French Alps waterfalls mission




The waterways of the French Alps seemed to suit kayaking perfectly. All classical rivers work each year in the summer and thousand of people come from all Europe to Durance and Ubaye valley to paddle Gyr, Durance, Guil, Ubaye and more.
At this period of year the water levels are low and many rivers don’t run, so it’s a good opportunity for me and my friends (Romain, Sylvain, Damien, Coldo and jean-Claude my father) to make a mission in the Ecrins massive.



I’ve been paddling for few year pretty often in the french Alps but I’ve never found bankable waterfalls like these ones.
For several years that walked on the way of the Dormillouse village In the Freissiniere valley, I spotted a great waterfall but not really accessible easy.
So, we were exploring one new section in the deep gorge of the Biaysse river. After one day walking and climbing through the mountain thoroughly scouted the falls, we were sure that this deep creeks section 200 m of long is good to running!!























One time on the river, after the abseil of 45 m, Coldo and Stefun went running the first drop then launched the first 16 meters waterfall. One last little drop and here we are at the great, massive and last 22 meters waterfall.
We did this short and steep section in 2h30, not long but an exciting mission !!!




















Many thanks to Sylvain Riffet, Romain Guirao for the pics and footages, Damien Jacket and my father for the rescue and Mathieu Coldebela who paddled with me.

You can check here some pics of the week. (clic on the photo)

French Alpes 2009

See you on the water.

Cheers.

Stefun

Rheinfelden summerwave


This summer, we unfortunately don’t have much water on our French’s spots. This means, that if we want to paddle, we have to move away in order to find an appropriate spot! But we are lucky, because the Rhine offers us some great waves for kayaking and surfing. The best thing about it is that the river lies on the frontier between Switzerland and Germany, not so far away from the French boarder. By car, you need about 2 hours from Besancon to get there. 

The wave is running when the water level is bellow 1500 cubic, but it changes day by day! A wall made out of rocks was built for some construction works in the middle of the river. They destroyed it just after they finished their work. This led to the creation of a new section of waves on the river. Unfortunately, we don’t know how long those spots will exist.

It’s a very good opportunity for the local paddlers to learn how to behave on waves and also to train for the upcoming world freestyle championships in Thun at the end of this month.




August 1st was a national holiday in Switzerland, so we had the chance to see a great firework next to our “camping cars” on Saturday night.

see you on the next wave ;-)

Stefun

enjoye the pics here :

Rheinfelden wave 2009