Neeeepal – Part one :o)

After all the flight arrangements were made, couple of meetings by few pints of beer were held and all the things were packed up to 30 kg weight limit(including boat, paddles and gear), our group took off for Nepal for one month. A bunch of guys and myself were heading to a beautiful country of the Himalayan mountain range and pretty wide spectrum of amazing wild rivers in the heart of jungles.


As the rest of the boys are still there in Nepal, its take some time but many more shots are coming. However, I ve managed to gain at least the first set (picts altogether out of three cameras) of an amazing pictures from our trip, soooo here we go;o)

Delhi airport transfer. We ve experienced some pretty desperate and too long moments sitting there with only one checked out boat, having no clue whatsoever where the other six and two large packs of paddles are. Luckily, all the naturally overloaded boats finally arrived and we could smoothly continue further to Kathmandu.

I was particularly stoked for the completely different culture and overall alien lifestyle which you experience out there..So I literally forced that bunch of lowbrows to explore at least some culture:o) The complex of the Pashupatinath temple, most important Hindu religious sight.

The Sadhus “holy men” called Shaivas for their dedication to Shiva, most significant Hindu god. Here waiting for an alms...

Preparations on put in on the Upper Sun Kosi, nice playful run with huge crazy waves..It takes some time to get used to the crowds of people just standing and staring like u were the best Tv show...

Jakub Sedivy in the rapids of the Bhote Kosi, guess its the scary “The Wall”.. We unfortunately caught the late monsoon, so the water levels were higher than usual in that season..Especially for me were some of the things surely in the category “not for me”, few even in the category “only for Jakub” - judging by my not solitary portages:oD

However the ones I did were mostly pretty huge... Was just paddling my best through those sparkly bubbles of massive waves and holes which pushed me somewhere deep together with my tiny cute Chico... I was really ecstatic when we finished the run (and also terribly exhausted:o)

How can the Nepalese and the European dresses match :o)

Incredibly cheap and incredibly uncomfortable. Despite that, rides on the bus roof racks are soooo exhilarating, you need to be well wedged in , so you don t catapult off when the bus swerves or lurches. You also need to be aware of the low-hanging wires and branches zooming over your head. Did I mentioned the fellow goat- travellers (literally!) and great views?

For Marsyandi river the Bassos joined our group and we made together with Michelle some pretty cute girls rides, getting caught by sticky holes, smashed by massive waves , but still smiling like the hell for the pictures:o) Almost our whole crew here on the pict .

Mark conducting me trough one of the wilder rapids...The only instruction: „You don t want on be on the left...“ Well, I rather was..but still, to get blasted by huuuge diagonal wasn t so bad as one would think, quite sensational feeling:o)

The second day of the Marsy was not only demanding but loong as well. We ve paddled till darkness first on a fancy whitewater, later on beautiful panoramic flow..I was still truly happy they provide the Chicos with soo comfy seats, like really, cant imagine sitting on something else practically for the whole day...

The Madi was other jolly good trip, amazing two days with an epic oversleep. The times by the warm, almost family fire were just good, but to bundle in a Nepalese storm and heavy heavy rain fully dressed in paddling gear were for most rather strong experience:o) Naturally, who would take a tent or a tarp on a multiday...

Moreover,you can meet fairly monstrous rapids there too! And I must admitt that I was really glad that „Chicky“(nick for my boat:o) was still behaving so well even stuffed with kilos and kilos of food, sleeping bags, mattresses and many more unnecessary rubbish. I felt just a little difference and was still gliding smoothly over the white wild rapids:o)

Here is just a little teaser for another stories from our awesome Annapurna trek and adventures from the Himalayan creek Modi.
Matěj and Vojta carrying the boats up and up and up...

Snižák in the rapids of Modi:o)

There are definitely more pictures coming, also a presentation of all the picts is being planned and we ve also made rather pretty shots for some video, sooooo stay tuned ;o)

Bety

Thanks for an amazing pictures to "© 2010 Pepicek" http://wwzeny.blogspot.com/ .

Teva Extreme Outdoor Games 2010

The first half of June is becoming a traditional time for great and prestigious outdoor competition Teva Outdoor Games. That‘s why we filled our van with friends and kayaks and went off to Italian Piemont.

Chiusella, foto by Michal Kroupa

On the long way from Prague we stopped on Brandenberger Ache, which had a nicely huge 70 cm (the gauge is changed - 70 was about 95 on the old one). Than we moved to Swiss on Versasca, which had very nice higher water (about 25 cumecs), so we greatly enjoyed all the astonishingly bluish rapids and jumps. Finally, we arrived to the area of cozy Italian city Ivrea, ran nearby river Soanna and started practicing on Chiusella – the river chosen for the competition. The 72 competing men joined Matej Sottner, Jirka Srbek, Mira Kodada and Jirka Kopecny from our group and I registered among the 9 girls.

Versasca, foto by Matej Sottner

The two kilometer long racing part for sprints was the same for men, girls and teams. It included many nice jumps and rapids, few sifons, nice slide and an about 5m high rocky waterfall. There could have been seen quite nasty falls head down, backwards and even before the race a dislocated shoulder of our Slovenian friend, which prevented him from competing. Otherwise, the steep river hadn’t got much water, despite a horrible rainy weather, and therefore were all the runs rather stony.

Last drop on Chiusella, foto by Michal Kroupa.

The sprints were held on Thursday, starting with jump from a three meter high rock and with the system of one half of the competing field making the rescue, which was sometimes needed:o)

Chiusella, foto by Matej Sottner

First twenty top men from the sprints moved up to the waterfalls of the much more difficult part of the river for the King of the Falls competition. This race was very exciting, especially for the audience, thanks to a 6 meter high and very tricky waterfall. From our group qualified for the race Honza Lasko, who ended up on a wonderful 3rd place, Palo Andrassy and Jirka Kopečný, who went both pretty well too. Hero of that competitions was a french guy Eric Deguil who ran the first fall almost head first, broke the paddle, swam out and bravely finished the competition single-bladed, as he is french representative for slalom canu:o)

Upper Chiusella, foto by Honza Lasko

The team sprints took place on Friday and as far as I‘d noticed nothing special happened there, cause all the teams went really great. Interesting where four mixed teams, which were, however, out of competition.

The French team, foto by Michal Kroupa

After two days on the river the race moved right to the center of Ivrea, on a slalom course. The slalom course, however, didn‘t make the racing less hard core, even though the slalom paddlers had definitely a big advantage here. Despite no real sticky holes, many competitors were struggling with the powerful stream and the wildly circulating eddies could have been classified by level WW IV:o) About 30 cumecs run through the otherwise steep and considerably short course, and this was approximately the water level we had during Friday training runs.

Ivrea, foto by Honza Lasko

Unfortunately, the water rose to a flood rate until Saturday morning, so that the course shortened even more, the current was much more powerful than and the floating grown-up trees and trunks didn‘t really lowered the level of difficulty.


China race, foto by Honza Lasko

The two sprint runs were than in a rather strained spirits, especially in the girls category. Because it was pretty hard to eskimo roll in the tricky waters, we could have seen one swim. Also the Italian water rescue, unlike the Austrian one, didn‘t convinced anyone when they threw the throwbag from a rather unsuitable place right into the slalom weirs, so that the swimming girl was rescued by other competing girls.

Girls racing.., foto by Michal Kroupa

Further on, after a tasteful lunchbox, the individual and team slalom races started. Not many paddlers managed to pass all the poles thanks to the pretty unreadable streams and because it was nothing unusual to get washed out of the right eddy or, in some cases, even run the whole course head down ;o)

Kayak X, foto by Michal Kroupa

The bouldering finals were to be seen in the evening and they were followed by a nice party underlined by free red bull vodka drinks and Djs‘ under a Red bull tent. After a hard morning for some, the tough kayak-cross races of the first 28 men(from overall results) an all girls started. Many exciting actions were performed, for the fact that four riders were now hitting each other in a course where even individuals had problems. We can just guess why were the semifinals held, when the result didn‘t even counted, but what wouldn‘t we do for the audience:o)

Ivrea, foto by Honza Lasko

The results are as follows K1M 1. Mike Dawson (NZ), 2. Fabian Doerfler (D), 3.
Dejan Kralj (Slo)
K1Z 1.Anne Hubner (D), 2. Nouria Newman (Fr), 3. Jen Chrimes (VB)
TEAMS 1. New Zealand, 2. Slovenia, 3. Czech Republic
Our team, including Honza Lasko, Viktor Legat and Jirka Kopečný, bravely shined on the third place in team races. I ended up on the 5th place in the overall girls’ results. Quite sad was the division of the prize money when the first man won nine hundred Euros and the firs girl got just a pack of crisps and a backpack, but don’t let my judgment throw a bad shadow on the otherwise great competition. Finally, it suits to thank to all the organizers, especially Francesco, Carla and Michelle, for a great job and nice time spent during the competition.
Looking forward to next year!

Spring Sports Events

I apologise for not being able to write regularly during spring due to my exam period and school responsibilities, but I still managed to escape from those less pleasant things to participate on some delightful whitewater weekends..

At the beginning of April me and four boys from Czech attended the Kaiserklamm Trophy, which was an excellently organized competition on the Brandenberger Ache, Austria.
The qualification sprint took part on a less difficult, lower part of the river, which was thanks to very low water level rather unexciting. However, the starting ramp, wonderful summer weather and heaps of good mood still let everybody to have fun.

The competitors were set up with large supply of delicious sustenance in the form of spare-rib or barbecue party every evening, which were followed by quite hard parties, with no regard to the morning races :o)

Further on, the kayak-cross runs moved to a steep gorge on the topmost part of the river on Saturday morning. The low water made the one kilometer long racing course not less difficult, so there were seen quite tough actions and swims, which , however, covered the Austrian water rescue briliantly, despite the very complicated access into the gorge.

The results of our team were as follows: Viktor Legat 3rd and Honza Lasko 4th, after a very unlucky crash in the men finals, but nevertheless presenting their new Raptor kayaks magnificently. Matej Sottner , Matej Holub went pretty well in the kayak-cross runs too. I occupied the fourth place obtained from the women finals. As some complained about the lack of important words in my articles last time, I must states that we made a hugely stoked runs, caught a damn good lines, showed a wicked party spirits and definitely kicked our rivals in the guts ;o)

Other nice and pleasant event was a festive opening of a rodeo spot in Pilsen, which I consider ,thanks to a hard work of the locals and great help from the town counsellors , one of the best rodeo holes in Czech. Its rather powerfull but still suitable even for girls with less strength as I am.

After a challenging slalom training during the week I spaced out my whitewater activities with other outdoor action –fun orienteering bike race:o) Even though the weather was rather sulky that weekend and the racing route led throu a splashy muddy trails I got just a great time there.

The other weekend, spent me and a group of friends in a sunny Austria, where were the water levels due to previous raining nicely increased. We managed to run the Koppentraun twice on playful 120 cumecs.

Than few times Lammer gorge with few new or changed rapids caused by landslides. Untertalbach has a lower water and therefore was quite tricky, with danger getting stucked in the shallow parts, so we decided to move to Lofer.

An article from Teva outdoor Games is in progress and I’m still waiting for pictures from the event, but it shall be posted in few days...so be patient ;o)

Enjoy summer

Cheers Betty