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The Alps 2010

2nd Sep 2010
by Christopher Salt

The Alps – Writeup!

2500 miles, 5 servings of spaghetti Bolognese, far too much wine, and 2 weeks of exquisite alpine paddling later, DUCC’s 2010 Alps trip should be considered a great success.

Firstly I should explain that it’s a canoe club tradition to undergo an expedition of some kind at the end of each year to further the paddling skills of its members.  Secondly, it is well documented that student kayak holidays should be accompanied by cheap alcohol and terrible tan lines. With this in mind our destination was set, and the kayaking Mecca that is the southern Alps was programmed into the SatNav late one Sunday afternoon.

Most of the 1004 mile drive was unremarkable, with an overnight stay in Ben’s father's flat being the highlight; however, after a relaxed drive arriving in the early hours of the morning we were faced with the difficult task of finding our campsite. For those of you who know the Alps, you’ll know that the roads and native drivers don’t leave you with a sense of confidence that you’ll arrive at your destination and the maze of roads that are relatively uncharted seem endless and eerily deserted in the pitch black. After what felt like an eternity, we pitched our tent in the only campsite where we could see other boaters and hoped for the best.

As morning came my quite frankly embarrassingly large knowledge of kayaking equipment quickly spotted that we had camped next to Newcastle University Canoe Club and later that evening we were quickly introduced and then brought up to speed with the epic swims that had made their day a little more interesting.

As is compulsory on an Alps trip the ‘sunshine run’ was tackled first and although we only paddled the Middle Durance section the big and bouncy (2/3) introduction to alpine paddling un-nerved both Lorraine and after I had ‘dobbed in’ a quick roll made it apparent that my eddy making skill was going to be put to the test.

The following day, taking into consideration the unusually high water levels and Newcastle’s now reduced numbers we paddled the lower Guil to Rabioux. A more technically challenging run than the previous day which saw Jonny Clough (NUCC) and I rolling on more than one occasion, we made it unscathed and after some gentle persuasion we all conquered the Rab.

With Newcastle going off to conquer the river that beat them, we decided to paddle the Lower Clarée. A picturesque tree-lined river with big bouncy wave trains is what it should have been. What Lorraine and I thought we saw was the most colossal river in existence and neither of us were fully committed at the get on. The high river levels meant that a tight section could be missed by way of a ‘chicken shoot’. This proved to be my downfall. An unexpected eddy out followed by a roll meant I went down the chute sideways and without a sufficient amount of water for me to exist underneath the boat... I was stuck. Fortunately a paddler from LUCC pulled me out and Ben exercised his swift kit recovery skills. With heavy rains and snow still melting the river levels continued to rise and as we continued it became clear to Lorraine and I that there were no ‘makeable’ eddies and to Ben's dismay (as he seems to float down everything) we chose to get off.

Being increasingly aware of the river levels we decided to try another valley and we set off for the River Ubaye. However after an long mountain drive we arrived to find the water levels of a similar monstrosity. Not wanting the drive to be pointless we hopped on and immediately found it markedly more difficult than anything we’d previously paddled. After 2k we came across a rapid that needed scouting. The rapid was running harder than usual and the array of pour-overs and holes made the line more important than normal. Unfortunately I was beaten by this section and several roll attempts later I embarked on a rather dramatic swim. Unfortunately this left Lorraine at the top of the section for nearly 30 minutes, by which time she’d found another river leader and embarked on the section by herself, rather more successfully than I. It was clear by this point that I was struggling and Ben's leadership skills were tested as I frayed his nerves finding lines that that were...ambitious.

Next day, with the large majority of NUCC heading home later that day, and with the remaining 3 NUCC paddlers wanting to move campsite, we teamed up with them and we moved to the more popular student campsite at the l'Argentière slalom course.  After moving campsite, and with Ben needing more wine to let his nerves recover, we decided to have a day off which culminated in a visit to a glacier and a relaxed game of polo in the lake at the campsite. This was however overshadowed by ‘Hand roll challenge’ in which Ben, brimming with confidence, didn’t succeed.

Later that evening, as planned Student Boater X took place at the slalom course. The rules were simple; start at the top, finish at the bottom & down a pint. There were many categories and whilst DUCC did not enter, Francis did. Unfortunately his attempt to get a headstart by putting his deck on on the move didn’t pay off and he ended up swamped but it still provided some excellent boating and there was a good atmosphere!

With levels seeming a bit tamer we decided to face our demons and we headed back up to the Lower Clarée. With newly improved skills and confidence all of us had lots of fun despite a warning sign putting us slightly on edge towards the bottom of the run. Later that evening ‘Slope Jam’ took place on the Fournel Falls with the some of the best paddlers strutting their stuff on the man-made features. Rather than it being an enjoyable display of paddling skills we all left feeling a little sick after Tom Parker (from Tom Parker Coaching), nearly drowned. A 50 second swim with 15 seconds of down time each circulation left him gasping for breath after he’d finally been rescued and made us question many of our paddling ambitions. This was swiftly followed by probably our 3^rd spaghetti Bolognese.

Wondering what rivers we were capable of paddling next, we teamed up with the remaining Newcastle paddlers and tackled the Upper Upper Guil. I can honestly say it was the coldest paddle of the trip and my pogies made an appearance; however, the fun but short run was seriously enjoyable. Notably we met Glasgow University at the top of the run and whilst this isn’t too unusual, by the time we’d finished the run and driven the shuttle to collect the cars they were still faffing at the get on.

As I’ve already mentioned heavy rains and one of the coldest winters for decades meant that, unusually for this time of year, the rivers were very high and we awoke the next morning to find the slalom course sporting meaty-looking features and very little in the way of river bank. However we went to scout out the Briançon Gorge regardless of this. As anticipated the weather had beaten us and we returned to the campsite after another scenic picnic. With the weather not exactly living up to expectations we decided that the sunshine run was not only suitable, but close. So we hopped on at the campsite and immediately decided that we wanted to paddle to Embrun. This meant that in total we’d paddle almost 35km in the rain, however we set off anyway. The high river levels made some sections harder and whilst this posed us no problems, quite out of the blue the Rab took its first victim of the holiday. We turned around to see Lorraine floating with her boat instead of in it and after another swift rescue from Ben we were on our way. Unfortunately the get-off meant that we had a hour to wait for collection. However we kept ourselves busy people-watching at the outdoor centre.

The weather didn’t improve much the following day so we decided to take a further day off and sat in a cafe in Embrun soaking up the free wifi!

With river levels making many rivers too difficult the Lower Clarée looked like fun so we paddled it for the third time, letting both Chris (NUCC) and Lorraine lead some of the sections. While it wasn’t perfect it gave them a good insight into leading and we had a good day culminating in the Newcastle paddlers drinking 5L of rose as we chatted into the dusk.

With the last day of a great trip bearing down on us we decided to pack up and have fun on the slalom course, which was a good display of how our skills had all improved during the fortnight and was also the only example that Ben was fallible. Leaning the wrong way on the last run of the day he took his one and only roll all holiday and obviously gutted, he left in dismay.

We chose to take a relaxed trip back stopping for a nap in an Aire and with yet another night under the hospitality of Ben's dad we had time to reflect on the excellent trip we’d all had, wishing it could last for longer.

Hopefully I’ll see everybody paddling in the next academic year and I’m already looking forward to next year’s adventure!

Yours Truly,

Chris

Kit Officer #1

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