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...  :)