Youghiogheny,

5. Ohiopyle Falls

Strider Snyder

Strider Snyder
Photo of Jeff Snyder Striding with Pride by Marty Lamp taken 9/30/00 @ 1.5 ft (Ohiopyle)

Gauge Information

River Description

The 2008 Ohiopyle Over the Falls Festival will take place on August 23.

From Race Organizer Barry Adams:

Tenth Annual AW Over the Falls Ohiopyle Falls Festival
August 23, 2008

Once again we will be running Ohiopyle Falls during this one-day event. We need plenty of Help! Volunteers will get discounts and T-shirts. For additional information, registration and updates see: www.FallsRace.com. You can sign up for the race and Freestyle event or just run the Falls.

Read more…

Activities Planned:
Over the Falls Race and Freestyle Event
Practice Runs
"The Upstream World Championships" held on the Lower Yough and sponsored by Wilderness Voyageurs
Silent Auction
Town Party with live band 706 Union
Falls Under Lights

This event is dependent on getting enough Safety boaters. We have lowered the registration fees and the time commitment for volunteers.

The registration forms for the running the Falls and volunteer registration forms are on the above website. There is a discount for early registration by August 18, 2008.

Thank you!

AW Ohiopyle Access Committee
Barry Adams 412-242-4562
Bj2adams@juno.com

Race Results by year: 2007 2006 2005 2004 2002 2001 2000 1999
(There was no race in 2003, due to high water on the official race weekend and on the backup weekend.)

This fun falls opens up one weekend every year, for the Ohiopyle Falls Race and Freestyle, at fallsrace.com. Other than that, it's illegal to run. For now, anyway. AW is committed to working to ensure legal access to Ohiopyle Falls on a regular basis.

The Falls itself is a 15-20-footer, not too tough if you stay in the center and don't get sideways. At "normal" levels, the penalty for screwing up is a serious working in the hydraulic at the base; but it does seem to let people out eventually. The river-right eddy is known as the "Kosterizer," in honor of someone who got worked there in '99. It's probably the worst place to be.

The approach rapids aren't to be overlooked. They got ledges and stuff. The first ledge has a hydraulic which can make top-level boaters swim if they get caught; the second ledge has a piton rock, which has a very nasty tendency to break glass boats.

Excellent coverage of the annual Ohiopyle Falls Race and Freestyle is available at IplayOutside.com:
First Annual (November 13, 1999)
Second Annual (September 30-October 1, 2000)
Third Annual (September 29-30, 2001)

And now for something completely different: Click here for Karl Gesslein's view of Ohiopyle Falls, drawn up after the groundbreaking 1999 race. (Clicking will open up a new browser window.) If you like that, check out some more drawings here.

Other related or nearby streams:
Middle Yough (Class II)
Casselman (Class I-III)
Lower Yough (Class III)
Meadow Run (Class V)
Upper Yough (Class IV-V)
Top Yough (Class IV-V)

Lat/Longitude coords verified by GPS.