It's been a year, since our decision, last spring, to attend an advanced whitewater guided trip, in a european creeking paradise, Italy's Val Sesia.
So Dimitris, Pavlos and myself, booked a place in Simon Westgarth's Gene 17 trip, to Piemonte and the river Sesia and its tributaries.
Based at the village of Campertogno, offering a pleasant stay, in a short distance from more than ten river sections, we had such a good time, that going again this year, it wasn't such a dificult decision.

You may read our last years report here

Even if Pavlos and Dimitris, proved themselves quite capable, in finding excuses, not to come again, I wasn't discouraged and got on with it.
So the week between 17 and 23 of May, found me at the south Alps, at the foot of Monte Rosa, having a pizza and gelato break, in my usual grilled lampchops-orientated, after-paddling cuisine.

Dan, Mark, JC and John, fellow paddlers from the UK, would attend the same course. We were all met at Milano airport, where Simon had come to pick us up, for the one and a half hours drive to Campertogno.

Besides a somehow limited choise of bed & breakfrast facilities at the village, a pleasant alternative, is the camp site "Il Gato & la Volpe", on a small island by the river Sesia. Its pizzeria and cafe-bar, with lovely Antonella, was our "place to be" before and after lessons.

A week full of rain and fresh snow on the mountains, starting to melt, from the crazy sunshine, in the first days of our week, resulted in unusally high flows on the rivers. The gauge at Campertogno bridge, gradually rised from 80cm in the first day, to 120cm in the fifth. Unfortunately this higher flow, made certain steeper rides, far more demanding.

River Sesia was once again our river to start with. Continuous class III with a couple of class IV rapids, warmed us up for Salto di Piode, the infamous first-day-highlight of Piemonte. A rapid that act as a cold shower to introduce all new comers to the biger drops of Val Sesia. This year I opted to run it first, only to find out that in higher flow, it's just ...harder!

Another last year's unsettled business would have to be faced again this year. River Mastallone and its infamous room of doom at Selva gorge. This time I didn't have to face that freeking hole again, as we all portaged. But in the higher flow, even the gentle steps into the gorge, had ceased to be gentle any more.

The river was half a grade harder and more beautiful than last year, with class III and IV stretches, with a few relaxing intervals, until the end, at Varallo aquaduct.

Varallo, is the largest town in the territory, a place where you may find some variety in places to eat or have a drink, but also our connection with our www friends, as it is the closest internet point in the area. Sacro Monte, a religeous park on a hill, overlooking the town of Varallo, is also an interesting place to visit.

Rain started to fall on the fourth day, only to make sure that the water can only get higher and our pool drop rivers to get out of that "perfect" level. With a gauge close to 120cm we drove to Sermenza valley, only to find one of Piemonte's highlights, river Egua, in high flow. The rock at the leap of the main drop, where Pavlos managed to climb before swimming down the 6m drop, was just ...not there, or better, it was underwater. One more reason to drive back.

After the confluence of Egua and upper Sermenza, there is a dam. The river section below this point is usually below paddling level, but today it seemed to be ok. Entering below a small but sticky pool drop, we paddled a few class III stretches and got out to scout the first of the two extended class IV rapids. While scouting, taking advantage a sudden and "unexpected" dam release, three of our boats decided to run the rapid without their paddlers, which was not what we had in mind. We managed to reach the last two boats close to the eddy and I ran the next 200m along the bank, boulder to boulder, avoiding a couple of snakes, swimming eddy to eddy to finally catch up the missing boat. Unfortunately during this chase, I missed my paddle that had also drifted. It was sad, as I had really made a lot of effort, to get rid of last year's infamous "Team D" name.

6km of class III big water in the Sesia, was a descent alternative for this afternoon, as evacuating Sermenza that way, was quite dissapointing.

The gauge stayed high in the rest of the day and we seemed to run out of choises. A drive up to Landwasser, a northeast tributary of Mastallone, offered a short but technical boulder slalom course, with small but tight class III-IV rapids. This one was much like Greek rivers, perhaps like upper Mornos.

A feeling of disappointment, for not having the chance to run the rivers who had come here to run, was dengerously meshing up our so far, good mood.
Thankfully the water started to fall (95cm) so we drove up to the village of Rassa, to find our scheduled run for the last day, river Gronda, in medium and surely paddleable flow. This 500m run, above the bridge of Rassa, is famous for the Teva race organised at this spot, for three years now.

Above and left: River Landwasser. Photos by Jon Cockram. Copyright 2004 Jon Wright.

We put in below the arced bridge and just below the river division. This short but steep section offers a series of seven class IV pool-drop rapids, easily scouted or portaged by the river right bank.
A few missed lines, ended in endless side surfing to the bottom hole, in less than a throw bag distance, but most of the lines were good and spectacular, as we can see below, in some of Simon's photos.

You may browse some more action photos in Gene 17's photo archive and in Jon Wright's gallery. You may also see some photos from our last year's trip

What a difference a river can do! The previous days disappointment had been vanished, as this last river was making up for the "lost" time. Let's hope for more days like that in our paddling days to come.
We celebrated the happy conclusion of our training, with a great pizza and visiting all the bars (three) of Campertogno.

Greetings to our new paddling and non-paddling friends, Mat, BK and Satu - BK, still waiting an explanation why I should take all those penalty cards in that game of switch - Deb and Antonella, Rita and the rest that I didn't have time to wright down their names. See you all soon!