Photo Blaz Stan
We started
planning our trip a week before departure, but it got soon clear that our plan
of hitting Val Sessia around first of May will be a hard task. The weather got
cooler and the water was gone. Our second option was south Switzerland, the
canton of Ticino. The Italian speaking canton Ticino lies in the northwestern
Alps and it is drained by two major rivers, the Ticino river and the Maggia
river.
Photo Jan Praprotnik
Our first stop
was the valley of Verzasca river where we arrived late afternoon. The river runs through the
narrow scenic valley with impressive views on a surrounding mountains. It is 30
km long, originating at Pizzo Barone and later draining into Lake Maggiore.
Photo Jan Praprotnik
Verzasca is a
well known river in the Alps for kayakers, because of its bedrock and boulder
garden style. Due to the low water level we were only able to paddle the
classical lower part for a couple of times, but nice clean slides and crystal
clear water made it up for the low flow.
Photo Jan Praprotnik
Next day we woke up thinking what to do. We
knew, if Verzsasca is low than the rest is no better. Nevertheless we decided
to check the river Ribo, which is about an hour drive away from the Verzasca
valley. Ribo river drains into Maggia river and is most famous for its 16 meter
waterfall. Luck was partially on our side this time and we were happy to see
the Ribo waterfall working at a low flow.
Photo Urban Rejc
The highlight of
our trip was paddling the Canobino river, which is located on the Italian side
of Lake Maggiore. It is approximately a 4 km long canyon run, consisting of
class 3 and class 4 rapids. Despite its low flow, it was a great run with bony
parts, where the canyon is wider and nice smooth rapids, where the canyon gets
narrower. The most challenging parts of this river are scouting and a must run
rapids, some almost impossible to scout.
Urban Rejc
