Counting swims on the Blackwater

It’s definitely winter season in Scotland now and this means trips have to start earlier to maximize daylight. So an 8:30 meet-up (the horror!) was on the cards for Sunday paddling. I managed to arrive late having maximised my last few minutes in bed, Oops.

We were off to paddle the Blackwater which has been on my list to tick off for some time. Further signs of winter were sighted on the drive up with frost on the ground and low lying mist clinging to the fields....

 On the plus side the sun was shining and I have a new leopard-print onesie to keep me toasty!

The Blackwater starts with a bang, a 4 tiered grade IV drop at the putin. My assessment was that the first drop was the hardest, so much time was spent inspecting this with less attention paid to the other drops. Possibly this was my downfall.

Stevie and Gregor led the charge, with varying degrees of style.  

Stevie hits number 4

After switching up safety, I paddled down the first drop, slightly missing the line and having a small moment with the rock, and eddied out to wait for the next people down. the next thing I saw was Mags floating past me  upsidedown. Fortunately however, Mags rolls like a trooper and survived the rapid still in her boat. 

Mags on the way back up

Gianni followed and then Kevin popped into my eddy, so I decided to paddle on down the rest of the rapid. Drops 2 and 3 were pretty much as expected. The final drop did not go exactly to plan, I managed to push the ‘anti-boof’ button and ended up backlooped into the hole. A slightly embarrassing swim but at least the only thing wounded was my pride.

surprise backloop for me

Kevin followed down behind and missed the line on the final drop, unfortunately dislocating his shoulder on the way. Swimmer and boat were successfully rescued and Kevin managed to pop his shoulder back into place by the side of the river. Hospital visit successfully avoided, but unable to carry on, Kevin joined up with Hieu who had also decided not to paddle. L

Kevin styles the top drop

Alec brought up the rear and the rest of us joined up with Christina and headed off downstream. Some fun rapids lead us into the gorge section , all was going smoothly. I decided to walk the big rapid in the gorge -  some days you just don’t feel it. Gregor lined up first, styled the rapid and then swam in the pool in the bottom, doh! Fortunately there was another group just downstream to do some chase boating.

Gregor, just before it all goes a bit wrong

Gianni on the gorge

The rest of the gorge was nice read and run rapids with Gianni and Stevie adding one a piece to the swim count. About halfway down the gorge we found Gregor re-united with his boat and headed on down the rest of the run. Other than a surprise backwards rapid for me it was pretty much plain sailing down to final bridge, before heading to the pub for beer and hot chocolate. 

Out of the 9 of us on the trip on Alec and Christina had a head dry day on the water (clearly they weren’t trying hard enough!)

Luss Water with Low Water

Aka the lies of wheresthewater.com

Five intrepid boaters met in the overcast South Queensferry Tesco with a plan to go paddle something or other. The decision was taken to head up to the Luss Water, the wheresthewater gauge was saying the river was high and should be good to go.

Not really knowing much about the Luss I said ‘ok cool’ and jumped in the car, casually flicking through the guide book to find out what we’re in for: grade 4 some 4+  “a serious undertaking at very high flows” was pretty much all I read before closing the guidebook and pretending I hadn’t seen it.

Five boat one car shuttle

As it turned out I needn’t have worried, when we arrived at the putin it was pretty clear flow were not exactly high, definitely enough to float but not enough worry about. We all jumped into Laura’s car for  a cheeky 5-boats-on-one-car shuttle, up to the putin. Usually the Mollochan Burn is slid down in to the Luss however it was looking little low for that so we trekked down to the confluence, I was wishing I’d put on less thermals.

At the low levels it was a bit of a pin fest in places and I was perfecting the ‘spin on a rock and go down backwards’ line. We got out to inspect the hardest rapid on the run, a chute into a rooster tail with a curtain pushing you into a boily wall just above a second drop.  I bravely let everyone else go first.

Some took better lines that others, Derek and Alan both rolling over the lip second drop, looked particularly nasty.  I managed the rapid head dry but with a slightly swollen thumb from punching the wall (no pictures of me = I can pretend I styled it ;-)

(If anyone wants them the full sequence of photos can be found here)

 

Various lines, clockwise from top: Laura skirts under the curtain, Steve makes it look a bit too easy, Alan being pushed over by the curtain, Derek upsidedown on the lip

After some more interesting drops we arrived at Luss falls; a tree filled undercut gorge. We all portaged. Steve and Alan paddled on to probe the next drop, I’m not sure exactly what happened, other than from the top all we could see was a river left bush waving wildly around. Steve the appeared on the bank with Alan’s paddles signalling to go right.

Nasty looking strainer on the gorge

We carried on through the short gorge before the river opened up into a weir followed shortly after we saw the road bridge signalling the end of the section. The Luss Water is a lovely scenic run, definitely keen to come back, but maybe with a little more water next time!

Funtimes on Luss Water

Munros: Cruach Ardrain and Beinn Tulaichean

(Ahem... quick change of Munro names after Ashley pointed out I'd got them mixed up)

One of my favourite things about living in Scotland is that when my friends come up to do fun things I can easily pop along for a weekend.  Last weekend I joined Phil Ashley Ivanka and Heather who were up in the north for a spot of Munro bagging.

I ventured up to join them after work on Friday, after getting horrendously lost driving around the forest tracks behind Killin I eventually made it to the holiday cottage in Auchmore (thanks for coming to rescue me Ashley). In future I shall follow my satnav and not the confusing direction. Fortunately I arrived just in the nick of time to take control of the Chilli making for dinner.

An Epic game of contract whist commenced, in the conservatory,  having made the living room too hot via the wood burning stove. Unfortunately I did not win (just biding my time/developing strategy/ some other excuse).

On the way up 

Saturday morning saw us heading to the hills with a cheeky pit stop along the way for me to inspect the falls of Dochart (definitely runnable). We set of from Crianlarich train station, the lower part of the ascent involving a significant amount of bog. I think everyone had wet feet after 30 mins. The winds were steadily picking up as we climbed, the Forecast had reported the winds would drop after midday, they didn’t.  

Half way up I spotted an appealing looking rock which I naturally set about climbing. I didn’t exactly plan how I was going to get down however; resulting in a slightly sketchy jump/fall.

No thought given to the method of getting back down (Photo: Ashley)

The summit of Cruach Ardrain was celebrated with a speedy pork pie eating stop, while Phil loaned out spare pair of gloves to me and Ivanka. I’m not sure why anyone would carry 3 pairs of gloves up a mountain but I was pretty glad. Some comical fellrunners were also summiting at the same time, their vest/backpack thingys looking at lot like a buoyancy aid.

Cruach Ardrain Summit (photo: Heather)

We carried onwards to the summit of Beinn Tulaichean, I have not one a clue how to pronounce this one either. The wind was making stopping a chilly prospect so we headed off of the mountain in the direction of the car the wind quite literally blowing water back up hill.

Water literally blowing up hill

We arrived back at the car just as it was starting to get dark, and headed back to Auchmore.  Phil and Heather were dispatched to buy pizza’s while I started playing at lighting the stove. After some epic hot chocolates, and another nailbiting game of Whist (I pipped Phil to the post!), we all collapsed into bed.

Another successful weekend.

Beinn Tulaichean summit (Photo: Heather)

ICCC oldies collide with Imperial freshers

Photo's cheekily stolen from Alby and Will as I forgot my camera.

One excellent weekend paddling in North Wales! 2 ½ new sections of river, not bad for an old stomping ground!

Some time ago Adam started organising an oldies trip to Snowdonia, as the date drew closer we discovered that the trip would coincide with Imperial College Canoe Club’s freshers trip. In fact we would be staying 100m apart in different bunkhouses in Tremadog!

Lots of my favourite people in the same place at the same time Perfect.

Leeman and I both had Friday off work, so after some nostalgic faff on Thursday night we set off, only 2 hours behind schedule. A cheeky wild camp in the Trough of Bowden saw us heading into Wales for an afternoon paddle on the Conwy with Texa, one of Tom’s Aberdeen mates. It rained overnight and levels were good for a lovely bounce down the usual middle section, before taking on my first new section of the weekend the section down to the Penmancho Bridge.

Both grade V’s  were looking a bit messy, so we set about portaging, however there’s still plenty of fun to be had on this section even with the portages. Texa had an unlucky swim shortly after The Gobbler and just as we’re pulling her boat out of the water Tom pointed out the yellow markers on the bank signalling the end of the section. I hadn’t even noticed. Fully aware of the stories about folks missing the take out and ending up on the rock above Conwy falls, we’d inspected the take out pretty carefully on the shuttle.  We paddled down a few hundred meters more to the final take out, it’s pretty easy to see how you could miss it.

We made our way down to our bunkhouse in Tremadog, having discovered the Freshers had had their accommodation plans screwed up by the BRMC, as so were invading the oldies in Eric’s barn, albeit we slept in the bunkbeds while the freshers were on the floor in the climbing barn (rather them than me!). Sitll at least it meant we got 8 ICCC presidents together for a photocall!

8 ICCC presidents in a row (Is that a record?)

Saturday morning rolled around and while the freshers went off to paddle Llugwy the oldies went to paddle the Fairy (Scary) Glen. Somehow I found myself joining the oldies heading for the Glen.

Getting changed at the put in was a bit of a surreal experience, I genuinely never expected to find myself attempting this section of river. Not that I paddled terribly well mind, a roll and a couple of swims in the first gorge persuaded me that I would be better off taking out at Fairy Falls, hence I’m only counting half of a new section. Thanks to the rest of the team for superb rescue efforts, especially Nick-good work on the throw line! Luckily Tom was carrying splits so I paddled down to the falls with some slightly oversized blades.

 Fairy Falls was attempted by some members of the group, Adams upsidedown line looked particularly painful, while others made it look all too easy.

Adam's upsidedown line- Ouch! (Photo:Alby)

I made my way down to the take-out to reflect, while the others faffed about in the lower gorge. I still have the rest of the glen to complete and a wee glen rock in my BA, courtesy of Patrick, as inspiration to come back and do better next time!

Patrick on the lead out (Photo: Alby)

With light remaining we went off to inspect some horrendous looking waterfall in Blaenau Ffestiniog. No-one was keen. I returned to the hut with Paraic and Wardle to make a head start on dinner before the freshers invaded our kitchen, while keen beans headed to the Glaslyn or on a booze run in Porthmadog. Nick and Derf had to be rescued by the minibus after some unexpected car troubles.

Saturday evening proceeded in usual club style, complemented by a firework display from Ally and Jake. Possibly the location of the fireworks had not been risk assessed, however fortunately no cars passed at an inopportune moment. Ferrero Rocher’s were provided via Rik, which has developed into a new game: how fast can you east 16 Ferrero Rocher, (“you may have one tiny sip of water at the halfway point”). I managed just sub 6 minutes. Hazelnuts, it turns out, are surprisingly difficult to swallow without water. After a late Friday night most people bailed for bed by 2am, with Derf (the hero) looking after one slightly incapacitated fresher.

Eating all the Rocher's! (Photo: Will)

Sunday morning began with a speedy breakfast in Eric Cafe and some extended faffing.  The Wnion was the name of the game for the oldies, and a whole new river for me. It was a superfun blast through the gorge and made for a very scenic end to the trip. October is definitely the best time to come to Wales, the autumn colours are very pretty and it’s not too cold (I’m easily pleased).

We all said our goodbyes and the cars sped off in all directions, returning to various parts of the UK, until next time. Many thanks to Adam for organising the Oldies, and to Jake for organising the freshers (I hope you guys enjoyed the Dee!).

EKC weekender (I did a grade V)

Oops failed to post this up at  the time, videos courtesy of Hieu.

After an early Saturday morning start Tom and I met up with the rest of the team at the put in for the Etive. Graham and I definitely had some demons  kill after the less than successful Etive trip of last year!

Mostly I was just pleased to get passed triple 2 without a disaster this time! After plenty of swims we made our way down to right angle falls,  which was attempted by all except JP who was worried about back injuries.

For years I’ve been meaning to get on to the Etive tribs for ages, and this was that day! Graham Tom and I started the arduous walk up the Allt a Choarainn.

I had a cheeky swim on the speed rapid being pushed against the wall, but otherwise a superfun run! Definitely worth the hike up the river.

Evening dinner was at a classy trip to Fort-Bill spoons, before retiring to the hostel to meet Steve and Tamsin. It’s a bit strange to stay at Aite Cruinnichidh and it not the be new years or freezing!

A relaxed Sunday morning we got going to the Orchy, meeting up with Laura and Stevie at the putin. Everybody stepped up a gear and we only had two swims for the entire river, this time it was Elizabeth’s turn to conquer some demons and finally finish the Orchy (with style).  At the 2^nd grave V (the double drop one) I surprised myself by deciding to actually paddle it !

 I’m not going to lie I was pretty scared, and very glad Laura made it look super clean ahead of me. Massive thanks to the cheer team and safety team on the bank also. It definitely looks easier from the  video than it felt at the time!

Other Highlights from the French Alps

Previous post covered our epic day on the Verdon but besides that here are my top highlights from the French Alps 2014. (One day I shall learn enough html to put photos side by side)

1. Team Lady Paddle!

2. Hilarious lines on Triple step

3. Minibus appreciation (appreciated all the more from the comfort of a car). Farwell UZX!

4. Carnage!

5. Paddling the Gyr (has long been on my list of rivers I never thought I'd be good enough to paddle). No photos though, I was to busy with the paddling thing.

6. Boating in the Sunshine,

The Verdon Gorge: Exploring the Grand Canyon of Europe

Somewhere on the shuttle

This year marks the 10^th anniversary of my first trip to the French Alps, and it’s still one of my favourite places to go boating. As well as hitting all the classic runs, this year I wanted to do something a little different. Enter the Verdon... its quite a distance from any other Alpine rivers so doesn't often feature in trips to the French Alps; plus its controlled by a hydro release which limits the number of days it’s actually possible to paddle. However the South Alps guide promises a mini expedition in one of the most spectacular gorges in Europe, it’s not wrong.

Thursday morning saw us crawl out of our tents after a late night, we called the tourist info centre who confirmed a hydro release for the Friday, it was time to make this happen! Ralph Mark and I packed up camp said out goodbyes to IC and set off on our driving mission, taking it turns to read the guidebook on the way.

We made reasonable time across the lavender fields of Haute Provence arriving at the take out just before 7pm. Being three people and two cars we were able to leave one car at the take out before heading to a campsite in La Palud, thus avoiding morning faff with the shuttle.

Photographing the guidebook turned out to be a good move!

At camp we continued reading our way through the guide, and sorting out what gear we would need to carry in boats (including head torches in case of a paddle out in the dark). In the end we took photos of the guidebook in case we needed to consult it during the run, (we did!). the phrase “well we’ll just have to inspect the rapid when we get there and make a decision” was repeated many times over the course of the evening

At the campsite we met a group of Czech paddlers, also planning a descent the following day, they assured us they had done it before. (Quote: “ah you have the Knowles book , he say 8 hours we will finish in 5”). Somewhat reassured by their confidence and the knowledge there would be another group on the river if anything went horrendously wrong we adjusted our up time to a slightly more reasonable 7am.

After an uneasy sleep (I thought it might be a little hypocritical to tell our fellow campers off for keeping us awake), Friday morning came around, our options were either to put in at river level upstream and paddle 5km of the grade 3 pre-canyon or a steep and arduous 30 min walk in. Needless to say we chose the extra 5km.

Floaty floaty precanyon

After many nervous wees we set off, the pre canyon section offering a taster of what was to come. Some technical eddy practice on the initial section lead to surprise yelp and a roll, from me. Embarrassing. and not an ideal way to start the day. Still we reached the start of the gorge proper at Point Sublime, took some token photos and were underway. As the walls closed in we started spotting siphons, the Verdon is a limestone gorge and hence littered with them. It’s the danger of siphons rather than the difficulty of the rapids that makes the gorge so intimidating.  Trying not to recall all the stories about fatalities on the section we paddled on.

 

Start of the canyon proper

An iron bridge indicated our approach to the first named rapid and the hardest on the run L’estelle. It required a tight move around a boulder just above another big siphony boulder. I decided to portage (sweaty work wearing a drysuit in the blinding sunshine). Ralph and Mark ran the rapid to the delight on the tourists on the bridge, and with just a cheeky roll from Mark and we were off away from the masses again. Plenty of blind corners followed some hiding flat water some hiding tricksy drops.

Ralph on L'Estelle

The gorge walls closed in further but the river was deceptively calm, I took the lead for a little bit, after all what could possibly go wrong on the flat...  A couple of corners later the river appeared to disappear into a cave,  I hit an eddy fast. We’d arrived at the infamous Styx rapid.

Styx: Me keeping far Away from river right cave wall

On any other river this rapid would be barely worth a mention, however since you paddle the rapid into a cave and at the back of the cave is a monster siphon it might rate as one of the scariest rapids I’ve run! We took our time setting safety (and cameras), fortunately all were successful in running the rapid.

Mark goes for the meat

 We scooted out of the cave and carried on around more blind corners and more siphon (If it sounds like I’m repeating myself here it because blind corners and siphons were something of a theme for the day). The next rapid of note we arrived as was Chaos de l’limbut... or was it? The river seem to disappear under a boulder choke.

After some discussion about whether this was the mandatory portage or if we really were supposed to paddle into a massive boudler choke through a tiny crack in the cliff, we decided to have lunch and and check the guidebook photos.

We peeled off our drysuits and tucked into the brie and baguette we’d stashed in Ralphs boat. It was a well deserved break, we were prepared for it to be cold in the canyon, actually it was about a million degrees and I curled up on the river bank for a little nap.  During lunch we fired up the camera and picked out the guidebook pages we’d snapped, confirming we were indeed at Caos l’limbut. Also we had an unexpected surprise: we’d just passed the halfway point!

 

L'limbut yep we paddled into that crack in the wall, (blinding sunshine + dark cave = crappy photo)

Just as we were about to set off the Czech’s turned up, in typical fashion I managed to made a complete hash of rapid and went worringly close to one of the big boulder siphons. Luckily I stayed upright and slipped into the underground boulder choke section.  Once inside the boulder choke (yes you are actually meant to end up in there) the river calms down and gives you space to look up at the massive lumps of rock and bits of tree above you. At the end of the choke we did need to climb up through the rocks and seal launch back into the river. I was a bit nervous about being first but far better than being last. With no-one to hold him on the rock Mark had to hurl his boat down and then jump in after it!

 

Mark in a Cave

After this we kept up a good pace partly to keep ahead of the Czech’s and party because we (ok me) were getting a bit tired, so I don’t have any more pics of the gorge. The mandatory portages downstream we fairly ardous, heaving my boat over boulders in the blaring heat is not the most fun. Several blind bends later I was sitting in an eddy waiting for a signal, Mark made a portage sign, sigh. Then he ferried over to the other side of the river, a new sign. It does go, it’s just very tight. After ‘the incident’ on the Gyronde  a few days earlier I thought I’d really rather get out and look. Mark was right it did go, but only just, and I was out of beans. Ralph lined up and ran the rapid with typical annoying ease, it looked effortless. Marks line, well lets just say it made me glad I’d decided to portage.

A little further the river calmed and widened, we realised that rapid must have L’Oublie (the forgotten) and the final rapid of the gorge. We’d made it! Now it was just a 6 km flat section to ice creams and the take out. We stopped on a gravel bed to clamber out of drysuits and finish the paddle in the sunshine just in swimmers, lovely. Our Czech friends reappeared and helped up take some victory photos.

 

Victory photo!

With energies picked up we commenced the flat paddle out. Pretty soon we were seeing tourists everywhere in peadalos and sit-on-tops. I’m sure we must have looked as strange to them as them to us. After such an intense experience in the gorge it was very strange to finish the paddle surrounded by people out for a relaxing day on the lake, (something something... you don’t know man, you weren’t there!)

 

The paddle out as seen from the shuttle flat but pretty

After a fruitless search for icecream at the take out we headed back to the campsite for much needed shower, before a night out on the town in La Palud. (very reminiscent of a night out in Barcolonette some years previous, Rory you were missed!). We wandered slowly back to the campsite under a full moon pretty satisfied after an epic day on the water.

All in all the Verdon is a fantastic trip, not the hardest whitewater ever, but both mentally and physically taxing, it’s not to be underestimated.  Many thanks to Mark and Ralph for putting up with me and gererally being excellent, I hope you enjoyed it half as much as I did!

 

the Mega Siphon in The Styx