Grindelwald in Switserland

A short update, since januari louis and me are working in grindelwald for Grindelwald sports, 

a Swiss ski and snowboard school.

So far we have had a few fresh powder days in combination with no work, which is great.

To experience and enjoy these powder days make up for a lots of the hassle whilst working with young 3 year old kids (bambinis) .

But to be honest, its not to bad, working as a teacher here. 

The athmosphere is different than working kayaking and rafting, its a new experience.

When they smile you forget the hassle as well.

Grindelwald is based at the foot of the North face of the Eiger and the Jungfraujoch, the river flowing down the valley is the classic kayak run called the Luchine that runs into the lake at Interlaken.

But at the moment the focus is on the snow......deep powder...although we are also looking forewards to springtime, when snow turns into water.

Living in the Alps in winter attracks family and friends from Holland and UK, Kendal, which is great fun. After this week work wil quit down lots, becouse school holidays will be over, so Louis and me are making some new plans for april...Corsica.

On the 3th of december, louis and me take the bus from Tena to Quito. Its time to say goodbye to Equador. Tomorrow the 4th is our flight to London. Why we leave...well its still very dry and its not getting better, and we expect that ilnesses will devellop when the rainforest gets dry.

So we travel to Quito by bus, and arrive at the bus terminal at 21.00. There is just one taxi....traveling with kayaks is always hard, but this taxi is a pick up, so we take it.

That choice was a big mistake.

The kayaks and bags go in the back, becouse in the fron there is no space. Both we have a bad feeling about the driver. And soon after our entrance in the taxi another car stops us, and tells us he saw, we have been robbed....whilst we are sitting next to the driver in the taxi...I cant believe it.

Both my bags are gone, pasport, divinglicense, bank cards, kayak equipment, clothes, glasses, lenses......its all gone.

So lets go to the police straight away to get a report, so we can atleast try to fly tomorrow. I know I have to get a temporary pasport in the Dutch ambassy in Quito. Lots of work....and everybody takes their time...its south america

The 2 year descent

Whilst working in Northern India in Uttranachal on the Holy Ganga river as photo boater, and guide this winter. The season had slowed down in December, due to the colder weather and the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Myself; Louis Henderson, Shalabh Gahloud; indias leading expedition paddler and bhuwan Adhikai, who runs a kayak school in Rishikesh and Chotuk from Ladakh, decided it was a good time to go exploring.the date was 26/12/08

There are still a lot of unrun rivers in India and especially the North, in the state of Untrananchal,due to the fact that you are in the foot hills of the Himalayers and in every valley has its main river which  also has many tributries  we decided that the pindar river would be agood opotion. We where going to head much higher than the more populair stretch that runs into the Alaknanda river in Nanprayag. The Alaknanda is one of the two rivers which joins in Deprayag an forms the Ganga river which then flows south to to Indias most holy pilgrimage site Varranasse. The Pindar river flows from the south east slopes of Nanda Devi. A very important mountain in geological terms and religion. Nanda Devi is the second highest mountain in India and the highest entirely within the country (Kangchenjunga being on the border of India and Nepal); owing to this geography it was the highest known mountain in the world until computations on Dhaulagiri by western surveyors in 1808. It is part of the Garhwal Himalaya, and is located in the state of Uttarakhand, between the Rishiganga valley on the west and the Goriganga valley on the east. Its name means Bliss-Giving Goddess. The peak is regarded as the patron-goddess of the Uttarakhand Himalaya

 The upper gorges we wanted to run were accesable by trail up the river, but we would see very little of the river due the fact it's hiden deep down in the gorge below and it would be a very difficult to aquire the permits as the river in one particular gorge divides to provinces within the state. So we choose another way.

After a 16 hour drive in Shalabhs truck we reached a small village called Loharaket. Here we would organise porters to take our kayaks over the Dhukuri pass  2940 mtr and a total of 19 kms to our intended putin. To just below the confluence of the Sunderhunga gad river, another valley were it's head is blocked by a very large glacier running off Nanda devi

On the morning of our  departure with the porters over the pass, we were confused because the porters didn't show up. This slowed our departure down, but later that day we found out that in the village were the porters were due to come from, a leopard had taken a 5 year old girl from the arms of her mother, that night.

On the trek we gatherd as much info from the locals on the river which lies below. There was lots of variations, but the reality was, nobody knew as they had not made it into the inacsseble canyon on foot. Reaching the put in we were surprised at the volume of the water. as we all expected less. with the infomation we had on the river we new that it would only be possible to run this section in the middle of the winter when all the moonsoon water had run off and the snow had not started to melt.Overnight it was cold but dry as we camped under a large house boulder on the river bank. In the morning we loaded our boats and food for 4 days. The boats were very heavy and hard to lift even over easy terrain.

On the departure into the unknown lots if villagers appeared on the banks to see us set off who knows ere they all came from.  the morning was cold and so was the water. Our altitude was over 2000 mtr and we were only 30km downstream from two large glacier faces.

With the infomation we gatherd from old maps it told us the river was due to lose lots of height over our 40km descent, we just hoped that it would not just disappear off some huge horizon line in one of the gorges. The first few hours lead us down some nice 'read and run boulder gardens' with some small drops shooting out of the gaps between large house boulders. We struck an early camp to ensure our kit had a good chance of drying for the following day.

Our camp consisted of one large plastic sheet and one large cooking pot we decided to leave the stove in Rishikesh and took the chance that we would find plenty of driftwood on the banks.this worked out well as we were down in the gorges no locals had been down to the river to colect driftwood so we had great fires on the untouched beachs every nite. The thing that struck me the most about the beaches and river banks was the fact there was no litter or traces of any one living upstream of us.  All though there was hey just did not have packed nessecaties they lived purely from there land and animals this was a welcome change to the other river I had paddled here, where in the towns people just used the river as a 24 hour conveyur belt for the unwanted items such as chewing tobbaco packets of there deceased relatives... but hey this is india

The second morning we took the time whilst the sun was rising over the ridge to scout the next few hunderd meters of river, the gradient had doubled and so did the size of the drops, with it been so difficult to comunicte by site in the boulders we used the radios to pass on the info when we reached the bottom of the rapids these saved time and lots of effort the kayaking was superb emerald green water clean boofs a long rapids but they were split by hard portages where the river would just disapear down  a boat length sieve chocked by timber which had piled up over many years. The biggest drama of the day was when Bhuwan failed his roll 3 times and swam from his boat.  This at the time this was serious as not only did we have along way to go it had his dry clothes and sleeping equipment in.  Luckly his boat was pinned 400m downstream mid river so with some creative rescue work we retried the boat along with all its contents and checked to see if the boat was in a fit shape to continue. Thanks to the construction of mondern day kayaks it was all good. With such difficult banks to scout from and the effort needed to portage our boats we only coverd about two kilometers that day.

After eating our maggi noodles with extra chillys it was time to open the bottle of rum we saved for the moment as it was new years eve. The fire roared and we all sat round exchanging tall storys of the past year.

The following morning we set off in good time to try and reach the end of the steep section after 5km of unbeatable white water the gradient eased and we enjoyed the surrounding beauty of the unspoilt gorge. After a few km we reached one more gorge, this we new about as it formed a natural border between the two provinces of Garhwal and Kumauon steep cliffs toped wih dense jungle made this area uninhabitable so we entered the gorge with great care straining our necks to try to peak over boulders to see the next move this was not always possible so we where scouting as much as possible and runing great streches each person glued to the person in front as not to get lost in the maze of polished boulders with langoor monkeys pearched on top looking slightly confused as we rushed by only meters away from them. After a couple more bends we all breathed  a sigh of relief as it was obvious that we had finished the gorge and the crux of the river. The landscape and trees all seemed different now that we had reached garwahl the banks where now open with large expanses of terraced farm land due to a large tributrie flowing in from a village called Keti. The river had more volume and changed in charater. We reached a nice camp with lots of wood a settled down to start the cooking of our food Maggi Noddles which having eaten them for breakfast as well as our  main meal we still had not got  bored of them.

In the evening we made radio contact with our driver who had driven the truck from the start of the trek at Loharaket to our planned take out.  Later on, a small group of young local guys visted or camp with two bottles of  home made wine fermented millet, its name Raksi. Havin had previous experiences of this potent liquir I was hesitent to get to carried away but with the warmth of the fire and the friendlieness of the locals it was difficult.

So the following morning we had about 12km to paddle to reach the road and our truck the river was slower and so were our reactions on the river following the Raksi the previous evening but with no dramas just beuatiful scenary and waveing chideren we completed our tip on the upper Pindar

In the truck on the return back to Richikesh tierd from our adventure we were all wondering if it could at all be possible to spend the next new year on such a great river in such a wild place and loving the fact the the descent span over two years.

GETTING THERE

india has a lot to offer a levels of kayakers here is some useful info if you are thinking of a kayak trip to northern india.

best months to visit: sept,oct,nov,dec this is the run off season after the monsoon also there is  ashorter season march, april ,may,this is the snow melt season but this is becoming shorter,and less predictable due to climate change

nearest airport: delhi

flying kayaks is becming more and more of a problem over rescent years there a options of hire but beter if possible to fly your own. consult your airline prior to departure or have a loaded credit card on stanby.It is very easy to sell your boat in india as the are hard for nationals to get there hands on them

Language: hindi

Currency: indian rupees

religion: 70% of indians are hindi

jabs and inoxculations: best to consult your gp

for the best white water and place to base your self is in rishikesh,as well as being a very popular international yoga,and meditation centre this is where most of the rafting and kayaking outfitts are on the banks of the ganga river,one of the busiest commercial rafting rivers in the world.the commercial section of 38km in high water is magnificent big volume white water,after paddling on the ganga just a short 7 hour drive can take you to the steeper rivers such as the alaknanda,mandakanini,pindar,supin and tons all of which a superb rivers with a true himalayan feel.

as organising logistics and and expeditions are cocerned for those on a time scale i would strongly recomend you use a company to do all this,as it wiil only end up costing you valuble river time.

the cost for trip per day incuding,guide,camping/accomadation,transport,food would be around 3000 rupees  per person

I would like to thank all the guys on the trip for such good times and Windermere canoe and kayak for all there support and help over the previous years