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-