We continued East towards the Enguri, which I’d heard a bit about. It was clear to see why it was labelled as such a big project and would be beyond our small team at this time of year. We paddled a couple of tributaries of this mighty river, the Nenskra & the Mestia, with completely mixed fortunes on both. The first had a good big volume feel to it, getting progressively harder towards the confluence. We decided to get out about 1 km from the end, before it became walled in class V+ & VI, but having descended some tough rapids in front of the whole village. The second had some bedrock gorges every few kms, but each one of these that we scouted was impassable due to stuck trees. We did attempt a section, but this ended with a 40m climb out.

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In September this year,  three Pyranha team paddlers hit the Stikine including Ali Marshall , Si Tapley and Corey Boux.

This has to be one of the greatest rivers in the world and is one of the most amazing experiences you can go through.

The Stikine is back on the list of rivers to be damned so lets hope it doesn’t happen.

Ali

The Bovra Gorges

 Martin Vollen the Sjoa local, spoke of these gorges describing them as scary, committing and full of must make, must run sections. Well with him as a guide and a strong crew who could say no?

 The first run down was sweet! At a 90 on the gauge all was quite manageable but it was easy to understand the initial description. Having someone who knew the lines was key as scouting from 40 meters up didn’t give too much information.

 A week or two later we headed back that way only to find an extra 20 cm pushing through, and Martin saying it had only ever been done at this level once before and ended in a real nasty swim, but after a little thought we decided to give it a bash.

 Hearts were defiantly racing, especially after Matt accidentally caught an eddy above a sieve and I dropped into a hole just after, 15 seconds later I was feeling pretty relieved to be in the eddy still in my boat.

 After the first gorge was boxed off we soon reached the second where the volume triples here with the Leira feeding in. Unlike most of Norway sieves and boulder chokes are very much something to watch out for.

 It turned out to be an awesome day with a lot to talk about on the way home.

 

 A few pics of many of the Norway classics!

Home run – Telemark

Jordalselvi – Voss

Teigdal – Voss

Lower Myrkdal – Voss

Fall has arrived here on the Ottawa River.  It is a time when I’m sad to see friends depart from a summer of fun on the river, but ecstatic that the lines ups are gone!   This past weekend was one to remember.  The weather was abnormally mild and the water was still very warm.  I headed to the city early saturday morning for a class, and was devastated when I found out the  river had dropped to Garb levels, and I was stuck in school.   I woke up Sunday morning to find out the river was still holding at a solid level .  A few phone calls later I had a photographer, and some paddling buddies.  We arrived at the wave to find a good size group with huge grins on their faces!  Unfortunate for Billy that he went on a canoe trip the weekend Garb made its first appearance in two seasons!

It’s been 2 long years in the waiting, and it was everything I remembered!   Big, foamy and fun :-) 

 

Matt Bostock & I have recently returned from Georgia (that’s the country not the state) having been on a short but intense expedition to discover what this mountainous country has to offer.

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Have just got approval to take 2010 away from my usual work and spend a year doing research on the value of (NZ South Island) West Coast whitewater to recreational users.  Will involve a methodical approach to kayaking every whitewater river in the area…and my shoulder is just about fixed too.  Will also need to talk lots to river users, so bring on summer and I hope to see a few people on the rivers here!