Alps Video Teaser

Alps teaser 2 now with actually paddling footage.


Alps teaser 2 from Liam Chambers on Vimeo.

The Alps according to Dom

Now with added video courtesy of Jeannine

 

Alps 2012 with LUCC - Part One France from Stuart Earnshaw on Vimeo.

 

 

 

 

Saturday

After a long overnight drive we arrived at the campsite to glorious sunshine around lunchtime. Following a trip to supermarket and tent assembly we decided was time to go paddling. The first river was the gyronde which helpfully ran down to the campsite. After a short drive we arrived at the get on, a slightly intimidating fast and bouldery introduction to alpine paddling. The shuttle was run and groups we formed. Me, Chris Sam, Kim, Jeannine and a random ex Bangor person formed the second group.

We went off to a great start with the river being easier than it looked.  A few sharp corners difficult to see around and a swim in the front group presented the only real problems.  Once the weir was found and portaged by some (me and Spud) the river became easier and we could relax a bit more.  We passed through the town before we reached the slalom course and campsite.  Crowds lined the banks eager to welcome our return (that or they were watching student boater x).  On getting to the bottom I discovered the other two groups had had minor epics but after some driving faff everyone returned safe and well (and helpful Earnie blacked out most of his swim so can still not remember swimming in a while).

Sunday

Happy Paddlers on Slalom course

We decided to start the next day with some training on the slalom course.  Most of us ran it a few times practicing eddying in and out.  I experienced my first alpine roll whilst doing some poor ferry gliding.  The group then split with some staying for more coaching and the rest went to paddle the Guisane.   

Happy Paddlers actually paddling

After a quick snack (and drive) we got started.  This had a nicer get on and aside from lack of reasonable sized eddies was a friendly river.  The whole paddling and not being cold thing was still surprising me.  Soon S bend the hardest rapid of the section appeared.  We got out but decided it didn’t need scouting properly so went down with a few others going first to set up some safety.  A fun 200m later is was finished without incident.  The gradient eased slightly but river was still fun.  We soon reached the get out/ start of lower section.  Me, Emma and Penny got out here and after a short sunbath whilst Penny retrieved her car we met the others at the bottom (van on French road = horrible).  After more lunch we decided to paddle the Briancon gorge in the afternoon.  Some epically failing at running the shuttle later we all got on.  A short paddle led to a dam with a handy paddle shoot to go down.

The river then descended to a gorge.  There may have been many eddys but with Haywood in lead little were made.  At the end of the gorge there was a nice corner where someone had helpfully built a series of concrete walls heading into the river.  After a rather unsuccessful attempt at eddying out above I ended up following Emma down taking here exact line as we hit said wall and both went over.  I managed to roll up just fast enough to see myself in eddy above wall heading straight back into the wall.  Over again I felt a rather hard hit on my head and decided to bail.  A short put shallow and rocky swim later I was on the bank and discovered I had managed to cut my eyebrow.  Penny’s boat then appeared making it in fact 3 simultaneous swims.  A second swim avec throw line returned me to the correct side of the river which has a path.  Then a rather long walk/jog later through some sort of fair found Squirrel and Chris helpfully retrieving my boat.  Emma’s been pinned higher up.  A further walk took me to the top of the weir and my boat (squirrel had paddled it out after an impromptu abseil to get to it).  Everyone was now reunited with kit and weir was suitably inspected we all paddled down.  Emma managed to swim without me noticing and we call ended up at the same get out we had been several hours earlier.

Monday

In search of some more paddling suitable for the entire group we headed to the lower Guil.  The drive there was described as a class 5 for trailers and I certainly didn’t fancy taking the wheel at this point.  No accidents occurred and after the shuttle we all got on.  This river was noticeably bigger than previous ones and also quite a bit easier.  Little happened other than one or two swims and a first impromptu white water roll for Gareth.  We got off after a very short section but decided we hadn’t paddled enough so were going to carry on.  The following section was even bigger and flatter.  We reached a slalom course and the get out soon.

Lower Guil

We then decided to paddle the upper section of the same river which is slightly harder section but still suitable for all.  After quite a picturesque drive going past several harder sections in between we reached the get on and met up with the olds (not sure if was by chance or design).  We then split into groups since would be going through a (fairly open) gorge section so would not be loads of space on river.  I was with Gareth, Penny, Liam, Fred and Haywood.  We set off along a reasonably easy but fast flowing river with the usual lack of decent eddies.  The river soon became more difficult as the gorge section was reached.   Things became rather crowed in the gorge as we went down one at a time through various more difficult bits.  My group did it without incident and managed to overtake an entirely unconnected group.  We got a bit stuck at one point as Fred and Penny had held back and presumably got involved with another groups rescue efforts.  Eventually an unoccupied boat came down (which we hauled out) shortly followed by Fred and Penny.

The gorge then opened up and the river became easier again.  Eventually the castle at Chateau Q became visible signally the get out for those of us not wishing to run the Chateau Q gorge (a bit like getting flushed down the toilet according to the guide book).  Those of us not paddling it got out and went to various bridges to watch their progress.  Fred left the decision of not paddling it rather late but managed to climb up a rather steep bank to the bridge and leave it for another day.  After a very quick wait the others soon reappeared telling us all how fun it was.  We then headed home all satisfied with a good days paddling (I think).

The lead in to Chateau Q gorge

Tuesday

Today was a day for some harder paddling for some.  Having driven past it twice yesterday people were keen to paddle the middle Guil.  The guidebook said it was often under estimated and wasn’t unusual for 6 to get on and only 2 to finish so I decided it wasn’t for me.  The first rapid on the river was triple step one of the harder parts of the section.  We all hung around to watch ppl run it.  Rach decided to go out on a wire above the river to get a better spot for photos.  Watching people run it certainly didn’t make it look easy.  Only Flic (I think) managed to get a line making it look easy.  Most of the others went over and some came rather close to ending up in the undercut.  Having watched the others do it Chris decided that since you could clearly mess the rapid up and come out fine he wanted to paddle it.  He did the first drop and like many others before him went over at the bottom of it.  He then executed the eddy out when failing to roll manoeuvre and ended up in a small channel on right avoiding second drop.  After about 50 more attempts he finally managed to get up and looked around slightly confused where he was.  A sneaky seal launch later he was at the bottom having avoided the 2^nd drop.   The group then paddled off into the distance whilst me, Emma, Gareth, Penny and Jeannine headed to the Chateux Queyras via ferrate. This worked its way along the gorge giving us a great view of the river (and is probably the only way to inspect that section well).  

Chris demonstrating the upside down paddling technique

We then drove down to meet the others, we caught up them at le tunnel and found Fred looking around despondently for his lost paddles and a rather beaten up looking Kim limping along after a rather long swim after she had snapped her paddles.  Earnie had also got out at this point making the books prediction that not everyone would finish true and me sure I had made the correct decision not to paddle this river.  We drove down to meet up with the rest and had lunch.

In the afternoon after some deliberation we decided to proceed with the original plan to paddle the Sunshine Run despite the lack of Sun.  Haywood and Dave decided to do some crazy cycling over a pass instead.  We got on where we had got off the Lower Guil the previous day and set off down the river.  It was again big and easy and lacking in Sun slightly cold.  We stopped for some seal launching fun where Emma and Spud did a demonstration of how difficult carrying boats can be.  We carried on down the river without incident until we reached the Rab wave rather suddenly.  Apparently another group had signaled us to stop and most of the group was scattering for little eddies at the side of the river.  I missed the signal and followed Penny down deciding it was better than clinging to a rock above it.  Seeing Penny getting pushed into hole on right and went left and came through to see Penny swimming and another group having a line all the way across the river.  I got out to help with boat rescue but the other group managed to sort everything for us.  Everyone else made it down without incident except Rach who got stuck on a rock above and walked out and Emma who had managed to lose a rivet while seal launching so was slowly sinking.  This was the get out and I left to run the shuttle while the rest stayed to play.

Wednesday

On Wednesday we headed over to the Ubaye.  This was a bit of a drive over a high pass then left me feeling rather sick.  Some faff getting lunch later we were at the get on where we met Manchester Uni.  They beat us on the river and it began to rain as we started.  The first section we paddled was the upper; it was fast and continuous but not particularly difficult.  We split into groups Me, Penny, Haywood, Gareth and Fred set off in the first group.  Haywood was still hungover so I started leading the section.  This didn’t last long as Gareth soon ended up in a large hole; he rolled up once but was pulled back in and swam.  He got to the side without too much difficulty his boat however had a longer trip, I jumped out and ran along the bank while Stu and Fred followed in the river.  I was unable to run fast enough to reach the boat and they soon pulled ahead.  Fred decided chasing one boat was too easy a task so decided to swim to make the rescue more exciting.  The boats were eventually pinned and I joined another group to paddle that section.  

The rest of the river was paddled without incident.  I quite enjoyed it but got the impression some of the others were tiring somewhat in a reasonably long section without any hard rapids to keep them occupied.  We reached the get out in time for some more heavy rain.  The group then split with Haywood taking his car back to camp while some of the rest of us went on to paddle the race course section of the Ubaye.  

The Ubaye racecourse

The race course was a harder section lower down the river.  A higher volume river than ones we had paddled so far in the trip.  We got on just below a bridge, the group was me, Kim, Earnie, Liam, Squirrel, Sam and Chris.  I managed to get rather scared especially since I was the worst paddler on the river.  The river started without incident until we reached the first major rapid.  We eddied out above and then paddled down the left hand channel.  I got flipped at the bottom when rejoining the main flow and took a swim after my roll failed.  I was still near the side so managed to swim to safety easily and the others quickly retrieved my kit.  We started off again, I was slightly reassured to hear that where I had swam was apparently the most difficult bit of the section.  The river was reasonably wide, not that steep but containing lots of large holes to avoid paddling through.  After a bit longer we saw an old bridge across the river at the start of a small gorge.  The others not paddling the section were waiting for us on top of the bridge.  A short while later we reached the get out where we met the “olds” who had paddled the section just ahead of us.  It was now warm and sunny in contrast to the rain earlier on in the day.

Thursday

Today the plan was to paddle the Onde, the Gyr and then the Gyronde.  Following thunderstorms the previous night and a hot day however water levels were slightly higher than ideal.  Following a rather too twisty drive to the get on it was decided than levels were indeed not suitable for everyone.  Some quick decisions later we decided to paddle it anyway and do the Briancon gorge later which would be more suitable.  A slightly reduced number then got on.  The river itself was quite small but very fast and continuous with a fair number of rocks in it (making swimming really non ideal).  Emma did a quick demonstration on the difficulties at the start in case any of the others were wishing they had got on too.  The river wasn’t actually as hard as it had first looked and we had a fairly rapid and event free descent (I say we as in my group Spud decided to test her roll out repeatedly but it did pass the test every time).  There was a rather serious weir below the get out and no good eddies in the entire river so when we reached the end there was a slightly disorganised scramble to get out as quickly as possible.  This passed without incident.

The Chute

When we reached the bottom Penny was sent up to do the shuttle on foot whilst a few people headed off to paddle the much harder Gyr.  A leisurely lunch later and we headed to Briancon gorge this time remembering to actually run the shuttle.  The entire groups reassembled and we decided to send a safety team down to pick up the pieces at the bottom in case we had a repeat of previous time we paddled it.  For some reason my previous swim on the river did not rule me out from this group.  Me, Haywood and Sam (I think) headed off first quickly reaching the barrage.  This time is was open so water was lower above it.  Photographers got in position and then we all headed down the chute. 

At the bottom of the dam team safety quickly set off to be at the bottom of the gorge first.  I actually noticed it being more gorgy than my first memory of it, luckily I remembered the concrete walls and paddled well clear of them second time lucky for me.  Me and Haywood got out there and decided to set up live bait ready to pick up any pieces.  I ended up on the end of the line unsurprisingly.  We did not have to wait long for the first piece, Gareth’s empty boat appearing around the corner.  I briefly remembered being told never to live bait for kit on WWSR course before jumping in and rescuing boat.  With enough time for me to get out and Gareth to appear to reclaim his boat the others appeared.  Emma remember as I did the horrible wall paddled hard away from it went sideways into an annoyingly position rock.  A short swim later I got to practice my first live bait rescue of a person.  It all went fine (minus some knee dislocation issue from Emma) we all got back in and paddled on down.

Reaching the broken weir in town I was slightly less willing to follow Sam and Haywood down it on memory only and got out with other to inspect.  The produced a reasonably about of carnage when first Dave, then Gareth swam, I followed rolled on weir and then promptly swam trying to eddy out.  I believe Rach was also claimed by the weir.  We eventually reunited everyone and all there kit in time to see an unattended boat float down which we rescued too.  It was then decided to paddle the next section also.  Since the river had joined the Guissane just below Briancon it was now much bigger and fairly flat.  My swim on virtually flat water had dented my confidence slightly (I’m blaming the rock my head hit on the weir) so I was quite glad when we reached the get out.  Then after some minor me driving on the left incidents we all got back to the campsite safely in time for some restaurant fun with the olds.

Friday

The last day for in France for all and of holiday for some Friday was a day destined for great things.  Following a late and slightly hungover start we headed to paddle the Upper Guil again.  On reaching there it was nice and sunny so we ended up doing some unscheduled sunbathing whilst Liam and Spud toured the local home for the mentally ill.  We eventually decided we were here to paddle the river and so got on the Guil slightly higher up than the section we did last time.  

The river was similar to when we paddled it before.  We split into two groups this time Dave and Haywood taking the lead with the rest of us following (not everyone was paddling as some had gone to do the via ferrata).  My group went through the more gorgy bit without major incident (I think Penny racked up another swim/ roll).  It went much faster with less people than when we ran it before and soon we saw the chateau ahead indicating the get out for some.  Haywood decided he wanted to Hydrospeed Chateau Q and a few of the others wanted to run it again.  It turns out that Chateau Q does go in a hydrospeed.  We then lounged about eating ice cream in the car park long enough for Pete Knowles (author of guide book) to drop by and present our captain with a free book as consolation prize for the epic swim a few days earlier.

Haywood swimming again

Back at the campsite attempts at running the slalom course in rubber ring and an attempt at king of the wave in hydorspeed gave me ample opportunity to demonstrate my lack of skill at throw line rescues.  (Who puts wires about rivers that ropes can get caught on)

Saturday

On Saturday I headed home with the rest in the seven seater.  The long drive home gave us ample time to reflect on the great trip that was had by all.

Thanks to all those involved in organising trip and rescuing me when I swam.  Thanks also to the others for just being there.

Thus ends my tale.