The Alps 2001

Team Audi: Gary, Kate, Lee

Team Focus 1: Ady, Jenny, Garf

Team Focus 2: Mikey, Mike, Bri

Team Vectra: Liz, Laura, Weasel, Nic

Team Golf: Paul, Alex

+ various members of 'The Poly'

Team Audi started the trip a couple of days earlier than the others. We were heading for the Austrian Alps, which makes a change from the usual Frach Alps. After a quick journey across Belgium and Germany, we stopped off at Augsberg to try out the artificial course. I was surprised to find it as hard as I remembered from my trip in 1994 (ummm, shouldn't I have got better since then?). After spending a few hours there we had started to get used to the speed of the water and Gary was showing that bottom stopper who was Boss!!

We stayed at the local campsite, with the only notable thing been Kate swearing she hates malt whisky before drinking a full plastic red pint glass of it!

Our second day was spent paddling the Upper Isar, which is ideal if you only have 1 car, as you turn up at the take out, give a guy with a minibus a few quid and he drives you to the top. The river was pleasant and fairly straightforward.

After that we drove south to Landeck (our base for the week) to make our rendovoux with the others. After arriving at the campsite and putting up the tents, we waited for the others. Team Vectra arrived next followed by a very large rain cloud (it had followed them from England apparently), and proceeded to piss down for the next 3 days. Fortunately the campsite had a bar and pizzeria where we spent the evening!

The next day was good, we paddled the Rosanna (with a scary seal launch for those not warmed up, ha, ha), and the Sanna (with a very scary corner - up loads on last time I ran it!).

Monday saw us paddle Imst to Haming on the Inn, with so many swimmers and faff that I can't possibly mention them all!! Thanks to Bri for been an excellent second though, and for everyone for their rescuing efforts.

That afternoon we paddled the Landeck Gorge which was amazing (one of the highlights of the trip), big, bouncy, with always the promise of something nasty that never actually materialised!!!

On Tuesday, we had a drive into Germany to paddle the Ammer (rubbish, too low & long) and the Loisach (good, twisty & technical). The following day we drove from Landeck into Switzerland, where we paddled S-champ and Schule (on the Inn, both VERY high - the water was washing over the gauge at the weir in S-champ!). Team Audi and Focus1 stayed in Switzerland with the others returning to Austria.

The next day started well paddling the upper section of Giarsun, again in Switzerland. Everyone who didn't feel they were up to it got off before the start of the hard bit, which was where the epic was to begin. There were 8 of us continuing on, 2 groups of 4. I was at the very back, and some half a mile from the start rounded a corner to see Mikey dropping into this enormous pour over and been looped round and round. I managed to shoot far left and take a small breakout, only to watch him bail out and still been spun round and round in the stopper. I had just managed to scrabble out of my boat and get a line out when it let him out, after well over a minute of been held in there. Mikey was understandably very shook up, and opted to walk out of the very steep gorge.

Gary, Tom and myself chased his boat down continuous Grade IV+, that under other circumstances might have been very enjoyable. After a while we hadn't sighted the boat so, we stopped to wait for the others not knowing that they too had climbed out. Eventually we continued down some pretty hairy rapids. One of particular note, was were all the water channelled down the right with a sequence of big holes. I managed to drop sidewards into the first, rolled up still in it had to surf out into an undercut wall, rolled up again, only to drop into another hole. After rolling again and managing to break out, I saw Thom swimming round the corner. Bugger!!! Now, Gary and I were on our own chasing 2 boats in a big, scary gorge. We were very glad to see the take out after another mile, and the others waiting anxiously having seen two boats speed past. Unfortunately, the section below Ardez, is even harder that Giarsun and at this level probably un-runable. After re-grouping we headed downstream to see if the boats would wash through to the dam - they didn't!!!

The following day we again paddled the Imst gorge, the Landeck gorge and the easier bit of the Sanna, which were fun after the epics of the previous day. Some of the others had driven back to Switzerland to have another look for the boats - No luck.

On our final day, Team Audi decided to do the Loicach instead of Augsberg (which everyone else did) as we had already paddled there. We headed home from there, on a very smooth trip where the only things to note was seeing if we could get the car over 125 MPH with boats on the roof on the German autobahns (I think we got scared about then!) and having missed the last ferry we dossed down on the floor of the ferry terminal for a good nights sleep!!

One final thing worth mentioning is our brushes with the law!!

1) Team Audi: Stopped by Austrian Police for speeding and not having a motorway pass - Fined

2) Team Focus 1: Stopped by Austrian Police for speeding - Fined

3) Team Focus 2: Stopped by Austrian Police for speeding a lot - Fined heavily

4) Rescue crew (mostly Gary) stopped by Saumnau police for Smuggling - Had to pay excess duty

5) Various: Stopped by Austrian police to check for Motorway passes - We all had them by now

6) Everyone except Team Audi who weren't there: Parking tickets in Germany - Suspects still at large

Finally (really this time), here's the river table.

Day	River	Grade
Friday	Augsburg	III+
Saturday	Upper Isar	II/III
Sunday	Rosanna Sanna	III+ IV(IV+)
Monday	Imst Gorge Landeck Gorge	III IV
Tuesday	Ammer Loisach	II/III III+
Wednesday	S-Champ Schule	IV- IV-
Thursday	Giarsun (part 1) Giarsun (part 2)	III+ IV+/V
Friday	Imst Gorge Sanna (from Pians) Landeck Gorge	III IV- IV
Saturday	Loisach Augsberg	III+ III+