JohnV wrote:Or other late season stuff nearby?

Upper Veneon / gorge and (sometimes) Lower Romanche (into lake) both run late season - gnarly runs.

Saw the first Olympic slalom kayaking on (Swiss) TV yesterday - and it looked fantastic. Hearty congratulations to all involved in both the making of the course and the organizing of the competition. Looking forwards to watching the rest of it - excellent job. PS: the stands seemed to be somewhat fu...

Hi John - nearest shop to you is Attitude Outdoor in Thonon. Nothing in the Aosta valley that I know of. However, you might be able to pick something up second hand off the guides at Totem (Pre St. Didier) or Rafting Aventure (Villeneuve). Good luck. Ian PS: if you want to drive over to Martigny-Com...

Swiss Drance has now gone into later summer regime - i.e. there is now only water in the afternoons/evenings as from about 15 h. The top section from Orsieres will be usually dry unless it is exceptionally hot or after heavy rainfall.

Have done the same thing on a Shiva (Lendal emergency paddle) but note that I have put the paddle shaft holes right up the middle of the foam so that they are easily accessible without having to remove the foam from the boat. https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-iopzAg5nKqI/UAV3fuYJ33I/AAAAAAAATaM/ckO...

Hi Simon - the upper-Rhone, Upper-Rhine and Upper-Inn areas are all working really nicely right now as there was excellent winter snow cover in all of these areas. If you fancy a paddle in the Upper-Rhone area give me a shout as should be around for a bit of boating next week! For more detailed info...

As a further calibration of the Aosta levels given in the first post, ran the Pre St. Didier to La Salle and Lenteney to Pont d'Equlivaz stretches yesterday in a raft with a level of 80 on the gauge at Pre St. Didier. This a stonking/churning level. To be quite frank I was (for once) happy to be in ...

Heres what a couple of fluorescent orange plastic stick-on spots can do to improve visibility: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-o4YfNTDT-pA/TwhRoKFIArI/AAAAAAAABxs/35A_V3WGpP4/s400/0770%2520Brahmaputra.jpg Although this is never going to be as effective as buying a colorful paddle/helmet in the fi...

Over this summer 2 old bridges are being removed on the Upper Dranse de Thonon, Haut Savoie, France. The first is just downstream of the put-in at Bioge at the confluence with the Brevon. The second is the (old) Pont de l'Eglise about 1 km further downstream. The section between the 2 bridges is the...

The Urtier currently has a dangerous fallen tree right across the river - it is particularly bad because it is not visible. The tree is in the gorge section of the Urtier about 4 drops in. When you come to a triple step sequence with the final drop a tight boily bedrock carved notch - stop immediate...

I've been using a Klingon on the Shiva (M) for about 4 months now - and it is really fine - driest boat I ever had.

The Swiss Drance is in top condition this weekend and perfect for the total descent (above) Orsieres to Martigny - don't drive past it!

Should be good for several more weeks at least for the lower part.

Thanks everyone for the invaluable info. We are expecting to put on about 29 August so hopefully the levels should be nice and mellow by then - blue water maybe?? We will be driving in from Leh after a warm-up on the Indus. I already did the Doda Zanskar trip in 2005 so know the lie of the land once...

Kayak folklore has it that it is quite hard to know just where to embark on the Tsarap, so was wondering whether anybody has the GPS coordinates of the put-in (and the rest if possible). Will be taking one of these new fangled GPS machines along, so would be very helpful if we had some numbers to fe...

Just back from a superb weekend in the French Alps - a great party at Stuart's, and fantastic levels in the rivers. We ran the Guil (Chateau to lake), Durance gorge and Guisane - all with clear blue water and lovely medium levels. And there is still some snow left up in the mountains - so the fun ai...

Dave: I never paddled the stretches higher up but some of our crowd (the real locals from Monthey) have - I'll introduce you too them! Chrisps: there is a small track that runs up the right had bank that enables you to drive up direct from the take-out to the put-in. I didn't put it in the book coz ...

Not many people have paddled the Vièze, which is a pity as I guess a lot of folks drive right past it on their way to better known Alpine locations. In May and June (snowmelt) and after rainfall it is worth the small detour up the Val d'Illiez (towards Champery) off the motorway running up the upper...

Looks like these would be quite easy to avoid for a competent kayaker (so long as cables were above head height), but what about swimmers if they are attached below weirs? Effectively they would probably be no more dangerous than pontoon bridges - of which there are many on navigated rivers in China...

I have taken kayaks on internal flights with Air India with no problems and at no extra cost. However, I know that Slime (Peter Knowles) had a really big problem with them a few years back on a flight from KTM via Delhi.

No problem - effectively it is useful to know about the contingency option - the beach!

Sesia (Campertogno) is currently at 0.78 which is quite a nice medium level for all the main river sections and some of the side creeks should be doable - like lower Sermenza, Sorba slides and Egua. Look at the online gauge link that Simon gave above. If the level drops down at near 0.5 there is onl...

The Swiss Drance (section 4 above) is running really nicely right now and is pretty clean (for wood/debris etc.). Any level between 14 m3/s and 20 m3/s on the online gauge below is good to go: http://www.hydrodaten.admin.ch/en/2053.html Up to and above 20 m3/s and it starts getting pretty sticky in ...

In fairness on page 108 of the WW S. Alps guidebook 3rd edition there is a Warning put in a red box which states rather clearly: Warnings Lots of wood and blind bends – suits a small, athletic and experienced team. At the take-out, immediately to the left of the steel ladder is the concrete spillway...

Is this the river they call the california creek?? Re California run, watch out as this might easily be a bit confused with another river. Kayak Session describe the "California run" on the (fairly nearby) Stura di Ala as a 5 km section of V,VI starting in the village of Ala di Stura. There is also...

Apparently in low water the route (as in the film) is to squeeze to the left of the kicker. On wednesday (much higher water than in the film) the line was to flip over the right-hand side of the rooster tail - very spectacular viewed from the safety of the bridge. The section above that, which they ...

Here is a film made on the Upper Ayasse from about 3 weeks ago by one of our lot. https://picasaweb.google.com/108464334712685283075/5Kayak_Ayasse_1752012?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOCqwIrpr_7GSA&feat=directlink The hero at about 3 minutes is the great Jorge from Portugal! - white water's Jose Mourin...

Definitely think the Zanskar should be in any top ten (hoping to the Tsarap Chu tributary bit this summer). Plus the Thuli Bheri and the Brahmaputra/Siang are absolutely world class experiences!

Them young tigers ain't getting any younger! Classy film Dave. Great rogues gallery at the end.

Stuart - if this is 'Tales from the Riverbank', then who is going to play the role of Toad?

Shall we put it to the vote at your 20 years bash?

What Matt says is dead right re using cellphones in Nepal. We were amazed last year on the Thuli Bheri just how often we were able to get a cellphone signal - and that is certainly one of the more isolated rivers. You probably stand about as much chance of connecting to a cellphone network as connec...