Alps July 2001

From ICCC

People

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The alpine elite dream team:-

• Harry fire Wood
• Rob that's not a BIG drop Tuley
• Lou zzzzzzzzzzz Davies
• Sam maybe not, eh... Moore
• Raph be one with the water spirits... Munton
• Ruth water-baby Loeffler
• Theo who needs arms anyway, I'd be alright in a Dancer Petre
• James baby face Pratt
• Nicky paddle!!?! - non, non, non! Convine
• John airbags Lovell

Trip Report

Fri/Sat 29/30th June - La Cuisine d'Hippo

As the official T-shirts said; 10 people, 9 boats, a luve wagon and a hippo, made it out to the southern alps for a couple of weeks at the end of an arduous college year (got a sun tan to prove it - the arduous year that is). Nearly got all the way in one piece, with only a severe shortage of hippo food in the early hours of morning slightly delaying us (apparently leading to the discovery of numerous illegal immigrants - but I remain unconvinced...). The Luve wagon beat the hippo to the famous Rab campsite, and although the wave was mostly washed out, beers and a play on the river seemed the smart option.

Sunday 1st July - Durance Carnage

With the Durance sitting next to the campsite, it seemed rude to refuse, and we ran the Lower from the rafting station to the Rab wave. Sam's promised seal launch was smaller than expected due to high water levels (and, of course, the inevitable exaggeration factor), and the Rab wave proved more than enough for most. Once we'd fished a couple of boats out of the lake we ran the river from the campsite to the lake (a 2nd time for some, but not chasing a boat is infinitely more pleasant). A BBQ to round off the first day, and a healthy swim count was already materialising...

Mon 2nd July - Nice friendly 3+ gorge...

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With all the water levels being so high, and scary stories of bent boats, heinous injuries, and lost kit floating round the campsite, usually from people hobbling round on crutches, it seemed best to stray on the safe side. The Lower Claree in the morning proved to be a fairly straightforward and picturesque run, even if it was strewn with trees. Shallow in places, but John still managed to roll his bathtub and break his paddles (dodgy teak I'm told). We found a lovely little creperie in Briacon castle for lunch, with Lou providing the comic relief with an attempted grade 6 run down the drainage channel in the middle of the street. Nice. In the afternoon John, James, Raph, Sam, Theo and I started our slow climb towards larger water with the Briacon Gorge. Starting with a fish shoot slide down a fearsome looking barrage, it was our first real introduction to the continuous nature of alpine paddling. John swam after 200m (his airbags deflated due to the cold??), and after we'd got him back in, we entered the gorge to find him swimming along again behind us. No joke as the gorge was absolutely tanking it down. Theo and I chased his boat, and from the sound of it James, Sam and Raph positively manhandled him shoreward. The get-out in the guidebook didn't seem to exist, but due to my growing lucky beard everyone met up happily for ice creams during the shuttle. Another BBQ and a little chat with some Frenchie 'crazy guys' intent on running grade 5/6 with a comic cartoon guidebook rounded off our day nicely.

Tues 3rd July - Err, arm, hospital, ow...

Staying on our safe strategy, we all (apart from Nicky of course) paddled down the Lower Guil along with Oxford canoe club who were camped just across the way. Lunch at the raft station followed a lengthy play session under the bridge at the bottom, and James Raph and Sam ran the rest of the Durance back to the campsite again. In the afternoon we'd been told that the water levels were high enough to paddle the Rabioux stream next to the campsite. With John opting for the video camera option, the rest of the true dream team put in at the road bridge. It proved a little too steep and technical for Theo, who dislocated his shoulder (again... but the other side this time apparently), and I got to take a lovely scenic trip to casualty in Embrun (bizarrely on the second floor so you had to take the lift to get there), while the others stashed our boats and paddled out.

Wed 4th July - Easy with that water pistol!

We reran the Rabioux in the morning to paddle out the stashed boats, and with the true dream team realising they could all fit in one car now, off we zoomed to the Upper Guisane, while the reserve dream team played around a Decathlon sale in Gap. Raph decided to video at the S-bend instead of paddle (I think his karma was slightly disturbed from the evil red wine of the night before), but the Upper Guisane had no real surprises, apart from a new riverwide pourover that ate James, and looked good for a full run with everyone later. After bumping into Carl at the takeout, we scouted the Lower Guisane that looked fantastic but had to be postponed for another day... A pizza out in Chatoroux and a continuation of the grand plan of taking over the campsite with the monster pile of empty beer bottles and wine bidons made for a happy evening, and Nicky's fanatical attempts to control Harry's bonfire project with a water pistol made lighting a cigarette a hazardous affair. 300 wet rizla, and a fair amount of tobacco later, I managed to fulfil my need for nicotine.

Thurs 5th July - Dodgy stomach? Scared?

A lazy morning rerunning the Lower Durance from the campsite suited everyone, and I fell into my hung-over shuttle bunny role perfectly to video from the takeout. A very successful run, our first with everyone with no swims (rolls from both Ruth and Lou). The hardcore red hippo took the dream team off to the Onde after lunch, and overcoming the initial slight disappointment to see a hydro-speeder, this proved an absolutely cracker. Sam stomach was feeling dodgy (??) so took out after 100m but John's airbags were fine, so we had a problem free 3km of class. A true French style beer on the way back was the icing on the cake.

Friday 6th July - 10,000? I hope that's not a finger penalty...

The morning brought the Lower Claree again, with Lou and Ruth in particular on a mission to miss all the trees this time. Sadly, it was not to be, and although blame was spread for certain swims (mostly onto me - cheek!), the overall swim ratings were steadily growing. Raph, James and I ran the Middle Claree section above, putting in below the riverwide tree strainer that supposedly had gobbled someone already... Back to camp for a giant BBQ (morale of the story, never let John loose in a French supermarket to buy meat), and John's bizarre dice drinking game, hastily converted from a scoring game where the aim was 10,000 points. I can't remember whether we reached 10,000 fingers of beer, but I somehow doubt it.

Sat 7th July - Rest Day; "I know, lets climb a mountain" Eummm.

An official Sabbath day of rest. Typically it started in glorious style by raining all over our breakfast chocolate chaud in Embrun, and when I say raining, I mean true welsh style pissing it down... Due to this stroke of good fortune we bizarrely ignored my suggestion of an all day bar, and decided we might be better above the clouds (someone is obviously a genius). A cable car in Briacon later, and we'd almost made it, but raining or not we had found snow. Lou realised that when I say there's a big puddle at the bottom of a snow slide, I'm not actually joking, and Raph and Theo, obviously black slope maestros, went on a mission to find the steepest and hairiest slope they could find. We found them with the binoculars later easing gently down a vertical-ish snow cliff. Predictably, even on top of a mountain, John nosed out a bar and while Raph, James and Theo tired of snow play and went on a mission to the summit, we sat drinking mulled wine and massive cups of coke (yes, hangover...).

Sun 8th July - sploosh, swim, sploosh, swim... Oh la la, oui, oui!

We had grand plans for the Ubaye, so had an early start with tres picturesque drive, scarred only by thousands of knackered cyclists wobbling up the steep bits (don't they realise diesel is sooooo cheap out here??). We did the Upper Ubaye with everyone, just beating Durham onto the river - when we reached the get out there seemed a large number of paddling people wandering up and down the road looking for boats, and a rescue helicopter overhead, but apparently it was nothing to do with them... Still, we'd had 3 swims from Ruth and 2 from Lou (one of which was, of course, my fault), and had no time to waste, as the Racecourse needed to be done. Unfortunately, John had serious airbag problems that made him take 4 swims down only 6km of Ubaye racecourse. In fact I think the airbags had collected enough slime to morph into little creatures, and battle with john down the river. I can't swear to it, but John is an honest man, and I do know that halfway down a larger part, the little buggers grabbed his paddles and slung them over the other side of the river, leaving John + boat looking remarkably like an upside-down tortoise. Hum, Dinner? After we saw off some riot boys cart-wheeling into the gorge below, we hit the eternal campsite world of beer and BBQ.

Mon 9th July - Carefully now Sam, those waves look awful large

The dream team took the hippo off early to run the Gyronde, with John deciding to shuttle bunny after his 'mare of the day before. Lovely river, lovely run, although even at this early stage of the day, Sam seemed to be struggling with the eddy-hop concept, frequently disappearing off down river like a man on a mission. The mission was a valiant one - at the end of an afternoon rerun of the upper Durance, Sam took his pride in his hands, looped in the Rab wave, and SWAM! Now fearful of a previously genteel looking river, Sam and I got out to complete the shuttle while the rest ran down to Embrun. Theo, you can't keep him down for long, carefully did the same run with his old school, who had just turned up at the campsite.

Tues 10th July - That looks a tadge too nasty...

A day dedicated to the previously scouted Middle Guil. Although taking a good old look at Triple Step, every bit of stick we threw in ended up trashed under the shower curtain in a big boily mess - maybe in a Topo, but a little too scary in a Zwo. We put in below, and almost immediately John's airbags started beating the poor old guy up again (if his boat could wear trousers, it would do in their relationship...) John found a nice steep cliff to climb out up after getting stuck in his second large stopper, and left just the four of us facing the Guil Staircase. Although Raph nearly took my head off with his enthusiastic paddle-waving safety cover, I managed a line that no-one else fancied following (heheehe). Next stop the Letter Box. Although it took me nearly 40 minutes to decide, I did run it in the end, and was looped and trashed for my trouble. Nice. The last 3km to the lake was probably the best of the river so far, and made for a quality finish.

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Wed 11th July - Lots water, lots play...

The Guisane was the aim, with James, Raph and myself running the harder lower section before everyone pootled down the upper section. The Lower lived up to its apparent reputation as a cracking run, and the Upper was also appreciated, although by this time fierce competition was in hand re the swim rating system, with Ruth putting herself in an almost unassailable lead with a running total of 14, and Harry's surprisingly low with only 1 right at the start of the trip. The S-Bend rapid on the upper was probably the highlight, with a grade 4 roll from Lou (if only she'd followed my line, eh?) and continuous video footage from the sidelines from our faithful support team.

Thurs 12th July - Err, you can't both swim in here!

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An easy rest day had been planned, but since the water going down the Guil valley had dropped so much, we decided to go and take a looksee at Chateau Queyras Gorge. The looksee inevitably turned into a lets get in and have a closer look, and James, Raph and I made the first successful descent in the style of an aquatic bobsleigh. Nice. Having tempted John and Sam, and with James and Raph down first to provide what safety cover was possible, I eddied out after the crux to watched first Sam swim through it, and then John come down, meet a rock a little too suddenly and topple in himself. With all the people, bits and pieces fished out, in the end bruises were the only punishment. The afternoon was a dedicated mess around, with John's boat converted to C2, and James and Raph running a descent of the Lower Durance on their inflatable sofa. Much to my embarrassment, I was run over by a raft, only to swim from John's bathtub and have the boat rescued by an inflatable chair - cheek. Nice meal out and preparations to leave early on the morrow... sad really.

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Fri/Sat 13/14th July - Carl, you cheeky c*nt!

Boring all day ride home across France, and the worst of the day was humiliation at the hands of Carl and his Irish buddies who both overtook and mooned us before we knew what was going on. Cheek. After a spot of football in the ferry park, we finally made it back to London in the early hours, and everyone bundled off looking tanned, tired but hopefully happy.

Especial thanks to John for the use of his car, and Lou for the hours spent on mobile phone calculator doing money sums, and to everyone on the trip for a cracking time. I suspect a repeat is on the cards for next year. Nice. -- Rob.