Bram cruising around with a
car full of drugs and Axel eating some books (exams) for a month now so we could use some distraction. We never finished our story of our trip to the Alps so let us bring back the good memories!
Last thing we said was something about hucking some waterfall in Italy and then going to Switzerland. Well.. we did! And we had a run on the Verzasca, a really beautiful river. Class II with awesome scenery alternated with some nice class V rapids! Also in the same beautiful scenery.
In Switzerland we chilled a lot at Lago Maggiore. And because we missed Belgium so much we decided to do some Belgian style flat water training without any gates in our slalom boat.
After this session we realized we didn't miss Belgium at all and we left to Ivrea!
Ivrea is a really nice place and the water is BIG! Especially when it's flooded. We immediately went on the water in our C2, and after a first descent we felt how powerful the water was. Our second descent we felt it even more... we swam. Yes, after a whole week of class V paddling without any problems we swam in our slalom boat. But although we swam, our visit to Ivrea was still nice. But the pizza and ice-cream did contribute to that.
In Italy we also paddled the Ayasse. A crazy river full of Class X sections. We didn't know the river, nor did we have a guidebook. But we just went for it and did a lot of scouting. And well... It was one epic day! Beautiful river! We found a 5 meter drop, some 4 meter slide/drop thing and lots of rapids!
We also went to the Chiusella, suposed to be another epic river. But again we didn't know the river and at the put in it seemed there was no water. We followed the river for 1km or something at it stayed really low water. Therefor we decided not to run the Chiusella and just hang out at the put in, which was at a super nice and beautiful little village.
Later in Bourg-saint Maurice we met some frenchies. They told us it's normal for the Chiusella to have a low water level. But yeah, we were at Bourg! We did a couple of session on the slalom course. But the best memories are those with our french friends. They took us to Doron de bozel. More a volume river, also new for us. We didn't know what to expect from the river and we also didn't know what to expect of us, our paddling skills in high volume waters. Especially because it was high water and there are some class V sections on the Doron. The first kilometer was pretty epic, huge holes and big waves! And it al worked out pretty fine!
A couple of days later they took us back to Italy to paddle the Dora Baltea. Arriving at Champex (put in) we saw that it was a really high water level. The first section we were going to do would/should be nice, not to hard but real fun. Once on the water everyone felt that their really was a LOT of water. We heard the rocks rolling over the riverbed.
The first half was really big! Super big waves, holes you really didn't want to get trapped in and fast as hell. Second part was a little bit easier, which made it possible to play around a bit and do some freewheels and trowing kick flips!
We were all super fired up after this descent and we decided to paddle the gorge d'Avise section on the Dora Baltea. This part is at low water level Class IV+, at normal water level it's V+. We entered the gorge with flood! This section is without any doubt the biggest river we ever paddled! Everyone was a little stressed because we knew if you were in trouble, you would be on your own. The river did not allow to just make a stop and rescue, nor was it possible to provide security from shore.
Once on the river we all were super focused. Once you've made a chose you were commited to paddle that line and you needed to go for it 100%. It's really hard to describe the power of the water and the greatness of everything on that river. But it was EPIC.
This river was kind off the end of our 3 week stay in the Alps. needless to say it was the perfect way to end it.
And oow, ofcourse we did capture some of the moments on film! To bad, Axel lost his helmet sow we could'nt film from waterview anymore. Not that bad you would say, but for that same reason we couldn't film the Doron nor the Dora Baltea...
But we did capture a lot of other things!! The Pitzbach, Verzasca, Ayasse, AND our first 30 footer!!
Don't forget to watch it in HD, Enjoy!
