How not to paddle the Tilt

Mid November and water levels have been a bit mental. On Friday 14th the Tilt was running at a record level for about a decade, so when Jon H said he wanted to do the Tilt at the weekend, I was a little unsure. However, like the Braan, the Tilt does not hold its water, and it was running low on Sunday, so it didn't actually seem too ridiculous.
We met at the take out and had a right faff looking at the take out rapid and chatting about the rugby the day before. Note: when you have limited daylight, don't faff about inspecting the last rapid of the river when you could easily do this when/if you get there.
The Tilt Estate understandably do not like people driving up their track and leaving cars around the place on the narrow road, so we quickly drove the boats up to the top in the van, launched them out and drove back to the take out. Then came the fun bit - lets walk 6km. This took a while and we probably faffed a bit trying to see down into the gorge in places. Note: when you have limited daylight, you should probably do things with a bit more urgency.

Are we there yet?

Finally we reached the boats, got kitted and walked the little bit more to the put in.

Some paddling around, practice rolls and we were off. The first rapid, Genesis, is a nice grade 4- that I mostly didn't notice as Gina capsized on the lead in and I was too busy trying not to crash into her head.

I got her paddles and Jon H got her boat and we reunited all three, although since she wasn't feeling on top form, Gina walked out at the first bridge to meet us at the next bridge and paddle down the lower gorge. A bit disheartened, the rest of us continued down the next long grade 3 that leads into the tricky grade 4 "Tory back bencher" which you have to guess where the line is.

On the long grade 3 section.

The line looked ok, but the bottom hole seemed a bit grabby, so with Jon W portaged round and sitting at the bottom, Tim and Jonty on safety and me on camera duty, Jon H paddled down, missed the boof, subbed and popped out no bother. Not as grabby as we thought then. Oh well. Off I went next and learning from Jon's run, went for a flare off the roostertail which worked fantastically. Kept my face dry and everything.

Inspecting Tory Back Bencher.

Safety?

Jon coming down.

Looking back up at the rapid.

Jonty and Tim followed on while Patrick did safety, then had a right faff portaging and getting in on the slidey rocks. Eventually Jon H did a super sketchy scramble back up and helped him in, then did an even more sketchy scramble back to his boat.

The next big grade 4 rapid, Rollercoaster, was just round the corner. We eddied out above and Jon H dropped over the first big slide. He had initially told us to punch the curler on the right, but clearly disliked this plan now. A bit of sign language and shouting and I headed for the left side of the curling wave on the lip and wheeeeeeeee, down the drop. It was bigger than I expected! I had hoped to find an eddy in the middle of the rapid, but no such luck, so I shimmied down the s bend drop and eddied out right at the bottom. Jonty, Tim and Jon W all came down fine and eddied out below me in various places.

Jonty emerges from the bottom of Rollercoaster.

Patrick did not have such a good run. According to Jon H he did a sort of kick flip down the fall and face planted a rock. Somehow, he was unhurt, but he did have to swim the second half of the rapid which looked uncomfortable. He managed to climb out on the bank and I got his paddles into a semi-stable position while Jon H chased down the boat which had disappeared off down the next grade 4, named "Sam's Hole" after a friend of ours who once spent rather a long time going round and round in the pothole. I had a bit of a butterfingers moment trying to get Patrick's paddle to a stable eddy and it disappeared too. Oops.
We then had a bit of a faff, because we weren't sure what Jon H would do with the boat and if he knew the paddles were coming down too. We sent a scout off downstream while we considered whether to get Patrick across the river. A failed throwline attempt later and the scout returned. Jon H was just round the corner where the river went really flat with the boat and paddle. Patrick climbed out of the gorge on a fairly worrying steep slab and set off downriver. Jonty and Tim ran Sam's Hole quickly while Jon W and I portaged as we weren't keen on the lack of safety cover. It was starting to look a bit darker than ideal...

Tim runs Sam's hole.

Jonty runs Sam's hole.

We came round the corner and eddied out in a large eddy opposite where Patrick and Jon H were sitting on the bank. Something wasn't quite right. Jon waved me over and explained the situation. While coming down the sloping rocks of the gorge wall, Patrick had slipped and slid all the way to the bottom, smashing his foot and leg off a protruding rock. The rock had gone through his wetsuit and thermals and made a bit of a hole in his leg which was bleeding rather a lot. More worrying though was that it seemed fairly possible that he'd broken his foot.
The Tilt gorge is not a very accessible place. At our location it was possible to get out on the right bank only, since the left bank, with the road, was a nearly sheer cliff 30-40 feet high. Downstream, the cliff continued for several kms before it became marginally less steep and possibly escapable. Light was also a major issue - we were definitely losing it. The rapids between us and the possible escape above the middle gorge were grade 3 ish.
It didn't leave much choice, so we got Patrick in his boat and slowly made our way downstream, taking every chicken shoot. We passed the huge 50-60 foot sheer cliffs at Exit Falls, then it wasn't far until Jon H stopped us at a section of forested slope. Jon W and Patrick got out and abandoned their boats to try and get Patrick up the slope.
Our final group of four headed off down the river to get to the bridge where we were supposed to find Gina as fast as possible. We portaged one rapid with a weir-like hole that looked nasty. The next rapid had Tim doing some mystery playboating and getting shoved in an undercut, but he rolled up no worries. The light was getting pretty convincingly dark by the time we made it to the top of the bridge. Gina was mildly fretful.
Jon W and Patrick were hobbling down the road, so I set about retrieving the keys I had squirreled away in my drysuit. Jon W ran off down the road with them while we got Patrick in a vaguely comfortable position lying down. Jon H and I were having a discussion about what to do now when a Landrover came down the road. I flagged them down and they kindly allowed me to hitch a lift in the back. En route to the bottom we picked up Jon W who was inordinately relieved that he didn't have to run any more. Thankyou was probably every second word that we said for a while.
Back we drove with the van and my car. We got Patrick in the front seat and nearly left Tim behind, but not quite! Cranking the heaters up we headed to Perth hospital and managed to find it surprisingly easily even with the phone sat nav not cooperating for a while.
Patrick was taken into an evaluation room so I went and changed out of my dry suit and into normal people clothes. Soon he was back out and we sat around for a while in the waiting room watching nature programs on the hospital tv.

Eventually a doctor came through looking for him and we wheeled him into a little room where his foot and leg were prodded and poked and his leg started bleeding on the floor, although the puddle made by his soggy wetsuit was much bigger. They were short staffed, so the nurse gave us directions and I wheeled him to x ray. I think we left a trail of drips all the way through the corridors.
When we arrived back the van had caught up with us and Jon W tagged in as Patrick's company so that I could get some food. We were making fun of Country File when Jon W posted on facebook that Patrick's foot was in fact not broken! Although he was getting his leg stitched up as it was still bleeding. Finally he limped slowly out and we could all go home.

Les Alpes Part 6 - Day 14, 15 and 16

Day 14 (Friday 11th July)

It’s the last day of the holiday, so everyone is a bit down. Thankfully, the weather seems determined to cheer us all up, so we leave for the Gyronde in brilliant sunshine. The Gyronde is an interesting river, as it starts at grade 6, drops to 5, 4+, 4 then 3 at the footbridge, then 2, then it’s a 1/2 float to L’Argentierre slalom course on the Durance. If you don’t like what you see, you can just walk further downstream.

All through the time we’ve been here, the river has been running quite high due to some sort of confusion of hydro schemes that also meant the Durance gorge had no water in it. Today, however, it is at a perfect level and the whole group is getting on.

The Gyronde put in.

After running a shuttle to the slalom site and finding a convenient tree to hide my car under, we head down to the river. The first path down looks a lot more like a cliff than it does a path, so I opt to follow Rory and Raffa a little further down to a slightly less vertical slide to the river. Walking with creekboats is wildly overrated, so we decline to walk up the river any further. Also, there is a nice eddy right where we are. Those who had gone down the cliff put in join us and off we go straight into the maelstrom.

Rory in the put in eddy.

Amy and Raffa. You can see the river getting steeper upstream!

The water is as blue as the sky and full of frothing white. I shoot down the first drop and blast through a big hole. Somehow I end up in a micro eddy in the middle of the river and remember to breathe. Chris is leading my group, so when I see him peel out of an eddy above I follow on behind and we eddy hop the rest of the grade 4 to the bridge. The rest of the group is waiting there for us. We relax, bouncing down nice grade 3, changing up the lead in each large eddy we find.

The difficulty drops again and soon we come to the weir, at this level an easy boof on the left. The river from here is grade 1/2 and we float along in the sunshine.

A quick party surf on a small wave in the middle of town and we’re here, back where we started. We catch some eddies on the way down the slalom course, surf some diagonals.

The final eddy comes too quickly and we’re done, out on the bank, watching the others bounce down.

In an echo of our first day, we eat lunch on the grass by the cars, man-wiches all round.

Photo by Jon Wyles.

This bug fell out of the tree onto Andre!

Some people are keen for more paddling and head to the Guisane for a second run. Others paddle back to camp down the Durance. I drive my car back while the masters of the BBQ visit the supermarché to buy large quantities of meat.

Back at the campsite, the deep blue Lac is inviting, so some of us go swimming. It’s colder than it looks, but actually nice and refreshing. We swim across and back and some of the more adventurous do some rope swinging. Eventually we wander back to camp and potter about tidying and packing. I empty my car and find most of the world’s plastic bottles. The BBQ is roaring – too hot to get near!

Photo by Jon Wyles

I cook all my leftover stuff for dinner while the others have burgers and sausages and chicken bits if you’re not Rory. At the supermarché I had bought a giant melon, so I slice it into lots of bits and pass them round.

Then it’s packing time and tidying time and making sure everything is in the right car time. I don’t think the Austria-bound guys would appreciate it if we took their tents away!

Day 15

We wake up to rain. It matches our mood fairly well, especially as it’s way too early. Sad to see us all go, the Austria guys have woken up too, and help me stuff my very wet tent into its teeny wee carry bag. Off we go in the rain. Rain rain rain. The supermarket in Briançon is shut. Dave and I, desperate for morning coffee, are distinctly unimpressed.

The pass over the Alps towards Grenoble would probably be really spectacular if we weren’t in the clouds. A loooooong drive down and we find a supermarket. Coffee!

We change drivers at Grenoble and as Dave starts us off on the long motorway north I have a nice sleep. Not quite awake, we manage to fail spectacularly at one of the toll gates and get a bit lost around Lyon. Our next driver change occurs at the busiest service station ever.

At Calais we find a fuel station and top up before returning to the land of expensive diesel. Then we get really lost in Calais in a saga that shall be termed the case of the Missing McDonalds That Wasn’t Worth it When We Actually Found It. We arrive at the ferry terminal five minutes too late to catch the early ferry.

Point worth noting: Calais ferry terminal is really boring.

I make it driving from Dover to Ascot at stupid o’clock through sheer force of will and the promise of sleep on a comfy sofa.

Day 16

Jon brings me coffee. I kind of want to hug him. The drive back to St Andrews is a blur of service stations and pointedly remembering to drive on the left. I only slip up once, and that’s in the back roads of Ascot with no other cars in sight. The passengers are very quick to let me know about it!

Back in St Andrews we dump boats in the shed and passengers at their various houses. I drive home and collapse on the sofa, so glad I booked an extra holiday tomorrow!

<- Part 5

Les Alpes Part 5 - Day 11, 12 and 13

Day 11 (Tuesday 8th July)

Sometimes you have days on the river when everything goes fine. This was not one of those days.

So at 6am team gnar hunters drive off to the Verdon gorge, we all hope they don’t die in a syphon then we roll over and go back to sleep.

The Onde seems like a good plan. It was fun last time and nobody had too horrible a time. Except maybe Carolyn and Jonny, but hey, let’s give it another shot. When we get there it’s raining so much some of us wonder if we’ve accidently gone back to Scotland. The river is higher than the last run, but it’ll probably be just like it was before with a few less rocks. Probably.

Looking down the first rocky section below the grade 4.

Some of the group is unconvinced by my probablys (fair enough) and decides to take photos and meet us at the bottom.

Group photo takers.

Raffa and I are leading the last group and we’re the only ones who’re keen for the top rapid. We head up and paddle down the same line as before, that is until I don’t quite make it to the right on the last move and do some silly fail of a grind over some boulders and capsize. It’s probably the fastest roll I’ve ever done, but I still bounce off a couple of rocks. The Onde is a bad place to be upside down.

Photo by Jon Wyles

Photo by Emily Stratton.

Photo by Jon Wyles.

Photo by Emily Stratton

Photo by Emily Stratton.

We join the rest of the group who are spectating from rocky perches along the bank. Raffa leads off down the river with Dave, Carolyn and Patsy following and me bringing up the rear. We’re unaware of it at the time, but Gina has swum in the front group and they’re having issues getting her boat out. A couple of corners in Patsy capsizes and is having difficulty rolling so I go in for a t rescue, just as we both crash into a tree. Patsy capsizes again and loses her paddle while I have a disagreement with some branches and end up with a scratched face. I manage to get the nose of my boat to Patsy and she tries to t rescue. Meanwhile I see an upside down red boat and assume that Dave is swimming. Then I see Dave paddling past me. Raffa is swimming. This is not good. Finally Patsy gets herself upright and spots her paddles. They’re really close, so she lets go of my boat and makes a grab for them, just as we both drop into a hole. I pop out the other side, but Patsy is swimming. She gets out really quick so I make for her boat and almost get it in an eddy. Dave and Carolyn get themselves in an eddy so I yell at them to stay there. Raffa, for reasons best known to himself is still trying to get himself, his boat and his paddle out on his own which is never going to work, so I start yelling at him which he probably doesn’t hear, but hey, he’s somehow seen sense and swims just himself to the side. We’re passing the other group now and Izzy manages to get Raffa’s paddle. Someone else manages to grab Patsy’s boat, so now it’s just me and Raffa’s boat. I try hard to shove it into eddy after eddy and onto several rocks, but it’s not willing and eventually I’m exhausted and kind of just floating beside it not really knowing what to do. I see some other paddlers and have a go at pushing the boat towards them, but I’m too tired and it doesn’t work. Thankfully, they couldn’t leave me all by myself and race to catch up. One of them jams it against a rock and we all leap out in various precarious positions. A bit of live baiting onto a rock and some hard pulling on a throwline and we’ve got the boat which… seems to be draining awfully fast…

The crack is about two feet long along the bottom of the hull. Not ideal. I thank the Cardiff paddlers profusely and find out where they’re staying to bring them some beer. Then I sit for a good long while and get my breath back. Raffa appears, limping down the track at the side of the river looking a bit sad, but he looks a lot sadder when he sees his boat. I leave him to grieve while I go upstream to look for anyone else. I’m pretty sure I’ve walked most of the way upstream when I find Gina and Carolyn standing by the riverbank. Patsy arrives too, then Izzy appears with Gina’s boat on the opposite bank while we’re having a catch up about where everyone’s been walking today. I throw a line across to Izzy and we pull the boat back over. Gina, Patsy and Carolyn are going to walk out, so I run a few metres then walk most of the way back to my boat because, meh, tiredness.

I wait on the bank in my boat ready to launch, talking to Raffa. He swam because he was trying to show Dave a line, hit a rock, capsized and tried to demolish a bolder with his head. He shows me a large dent and scrape in his helmet – lucky he has a Sweet Rocker! Eventually James, Jonty, Cami and Izzy appear and I paddle off with them. Turns out the take out is literally just round the corner. No jokes.

Time for lunch and a lie down. I’m so knackered.

Some of the group head off to the Gyronde. The rest of us drive down to the slalom course via a stop at the supermarket and have a laze about it the sun which we had not expected to see today. Emily decides to paddle to the campsite with the others when they arrive.

For dinner Carolyn and I make awesome Sweet and Sour Turkey (Rory’s not here). It was supposed to be chicken, but chicken is expensive. After dinner we drive back to the slalom site and leave the Cardiff paddlers a crate of beer for rescuing Raffa’s boat!

Day 12

Everyone is a bit fed up of paddling today, except Jon Harwell, but he’s never fed up of paddling. Like, ever. We decide to have an additional rest day today and most of us head up to the source of the Gyr to go see a glacier.

The drive up is long and slow, but since the car park is at 1874m above sea level this should be expected. There are large snow banks in the car park and we have to convince Jonny that he does not in fact want to go and have a snow ball fight. Some of the others are clearly lost, so we wait for them at the alpine hut and I drink coffee while the others have crepes (good luck getting the owners to understand what Coeliac disease is).

At the cafe drinking coffee!

Finally they arrive and we head off up the path. Soon we have a good view of the Glacier Noir, covered in moraine and not particularly impressive.

The path up with the Glacier Noir in the background.

Some marmots appear and Sarah is very amused by them eating bread.

Marmot.

Up and up we go, way way up until we finally crest a slope into a hanging valley and we can see the Glacier Blanc.

Glacier Blanc.

It’s slightly surreal. It is huge of course, but a foreshortening effect and the fact that it doesn’t look quite real anyway means that it’s difficult to get the scale of the thing in your head. We stop for lunch on a large rocky outcrop that has a great view up to the glacier. Some Alpine Choughs come and scavenge around us. They seem to like gluten free bread!

Most of the students climb up on a large rock overlooking the glacier and strip off. All for charity, I volunteer to take the photo.

Onwards and upwards as it starts snowing a little, but the climbing is hard work so we’re still in t shirts. We have a stop and regroup and Dave tells us that it doesn’t get any harder from here and we’re nearly there. When it gets considerably steeper and we need to scramble up some bits and we’re still going an hour later I feel a flashback to Rory on the Guisane.

Nevertheless, we finally make it to the Refuge du Glacier Blanc at 2542m above sea level. Woo! We all pile in for a look and get coffee/hot chocolate/beer depending on preference.

It’s very luxurious inside and very busy, so we soon pile back out and take another naked photo outside the Refuge, giving everyone inside a nice bit of entertainment.

Refuge du Glacier Blanc.

The view point and scene of much nakedness shortly.

The Glacier Blanc from the Refuge. Taken by Carolyn Nisbet.

John and I are not very good at walking downhill and much prefer running, so we whiz off ahead. We stop at the Torrent du Glacier Blanc so that lots of the others can give me vertigo by standing on the rock balanced over the huge waterfall.

Heading back down the path.

Torrent du Glacier Blanc.

Just as the path drops over the edge and heads down the steep valley sides is a small gully with snow in it, so John decides to hide and wait for Dave to come round so he can throw snowballs at him. Dave, however, manages to catch the snowball and throw it back.

On the way down the zig zags we spot some marmots and John fails to tempt any to taking bread out of his hand, no matter how determined he is.

There actually is a marmot there taunting John.

Finally we reach the Torrent du Glacier Noir on the level of the car park and John and I sit down to wait for the others to catch up, until John decides that we need to take another naked photo of him in the meltwater stream. A few girlish screams later and I’ve taken the photo and a couple of tourists are in agreement with me that he’s a bit of a nutcase. The rest of the group arrives and we take a few group shots on the bridge.

I think John took this.

Photo by Izzy Tween.

Back in the cars, I manage to make it to the confluence of the Gyr and the Onde before I actually need to use the accelerator, so the day’s fuel efficiency comes in at 105mpg.

Andre is on cooking duty tonight and makes an amazing leek and bacon creamy sauce that I have with gluten free pasta.

After the sun has gone down I star gaze for a bit and manage to spot an iridium flare from a passing satellite!

Day 13

We head back to the Ubaye today so that those who chickened out of the racecourse the first time round can have a go at it. My group is Jon H, Raffa, Sarah and Patsy. Raffa has managed to borrow Mr. De Lac’s boat which is a little too small for him, but he’s glad just to be back on the water. The water level is lower than last time, making for an easier run.

Jon and I lead Sarah and Patsy, respectively, with Raffa floating at the back in case of emergencies. Sarah swims twice and has a less than happy day, while Patsy nails everything, even when I fall sideways into a pourover and have to roll. Nice to be on a deep river this time! Jon, who has swapped boats with Jonny so he can paddle his playboat for a bit, is having issues because Jonny’s deck is fairly awful and lets in floods of water. Every time he stops and empties, half the river pours out of the boat.

We get to the end ok though, as do all the other groups. Jon is annoyed because no one wants to come do the Ubaye gorge with him, but we’re all more excited about the prospect of ice cream.
We stop at a car park on the side of the Lake on the way back and some brave souls go for a swim in the freezing cold water. Others have a sun bathe while the pale brigade hide under the shade of some trees.

Photo by Izzy Tween.

Ice cream is sourced at the “funny rocks” café (can’t remember its actual name) in the form of magnums. Rory is extremely disappointed at the lack of Calyppo.

The funny rocks.

At the campsite Chris and Jon cook up a concoction of vegetables and saucisson which I put in a pasta sauce and the rest have with cous cous. Someone starts a drinking game of ring of fire and the evening descends from there…

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