French Alps 1996

From ICCC

Originally planned as a two week jaunt around the paddling spots in the Alps, the actual, shortened trip managed to pack more than its fair share of events.

"The day we drove to the Alps in half a day"

We were on a mission. We left Northampton at 6:00pm on Sunday, caught the 11:15pm ferry from Dover on a cheap ticket and then drove south on the payage stopping only to fill the petrol tank and swap drivers. We finally arrived in Briancon at midday on Monday.Our only guide was the orange Terry Storry pamphlet - ostensibly the entire French Alps in 8 small pages. So we checked out the Claree - rocky, little water. No go. Next in the book: the Guil. We stayed the night in a campsite near the town of Guillestre (down the track by the layby on the right. Reasonable pitching fees, great showers and toilets).

File:3 steps.jpg Top of 3 steps rapid on the Guil...Click for better picture..(30k)

The day I nearly died (again)

Tuesday we decided on the Guil. All the guide books rate this river highly, and having paddled it I can see why. It had been raining overnight, so the river was high. We set off from just below the weir after Abries and paddled through kilometers of fun, undemanding bouncy grade 3. Then came the gorge. Chateau Queyras loomed above us as the river disappeared into an enormous gorge over a horizon. We got out to look at the undercuts and pillow waves all the way down. Once you were in there is only one way out, and at one point it narrows to less than the width of the boat.

It looks horrendous, and it was a close decision to run it - but it is well worth it and actually quite easy. A recommended run. After running Chateau Q. We were feeling pretty indestructible and subsequently ran the Guardian Angels section on sight. This is the section the guide books said "Be Careful" - of course Terry didn't mention the Grade V drop with undercut and risk of entrapment (one guess what I ended up in. Hint: keep river left). So that was day one over. We ran the rest of the Guil up to the dam the following day, and found it to be a fun, varied run.

File:Guil.jpg The Lower Guil, just above Keyhole

There are two sections to watch out for after L'Ange Gardien:-

1. Immediately after the car park the river curves to the right with an embankment on river left. Immediately after the green road bridge it turns left again. After this is a drop where the line seems to be extreme river left (looks like a pinning spot) or down the middle in a zig-zag maneuver worryingly close to being pushed into a large undercut. We decided to portage this by getting out on the embankment before the bridge, putting in just before triple drop (see photo).
2. "Keyhole rapid". You can see this rapid if you pull over before one of the tunnels. This rapid is fine but there are quite a few siphons on the way through... and the powerful looking stopper at the bottom is more powerful than it looks.The rest is fine, fun undemanding grade 3/4 which seems much longer than its 7km length.

The day I drove Ali's car into a ditch

By now we had based ourselves at the campsite in Argentiere which is great but for one thing - there are shallow ditches in the grass. Arriving in the dark I succeeded in gently dropping the front of the Golf into one. Still, everyone noticed we'd arrived.

File:Rabioux1.jpg The Rabioux Play wave

Thursday was a rest day, so we only spent 3 hours in the evening playing on the Rabioux wave. It is supposedly the best play wave in the area, and right next to a camp site, but we found it badly formed and of only passing interest. In fact, the most amusement to be found is speculating on whether the photographer will fall off the overhead wire and laughing at your mates swimming whilst you're safely on the bank.

File:Valley.jpg Wandering down the Onde

Friday started with a descent of the Onde, a fine steep grade 3 river with ice cold water and warm sunshine. This wasfollowed by a storming run down the Gyr on full dam release. It is only a 4km section and is over in minutes. This is however a fine river to finish the day with and short enough to be run several times.The heavy continuous rain prevented any paddling on Saturday, and on Sunday we tried the Claree again but it was still a shallow and rocky grade 3.

It's all over

The Gyr and the Onde join to form the Gyronde - which conveniently runs right past where we were camping. It had been raining heavily for the previous 2 days so on Monday we ran the latter section of the Gyronde on full dam release. It was enormous water with large hydraulics behind the normally visible boulders. With 5 minutes of starting, Ali was flipped and hit his head on a rock. The force of the impact on his helmet caused a cut above his left eye - whilst I followed his boat down through the maelstrom to the weir. Having recovered both his paddles and boat at the campsite all I had to do was find Ali and his gaping head wound. It was of course inevitable that he would be injured since he is the medically qualified one. He was fine and was quite happily running up and down the gorge covered in blood - but that was the end of our dangerous exploits in the French Alps.

File:Swimmer.jpg Ali won the swimming contest

So, our trip ended prematurely - but it wasn't all bad because we swapped getting bruised and rained on for sitting about in the sunshine by spending the rest of our time in Bordeaux. Life's so tough.In any case, the week or so raised a few points:-

• Wear serious helmets for serious rivers - a Protec ain't going to do much good on fast, powerful rocky rivers.
• Always have two vehicles with one at the take-out so if one of your group is injured you can get back to them quickly.
• You really need a group of three paddlers - with two it's hard work fishing all three bits of your mate out. Of course this didn't stop Ali and Dom going out a few weeks later and doing the same thing. (Apparently they recommend the Veneon, but still haven't tried the Biasse)
• Do get a good guide book. Fairy Storry's effort is only 3 pounds - but it shows. We went too early to take the "White Water Europe" book (recommended). However you can buy a book called "Gems of Whitewater of the High Alps" by Joseph Haas, a beautifully put together hard back book. We found it in a bookshop in the old part of Briancon and although expensive seems to be reasonably accurate and is full of pictures you can show your mum.

The French Alps area around Briancon provides miles and miles of top quality white water from moderate to extreme difficulty, and I would recommend anyone to go there themselves