ULTIMATE CANYONING
The Chli Schliere Canyon in central Switzerland is for sure the best Canyon we do, and most likely one of the most intense commercially run canyons in the world…. But then there’s Ticino! Situated on the south side of the Alps, Ticino is the Italian part of Switzerland and is also home to countless beautiful granite canyons. Good friend and co-guide Manu spent some good hours during this past winter putting together a new canyoning programme for Outdoor Interlaken where travellers could get the opportunity to experience two full days of extreme canyoning. And so on a clear sunny morning in mid july myself, Manu, legend explorer extraordinaire Pete Meredith, and photographer Michael Nebiker met bright and early at the base and packed 120 metres of static rope for a mission to Ticino. Crossing from North Alps to south Alps is like changing countries, or even continents! A super scenic drive down through central Switzerland along the shores of lake Lucern brings one to the 17km ‘Gotthard’ tunnel, after which one emerges in the lush , almost tropical chestnut forests of the Ticino region. Our plan was to scout out and set up our systems for Project ‘Ultimate Canyoning’, but the proposed canyon, ‘Lodrino’, on inspection at the take out bridge was a tad too high, making some of the wet rappels too dangerous. Plan ‘B’, another of Manus proposed routes required a lengthy shuttle, so we scratched hard for plan ‘C’ and it was decided to attempt an upper section of ‘Iragna’ that neither of us had done before. A few phone calls later to the weather station, and other experts who knew the area well, found us embarking on an hour and a halfs up hill hike through dense chestnut forest, past mini chapels and ancient stone villages. We followed a trail using a photocopied topo map that Manu had, and eventually found ourselves standing on an old stone arch bridge, looking about 60 metres straight down the entry rappel. We were under the impression that this ‘upper’ section of the Iragna canyon would take about 2 to 3 hours, and we knew that we could get through the bottom section in under an hour as we knew it well, so we’d opted to leave lunch in the vehicle as we’d be out by 2pm…….. NOT!! As it turned out we only got back to the vehicle at 17h30 after 6 and a half hours of unbelievable canyoning conditions. The water in Ticino is crystal clear and together with the polished granite, ranging through colours of white , black , and grey makes for the most beautiful pools and waterfalls! Making ones way down a steep canyon without any detailed info is quite challenging, as most of the rappels were ‘wet’, requiring that we lowered ourselves through the cascading waterfalls, with limited visibility of what lay below. This really tested everything that we’ve learned in ten seasons of canyoning in the Alps. By the end of the day we had rappelled atleast 10 big ones, and jumped about 20 classic jumps in the 10 to 12 metre range, some maybe higher. With the clear water we were often able to spot the deep landing zone from above, which saved a lot of time as normally one team member would rappel down first and swim around the pool to check the depth. From a 10 m jump you only need 2 m’s of water to land in, and in some cases the pools would be way deeper, but only 2 m’s wide!! All in all a classic day out, we were super stoked, exhausted and ravenous by the time we arrived back at the van, and we can’t wait for the first trip to book out so we can head back down there and share this canyoning wonderland with adventurous travellers. Big thanks to Outdoor Interlaken for providing us with the transport and gear, and to Michael Nebiker for all the cool pictures. As Pete used to say… ‘Come on’!!
