French Alps 2018 paddling trip Day 11 Glacier Blanc by Jane Sheehan Before the crack of noon (7am) we all set off to Pré de Madame Carle with the intention of walking up a mountain to see a glacier. There were 12 of us, Keith, Sara, Hanna h and Mike, Gareth and Sarah, Ciaran, Trevor, Stuart, Nick, John and Jane. The early start was to allow us to ascend and descend avoiding the hottest part of the day. As it happened, we were lucky with the weather – it was overcast and very welcome at that. Trevor with the valley below Le Pré de madame Carle is situated at the heart of the Massif des Écrins at the foot of Mount Pelvoux. There are two glaciers, Noir (black) and Blanc (white). We aimed for the Glacier Blanc. It’s become a favourite spot for climbers and walkers alike since the Refuge Cézanne was built and the stone road was sorted in 1934 to allow visitors to save several hours of walking from the bottom of the valley.   It is a two and a half hour walk with several options to stop. First stop is at a bridge, two hours in (see photo) the second stop was at a refuge and the third was at the glacier itself. Those who had been before recommended hats, sunscreen, a lightweight shell and suitable footwear. One of the highlights was to see a Marmot. Keith and Sara stopped for lunch at the bridge. Trevor and I met Sarah at the lake before the refuge and everyone else made it to the refuge where unlike us sandwich munchers, they were able to purchase a fine omelette and a glass of something refreshing. Mike and Hannah made it to the Glacier but Ciaran and Gareth took […]

Performance Awards British Canoeing has today announced the launch of the NEW Personal Performance Awards to encourage paddlers to develop their skills and safety on the water, in the craft and environment of their choice. The Personal Performance Awards are designed for paddlers wanting to gain recognition of their learning and development, in the craft and environment they choose. The process of completing the awards is based on learning and, as such, the ethos of ‘supporting the paddler’ is the main focus of all the awards, encouraging individuals in their personal development. The new Personal Performance Awards include: Paddle Awards: Three introductory awards – Start, Discover, Explore – that are designed for those new to paddlesport Discipline Specific Awards: 12 pathways comprising three awards which enables paddlers to choose the environment, craft and paddle sport discipline that is right for them British Canoeing is delighted to be announcing the NEW Personal Performance Awards that will replace the existing ‘Star Awards’ from January 2019. The development of the NEW awards has been an exciting project with many paddlers involved in creating Personal Performance Awards for paddlers, as well as people new to paddlesport. This is such an exciting time for British Canoeing to have awards that are paddler focused, develops confidence, decision making and skills in a craft and environment that the individual chooses. – Lee Pooley, Head of Coaching and Qualifications at British Canoeing Paddler focused Leaders and Bell Boat Helms will be able to provide awards No dual discipline awards Five new disciplines including Stand Up Paddleboard, Polo, Racing, Rafting and Slalom Direct entry to ALL awards No age restrictions Personal Performance Awards without formal leadership Over the coming months, British Canoeing will roll out the awards by completing the following milestones: Autumn 2018: British Canoeing will launch the content of the awards Autumn […]

French Alps 2018 paddling trip Day 10 Upper Guisane by Nick Coughlin Twenty-two intrepid LCC paddlers set off at the leisurely time of 10am to tackle the Upper Guisane. The Guisane is one of my favourite rivers and this was the second time we had paddled it in the past seven days. It is a pretty fast flowing river going through pine woodland and then eventually through the village of Le Casset. We left a couple of less experienced paddlers lower down the river and split into four groups of five to do the first part. Our group had a fairly uneventful first part, but we passed Dom after about 200m and he seemed to have got out of his boat to check the hydraulics. The level was slightly lower than last week so there was a lot of avoiding or bouncing off rocks which did cause a few mishaps. Forty minutes later we arrived at S-Bends and all got out of the river to prepare to tackle the rapid. Some of the group decided to walk around and so set off on the path. The rest of us then split into groups of three and Graham, Keith and Kirk positioned themselves at different points to provide some safety cover. I was in the first group with Helen and Keiran. As usual Helen set off like Tim Brabant hurtling down at top speed, Keiran and I tried to stick together. Unfortunately, Keiran`s faulty boat forced him to abandon ship halfway down, but he managed to get to the side [which incidentally is never more than 2m away] I managed to get his boat and sent it over to Hannah and Mike on the opposite side. Keiran was soon re-united with his boat and we set off down the river. Most […]

French Alps 2018 paddling trip Day 9 The Ubaye Race Course by Steve Hitchen An early start for LCC saw us setting off just after the bread delivery at 8am. With a second quick pit stop for pastries we were underway. The drive takes us along the Durance which runs past our camp site. We reach the lake at Embrun then head up the mountain on a switch back road giving us stunning views. We all put in on the upper Ubaye at Jausiers which is the grade 3- section. The river is perfect for newer paddlers and offers great practice for the rest. The paddle took around an hour and all paddlers had a wonderful time. The sun was blazing and the water warm. The Ubaye is a great river and after lunch it got even better. After lunch we headed for one of the finest white water stretches of river this paddler has ever been on, the Ubaye race course which is grade 3-4. Or Ebay as a few called it. With features from the start it was nonstop fun. 20 of us set off split into groups of 5. A Grade 3 rapid to start. Followed by la Salle à Manger, a grade 4 rapid. With slow moving sections which let you catch your breath in between. 3 more featured rapids followed at grades 4 & 3+ before flushing out under the stunning Roman Bridge. A few swimmers and a few rolled back up. This author managed his first river roll! If you come to paddle in this part of the alps this river is a must. Possible to paddle twice in one day LCC opted for beer and chips at the lake adjacent to the get out. With tales of the spills and thrills of the […]

French Alps 2018 paddling trip Day 9 The Upper Ubaye by Ciaran Fahey Earliest start of the trip so far for the clubs 2018 Alps trip, at an on the bus time of 8am. The destination for today’s trip was the Upper Ubaye a grade 3, despite the early start the long drive to the river resulted in getting on at 10am, a slightly later time the planned due to the placement of a boulder in the usual get on point. So, instead of a quick jump into the boats they had to be lowered down a steep embankment and herded across a small stream to the river. This wasn’t a total inconvenience as we got a good view of Fort De Nournoux built in 1843 into the cliff face above the river. We split into the groups of 5’s for this river led by Keith, Helen, Kirk and mine was led by the Silver Fox, John. We had a fun bouncy journey down this river as even though it looked low there was still ample water in the main channel. The run has more than a few class 3 rapids including long wave trains that the whole group bounced down. During this enjoyable run we took the opportunity to practice frequent eddy hopping and even a good bit of surfing. I even got a few tips from the club’s playboating coach Graham on how to ride a wave for longer durations. Unfortunately, I got a bit carried away surfing and got caught sideways with water gushing over my hip and forcing me over, luckily there was enough room for a quick role up again. The final stretch of the river had an interesting section with several boulders across the river to avoid. At the get out we climbed out […]

Polo Practice Session run by Richie On Saturday I went to canoe polo practice organised by Richie. There were not many people there, probably due to the rain, but we still went ahead with it with only 4 people (Callum, Luke, John and myself). We first did some passing around and then did some dribbling for a bit and throwing. At the end we did a whole game with many other people from the club who were in white-water boats and we even had open canoes taking part! At the end our team won in a “next goal wins” and we scored in 10 seconds after they said that.  A huge thanks to Richie for running the practice even though after 3 hours I was shattered it was great fun. Aleksander Ford  

French Alps 2018 paddling trip Day 8 The Upper Gyronde by Stephen Hitchen Lunch over our intrepid LCC members put in just below the barrage at Vallouise. 16 this time, so four groups of four with a skilled leader in each. Group A-with Keith, B with Graham, C with John Cooke while the D’s had Kirk. This river is the opposite of the previous one. Not many eddies to hit and some tight rocky features. Hidden boulders meant the LCC paddlers needed Shakira hips to ride the boulder (singer who had great hip flicks while singing and sang about them Keith) Even at the put in there were casualties. Hidden rocks and low water flipping two onto their sides. One bailed while one was righted by an LCC member jumping from the bank to affect a rescue after direction from Keith. What a brave soul. 😜 Paddlers now all in boats proceed down the grade 3 river. Fun features with small, fast wave trains kept us all busy. Plus a few scrapey bottoms. A few swimmers along the way meant we had to find the sometimes hard to get eddy’s. But we all made it in one piece to the main feature on our part of the river. A technical feature at low water with a switch back entry followed by a fast shoot with a boulder at the bottom. Even a river leader came to grief, but he was the first to run it. With safety up and running the LCC paddlers made their way down, with a helping tug from Graham to point some in the right direction. The rock at the end of the shoot acted more like a brick wall for most. Some swimmers but on such a technical river that’s no surprise. A few more […]

French Alps 2018 paddling trip Day 8 The Upper Durance by Stephen Hitchen 9am start for day one, week 2 of LLC’s Alps Kayaking trip saw 19 of us enjoy the upper Durance, which is a grade 2 river and perfect for the newbies who arrived Saturday to stretch their legs and also the for those who need a bit more practice. Put in just outside Briançon saw two groups get in at either side of the ramp. Keith leading group one, Kirk looking after group two. The river is wide and bouncy and offers great opportunities for practicing hitting eddy’s, breaking in and out. Plus playing on a few waves. It’s kind of like a longer, cleaner Dee. Great to build up confidence. Both groups did this well. Hitting eddy after eddy, then breaking out into the fast-moving water before bouncing along in wave trains. On only a few occasions did she catch out LCC guys out. Due to a few unseen underwater boulders. But all swimmers were straight back in their boats with a smile on their face. The get out a Preller came all too soon for me, I would happily have gone around again I had that much fun. Kayaks loaded and off to river number two, the Gyronde. Before we started though a spot of lunch and some criticism of this authors Kayak fashion sense. Shin Pads and neoprene shorts, not a great look I will admit. More photographs……….  

French Alps 2018 paddling trip Day 7 The Durance by Helen Siertsema Sunshine was elusive for our run of the Sunshine run today despite promises of sunny weather by the Meteo. Previous rainfall had kept levels nice and bouncy as we had a lie down and snooze in our boats. Some of us were hitting the “Wall” and were glad of this relaxing run. Meanwhile, the skies were darkening and hopes of any sunshine appearing evaporated like droplets in a hot pan. As we approached St Clement the heavens opened and the mountains disappeared into a threatening cloak of blackness. Thunder and lightening ensued and we paddled like stink to avoid being turned into crispy bacon. The sun started to shine as we left our damp lunch spot at St Clement and we were soon bouncing around on wave trains. On arrival at the Rabioux wave, Keith decided to ring the changes and we took the right- hand channel which was a lot bouncier than the usual left one. Rather than peeling off one by one to run the wave, we ran it in convoy. Yet again it was a 100% success rate with no swimmers. Some folk practised ferrying across the huge waves in the rapid with differing rates of success. The final leg of the Sunshine Run saw the black, rainy clouds disappear as we enjoyed the wave trains in the blazing sun again. It had been a long day, but the paddle was finished off by a bit of rolling practise by the get out. However, Helen failed to partake in this as she was up those get out steps like a rat up a drainpipe and was threatened with all manner of consequences by Keith. More photographs……….

Nepal Sun Koshi Expedition – Day 4 (4th April) by Darren Bohanna It was easily the trickiest day of the expedition. The Harkabur rapids awaited. The day started out much like the others with a generally pleasant bob down the river up until the river bent sharply round to the left with the volume of the river being compressed through a small (small for Nepal) channel. Approaching Harkabur 2 you could hear the rumble of the river intensify as the guides raced ahead to make sure that we all got out way before this beast. We left our boats while heading over to inspect. We did that thing, where you look at the death muncher far river right, the half river sized boulder centre river, the big hole near the boulder, and the route which tight ropes between all of the hazards. We all get together pointing out where you would go if you were ever to run it, pointing out that if you ended up far right that there was nothing anyone could do for you. Straight away I decided that I wasn’t going to run it, telling myself that you’ve got no insurance and it’s in the middle of nowhere. I hear that Keith had said that he wasn’t running it and that he hoped that I wasn’t either. We then spent the next hour or so unloading all of the rafts and portaging the kit around the beast. Like a team of worker ants, we moved back and forth. The guides put us to shame carrying really heavy items, strapped to their heads, while bounding nimbly from boulder to boulder. We’re about to start putting on beneath the beast when Naresh (sounded Norris) says ‘are you running it? I’ve seen you skills, you are good enough’. The […]

French Alps 2018 paddling trip Day 6 Middle Guil by Ron Wood 9am sharp off to the Middle Guil, an Alpine classic 3-4 run, the merry band of 13 were excited but also maybe a little nervous that this was going to be a more challenging day. The easier “warm up” initial section proved interesting, with the combination of fast flowing water (a little higher than usual) and a more technical rocky run than previous days sharpening everyone’s concentration. All of the group made it down to the first get out before it started to get a bit more big and bouncy, thankfully no real mishaps and then rounded off with a tantalising re-gathering of the teams in the eddy above (for those new to the river) “surprise drop”. After a bit talking up the size of the drop/tow back, the need to keep the boat straight, and of course, the need to “paddle, paddle, paddle”, everyone disappeared over the horizon happily to be seen again. The section after this became a bit more challenging and some of the group had already taken the decision to call it a day and the remainder split into more manageable teams of 4 and 5, with Keith leading one group and the rest in the safe hands of John C. Everything was working wonderfully until we decided to portage a rapid with a boulder choke and some confused water. After some careful positioning of boats by our most experienced river leader, the blue Mamba decided to get back on the water with no one on board and, crucially, no one ready to execute the easy catch before it got going in earnest. With Helen’s deck showing appalling timing in refusing to fit her boat, the intrepid Silver Fox set of chasing it like […]

French Alps 2018 paddling trip Day 6 Via ferrata at Château-Queyras by Michael O’Rourke and Trevor Strain We turned up after our mornings paddle and had a walk to do a recce of Chateau-Queyras gorge at Via ferrata. After seeing the raging running torrent through the gorge five of us decided we really wanted to do some climbing for instead. Mike, Hannah, Dom, Ciaran and Trevor parted with 5 euros to hire some Via Ferrata harnesses and headed up to the gorge. Lead by Dom we slowly traversed through the gorge, clipping and unclipping on the safety wire. There was a variety of rock holds, metal fixings and a tight rope to navigate. Two thirds of the way through, Mike, Hannah and Trevor decided it was time for a refreshing drink while hardened climbers Dom and Ciaran saw the traverse through to the end. Hannah and Trevor made up for not finishing the traverse by running up a really steep hill to a medieval hut, Hannah impressed us all by running all the way without stopping. After kayaking a section of the Guil with the Liverpool canoe club five intrepid kayakers went to explore the via ferrata at Château Queyras. First of all we went to the rafting Centre to hire our safety harnesses. Each included two lanyards each with a carabiner to ensure that when traversing the via ferrata each person is always connected to the safety line with at least one lanyard when moving past the anchor punts on the safety line. Dom led the way on to the via ferrata with more than one of the group thinking whose idea was this ? After the first 50 metres working along the cliff face the group started to relax a little. Our white knuckles started to change colour, […]

French Alps 2018 paddling trip Day 6 Château-Queyras by Ron Wood Once we had picked up everyone from various lay-bys along the side of the road we made our way up to Château-Queyras. People quickly found their needs for the afternoon, ice-cream for some, a classic gorge Via Farrata for others, and a small team unable to resist the frothy charms of the Château-Queyras gorge. A brief isnpection confirmed there was more water than usual from previous years at this time of year, but our hardy team weren’t going to back out now. Well, what a blast! The guide book “toilet flush”, or the Cresta Run, really do convey the feeling as you pick up speed through the increasingly narrow channel between sheer rock walls. The trick (apparently) is to follow the water and stay straight while avoiding bouncing off too many walls. Easier said than done with plenty of fast approaching boulder drops and, the crux of the run, a narrow corkscrew halfway down that requires you to trying to keep left before sliding right and holding your balance to ride it through. On this occasion, the river gods decided it was John’s turn to take one to feed the team’s banter, but most of us know it’s only a matter of another run or two for our lesson to arrive. Even at these approaching medium levels there is a useable eddy ½ way down for reuniting the seperated and a quick breather before taking on the calmer final section. Below the eddy is not without its challenges, starting with another small drop with some awkward boulders in the middle to navigate around. We wound down paddling past a couple of small gorge-side waterfalls and down to the get out by the road bridge high above us. It was […]

French Alps 2018 paddling trip Day 5 Upper Durance by Kirk Williams We decided to return to an afternoon stalwart, the Upper Durance, with only a few of the team deciding to give it a miss for different reasons (done it, no boat & tired). We set off without our intrepid shuttle cyclist who was going to catch us up, so plenty of opportunity for taking our time and enjoying playing the many friendly water features along the way. With the rain booster, the levels were higher than our previous run and this perhaps explained why Helen & Roy soon disappeared into the distance. We did manage to encourage the team to get closer together and work on making small mid-river eddies, surfing small waves and venturing into some small holes/pour overs. All good practice for the bigger stuff we will be encountering on other days. As we paddled past the smelly bridge towards the jaws of the barrage John reminded me of our daily rolling programme, so a murky water flip had to be executed (successfully) but when we looked for Helen she was already heading up the bank faster than we’ve ever seen her go to the bar. There’s always tomorrow. More photographs……….  

French Alps 2018 paddling trip Day 5 Upper Guisane by Kirk Williams The 9am departure was a bit of a shock after yesterday’s leisurely departure, but we managed to get everyone loaded and up to the get in, after a quick stop for a view of the S Bends rapid, highlight of the Upper Guisane. The drive in past slightly murky water suggested that runoff from last night’s storms had brought the rivers up a touch and this proved to be the case. This made it even more important on a relatively narrow river with limited/small eddies to split into smaller groups to manage our run safely. The top of the river is an introduction warm-up and all the groups made it to the eddy above S Bends safely, with only one or two mishaps along the way. For those who didn’t know the river from previous years, we had the added safety of some excellent traffic direction/instruction from Keith. The safety of the bank gave everyone a chance to have a look at the rapid from the top down perspective before making their go-no go choice. With the limited feasible bank & on river safety organized, the group set off in buddy pairs. Most made it the bottom without any mishaps and everyone seemed to be smiling or grimacing nicely for the photos. Our slick organization was interrupted by the appearance of a solo raft that managed to get itself quite seriously pinned at the top end of the rapid but the only casualty was a raft paddle so all good. Our fool proof river signal of John running most of the way down to the bottom eventually managed to get Kirk to come back up to the top of the river for the final pair descent. Luckily the […]

Tuesday saw a flotilla of 32 juniors and parents paddle around the docks. It was great to see paddlers sat waiting patiently on the beach the full length, and more, of the compound despite the hot sun, though the more enterprising worked out how to keep cool. A little delay before paddling off as a number of first timers had joined, so it was a quick introduction to buoyancy aids, paddles and boats, for both juniors and paddling parents. Everybody ready to go, assisting adults in the water, and then go juniors! Dave led everyone off with a reminder to keep away from the boats, which everyone including the first timers managed. It was great to see, with a little encouragement, Ellie and Ella helping teach how to hold the paddle and keep the kayak in a straight line. Others helping to solve that question of “Why does my boat just go around?” At the far end of Coburg Dock it was time to practice paddling in a straight line, paddling with a glide and general paddling skills. For those that needed a bit more time getting used to paddling a more one on one help was provided. A paddle down Queens Dock keeping to the right out of the way of the yachts. Dave in his open soon became a transfer point as we moved juniors between kayaks trying to pair the more inexperienced with better fitting, easier to paddle, kayaks. At the end of the Dock it was time to practice getting out of boats, with the inevitable splash as junior met water, followed by practicing getting back in with varying degrees of success. And for the more experienced juniors a little bit of T-rescuing (hopefully more next week!). With a number of wet juniors and the sun […]