Last week I spend five awesome days kayaking in the area around Ivrea with my brother Reiner. On the first day we ran the upper Chiusella - This is a beautiful California - like bedrock river. However, we had a really low water level... I imagine it would be even more beautiful with more water. Next week they have a race at this creek - hopefully with more water. Racing a low creek - sounds like hell....
Picture by Reiner Glanz
Picture by Reiner Glanz
Picture by Reiner Glanz
Picture by Reiner Glanz
After we had finished the run, we decided to drive up to Hone to take a look at the famous waterfalls of the lower Ayasse. Unfortunately the Ayasse had about three times the suggested flow. It looked runnable but also extremely pushy. We decided to take a look at the upper Ayasse instead, which we didn't have much info about.
We found a section that was very cool - Grade 4-5 with one portage.
Picture by Reiner Glanz
Picture by Reiner Glanz
The next day we ran the Soana river. This is a nice long boulder run through a deep gorge. We didn't take any pictures since most of the run consists of bigger boulder rapids we wanted to run together. Taking pictures on such a run with only two people on the river is difficult.
Where can I turn this f***ing thing on?!
Two idiots looking like idiots....
Next up was the Stura di Ala - Famous for it's 15 meter high waterfall in a tight gorge. We couldn't run it, since we didn't have our climbing gear with us and to run it, you have to belay down into the gorge after another unrunnable 12-15 meter drop above the waterfall.
Ok, thats a lie - At least I wouldn't even consider running this drop even if was not walled in. ;)
Anyway, here are some pictures from the upper and lower Stura di Ala. (The lower part is a less known short but very hard gorge - We portaged most of the main drops)
First, the upper part...
Picture by Reiner Glanz
Picture by Reiner Glanz
This is huge input slide to start the lower Stura di Ala
Picture by Reiner Glanz
Picture by Reiner Glanz
To finish up our short kayaking trip we drove back to Osttirol to run the waterfall section of the Defereggenbach - But this creek also had to much water, so we only did a easier section below the waterfalls.... here are some Pictures from the way back home... (The Dolomiten - Mountains)
Well, thats it. Hope I can get back in this area around Ivrea soon, because it offers some sweet creeking!!
Later, H.G.