After leaving Kathmandu we started off on the Upper Bhote Kosi as a warm up before heading to do one of the last complete descents of the legendary Marsyandi river, two days of perfect Himalayan whitewater.

The dam looks to be almost 100% complete, and so the middle section will probably be gone within the year. A terrible shame.We spent a day in Paudi hanging out with a local farmer’s family which was a pretty cool experience.

After heading to Pokhara we met our buddy Babu and paddled the Seti. Babu has been paragliding less than a year, and is just back from a ten day solo paragliding mission around the Khumbu glacier ie Everest, which is probably akin to soloing the class 5 Murchison Falls section of the White Nile with less than a years kayaking experience. He wanted us to go paragliding with him. We declined.

We then took a 24 hour bus ride to the wild west of Nepal and the incredible Karnali river, one of the worlds most spectacular and beautiful.

Rosie and I spent four amazing days on the Karnali, far from civilisation with leopards, eagles and monkeys abundant.

We also paddled some awesome whitewater given that we were just two people in heavy boats a long way from the nearest road. At the end of the trip, we paddled into Bardia National Park which is famous for, among other things, its tigers. I stayed very close to the middle of the river. Rosie, whose grandfather was a tiger hunter, seemed much less concerned. Nevertheless, I was relieved when we reached the Tigertops tented camp where we spent the next day on elephant safari.

After an epic journey back to Pokhara, we met Siberian boater Vasiili Porsev and hiked up to the Madi Khola, which we completed in less than three hours from high up due to a very real fear of missing our flight home.

Vasiili is a strong boater who has been pushing hard on the rivers of Siberia, and invited us to come visit. Hopefully we can take him up on that offer in the future. I slept soundly on the roof of a nightbus back to Kathmandu by strapping myself onto the roof rack, and we just made our flight back to London. Arriving home I met some friends in Dublin, turned the big 30, and jumped on a flight to Marrakech for a mission in the Atlas mountains.

Photos by Rosie Cripps and Rob Coffey

Team Palm Promo film preview

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Some photos of the Palm Pro Team in action shot by Deb Pinniger and Sam Hughes:

Green Race winner Andrew Holcombe, Dave Carroll and Paul Cheesy Robertson prepare for some steepness on the Upper Onde

Matt Tidy on the Lower Rauma

Andy Holcombe in France

Rosie Cripps getting on the Lower Rauma

Simon Hirter on the Lower Rauma

The Palm film will be ready for distribution in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned for more details.

Posted by Rob Coffey

It was great to hook up with many old friends and get some world class boating in at the same time.

Rob on the Etive
Tom Brown
15 year old Rory O Reilly charging the Etive
The one and only Jamie Wright landing a back hammer

All photos by Rosie Cripps

Ten days ago, I decided to leave Dublin on a last minute decision to head west for the weekend, hoping to catch some waves.
I ended up in the coastal village of Kilkee with Louis Smith and Triona Price and caught the last acts of the Cois Farriage Music festival.
As there was no surf on Saturday, we spent the day scuba diving with a school of up to forty dolphins. Deep underwater, surrounded by these magnificent animals almost so close you could almost touch them, was a special experience.

That night, we very randomly ended up going to see the suprisingly good Ocean Colour Scene. The next morning, no surf to be found, so we teamed up with my long term wing man and veteran of numerous ill conceived adventures, Ali Donald, to sea kayak from Liscannor to Doolin around the world famous Cliffs of Moher. On a big westerly swell this is where the massive wave known as ‘Aileens’ breaks.
Myself and Ali are hatching a plan to come back over the winter and kayak this stretch of coast in big swell, which would be more exposed and full on than any river.

All the following week I had been watching the swell charts for the weekend. From the forecast, Easkey looked liked it would be catching a huge northerly. We drove like demons to Easkey, pulling in at two in the morning. After a few hours sleep, we woke at first light to see the biggest waves I had seen in ten years of surfing this spot. The largest sets were breaking over the pier. I spent two hours surfing some of the biggest, most intimidating waves of my life, not least because for the first few hours, I was the only person on the water. I took off too deep and got caught inside on one particularly big set, and had a real ‘o shit’ moment.

These waves are very far away from where this photo was taken

By midday the wind had swung westerly and the swell had dropped, so it was time to head to Achill island on the remote western tip of Ireland for a wave sailing competition, which is rapidly becoming my new obsession. Achill takes the full brunt of the fury of the Atlantic, and the weather is often so bad that it gives the impression of being on a boat. But the sun appeared on Sunday, and we windsurfed for hours in the most perfect conditions. I am not yet good enough to wave sail but intend to be in the near future.

This weekend I am being dragged away from the west coast to go steep creeking in the Scottish highlands.

Photos by Dani Domeque, Louis Smith and Rosie Cripps

The Teva Race has become ever more competitive, whereas before, it was possible to turn up not having done any training and achieve a decent result, the top guys are now training hard specifically for the event and it shows. Rosie came 5th overall and 2nd in the Extreme slalom.

Rosie on her way to 2nd in the Extreme Slalom

Pat Keller going for it

France was awesome, cruisy and clean paddling. The highlight was definately a high water run down the Ubaye gorge with Dave Carroll, which had more push in there than usual.

And what to say about Norway: other than it rained constantly more or less the whole time I was there. Myself, Sam Hughes, Mikela Ramazza and another Italian ran Amot Gorge at a stupidly high level. Once in the gorge, which I hadn’t scouted, we couldn’t get out and the river was insane.

After that I had some good runs on the usual classics with Killian Kelly and the rest of the Irish lads, such as the Upper Jori and Finna. Sam and I did a slideshow of our India mission at the Sjoafest. I helped out in the massive recovery operation of the Russian rafters on Ausangjuvet, two of whom unfortunately drowned. A sad day for all involved, but it was great to see all the Sjoa locals pull together so well. After the accident I was amazed to see journalists wandering around the campsite where the Russians were staying, taking photos of them grieving. I also found myself quoted in a Norwegian newspaper as telling the Russians that the Sjoa “was very dangerous” due to the high levels. They quoted me accurately, but it goes to show how careful you must be in dealing with the media if ever involved, even remotely, in an accident.
Myself, Dave Carroll, Sam, Kim, Tim Trew, Nick Horwood, Killian Kelly and Irish Dave did an excellent Whitewater Safety Technician course with Jann at the Sjoa Kayak School. It is specifically tailored to whitewater paddlers and was by far the best course of its nature I have ever done. I cannot recommend this course enough. All in all a great trip, if somewhat waterlogged. I am now in Wales and have just finished a solo mission to climb all 15 3000ft peaks in North Wales. Next week I am doing a coastal skipper course, then back to France for a while.

All photos by Sam Hughes and Rosie Cripps

Bryan Smith’s 49 Megawatts

The Coruh, Zanskar, Arandal Pradesh, White Nile, Baktiari……all will be gone as we know them in ten years.

Thoroughly depressing that through short sightedness and greed we will be the last generation to enjoy many of the world’s last untouched places. It makes me so mad.

Take out of the Ahensal. Unloading four days of kit from the rafts

The market in Marrakech

Seafood in Essaouira

After a few weeks in Morocco, we drove to Slovenia where we ran an expedition for the Shackleton Outdoor course, and caught up with many friends for the wedding of Simon Westgarth and Satu Vansk.

The Soca is one of my favourite rivers, one of the best training runs in the world. I will try to post some kayaking photos in the next while, except Rosie seems unable to take photos unless there is an animal of some sort in the shot! In the meantime, I’m flying back out to Val Sesia, Italy where we are competing in the Teva Mountain Games. Happy days!

All photos by Rosie Cripps

Matt Tidy, Babu Sunuwar and Shalabh in the Zanskar Gorge.

The Tsarap Chu and Zanskar rivers flow through the remote, relatively untouched heart of Ladakh, and offer an impressive 5 to 8 day wilderness kayak experience through breath taking scenery, and gives a unique access to a fascinating ancient culture.
Through the winter months these rivers form the major trade routes for the region when the turbulent waters freeze, and they form a natural highway through the otherwise impenetrable mountains. Due to this, a large number of villages, towns and ancient fortresses and monasteries are still able to flourish, in much the same way they have done for centuries.

The trip starts with a 2 day drive to the high altitude put in point at Sarchu, before passing 180km on the Tsarap Chu to join the Zanskar river at Padum. From hear the Zanskar flows 120km through one of the most impressive gorges in the world, before it finally joins with the Indus just west of Leh.

Fresh water pours from a natural spring high up a cliff wall, Zanskar River.

Children in Purne village, Tsarap Chu River.

Monestary outside Leh

In August last year, while on our first attempt of the Tsarap Chu river, myself (Sam Hughes UK), Ali Donald (Ire), Dave Carroll (Ire), Rosie Cripps (Scot) and Rob Coffey (Ire) were hit by the biggest flood in the region for 30 years.

We came to the conclusion that with the knowledge we had at hand, it was best to abandon our equipment in a cave, and with the bare essentials make the 3 day trek, over several passes higher than 4600m (15 000ft), back to the road. Through a harsh mountain landscape, at high altitude, and with no trails to follow, this turned out to be a more challenging adventure than we could have expected.

Dave Carroll navigates his way through the turbulent flood waters.

The team inspect one of the narrows, where the swollen
river is compressed through a 3 meter gap.

After an exhausting day of portaging loaded boats, the team stop to discuss the options.

Rosie, Rob and Dave pack what they can carry, and stash the rest in boats at the back of a cave.

Rob Coffey and Rosie Cripps carrying what they can.

Dave Carroll takes a break to absorb the scenery, on the 1000m climb from Satok village to cross a 4800m pass.

Ali Donald contemplates what is safer. Cross the
bridge, or get back in the boat?

Ali Donald and Rob Coffey discuss the possibility of having our equipment retrieved with a local monk.

One of the local monks that covered the distance it had taken us 3 days
to do, 4 time in 5 days to retrieve our equipment. Respect!

Sarchu, the tented village at the put in for the Tsarap, where we waited for our boats.

6 days later we got our boats back, and proceeded to re-pack our equipment into them and get back onto the river, which by this time had dropped in level considerably. This was much to the amusement of the five monks who had just spend 4 days retrieving our kit after our first failed attempt!

Ali Donald makes his way back to the put in.

Matt Tidy makes his way through the first narrows, Tsarap Chu.

Babu and Shalabh prepare dinner over the camp fire, Tsarap Chu.

Roll out of bed and into your boat!

Phuktal Gompa seems to grow out of the jagged cliff face.

Posted by Sam Hughes- Across the Himalaya with a kayak Keep up to date with Sam’s recent travels as he recounts his epic Lhasa- Chengdu expedition over the next few weeks.

Not many people have been whitewater kayaking in Portugal. Over the past few years, stories began to circulate about a granite steep creeking paradise, but the impression I got was that the rivers were very fickle and rain dependent.
Well, just back from spending an awesome New Year mission in the hills around Porto, I can vouch that Portugal deserves to be ranked along with Corsica and Italy in terms of quality and variety of its whitewater.

Want to know a secret? You are more or less guaranteed quality whitewater all winter in Portugal. We arrived two weeks after rain, we ran most of the very steep low volume class 5 creeks as well as the larger volume class 3-5 runs which run solidly from October - April.

BC, Norway, Italy? No, Ferg O Mahoney scouts another big rapid on the Gargantuan de Paiva, Portugal.

Rivers paddled:

Castro- For class 5 steep creeking knuckleheads only. Like the Teigdalen in Noway, or the Codi in Corsica, this is one of the world’s best steep creeks

Fergal O Mahoney catching his breath on the Castro. We ran the 35 footer behind him blind, by accident due to a momentary lapse in spatial awareness by a member of the group. The locals call it Back Breaker. Don’t boof.

The drop in this photo is 120 feet (40 m) high.

Quality granite slides and drops with a multi pitch abseil portage in the middle. Be prepared for a long day.

Pitch two of the abseil portage. The locals sometimes jump 20 metres into the pool, but the day we were there the rocks were dangerously slippy due to rain.

Rob on the Castro

Heavy fog made scouting interesting

Gargantuan de Paiva- Awesome class 4-5 river in a deep gorge. A must do.

Catherine Halpin on the Paiva

Jim Kennedy on the Paiva

Rob on the Paiva

Tamega (Upper)- World class. Quality, big volume class 4-5. My favorite run in Portugal.

Catherine Halpin on the Tamega

Tua- 20 km of beautiful class 3-4. Reminded me of a minature version of the Zambezi, if such a thing can be imagined. Hop on the train for a shuttle. Sadly due to be dammed in the near future.

Cavado- Steep, clean granite slides. Paradise.

Alto Vez- We ran the class 4 lower part with very low levels. The upper is a class 5 mission with water in it.

Louredo In higher water this river would be a blast, in lower water it felt nasty and full of syphons when we ran it.

Deva A tributary of the mighty Minho river near Melgaco , a sweet class 4 warm up run

Vouga A long enjoyable class 4 day.

A classic rapid on the Vouga

Some logistics:

Fly with Ryanair to Porto (flights from Dublin, London and Frankfurt).
Hire two cars. There are three main paddling areas in Portugal, all about 1.5 hours from Porto:
1) Melgaco (near the Minho, Moro, Alto Vez, Castro rivers)
2) Mondim (near to the Tamega, Louredo)
3) Paiva river (several sections including the Gargantuan de Paiva and the unfortunately named ‘Sex Up’)

There are two guidebooks. The English one Portugal Kayak by Rui Calado is vital. A good map is essential, as even with the guidebook finding the put ins and take outs can be a real mission. Due to the laybrinthine nature of Portugese roads, naviagation can be very difficult. Try to hook up with the local boaters, they are among the friendliest I’ve met and are a great source of info.
Stay in Residentials( about 10-15 euro a night), or the excellent hostel in Melgaco. If you like meat you will love Portugese food. Eating out is very cheap. Portugal in winter is cold. I was happy to be wearing a drysuit. The rivers are all committing, walking out would be very tough. Be prepared for long days.

Here is a tip for carrying boats on rental cars: bring two planks of wood in your paddle bag, bring four jubilee clips (available in any hardware) and voila- you have one bomber roofrack

For more info check out http://www.pagayak.com/ run by local kayaker Jorge Jorge.

The local boaters were overwhelmingly friendly. We got the hook up in style wherever we went. We even got invited back to Jorge Rabisso’s grandmother’s house for some port- a first for me, I think. Without the local paddler’s knowledge we would have been lost (literally) on many occasions.

The rural villages have been devestated by emigration, and most of the young people have left. The economic situation in rural Portugal reminded me of Ireland in the 1980’s- an entire generation forced to seek work abroad.

Jorge Rabisso, Ferg O Mahoney, Felip, Fred, Catherine Halpin and Jim Kennedy

Overall, I couldn’t think of a better place for a winter boating mission than Portugal. Special thanks to Jorge Jorge, Jorge Rabico, Felip and all the local paddlers who made our time in Portugal so enjoyable. Now all we need is some snow for our two week boarding mission in the Alps next month.

Yes, I love Ryanair.

Photos by Jim Kennedy and Rob Coffey