Upon arriving at l’Argentière la Bessée, much grumbling ensued as the forecast was showing rain for most of the following week. A few people, including Alps newcomers George Hamilton and George Elderfield, jumped on the slalom course at the campsite.
Both Georges, Fraser and Rupert on the Slalom Course
On the first day of paddling, we left the Sunshine Run section of the Lower Durance for the afternoon, and instead started with the Lower Guil (where I swear the grade 5 road was significantly over-graded). The two groups, led by veteran Alps paddlers Tom Jenkins and Ben Marshall, set off about a half-hour apart. The bigger and faster alpine water causes some of the newcomers some difficulty, but Stella and George bring their A-game and prove from day one that they have their river roll down. Following lunch and a miraculous change in weather, we carry on down the Sunshine Run, where we learn that Stella has a knack for leading rivers unintentionally, and that Sam doesn’t like sticking to a group order. When we arrived back at the campsite, the drinking began while Kieran and Tom made an awesome dinner of sausage and potato dauphinoise. Oh, and Claire made Ben eat a lot of grass….
Day 2 – the weather picks up, but the water hadn’t returned to reasonable levels yet, so we set sail for the Lower Clarée. While I’d never put this down as one of my favourite rivers, I feel it got a bad name in my first year, where it was paddled on a “confidence building day” at very low levels. This time round, it wasn’t great, but it wasn’t dull, and it gave Craig a great opportunity to make a difficult eddy above a tree (which, to my joy, he succeeded in doing). After the traditional lunch of baguette with meats, cheeses and salad, we went to the Briançon Gorge – a river which always gives me pause despite never having had a bad experience on it. Well, like all good gorges, the difficulty increases exponentially with more water, so the run was an absolute blast…though Callum met with some difficulty and went for a swim. Back at the campsite, while Harry and Fraser work on their spaghetti Bolognese, I jumped on the slalom course with no other safety presence...and promptly capsized! Fortunately before returning to the Alps, my river roll returned, so I managed to avoid a particularly gimpy swim. Now, something happened that Tuesday night that I cannot, in good conscience, leave out of the write-up: Sam stole a dog! Sam stole a dog and then let it off its leash.
Tom leading the last section of the Upper Guisane
After Sam apologised for being a drunken idiot to the dog’s owner on the rainy and windy morning we went to the Guisane. I spent most of the Upper Guisane thinking just how high this felt compared to the previous times I’d paddled it. S-bends, as normal, was the highlight, though Mr Elderfield spent most of his time playing pinball while traversing it. The big boys, Ben, Tom, Sam and Rupert went on to do the Lower Guisane, though Ben (as normal) forgot to turn his GoPro on for the best bit of the river, where it looks like you’re paddling into the jaws of death! Oh well, one day he’ll learn. While they were doing that, the rest of us paddled the Middle Durance, where Kirsty picked up her first no-swim river and Craig came awfully close, but he swam twenty metres from the end of the run. Back at camp, after hearing tales of heroism and near misses from the advanced group, Emma and Kirsty made cous-cous while others set about playing piggyback volleyball.
Piggyback Volleyball!
After more swims than most people realised, Harry decided that the morning of the fourth day would be used for some training. Ben shot-gunned the advanced group consisting of Emma, the Georges, Kieran and Callum, training them in some slalom techniques useful in the Alps. Rupert took Claire and Stella, Sam put in some work with Kirsty, and Tom gave Craig a masterclass in the basics. This was followed by a run of the Gyronde (with far less swims that usual), and finally a run of the Onde in the evening. That night, after Ben and Claire’s “chicken surprise,” we played ultimate Bago and British bulldogs, which Claire proved to be an utter demon at!
A tender morning the next day meant that the Sunshine Run was our destination – our first repeat run of the trip. This was not Fraser’s day. First, upon seeing Craig swimming, he found a wonderful little pour-over, leading Stella into it, and while Stella succeeded in making her roll, Fraser failed, marking the first ‘safety swim’ of the trip. Then, after completing the run, Fraser managed to lock Harry’s keys in his car… Following this, we returned to the Upper Guisane, allowing everyone to get on it this time, and letting some additional people run S-bends. Following the faff-ful day, the Georges make mixed risotto for dinner…and it was awesome.
Almost half way into the trip, the lead four paddlers decide to go off and do something tricky once more. In the past, I viewed ‘tricky’ as being rivers like the Gyr or Chateaux Queyras…well…this time it was the Durance Gorge. In possibly the most depressingly funny moments before they head off with Rob Pilkington, the group mumble to each other in quiet voices:
Tom: “We’re all going to die…”
Ben: “What colour are your pants this morning?”
Tom: “…brown…”
While they were off paddling their über river, we went to the Gyronde, and had our annual epic – oh well, it was always going to happen. And rather upsettingly, I found out that while I’m normally good with a throwline, I can’t throw one well when I’m not under pressure. In the evening, after Sam and Rupert went for a play on the Fournel, Rupert and Callum made pesto pasta for the masses while cheesy music blared at the bank of the river.
Tom: “We’re all going to die…”
Ben: “What colour are your pants this morning?”
Tom: “…brown…”
While they were off paddling their über river, we went to the Gyronde, and had our annual epic – oh well, it was always going to happen. And rather upsettingly, I found out that while I’m normally good with a throwline, I can’t throw one well when I’m not under pressure. In the evening, after Sam and Rupert went for a play on the Fournel, Rupert and Callum made pesto pasta for the masses while cheesy music blared at the bank of the river.
Before the rest day, it was time for everyone to up their games: in the morning, Stella and Claire got to jump on the Briançon Gorge. Unfortunately for Stella (and her boat), she had a swim above the barrage, and after a prolonged rescue effort, we finally managed to force it down the barrage…and made her Inazone’s nose bear serious resemblance to Jaws! Add to this that while paddling the gorge, Claire and Rupert’s kayaks also split. Before lunch, we went to the Gyr, where I finally feel confident enough to jump on with the elite four plus Fraser. It was awesome, despite a backwards spell that I had at one of the trickiest bits. We all finish elated…until Ben discovers that his boat had broken on the run of the Gyr! After this, there’s another run of the Gyronde for which I lent Stella my Mamba…and she gave it its first ever dent. We went to Regain for the Alps meal which, as usual, was excellent. Craig and Harry did their best to embarrass the group, with the former being overly drunk and slurring French phrases, and the latter commenting that the waitress “doesn’t speak very well” while asking Emma to order his food for him.
The rest day began with welding (given that four kayaks had been broken the previous day that hardly came as a surprise). By lunch time we had made our plans. Most of us decided that a day at the walled city in Briançon would be the best way to spend the day, whilst Tom and Sam borrowed Fraser to take them climbing.
Claire photosniping at Briançon
Now over half way through the Alps trip, breakfast with croissants and pain au chocolat is becoming more of a chore than nutritious. This is Ubaye day, meaning an early get-up, a long drive, and me pleading with Tom for him to drive as I want to take photos: naturally this meant that while I held shot-gun, the storms of the like not seen since the Old Testament rampaged so I couldn’t get any good photos. The Upper Ubaye is a ridiculously cold river, though it proved that Craig can not only hand-roll, but he’s rather adept at hand paddling too. It also brought a cheer to many in the group when Sam went for an unintentional swim/technical exit whilst trying to rescue Craig’s kayak. The Ubaye Race Course, which was my favourite river in my first year in the Alps, proved to be several peoples favourite run of the holiday, however, it also brought about Kieran’s first swim since the 12th of March 2011! He was not amused. To many people’s despair, as we were running late, we had McDonalds for dinner.
I did get one awesome photo though :)
The following day, the Upper Upper Guil proved to be our first ‘no swim’ river – a mere ten days into the holiday. A sizable portion of the group continues down to paddle the Upper Guil, where a number of people have a rather intimate experience with it, with Claire swimming in the same spot I swam at five years ago. After both of these rivers were completed, most of us went back to the campsite where Stella and I worked on our Turkey Curry (that was, perhaps, a little over seasoned), while Tom, Rupert and Sam went with Rob Pilkington to paddle the Guil Gorge. With them seemingly gone for hours, a number of people began to worry that they had gotten in trouble. Eventually we received a call saying they had bailed off the river, and there was a collective sigh of relief. It turns out that they had been paddling it at a level several feet above what is recorded in the guidebook (so the gentle grade three warm-up was nothing of the kind!). And yet despite this, and despite spending an hour abseiling down to the river, while halfway through dinner I heard:
Tom: “This is my Everest.”
Now that we were nearing the end of our stay, France seemed to finally pull out all the stops and the sun split the heavens! Returning to the Lower Guisane, I had to make a choice: was I ready to get back on the horse that stopped me paddling for seven days three years ago, or was I going to sit it out and miss one of the best rivers I’ve ever paddled? I think I’ll give it one more year. After an uneventful paddle of a very low Lower Guisane, it was time for the group to tackle the upper section for the final time. This was general uneventful except for a revelation from Mr Doyle, who commented on how much more stable he felt when using the H3’s thigh rests. Upon hearing this, Ben, Sam and I couldn’t contain our laughter…frankly, after hearing that we were amazed Craig had paddled that well!
On our final day, we have a fairly relaxed start, and then head to paddle the Sunshine Run one last time. Another river was considered for the afternoon, but most people just wanted to relax and let their kit dry for the two day journey home that was to follow.
Camp at Night
Other than my first Alps trip back in 2007, this was the one with the most swimming, the greatest variety of rivers and the most learning evident throughout it. The Alps trips for Glasgow Uni Canoe Club have never been a matter of taking the best people on ridiculously hard rivers (or I’d have never managed to make it onto one), but about pushing the boundaries of people at all levels of competence in the club. In 2007, I was towards the low end of the bell-curve, managing to get through the basic rivers and a few of the harder ones more because of confidence than skill. Now, it feels like that venire of confidence has been stripped away, but the skills I have picked up since then more than compensate for it. I think that everyone who went on this trip had something they could be proud of – a ‘no swim’ river; helping out with a rescue; tackling a new river; developing their roll – and that certainly puts this as one of the best Alps trips I’ve been on.
Good job everyone, and thank you Harry.
