The ALPS

July 1999-09-25

Car 1: Gary, Mikey and Lee

Car2: Mark, Mike and Thom

Car3: Marco, Ali, Mike and Liz

Car4: Ady, Garf and Steph

Our journey began on Saturday morning. After a smooth crossing we ‘sped’ down the autoroute. We were pleased when we arrived at the rabioux campsite that evening, with our choice of paying the tolls as it had taken Marco’s and Ady’s cars about 5 hours longer to get there on the back roads!!!

We were quite shocked to see the low levels in the area. But, we started the trip in the normal manner on the rabioux wave followed by the grade II section to Embrum. I found an excellent wave for the 007 at the get out(river right) that everyone else missed (probably coz they were pissed off with 10 miles of grade II by then!!).

Next followed the claree which I skipped as it looked so rocky, although I’m told it wasn’t that bad!!! The next day we ran both sections of the Guissane. In my opinion the upper part was actually better than at lower levels!!!

We ran the Onde which wasn’t anywhere as good as normal. A few of us ran the upper bit which was interesting but not as hard as it looked.

The Gyr gave a good run as usual, with a little of the speed taken away by the lower levels. One group still managed to pin a boat under the water in front of us.

The Gyronde was so empty we didn’t ever contemplate getting on. Perhaps the dam was off!!!!

The Guil offered some excitement. I arrived at Chateau Q. anticipating it looking easy, BUT as usual it looked horrendous. We stood 200 feet up, saying ‘Is that stopper normally that big?’. We watched a raft get stuck in it, our adrenaline building. Eventually, after we were all very nervous we got on and it proved to be pretty straightforward (well in comparison with 95 when 3 out of 6 paddlers swam down it!!). Guardian Angel and Maison du Roy was good with most of us shooting Guil falls and the keyhole.

We also looked at the Romanche which looked good except for the fact it absolutely tipped it down with rain the night we were there (we had planned a bar-b-que!!!) and the water turned black (seriously – where there was a stopper the backwash was ‘black’!). Apparently, something to do with dust been washed down from the hills! Anyway, none of us were going anywhere near that water!!!

We drove over into the Ubaye valley to discover our normal doss site by the ‘Lac’ had been fenced off, we found a new one down a track by a church/hut about 1 mile along the road. We all paddled across the lake to the campsite opposite where Marco was doing very well with a French chick (Has she e-mailed you yet marco?). The steins were large and Steph showed she was very pissed by dropping a boat on her ‘ear’!

The next day was pretty long! It started with La Fresquire, which was probably a IV (maybe a few bits IV+), this year. The race course too was slightly easier than normal (III/III+), although still fun. Six of us decided to run the Ubaye gorge as well. Brave Gary led this section, which proved to be one of the worst sections I’ve done, as it was very tedious! All the rapids go at this level, although the first is probably a V+, we all walked it! Prepare yourself for lots of inspections, about 10/15 in 2 miles. It’s very hard work walking up and down the banks, although almost always possible. All in all, I’d grade this section IV with a couple of IV+/V and a V+.

The last night was spent at the Rabioux campsite with a meal in Embrum. We were all far too tired to appreciate it properly. The next day we finished with a surf on the wave, before heading back to Brighton.

Lee

Ps. Forgive me if I missed anything out or got the order wrong, but I left it 3 months before writing this!

Pps. Mike wanted me too add in who swam, so here we go:

Mike swam on the Rabioux

Mikey swam on the Gyr

Mark swam on Chateau Q.

Ali swam on the Rabioux

Gary swam on Rabioux to Embrum (ha,ha he didn’t really!!)