You Don't Want to Go There

[banzer]

OK let's see your photos of nasty sumps, siphons, rock filled rapids, tree chokes and towbacks. I like this one because, even if you could clear the evil weir, the whole thing then funnels into a tunnel for about three miles (wezzit? Clue: Scotland, below a dam)...



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[Mark R]

Where the water goes from the Spey to Fort Bill?

[feelingjustfine]

Think I might know this one. Is it the headwaters of my home town?

[Poke]

Think I might know this one. Is it the headwaters of my home town?

I think it is too...
Walked along the roof of said tunnel in closing darkness last christmas/new year, keeping our fingers crossed that none of the sections of cover were missing. haha.

[Ieuan Belshaw]

was there a short documentary on it a few months ago? I think I know the one because the river below it has now all dried up. Pity.

[Croft]

These entrapment/impailment facilitators were from our local river - now cleaned-up
- thanks to these photos which found their way into the local press.

[TwoHats]

Think I might know this one. Is it the headwaters of my home town?

I think it is too...
Walked along the roof of said tunnel in closing darkness last christmas/new year, keeping our fingers crossed that none of the sections of cover were missing. haha.

The Leven as it flows out of The Blackwater Reservoir.

This is one of the nastiest things I've seen on a river.

[Jim]

Think I might know this one. Is it the headwaters of my home town?

I think it is too...
Walked along the roof of said tunnel in closing darkness last christmas/new year, keeping our fingers crossed that none of the sections of cover were missing. haha.

No worries about missing sections but noting some of the repairs I was occasionally concerned that some of the covers might not be up to bearing the weight of us and our canoes. It's also quite exposed in parts with tie bars (repairs I presume) running accross to trip you up. Also I remember the conduit being about 6km, after which there are nearly 3km of pipes before you actually join the Leven (through the powerhouse).

Croft - are your photo's of the Upper Rhone some years ago?

Brunau is one of the scariest things I've seen, although there is a siphon in the Verdon canyon which is formed by a river wide chockstone, which by the time you see it, it is realistically too late to get out and when we were there it had a number of big logs wedged across making a strainer to ensure nothing could possibly get through. I don't have a photo.

[Croft]

Croft - are your photo's of the Upper Rhone some years ago?

Nope that is the 'Swiss' Drance (near les Trappistes) - which has now been cleaned up. The Upper-Rhone and particularly the Vispa are still really bad for river debris. Sadly this sort of construction waste is a common feature of Alpine rivers.

[Kayak-Bloke]

I've put this up before but it's a classic and goes very nicely with this thread:



Note the shopping trolley on the left. Nice....

[Dave Thomas]

The two-legged grief is almost as bad as the hardware grief on that river!

[tomcorden]

Paddling through this would have been interesting.
Entire river disapears under a rock arch and out the other side!
tom

http://img259.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=siphon7.jpg

[davebrads]

Our local nasty, about as bad as it gets Brabyn's Park

[SimonMW]

Our local nasty, about as bad as it gets Brabyn's Park

That was a frightening scenario waiting to happen! Nasty!

[ianletton]

Personally, I wouldn't want to go anywhere on this river but particularly at 11 seconds it's pretty horrific.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc7KG1T62n4

Ian

[Tom_Laws]

The Wrexham Clywedog.

[SimonMW]

Personally, I wouldn't want to go anywhere on this river but particularly at 11 seconds it's pretty horrific.

Too right! Steve Fisher did a recent article about it. He got sucked so far under the whirlpool and for so long that he had to break out an emergency air supply gadget to survive it!

[Tuomas]

The biggest rapid of Europe at high water.

The "lead in"


The "meat"

[banzer]

Ah the Storfossen! Has it been paddled at low flows yet? Surely it's doable, if not in a kayak then in a 'Creature Craft' maybe?

[Joe L]

Rio Colorado near the Maipo in Chile. We came around the corner to find steep grade 5 into a massive riverwide hole followed by a river wide siphon. This photo is actually of the gorge after it which contains several more riverwide holes and then another similar siphon. One of of our group unfortunately missed a ferry above this, swam in the first hole and then swam under the siphon and washed up on the side. The photo is us going down to get him out. He was alright apart from having to spend several hours sitting on a cactus waiting to be rescued. Pretty scary and definitely not mentioned in the river notes we had or the new guidebook. According to the campsite owner where we hiked out we weren't the first kayakers to have come across this. Its also not the only massive death sieve on this river.



More photos.
http://riversofchile.com/rio-colorado/

[Scumbag_Scout]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc7KG1T62n4

Most of the rapids in this video....

[DaveBland]

The local last week at 130cms. Normally 13cms.

[nomorfkindhalbhat]

Rio Colorado near the Maipo in Chile. We came around the corner to find steep grade 5 into a massive riverwide hole followed by a river wide siphon. This photo is actually of the gorge after it which contains several more riverwide holes and then another similar siphon. One of of our group unfortunately missed a ferry above this, swam in the first hole and then swam under the siphon and washed up on the side. The photo is us going down to get him out. He was alright apart from having to spend several hours sitting on a cactus waiting to be rescued. Pretty scary and definitely not mentioned in the river notes we had or the new guidebook. According to the campsite owner where we hiked out we weren't the first kayakers to have come across this. Its also not the only massive death sieve on this river

That would be Steve Brennan in the early 90s who like your mate missed the last eddy and was confronted by the riverwide siphon along with two other Americans who all popped up the other side though none of the boats were ever seen again.

[justin-g]

I think I might have got the wrong end of the stick on this thread??

[justin-g]

Gates of Haast - big water - NO NO NO.

[Diamond Dave]

http://www.canoekayak.co.uk/channel/newsitem.asp?c=8&cate=__10723
The last minute of this video is the river Panj in full flood. It's on the Afghan-Tajik border.
So far it's had no official 'documented' run, though I wouldn't be surprised if Andy Sommer pops up on here saying he solo'd it once.
Eitherway, at these flows - you (I) definitely don't want to go there!

[Le_bambino]

[DaveBland]

I just poo'd myself looking at that.

[joereadickins]

The Wrexham Clywedog.

And the Brithdir Clywedog (Torrent Walk)....

[justin-g]

What about this old chestnut...