Alps kayak advenure

Myself & Chris went on an Alpine mini adventure last week.  It has been a while since either of us had been in a kayak & Chris had never paddled kayaks in the Alps so this promised to be an exciting trip.

We headed up there on Tuesday night driving through the mother of storms into Embrun.  There are always food & drink options in Embrun & in short order we were fed, watered & enjoying relaxing on a terrace, French style.  The Alps is well served with accomodation options but we were up for roughing it a little so our bed was on the lakeside carpark.  If you are just staying for a night the local police are unlikely to bother you & there are public toilet facilities right there.

The following morning we headed up to the Lower Guile.  This is a classic warm up for new alpine boaters & we had the good fortune to meet up with a group of ex St Andrews students so shuttles were all sorted out.  We travelled in one vehicle & didn’t have a shuttle bike (as seems to be the norm).  The hitch to the put on is a non starter & the walk a fair trot so - happy days.

The river went without incident – a few high supports to get the adrenaline pumping is all.  The flow was good for the time of year.  The storm the pevious night had cleared the air nicely & with a clear blue sky conditions were optimal.  Temperatures were in the low 30′s.  The river is mostly class 2 & typical of a mountain stream until the confluence with the Durance.  Here the river widens considerably with wind & possibly navigation the only issues.  The river narrows & deepens at the slalom site which provided the largest volume rapid of the day.  A great way to end the section.

We egressed after the slalom course at St Clement & bumped into Stu Woodward guiding a client.  Stu is a veteran of Alpine boating & it was a pleasure to watch him work for a wee while & shair a quick yarn over brews.  He runs Alpine courses & other stuff, has done for longer than I care to remember.

We had an excellent meal in Guillestre at a little Michelin restaurant – we’d probably have ordered an expensive bottle of red if we’d known how good it was going to be, although the local pichet was very good.  If I can remember the name of the restaurant I’ll add it to the post as it is definately worth a mention.  Great food & service in an authentic setting, a real treat.  The beef emince was spectacular.

After the meal we dropped back down to the kayak shop at St Clement to watch a WW safey session with Deb Pinnegar.  There were lots of folks there, hardly surprising as the session was free as was the BBQ food & beer.  Lots of folks running around the car park with throwbags.  Needless to say Chris & I enjoyed watching with a free beer.

After the session we headed back to Guillestre for a few , more expensive, beers with the guys from the shop & friends.  Bruno, a Swiss paddler, was up for some fun paddling & we organised a meet up the following day.  Shuttles sorted once again, what luck!

We found ourselves completely captivated by Deb & her fathomless knowledge of all that is boating.  She is one of the top paddlers in the world & an inspiration to all boaters, especially women.   We crashed courtesy of Deb after the usual N beers - Deb you are  legend, many thanks.

Our Last days paddling.  We met up with Bruno & headed out to Briancon and the put on for the Upper Durance.  The weather was fantastic once again & we kitted up with the bare minimum we could get away with.  There is a finite point between cooking in your rubber gear in case you go for a dip or have to do some rescue stuff & wearing just enough to cope with the wet & not dehydrate.

The water levels were surprisingly good for the time of year due to the amount of snow this winter.  This section of the Durance is narrower & more in keeping with the higher valley rivers of the area.  It is predominantly class 2 with a reasonable 3 right at the end just before the road bridge.

The river passed without much fuss.  Bruno turned out to be a competent paddler & he took the lead until the 3.  Chris was paddling really well considering it was his second ever Alpine river & looked a lot more comfortable than the day before even though this river was more difficult.  He seemed to be enjoying the speed & power of the water.  I told him to approach the rapids as you would in an open boat & that seemed to do the trick.

All in all we were all having a great day with like people & beautiful weather.  The scenery, as usual, was breathtaking.

The last rapid was trickier than I remembered as it was a little lower than I’d done it before.  I dropped down first so that I could shoot a quick video.  Apologies for the quality but I was sat in an eddy & had a brief rescue/video/rescue/video? moment.  I decided on the video & it all worked out.

Check out the video on our facebook group Ltadventure.

All in all a fantastic trip.  You know it’s been a good trip when the drive back home is full of talk of the next mission.