Deep in the eastern Alps

This last trip in and around Austria has been a special one. We haven't ever been on a kayak trip through our home country for two weeks since that's usually enough time to drive to Piemonte, Ticino or even Norway. We ended up on this rountrip because Daniel Brasuell decided he wanted to visit the eastern alps and Jim Janney decided to come with him.

Since this area is something like our backyard and we spend many weekends there, we figured it would be fun to show Daniel and Jim around the Eastern Alps.

Reiner picked the guys up in Munich Sunday morning and we all met up at Gimbach before noon to warm up with a little hike-in for the short but fun run. The weather was very cold and it had rained and snowed the last couple of days. The rain was actually very well timed since all the runs in the Salzkammergut area wouldn't have been possible without it.

You can call it FAIL, you can call it ART.... Fact is, I was too slow setting the ISO...

Robert Machacek

Jürgen Maier on one of the slides

Jim Janney waking up after a long flight

After Gimbach we bombed down Rettenbach and finished the day on the infamous Koppentraun run at somewhat high levels.

Since the weather got even colder in the evening and a boat also needed some welding we decided to spend the night at our uncle and aunts' house. Also the sauna there isn't bad when it's 5°C outside.

Because of the cold weather and since the rain had stopped we decided to drive to Untertalbach the next day, so it wouldn't drop out on us. After a fun first lap with taking pictures and video we had some more quicker laps. Untertalbach is one of the best creeks in the eastern alps and despite the level being medium-low the group had a lot of fun there. Also it turned out that taking pictures near angry farmers can also be much more dangerous than running the waterfalls.

Untertalbach!

Daniel Brasuell, same drop

The GlanzBros. entering the mini gorge, Photo: Jürgen Maier

short while later, on the slides, Photo: Jürgen Maier

To end the day we drove on to Lammer to have some evening laps on the Lammeröfen, another classic in the Salzkammergut area. It's a short run with nice whitewater and breathtaking views.

The Lammeröfen: what a rad place!

Well, we hoped to get on a (illegal) run in Germany the next day, but the creek turned out to be too low, so we ran the Saalach gorge instead and decided to switch over to Slovenia next. Some did the scenic drive over the Großglockner pass road while Harald picked up Hannah and the kids in Villach.

Saalach Lofer gorge, another short but beautiful classic

Cooming soon: Soca.

Harald

Easter Sessions - Corse 2016

Like almost every spring we did a trip to one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited and that keeps pulling me back - Corsica. This island inbetween Italy and France is very unique, with rugged mountains and beautiful beaches, sweet wines and marone-cream. Water in the rivers is not always a given thing, but every now and then we find good flows in the little creeks that flow through the deep valleys.

Like last year we found good flows on Fium Orbo and were able to run all four drops of the upper gorge, which wasn`t quite usual until the last years.

First drop - be careful to avoid the pocket on the right

The famous Rocket-Drop, this drop is one of the most photographed on the island and has been run since the early days

The entrance to the third drop, hard to get good pics since the river bends ninety degrees for the next little fall

This is last drop of the minigorge, hard to set safety and kind of intimidating inbetween walls

We also found good flows on the Travo, there is a new slide that washed out over the last years and was runable but rocky last year and very clean this year.

This was the first year we brought our skis and although low snowhights below 1400m had a great time on our first skitour in the Restonica Valley.

The Restonica valley in the back

First look on our goal for the day

Bringing your skis (and crampoons) definitly makes sence if you like getting up early to spend some quality time in the mountains. Pretty special to see ocean on both sides of the island from the top.

Monte Cinto in the back - highest peak in Corsica at 2706m

our way down

Lealausi enjoying the ride

So like almost every year we had a great time on the Isle de Beaute, and encourage everybody to go and visit one of the most special places I know.

Cheers and a happy spring to everybody! Stay save and let the rivers flow!

Reiner

Shredding the Fjell

This summer we spend some time up north kayaking and mountainbiking in Norway and Sweden. Lots of rain and low temperatures made conditions for biking less optimal but nevertheless we enjoyed the trails in Are, Oppdal and Hafjell.

more rain on our way back south, Dovrefjell

the last push up, Oppdal, Vattahaugan

Lausi enjoying the view down Hovden and myself shredding down into the Drivadalen

Biking around Oppdal seems to be kind of different from home, since there are allmost no roads up the mountains, so you have to ride or push your bike up most of the trails. Around Oppdal there are several skiing areas that make the exeption to the rule and have some roads (and a gondola) to ride uphill.

typical weatherconditions

nicely built trails down Rauhovdin

Rauhovdin with beautiful views into Trollheimen and the Gjevillvatnet

Lea attacking the attacking flies

If you are interested in mountainbiking around Oppdal, there is a nice guidebook by some locals. You can get it at Vertical Playground in Oppdal (https://www.vpg.no/).

The local community puts lots of work in maintance and building of new trails. So buying the book is a good way of supporting the work. There is also the possibility of shuttling some of the trails and using the gondola up Hovden eventhough the official bikepark there and in Vangsalia has been closed. 

Camping in Drivadalen

Vangsalia resting

Are

Gypsy Camp in Hafjell

So for us Norway is a long ways to go and probably not a first hand biking destination, but if you make your way up, its for sure worth to bring your gear. Among others the areas around Oppdal and Romsdalen have very nice trails and the bikeparks of Hafjell and Are are very well worth a visit. 

So now: Let the snow fall !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheers, Re

20th annual Green River Race 2015

2015 was my first trip to the famous Green River Race. The 20th anniversery of this race seemed like a perfect time to visit the Narrows for the first time and try to post a good time in the longboat. A week before the race we had high levels, making it hard to get good practice laps at a 100% flow. Fortunatly I had Eric Deguil showing me lines all week. On race day I had a very good first half of the race and started screwing before the monkey, followed by a mistake in Scream Machine. After loosing approximatly more than 20 seconds I posted a time of 5:04, only 3 seconds faster than in my short boat. Missing my goals (sub 5, possibly sub 4:40) there is probably no way around coming back in 2016...

Thanks to Shane Benedict and Betsy Towns for their hospitality, Eric Deguil for the nice week of boating and Daniel and Diane Brasuell for their support! Big ups to John Grace, Colin Hunt and all the others for organizing such a cool event and having this anniversary! See ya next year!

Liquidlogic

Sweet Protection Whitewater

Alpin Action

System X