LANGUAGE

Tuesday 17 August 2010

The Lower part of the Lech Gorges!



With our kayaks stashed from the previous days adventures it was a nice mellow walk down to the start of the lower Section.



This Section of the Lech Gorges has some of the best whitewater in Austria.  The action comes thick and fast with some cracking drops, boofs, slides and all set in one of of the most picturesque gorges!




 If this is not enough to wet your appetite then one of the last rapids- the notorious Turmzimmer cannot be properly scouted, is a must run rapid and the first who drops in has no safety cover!  Literally translated the Turmzimmer means "The Towers Room" and it certainly feels like a the gorge is towering over the river and the room, well you can imagine if you were stuck in there!?


The hole is munchy, the tow back strong and if you get caught then you are heading straight to the overhanging gorge wall for a slamming! Sounds kind of gnarly, it is, but it is also good for your soul and certainly keeps your heart pumping!
If your heart is not pumping before or after the Turmzimmer then it will be once you get to your van as the walkout is steep, real steep!


If you are around this part of Austria and are up to the challenge then it is well worth running, you can see some sections of river from high above on the road (the must run syphon rapid) and will get a general idea of the river and its character, though to be quite honest it is better to run the lower part of the Lech Gorge the first time with someone who knows the run, you really do not want to be caught in there with the wrong water level!


This has to be one of Austria's best class V rivers, it is just a shame that you can only kayak it until the 15 August!!

Maybe we will see you there next year?

Sunday 8 August 2010

The Lech Gorges Part 1...

In the far west of Austria lies a gem of a river.  While the Lech is well known as a class II easy intermediate river with lush alpine meadows and mountains all around, the Upper Lech Gorges are very unfamiliar to the English speaking kayaking community!



Starting high up in the Arlberg mountains the Lech begins its journey down to the infamous ski resort (aptly named Lech am Arlberg!) before heading into a deep gorge that cuts through the state borders of Tirol and Vorarlberg.  



We put in on the river by the Schlosskopf lift in Lech and it was not long before we hit our first rapid in a tight box canyon, next to arrive was the first gorge.  The entrance rapid was good, the canyon walls had now narrowed and the river was just 5m wide.  



As the first canyon started to open out we came to a gnarly rapid.  The water level was not ideal for the upper gorge - it is actually better with higher water as the main rapids become slightly easier with there being a line to run! 



We had to portage the first bit as the river was pushing into an ugly undercut rock, we ran the second part of the rapid working our way past some sharp nasty rocks, syphons and some huge trees.
What makes the Lech Gorges difficult is that you never know how much debris is in the river.  Depending on how many avalanches have come down in the winter and what they have taken with them makes for all sorts of fun and games.  Also if the surrounding mountains receive huge amounts of rain fall, thunderstorms and hale stones then these too can cause landslides of mud, rocks and trees to come charging down the mountain!



Sounds like an epic? Not really, if you are on your game and have got some information off the local kayaking community then you know what to expect!
The river opens out and you pass amazing waterfalls before it again goes into the second tight canyon. 



 With places to get out scout, set up safety (or photos) and even portage parts of the rapids the canyon is committing but also runnable!
We arrived at the take out (a wooden bridge below the village of Warth) and decided to head down into the next section of gorge.  It was a bit of a bump and scrape past the bridge but the gorge soon narrowed and we were back running some steep rapids, the sun was just sneaking into the gorge and the light was amazing.  



More scouting, a portage, and another full on rapid with a last chance eddy in a box canyon before a nasty 3m fall that actually looked far easier if there was more water!  We hopped around this and seal launched 3m from the bedrock  to the right of waterfall.  It was the huge slab of rock where a lot of the river was going under that persuaded us it was not the right time or water level to run the waterfall!



We ran a whole load of other rapids until finally reaching the second possible take out and calling it a day.  Due to John's work commitments we could not put in on the river until late afternoon, now the sun had disappeared in the canyon and it was getting late.  



We stashed our boats, as we were coming back the next day, scrambled up to the track and then walked up to the road and met up with Ute.  It was 9pm by the time we got to Lech for a well deserved pizza.  Tomorrow, well that would be the lower part of the gorge...