The Slaves an the PKC are back

-Slaves and PKC on the Puma, pic: Peter Hohenwarter-

Three weeks have pasted since I wrote my last entry, since than the Slaves and the PKC returned to Chile once again and we headed south and north for doing some great paddling. 

The first weekend I meet my good friends from Austria, Peter Hohenwarter and Berni Stahl. They are spending two months here in Chile, so it is a great oportunity for me to go paddling. So we met each other in Pucon and went down south to the rio Llancahue. There we spend one day, paddling the upper section. The upper section of the rio llancahue has some nice rapids with cristal clear blue water and also some nice waterfalls.

- Peter on the first drop of the Llancahue, pic: me-

After that nice run it was time to go to the famous rio fuy. So we packed our gear and drove one more hour to the spot of the spots. In the afternoon we were keen on doing one lap on the lower fuy, just taking it easy and shipping down this beautiful river. The next day we did the upper section. This part also has some really nice rapids, waves to surf, and also waterfalls up to 7 meters. 

- running the first drop, pic: Peter Hohenwarter -

- Berni in one of the beautiful drops, pic: me-

                                                                                                         - Peter In the slide, pic: me-

                  - Enyoing the landscape, pic: me-

After this beautiful run we heared from our swiss friends that the Rio claro is maybe still good to go. We didn't had to think about the decision a long time, we just loaded the boats up and started our way up north to the very famous and spectacular rio claro. It took us a 12 hours drive and we had to sleep one night on the road. The next morning we tried to scout the rapid so called twirly bird. We hiked 3 hours through the forest and unfortuanetly we didn't manage seeing this rapid. Afterwards we noticed that maybe the left river side would be better to scout. It took us 20 min till we were able to scout the twirly. We discussed a long time about the waterlevel, if it's good to go and don't end up at the scary wall on the  right side. In the end we were so fired up and everybody wanted to run this shit, so we just puted in hoping everything goes out well. And yes it was a impressive run in this beautiful gorge. Nice little drops, two scary slides and maybe the craziest place I've ever seen. 

 - Me running the twirly, pic: Peter Hohenwarter-

 -Berni dropping in, pic: Peter Hohenwarter-

-Nice view down there, peter running it, pic: me-

                                                                                                   -Berni in the entrance of the first slide, pic: me-

-Slaves deep in the gorge, pic:me-

                                                                           -Peter in the second slide, pic: me-

                                                                                                                     - me in the second slide, pic: Peter Hohenwarter-

Right after this amazing impressiones and such good boating, I was forced to go back to my hometown concepcíon for working. So the Boys drove me 5 hours down and we stayed the night at my house in the city. 5 Days of working and I went back to the basestation: Pucon. There we met up the rest of our group. Within was Helga, Flipper, Matthias, Basti, Michael, Peter, Berni and me. The last weekend we did'nt spend a lot time on the fuy so we decided to go there once again. We paddled 4 times the upper section including Whitney-Houston-Gorge which is a unbelievable little gorge were the charakter of the river changes from kind of bigwater into a narrow drop and pool section. Beautiful boogiewater with drops and slides. In the Whitney-Houston-Gorge there is one massive rapid, which is a very long and steep slide entering into a 6 meter pushy waterfall. On top of that, after the slide there is a nasty eddy on the right, were the waterpressure pushes completely into a bad undercut. But actually ¨Peter, Michael and me very fired up for this nice rapid and went down pretty smooth. 

 -Helga in flying, pic: me-

-Flipper does what he loves to do: boofing, pic: Peter Hohenwarter-

 -In the Drop, pic: Helga Lehner-

 -Me in the slide of Whitney-Houston-Gorge, pic:Helga Lehner-

 -Michael styling it, pic: me-

-Michael entering into the drop after the slide, pic:me-

All in all we spend five beautiful, funny and sunny days on the fuy. Also Peter, Helga and me did a run on the upper section at night with moonlight. 

-relaxing at the campfire, pic: Helga Lehner-

The day of the days for me was the last day we spent in that valley. It was the best day, because I did something which I didn't even thought about it when I arrived 3 months ago here in Chile. 

I think every kayaker who paddles up to class 5 knows the Puma falls which Aniol Serrasolses ran first in 2011. The Puma fall is the most impressive and spectacular waterfall I've ever seen in my life. It is about 35 meters high and a massiv amount of water is falling down making a deep sound. The entrance above is also very boily and pushy. When we scouted it, there was highflow, so it looked more scary as it even looks at normal flow. Also there is a badass eddy on the right were you will have big problems without any help from outside. But actually I felt really comfortable and mentally stabil enough for taking a serious look on that beast. Including I had a very good team of great paddlers for doing safety with me.

-scouting the Puma, pic: Helga Lehner-

After round about 30 min of scouting and checking the best line, I felt glad and I was fired up like never before and decided to do the second descent of this huge one. So everybody prepared for my descent. Cameras, safety in the boat, safety for the right eddy and so it was my turn for doing what I love to do: Hucking. 

Last big breath, one roll for getting familiar with the water and I pushed my self out of the eddy. Entering the entrance, one right stroke pushed me on the left pillow, next left stroke on to the right direction just close to the rock on my right. "Yes I placed myself perfect". Next step, beeing on the lip of that high waterfall is a feeling you cannot describe someone who didn't ran waterfalls before: Unbelievable. I made one last stroke for getting my kayak in the right direction. After maybe half way down I threw my paddle away and covered myself, waiting for the big impact. Unfortuanetly the impact on the middle palguin was harder than the one of the puma, but what happened after the impact I didn't expect. I can't remember if my sprayskirt popped up, but what I can remember is that the waterpressure pulled me out of my sprayskirt, like when I put it normally off after kayaking. Than I was pushed down and down and down. It felt like I'am 10 meters under the surface of the water. I went out of breath and I got pushed into the right eddy. There I swam some seconds till Peter threw me a throwback. I grabed it and got pulled to the rocks where I found space were I was able to stand... Everything went out good and I was very happy with my line of the second descent of  the puma-falls... At that point I would like to say once more: Thanks guys for helping me ;) 

 -Second descent of the Puma, pic: Helga Lehner-

- Puma, pic: Matthias Stoeckl-

After my descent the others went down the middle section which is a big mission at this highflow. The next day I had to go back to concepcíon for working. All in all a perfect weekend.... 

I wish everybody merry christmas and a happy new year...  :) 

Good times

Hardly one week has past and I packed my stuff again and travelled once again to Pucon for some great paddling, partying and hanging around with friends..

-Put in at Ben's House, pic: me-

The first night I had to sleep at the busstaition in Temuco, because I didn't get my connecting bus to pucon in time.
Actually I had my sleepingbag and my matress with me, so I joined some good hours in the station. The next morning I took the first bus to Pucon and arrived at 9:00 o'clock in my favourite destination in chile so far. 10 minutes later I met up Berni and Leon in the city, drinking coffe and having breakfast. The next thing we had to do was to organice two rentalcars, therefore Leo and Berni knew a guy where we got a good offer for one pickup and one subaru legacy. At 12am we loaded the boats up picked up Charlie,  and went to the river. We were a pretty big group including 3 Swiss, 3 French, 1 English, 1 Peruvian, 2 Chilenen, 1 Austrian and two German. Unfortuanetly the weather of last week was very warm and dry so just the palguin was running. We spend a nice day together on the river and ran some good classic rapids like the portagerapid on the middle section. 

-Droping into the portage, pic: Philipp Notheis-

Afterwards we made a big barbecue at the hostel so called Paradise and went for a couple of beers in the bar mama's and tapas. For the next day we had planed to do a Todo palguin run. This includes every rapid on the upper, the middle and the lower. We woke up at 8:00 am and drove up to the putin. Within was Michael, Charlie, Fabien, Daniel and Sam. The upper section was done in 15 minutes and the next rapid was the portage again. Everybody of us decided to do the sealaunching, except Michael. He was fired up to run this massiv rapid. 15 meters, seperated in two high volume drops which are hardly to control and the first drop leads into a nasty kind of slide where you have to go through. I have never seen a good line in this drop on each video I watched. On last saturday Michael Charles had a very good and clean line there. Congrats man ;) 

-Michael Charles running the hole portage, Pic: me-

-pic, Philipp Notheis-

After this rapids the middle section owns some really nice boogy-rapids which are quite a lot fun and are sorrounded by perfect landscape. 2 km more the river gets steep again and flows into a rapid called boof to swim. Boof to swim is a nice but also very scary waterfall with round about 7 meters. On the lip there is a well shaped curler where you want to do a steep lean and boofing the hell out of you. I went first and had a sweet line. The others followed and everybody did a good job.

-boofing boof to swim, pic: Sam Itkin-

-pic: Sam Itkin-

After this beautiful waterfall the palguin directly gets very, very steep again. Maybe one of the most famous waterfalls with an scary, difficult entrance: the Middle Palguin fall with the entrance called stout 10. We scouted it and after 15 min Daniel, Michael and me decided to bomb it. Daniel went first, Michael second and myself was last. Really nervous, because stout 10 is a very tricky boof where you want to be on top of a tung and make a right boofstroke, I exit the eddy and paddled towards stout 10 did a last left stroke which pulled me on the tung, made a lean to the right, right boofstroke and I landed without having to roll. Perfect. Next step was the 23 meter high waterfall. paddling to the lip feeling your hard beating, watching down, throwing your paddle, covering yourself and booommm you are down. Good feelings. After this rapid we decided to finish for today cause it started to rain.

                                                                                                         - Daniel  in the middle, pic:me-

-Michael running the middle,pic:me-

 -Stout 10, pic: Sam Itkin-

-about to drop into the middle, pic: Sam Itkin-

The following night it was raining a lot and we were keen on going to the nevados again. We also hoped that maybe the Turbio drops in but unfortuanetly it didn't. So we did a fast lap on the nevados the next day. A lot of people, a lot of fun and  lots of good lines.

                                                                                                                                                        -Slide, pic: Daniel Rodón-

-charlie, sam, me, pic: Daniel Rodón-

                     - Charlie in the mustrun, pic: me-                                                    
 

                                                                                                        -Momo on dulce amor, pic: me

- dulce amor, pic: me-

-dulce amor, Pic: Daniel Rodón-

After this awesome day I was fired up for going big again. Quitschie and his crew arrived to Pucon on saturday. They had some nice laps on the Rio Claro and were pretty stoked. Also on monday it was Quitschies 19th Birthday and his present was an Complete palguin-session. So we started very early again and hit down the palguin. not scouting just going down and having fun. 

                    -Quitschie styling boof to swim, pic: me-

-Boof to swim, pic: Ben Hawthorne-

Such a nice weather and a good waterlevel made us feeling happy and comfortabel. So after good lines on boof to swim we scouted once again this huge, but good looking waterfall. Ben, Joe and Guy went down for taking pictures and doing safety. 
So it was my turn once again... 

-second run down the middle, pic: Ben Hawthorne-


Including all these nice rivers, it was a awesome weekend .Beeing on the river with good people. Thanks Guys for having a great time. 

Kayakfahren in Chile, die erste

Five weeks have passed and I was traveling a lot. Here's a little report:

-Playa de Blanca, pic: me-

There are many countries which have good whitewater , but one always stands out quite far: Chile. Therefore, the decision was for me not to difficult to fly to Chile . During my studies I have to make a semester internship . This was perfect for me and I organized myself a job in central Chile : Concepcíon . On 10.Oct this year I started my Trip. Packed bag , kayak and made me ​​ready to sniff southamerican air for six months.
From Santiago by bus to Concepcíon there is  almost a 6 hours drive  in which you can make yourself really comfortable in the Chilean buses.
Well received , I have been placed in a host family.
Already in the following week I could hardly stand it  finally go paddling . On my first day I had already planned my entire weekend. My goal was the paddle Mecca : Pucon. Endless miles of dreamlike white water, slides , waterfalls in all variations and on top of that 20-25 ° C and radiant sun.
The first two weekends I stayed  in the kayak hostel and was able to make my first strokes in Chilean whitewater there. However, I regret to say that I was not really feeling welcome and not treated very fairly there . Nevertheless, it was a good warmup and I was able to make 6 laps on the Upper Palguin .

-Upper Palguin, pic: Guy Neal-

After warming Up for a month I got message from Quirin Haslberger, a friend from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, that he wanted to be the next weekend in Pucon. Finally I had time and went off to Pucon. In Chile, the buses are better developed and much cheaper than in Germany. I always paid 10,000 pesos (approx. 12 euros) for a ride to Pucon. This weekend I could spend 4 full  days of paddling..

-Pucon, pic: me-

Right after breakfast, the car was loaded with Five boats and the common goal was the Rio Nevados. The Nevados houses everything the paddler heart desires, Waterfalls in a beautiful canyon, long slides and also a little gorge. This river is specially known for a very long slide and drops called Walldrop and Demshitz drop. Arrived at the putin we had have to notice, that the water level was too high.

In the Alps, this might be a problem because you can find nothing else to paddle, but not so in Chile. The journey continued and we ended up at the lower Palguin. This creek is an absolute treat if you want to enjoy easier whitewater with a few nice rapids. Surrounded by a landscape that takes your breath away, we were able to paddle this section at a perfect waterlevel.

-Lower Palguin, first Drop, pic: Ben Hawthorne-                                                                                

                                                                                -Lower Palguin,  pic: Ben Hawthorne-  

In the late afternoon Quirin, Guy and I were still highly motivated and made two more runs on the upper section of the Palguin

-Quitschie runs the last drop,pic: me-

The next morning we woke up again very early, had breakfast on English style and drove to the Rio Nevados. This day the river had a perfect level . On top of that, we met another  really friendly Kayakgroup ( a quartett of one Swiss, one British, and two french guys) and with them we ran two runs on the Nevados. Marvelous weather, perfect group and an abnormal nice river can make a day absolutely perfect. For the lower gorge of the Nevados the level was too high.

- Nevadosslide, pic: Yannik Zeller-

-Running the Walldrop, pic: Ben Hawthorne-

After this magnificent day, I was actually pretty tired and felt not very motivated. However, the idea of the group was to paddle the Puesco. The Puesco is another classic in the area of Pucon. The Puesco is the upper Trancuro and flows through a beautiful valley. The character is pure boulder garden. 45 minutes ride and again we were at the putin of a nice river. Ben, Quirin and I were fired up again and 10 min later we puted in. 

All in all, Puesco is a very nice creek, but we had a bit too less water, so it was occasionally very rocky.

On Monday Quirin traveled with his boys to the Rio Claro. However, I wanted to take advantage of this day and went with the others for another lap on the Nevados.

This was a crowning glory of my best  weekend so far.

Tomorrow the journey continues.We will go to the Rio Claro .........

-Nevados, pic: Ben Hawthorne-

- Palguin, pic: Ben Hawthorne-

-My favourite pic of the weekend, Berni Matejka running the slide a littlebit different-

During the off paddlingtime I did some hiking with my good old friend Luecke. Check it out.

-Somewhere in the mountains close to Nilahue-

-Natinalpark in Pucon-

-Nationalpark in Pucon-