Just before Christmas Paul, Daniel, Michael and me went south to the Rio Futaleufu. When it startet snowing 150 kilometer before our final destintion we doubted our desicion to celebrate christmas and new year´s eve far away from the party crowd in Pucon. However, with a huge fire in one of the Quincho huts at the Cara del Indio camp it got cosy and warm.
And two days later, when a change in the weather pattern brought 30 degrees and sun all day long we were absolutely happy with our place to stay. Who else is starting his Christmas eve with a Christmas brunch in the sun, followed by a long day of kayaking down the Futaleufu – a river every whitewater kayaker is dreaming of – and having an original Chilean Assado as holiday roast for dinner.
So we spent a whole week at the Futa. Having finest summer weather we paddled alternating Futa top to bottom and the bridge to El Macal section every day.
The only break in this routine was our trip to Chaiten. Paul and Daniel needed a ride to their bus back to Santiago so we assumed it might be a good idea to paddle the Michimahuida on the way. After two hours on the gravel road we reached the put in and a fantastic day of paddeling began.
At perfect waterlevel and weather on our seven hours trip, getting sunburned was unavoidable. The incredible mood was suddenly inturrupted – the worst case, a broken boat, happend somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Except from the put in and take out the river meanders through the wilderness very remote from any civilisation. So there was no way out of the river and the boat got fixed with a lighter and duct tape professionally. Luckily the high quality work lasted till we reached the take out bridge in the evening – tired but happy. The next day we made it to Chaiten in time to drop off our two friends at the bus station.
Beeing just two of us left we went back to the Futa to get some last big water practice and to find a crew for a trip to the Rio Baker. Both was done quickly and we started driving south in good humour with Gabriel from Canada, Jean from France, Aniol from Spain and the Basque Gael with his Norwegian girlfriend Netta. Our frist stop was planned to be the Rio Ventisquiero. After a short look, we decided to continue driving because the river looked way to low. Unfortunally the car of the French-Spanish-Crew didn´t start anymore and so our group split already on the first day.
In the afternoon of the next day Gabriel, Michael and me finally made it to the Rio Baker after a beautiful scenic drive along the Lago General Carrera and the Lago Bertrand. We found a super nice camp ground just two kilometers upstreem of the Salto the Neff and started scouting the first few rapids to prepare ourselves for the next days big water mission.
One of us even adjusted his beard to the river – simply lovely!
The next morning our small crew finally started full of action to do our first kayaking trip together down the Rio Baker. Because of the low water level the only option to run the frist rapid was to run the far left creek line. So the boys started making fun of the pretended force of the Rio Baker. But only a few hundred meters later when I turned around after the S-Rapid I saw both of them beeing very busy rolling and trying to get out of the eddylines and whirlpools close to the canyon walls. With a big grin in my face I waited for them in the eddy below the rapid and from there on they believed me that all the waves, holes and whirlpools are a lot bigger than they look like from the top.
We enjoyed the beauty of the Baker about four days before we had to go back to Futa, Pucon, Santiago and home.
When we left, Hector – the owner of our campground – told us, that Hydro Aysen is going to start building the dam on the Rio Baker in 2014. So we have to come back as soon as possible – see you next season Rio Baker!
It’s been a couple of weeks since I got back from Colombia and with starting my lecture tour*, I’ve had time to reflect on our adventures. Rather than write a long-winded summary of our trip, I thought I’d do something different and present the highs, lows and hilarity in a “rocks and sucks” run-down.
What Rocks: Paddling 45km in one day through several stunning gorges
What Sucks: The trailer breaking on the way to the put-in
What Rocks: Surfing big waves in 40 degree sunshine
What Sucks: Having to inspect your mate’s nether regions for ticks
What Rocks: Paddling through one of the most impressive multi-day canyons we’ve ever seen
What Sucks: Having to hike out of said canyon at the take out!
What Rocks: Fiestas in Latin America
What Sucks: Our attempts at Salsa
What Rocks: Nailing the line on a big rapid after long deliberation
What Sucks: 8-hour bus journeys while hung over
What Rocks: Going paragliding while your mates are sick
What Sucks: Being sick while your mates go paragliding
What Rocks: Incredible geography & geology
What Sucks: Your 4×4 & trailer sliding 10m sideways back down the hill, next to a large cliff
(OK, we don’t have photos of that dramatic moment)
What Rocks: Huge lumps of meat cooked on an Asado
What Sucks: Spirits that come in cartons
What Rocks: Getting silt beards while paddling the Rio Negro
What Sucks: Big holes & rocks hidden by the black water
(can you see me? I’m in the middle!)
What Rocks: Bar games that involve throwing stones at gun powder!
What Sucks: Spiky, spiny and sticky plants that rip your legs apart
What Rocks: Midnight skinny dipping
What Sucks: Finding the pictures the following morning
(Sorry, they are not going on here!)
What Rocks: Having mules to carry your kayak
What Sucks: Carrying your own fully laden kayak through the jungle
…or through fields, over barbed wire fences, along steep ridges, over huge boulders or down small cliffs…
What Rocks: A bus driver willing to try anything to get your boats on board
What Sucks: Finding that his efforts have ripped a deck, split a kit bag and gauged a boat
What Rocks: Bottom left
What Sucks: Top middle
What Rocks: Unbelievable kindness and instant friendships
What Sucks: Saying goodbye
For the full stories, check out our team blog at kayakcolombia.wordpress.com – or come along to one of our talks!
* Over the next few months I’ll be doing talks about or trip, including some impressive video footage and lots of photos, at various venues across the UK. Full schedule will be released soon, but if you’d like to arrange a talk near you (for a canoe club, group or organisation then please drop me an email on lowri@flowfree.co.uk)
Meanwhile we had already December in Chile and there was another change in our crew. John had to fly back home and the two German young guns Daniel and Paul were ready for their first Chilean experience. After giving them our traditional warm up program in Pucon we packed or car to head south to the Rio Fuy.
None of our group had been there before, so it took us a while to figure out the put in, take out and ways though the rapids. Right from the start the river presented itself very pushy and as soon as we reached the famous 6 meter drop we realized that there was no way of running the falls because of the massive recycles of the following drops.
We noticed that we probably put on at a very high waterlevel for the upper section and decided to go for the lower section the next day before heading further south.
After a short site seeing seeing stop at the Saltos Petrohue and a long dirt- roadtrip along the fjord passing Cochamo we reached the Rio Negro valley late that night.
Having wet gear and a cloudy sky the next morning didn´t cause much motivation for all of us and we had to push ourselves unwilling to the put in. Once we got there the Chilean sun gave its best, burned away the clouds and made our day as nice as it could get
For two of our group – Ali und Thilo – it was time to make their way back to Pucon.
But before they were allowed to go back to Germany we wanted to check out the Golgol and the Nilahue. But sometimes things turn out different than expected. The in June errupted volcano Puyehue was still throwing out a lot of ash and transformed both rivers in dirty brown mud with a lot of pumice rocks floating of top. None of us felt like running one of them and the decision to continue to Pucon by the way was fast and consentaneous taken.
Pucon still offered us some Park-and-Hucks like the Coilaco waterfall, the 23 meter drop of the middle palguin and the Salto Palguin for the brave ones. Waterlevels were droppiung more and more.
So after some warm up runs with our newcomer Michi Motz and some photo sessions we prepared our departure to the Futa and said goodbye to Pucon for 2011 with the Palguin fest and Boater X…
After coming back from chile last year in March I was waiting the whole summer to go back to one of the best winter kayaking destinations. In the middle of November my long waiting had an end and just when the weather in Europe turned nasty and cold I packed all my gear and took off to Chile.
Two days later I tepped out of the bus in Pucon where the two Norwegian girls Nini and Erika, the American Nick and Jeff from Canada were already waitiung for me. Lucky me, the four had already organized a car and a flat, so just a few hours after my arrivalI I found myself at the put in of the upper Palguin. What an unique playground and incredible start of my Chile season this winter!
During the next days we had a lot of fun on all the classics in and around Pucon like the Nevado, the Trancura, the Maichin and the Puesco till the rest of the German-Crew – John, Ali and Thilo – arrived.
After our group was complete and everybody got some warm up runs done in Pucon we loaded our truck and headed north towards the Rio Claro. On the way we drove all the way up the Laja valley to paddle the very short but continuous section above the dam. We had to wander around for a while to find the put in but once we reached the river we got a racy ride down the 3 km to the lake on clear blue water almost without catching a single eddy. With a big smile on our faces we got back in our car and continued our journey all the way up to the national park of the Rio Claro.
After haveing a long bruch the next morning and 35 degrees we realized again that our boats were still not able to walk their way to the put in thereselves so we didn´t have another chance than carriying them all the way up to the put in of the 22 Saltos section. About an hour later we lowered our boats down to the water. Right after the first few meters all the strain was forgotten – the river meanders through an amazing volcano rock canyon back to the camp.
To complete one of those perfect paddeling, the restaurant beside our camp served us delicious meat to prepare us for the upcoming feats the next days. With alternatings in the crew we paddeled the 22 Saltos section again, the Entresaltos sectin and the Siete Tazas before we returned to the south towards the Rio Nuble.
As beautiful as the Rio Claro was, as soon as I realized that the Nuble is one of those rivers where you have enough water under your boat I was pleased as Punch.
Coming back to Pucon I put my project to hike up the volcano after one year into practice. Felt like equipped for a Mount Everest expedition groups of tourists struggled themselves uphill at snail´s pace. Once at the top one got rewarded with an awesome view and a rapid sliding descent
To be continued – Chile part 2: From Pucon to the Rio Negro
I had a lot of random spare footage left over from last Summers filming, so I thought I’d edit something together. It’s not perfect, but I didn’t want the footage to go to waste!
We filmed during the Extrem Sport Veko and had a chance to get some sweet shots of the Urdlandselvi double drop with Brendan Bayly, Sam and Jamie Sutton and Max Siech.
Rivers include Voss classics such as the Strondal and Myrkdal, a little bit of footage from Sjoa, a couple of shots from the North… and a lot of random other stuff.
Myself, Niamh Stack, Dave Hollins and Fran Kohn are two weeks in to our month here in Colombia. We’ve been stunned by how beautiful it is: dramatic moutains covered in thick, lush jungles and huge canyons… a landscape that makes for some very committing sections of river!
So far we’ve paddled some amazing white water, including the big volume Suarez that really got the heart racing and the stunning multiday canyon of the Chicamocha. But the big story so far has been how one river that should have taken us 3 hours ended up taking 4 days – including two gruelling hikes out through the jungle in the dark! (read more about this epic on our trip blog)
The new Mamba is treating me very well and fitted all my multi-day gear plus camera gear in the back no worries. And it handles really well both with and without kit. Its really hot here so my Zenith shortie cag is probably my favourite new piece of kit as it doesn’t let water into my boat but also keeps me cool. That said, with all the jungle hiking we’ve been doing I’ve been pretty glad of how sturdy my Gradient boots are too… you can never underestimate the importance of shoes in the jungle
Surfing a big wave on the Suarez in the Mamba
Getting from one place to another has been an adventure in itself as we are hiring 4x4s and trucks of all shapes and sizes for our shuttles and have been squeezing our kayaks into the luggage compartments of buses for transit between regions.
We spent the past 2 days on buses to reach Villavicencio and paddled a really pretty canyon on the Guayariba today. In the next couple of days we’ll be heading out into the hills to paddle a river that requires hiking for 3 hours, but this time we’ll have mules to carry our kayaks! Pretty excited about that!
So me and Palm’s Bren Orton just finished making the Wrap Up Video of our time putting on the Kayak Display at the 2012 Tullett Prebon London Boat Show and all that was on during the show.
Our display was on for 15 minutes twice a day so this gave us plenty time to run around the show in-between demo’s to find all the activities you could try and cause a bit of chaos amongst the Yachting crowd It’s amazing what people will let you do when you have a Camera in hand.
Filmed by: James Bebbington, Bren Orton & David Bain
Edit by: James Bebbington RiverZoo.com
Last summer my buddy Palm’s junior ripper Bren Orton had the idea to shoot a little vid on Tryweryn, This was the first session we had on the Top Hole there.
For those who don’t know Tryweryn, it’s a fun dam released river, near Bala in North Wales. I started out kayaking on this river and did my 1st flat spins and cartwheels here.
It’s often over looked for play boating but is actually an awesome little river that’s fun to run down and has some sick little waves and holes surrounded by green lush, welsh countryside.
This last week we’ve been paddling hard on flatwater….It is for good reason though We’re at the London Boatshow at the Excel Centre.
Myself, Bren Orton, Claire O’hara, Mallory Franklin, Anton Lippek, & David Bain are putting on twice daily shows of freestyle & slalom on the watersports pool commentated by Ed Smith & Christian Stevenson along with our little video clips on the big screen.
Pretty weird surrounded by all these big yachts to be in a 1m deep pool showing off freestyle!
This year we don’t get to use the ramps & cable tow set up like last year but we have been doing daily talks on whitewater, freestyle & slalom to give the visitors the opportunity to fins out more on our sport, how they can get started and where it could take them.
Here is a clip from last years show by Bren:-
With 4 days left of the show we’re putting together some video interviews & other bits to check out daily, yesterday we shot Bren’s one, hold out until the end to see the outakes….
If you want to check out the display we’re on at 12:15 & 15:00 daily until the show finishes on Sunday 15th of Jan.
Anyway enough talking, here are some photos from around the show and a walk around Londons sights.
