1st Descent in Italy

We find ourselves now in the Val Sessia region of Italy for the Teva invitational race... a short section of river where 20 of the worlds top athletes will compete tomorrow for the cash purse.

Running into the race course is river called the Sorba. The Upper Sorba boasts some of Italies most fun class 4+ whitewater, combining granite style rock slides and falls. Entertaining and certainly challenging.

Arnd Schaeftlein and Francesco Salvatore are no strangers to the region, and they have scouted the upper upper Sorba several times, but needed the corrrect flows and team to make the 1st descent possible.

its rare that in such a well known and often paddled area that a run remains virgin. This is for one very destinct reason. the river drops 360ft in less than half a mile. The walls are fairly vertical, making scouting very hard, and the drops themselves are anything but straight forward. Undercut, boulder strewn, log infested and the drops stacked on top of each other with very little chance of recovery between them.

It took out group, one of the best that could possibly be assembled, 7 hrs to complete the half mile run. The paddlers were Francesco Salvatore, Olaf Obsommer, Ben Brown, Arnd Schaeftlein and myself.


Despite the nature of the run, I was able to run all the drops, including one we named Throat... a twisting turning cascade of water running between undercuts, vertical impact walls and holes. The rest of the group ran all but two of the drops, making it not only a first descent of the river, but a successfull one at that with the rapids all being run.

The only point of contention therefore remains as to whether Ben technically swam or not. After being kicked off line on Wedding Gift Falls (so named because we let Francesco run them first as our wedding gift to him) and flipping mid air, he landed upside down of the 20 footer, and blew his skirt. he rolled up, and paddled to shore where he was promptly partially swept into an undercut, and was forced to jump out of his kayak. Entire body in the water, partially under the rock wall, hanging onto his gear, he awaited rope rescue before being extracted.

I think he owes us a 6 pack!
Francesco, "the smooth opperator", running a fall.
Arnd Boofing left to avoid the sharp pin rocks at the base.
Arnd on the second part of Scary Drop, an hard-to-control slide that ends in an impact zone of rocks and promptly runs into the second drop with a gnarly hole and undercut on the left.
Volunteering to go first over Scary Drop, the key for me was to fly over the base rocks at high speed. Hurrah for speed!
Ben decides he wants no part of the base rocks, and skys clear over them.
Ben "runs" Wedding Gift falls, and rolls up, peace sign in tow, moments before being swept into the undercut. He maintains its not a swim, but just for appearances, I'm afraid that I have to disagree (oh, and for the beer!)
Throat, easily one of the most dangerours and intimidating rapids I've run in a very long time. The "squeeze" at the top consists of the water furrowing its way over, through and under a series of rocks and undercut shelves, which then pours out at high speed onto a 30 degree slope into a series of twisting turns, with deflection waves and holes pushing in all directions before crashing into either a rock shelf and exploding upwards, or into a undercut cliff wall (pick one...). From there, over the final near vertical drop into a hole and final eddy (just above the next rapid that was both undercut and tree infested. What made this rapid so intimidating was the total uncertainty of several sections of it. Where the entrance slot would be a dangerous pin, whether it would be able to have any semblance of control through the turning deflection waves, whether the rock shelf was undercut, and to what degree, and the same for the cliff next to it (I opted to take my chances with the rock shelf rather than the cliff) and what kind of control, providing I made it this far, I would have going over the last drop (that had both a hole, and potential for a pin. So much uncertainty made this rapid both dangerous and scary, but I was on a mission to run all the rapids, and so undertook the challenge. All went well until I hit the rock shelf that hooked my nose and spun me backwards, so the final drop was done in reverse with the best possible back boof I could muster. I made the final drop without any problems though my friends were all very concerned for my well being and safety. I'll say one thing, I have so much confidence in the Big Gun, that it'll help me through sections, that my willingness to run hard drops has increased since I've had this boat. I'm constantly amazed at how it just rides over the most difficuld sections with ease. It certainbly suites my style. This river was the high moment of the European tour for me, specifically this rapid.