31Jul 2008
Schoellenen report: a Swiss gem!
10:44 - By Kees Van Kuipers - News - no comment
As spring has come up in Switzerland, it was that time to head to nice rivers again. Unfortunately the whole of Switserland has been built full with dams which means there are heaps of rivers that normally can not be paddled. But the bigger the smile is when we ARE able to. One of those rivers is the Reuss close to Andermatt in the Gotthard region. Driving past there is always dangerous as it gets as the focus is just on the granite boulders down below instead of on the curvy road. And slowly slipping into a dream of how this would be like if they just had not stolen the water away in order to produce energy so the kids can hang out behind the playstation instead of being out there where it all happens. Isn’t it just a circle? So, we were completely lucky this day as we had around 15 cumecs in there instead of 3 or so.
On top there is a tight canyon with huge falls. The amount of water took away any possible parking place for taking out, so we better leave this for one of those days when the water’s gone again. We put in a bit lower and found us in one of the most beautifull places to paddle in Switzerland. Awesome granite wall all around and big round boulders in the river. Devastated after some hours we had a nice beer and looked forward to being able to get back here once again. Check the pics below (courtesy of Rainer Eder!):
Cheers Kees








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