—roughly 49 hours to run the 277 miles from Lees Ferry to the Grand Wash Cliffs, then the fastest-known time. That got me thinking about speed runs.
Kenton Grua, Rudi Petschek, and Steve Reynolds famously rode a historic flood in a wooden dory in 36 hours, 38 minutes. That run, chronicled in Kevin Fedarko’s The Emerald Mile, inspired a revival of speed attempts—some brilliant, some borderline reckless, all captivating. Speed runs are usually ranked by elapsed time, which makes sense, but here’s a subjective list ranked by coolness.
9.
Who: John Weisheit, John Williams, and Clyde Deal
What: Motorized rigid inflatable
When: 1993
Why: Because the Factor bailed them out
Speed: 35 hours, 43 minutes (3*)
In 1993 these three pushed a rigid inflatable with a 50-hp outboard through the canyon, averaging about 23 mph until Bedrock Rapid, where they smashed the motor. They limped downstream and ran into Kenton Grua—the very man who’d set the dory record a decade earlier—who helped them repair the engine. They finished 55 minutes faster than the dory’s mark. It’s possible another motor craft has been faster since; regardless, they make the list because Grua bailed them out.
8.
Who: Ben Orkin and Harrison Rea
When: January 2015
What: Epic 18X sea kayaks
Speed: 37 hours, 48 minutes (4)
In January 2015 Orkin and Rea mounted ATV headlights to carbon-Kevlar sea kayaks and chased The Emerald Mile’s time. Relatively new to the canyon, they were on pace until Crystal Rapid at mile 98, where Rea hit the same hole that had flipped The Emerald Mile. His kayak cartwheeled and cracked on a rock. After repairs they finished in 37:48—a hair behind the dory’s time but the fastest kayak descent to that date.
7.
Who: John Mark Seelig, Robbie Prechtl, Jeremiah Williams, Matt Norfleet, Kurt Kincel, Justin Salamon, Lyndsay Hupp, and Omar Martinez
When: January 2020
What: 40-foot, seven-oared inflatable “Frankenstein”
Why: Brotherhood of the lost cause
Speed: 37 hours, 55 minutes (5)
This was a second try after a 2017 attempt ended in Lava Falls with broken gear. The 2020 crew—mostly U.S. Whitewater Rafting Team members—modified a 40-foot cata-raft with heavy lighting and sliding-seat oar rigs. Low water (about 14,500 cfs) undercut their odds, but they went anyway. Under a full moon they threaded Lava Falls perfectly and set the fastest-ever time for an inflatable boat.
6.
Who: Bob and Jim Rigg
When: 1951
What: Wooden dory
Why: The first nonstop speed descent
Speed: 52 hours, 41 minutes (7)
Brothers Bob and Jim Rigg made the first nonstop speed run of the Grand Canyon in a wooden dory, launching into a roaring 43,100 cfs flow and finishing in 52:41. It was the early benchmark for later attempts.
5.
Who: Walter Kirschbaum
When: 1960
What: 14-foot home-built muslin kayak
Why: First to kayak the entire Grand Canyon without portaging
Speed: Unranked (6 days)
Kirschbaum was initially denied a Grand Canyon permit because Park Service staff doubted a kayaker could survive. After he proved himself in Cataract Canyon, he launched a home-built muslin-and-resin kayak and paddled the Grand in six days—becoming the first to kayak the canyon without portaging and the only one to do so before Glen Canyon Dam altered flows.
4.
Who: Ben Orkin
What: Epic 18X sea kayak
When: January 2016
Why: Speed and resilience
Speed: 34 hours, 2 minutes (1)
A year after his near-miss with Harrison Rea, Orkin returned solo. While preparing to launch he learned a group had just set a new time of 35 hours, so he took off at a blistering pace. Near Lava Falls—around the second midnight and the Grand’s most feared rapid—he flipped, missed his roll, and got banged up on Cheese Grater Rock. After fighting an eddy and restarting, he lost about an hour but still made up time, finishing from Lees Ferry to Grand Wash Cliffs in 34:02—the all-time record.
3.
Who: Fletcher Anderson
When: Circa 1977
What: Fiberglass wildwater racing kayak
Why: The OG kayak speed run
Speed: 49 hours (7)
An anonymous piece called “The Big Sneak” in The Mountain Gazette told of a clandestine solo kayak run through the Grand Canyon in 49 hours. The author, later revealed to be Fletcher Anderson, paddled a wildwater racing kayak, broke the solo record, survived extreme fatigue and hallucinations, and lived to tell the tale. His under-the-radar dash remains one of the most compelling early kayak speed runs.
2.
Who: Kenton Grua, Rudi Petschek, and Steve Reynolds
What: Wooden dory, The Emerald Mile
When: 1983
Why: A flood-driven record in a dory
Speed: 36 hours, 38 minutes (4)
In 1983 engineers released extraordinary flows from Glen Canyon Dam—around 72,000 cfs—and three boatmen launched The Emerald Mile, a rebuilt wooden dory. Rowing day and night, they finished the 277-mile stretch in 36:38. They hit Crystal Rapid, encountered an enormous, violent hydraulic, cartwheeled, and were scattered into a boiling swirl called Thank God Eddy. They righted the dory and finished what would become the most storied Grand Canyon descent.
1.
Who: Team Beer — Matt Klema, Nate Klema, Ben Luck, and Ryan Casey
When: January 2016
What: Plastic downriver kayaks (three Pyranha Speeders, one Perception Wavehopper)
Why: Sportsmanship—and fried chicken
Speed: Matt Klema in 35 hours, 5 minutes (2)
The Emerald Mile stood until January 2016, when Team Beer pulled a permit and ran the river in borrowed plastic boats. Scooping river water and fueled by a three-pound bucket of fried chicken, all four beat the dory’s time—Matt Klema crossing first in 35:05. Their run was smooth and roll-free; three days later Ben Orkin lowered the record to 34:02. What cements Team Beer’s place, though, isn’t the time alone but their sportsmanship: they emailed Orkin to alert him he had a new mark to chase, celebrated the shared achievement, and emphasized that the river experience mattered more than how long a record lasted.
*If you use a motor, you get an asterisk after your time. Speed rankings here include only the trips in this article and are not comprehensive (for example, Grua, Petschek, and Wally Rist ran a dory in just under 48 hours in 1980, and the USA rafting team clocked 37:24 in 2017).
