Over the last few years ULKC's Alps trips have settled on a tried and tested format which maximises enjoyment, safety and progression for everyone involved. In keeping with this formula myself and Andrew Regan were asked to plan the first week of this years trip, which would involve bringing 15 of the best paddlers in the club to Italy and running a week of coaching on personal paddling and rescue skills. Fortunatly there's a limit to how much planning can be done for a week like that, with a lot depending on water levels and people's abilities which we wouldn't know until we were out there. This meant that once we had a chat and came up with the basic format for the week I was free to sit back and focus on college stuff until exams finished.
My last exam was on a Friday, that evening there was a going away party for friends who are leaving for Canada for the forseeable future. The following day would be spent packing the vans and trailer for the trip, followed by a club BBQ at the boathouse. On Sunday morning we left for Les Alps. So I headed into college on the day of my last exam with everything I would need for the next three weeks. Yes I got lots of funny looks walking into college carrying a pile of camping kit. Thankfully all my kayaking gear was already in the boathouse, that would have just looked ridiculus!
When that exam was over (Heat transfer; yuk!) I finally got to taste freedom! It was straight to Curraghbrin for a BBQ, followed by Costellos, followed sleeping in the back of a van cos we lost everyone who owned a house, followed by packing the vans, followed by another BBQ, followed by crashing on a sofa, followed by being woken up and being told to get in a van to go to the ALPS!! Pretty epic start to an epic trip! Apologies again to Bry, a vegetarian, for insisting that she tried my perfectly cooked steak on Friday night, that can't have been pleasant!
Practising the dance to what became the most anticipated song on the playlist, Nelly the Elephant, at the BBQ on Saturday night. I'm sure anyone who saw this in action didn't know what to think!
...a word on those vans, since they attract a lot of interest wherever we go. The belong to the UL Students Union, and they are there for clubs and societies to use whenever they want. It's a pretty unreal set up! Competition for them can be pretty fierce between the different clubs, with a lot of negotiation and give-and-take going on to make sure that that they are fairly shared and that they go to the right club if there's an especially important event on, for example an intervarsities. They are driven by students with sufficient driving experience who have been nominated by their club committees and have passed a specific driving test organised by the SU. They get well used, most years the van will travel to the alps three times, with us, the mountain bikers and the skydivers! The minibus gets used less, as you have to be 24 to drive it and have a specific licence, which excludes most students.
The Wolves are escaping! At the ferry port.
Mark, Andrew and Eoin loaded up and ready to go. Coming soon, the most anticipated music video release of the summer, Mark Scanlon covers 'My Milkshake Brings All The Boys To The Yard', filmed on location in the ULSU Sprinter, with backing vocals by Niall Crosbie and Emer Farrell.
Back to the trip, we made it to the ferry port at Rosslare remarkably on time and without incident, rolled onto the ferry and passed the 16 hour journey by chilling out, catching up on sleep and laughing at people getting fantastically drunk on their last Irish bottles of wine for a while. When we got to Cherbourg, after a moment with French passport control (Have you checked your pocket Rob?) we settled in for the long journey to Italy. Almost immediatly, the trailer starts making funny noises. Having had more drama due to misbehaving trailers on previous Alps trips than its possible to count, we get extremily worried, stop, think we can feel a rattle in a wheel bearing and run off to find the nearest mechanic. We find one who rattles it around a bit and then tells us through a mixture of sign language and facial expressions that it's fine and we should piss off and stop wasting his time. So we turn up the music and press on, trying to ignore the intermittant banging that we decide must be coming from the draw-bar. Thankfully, the music was a playlist made by getting everyone on the trip to submit one song which luckily were a.) 95% excellent and b.) mostly well suited to being turned up loud and used to drown out unwanted noises.
As you approach the Alps the mountains start to grow in front of you and the scenery gets more and more spectacular.
Thanks to the tachometer in the minibus, epic non-stop drives across France are out of the question. The minibus is also electronically limited to 100 km/h which considerably slows progress. We make it as far as the outskirts of Lyon that first night, where we stop at a truck stop for a few hours rest. Thanks to warm, dry continental weather, we spend that first night sleeping out on the ground under the stars, with no need for any kind of shelter except a sleeping bag! Who would wish for a bed when you could have that! The next morning we get up early to beat the traffic and spin into the middle of Lyon to pick up one of the lads, Niall, who spent the winter working in a French ski resort. We get out of there and onto the road west asap, since if we make decent enough progress we might just make it to Val Sesia in time for a warm up paddle.
Stopping for the obligatory photo op at the entrance to the Mont Blanc tunnel. It looks even better in real life, and no, I'm not talking about Rob's tattoos!
Several hours of driving banter later we make it to Val Sesia tired, smelly and a little dehydrated but hyped up for a few weeks of epic boating. We quickly set up camp and leg it off to paddle the Alpine sprint section of the Sesia. The Alpine Sprint is a sweet few kilometers of bouldery Alpine river, which gets beautifully steep and pushy in places. It's a sudden wake up call after the days of travelling but we get down it with no drama and it leaves everyone buzzing and ready for whatever the next few days will bring. We even got to do a few sneaky runs on the start ramp that was set up for the Sweet rumble boaterX that was happening the following weekend, in case the opening paddle on the Alpine sprint wasn't enough for anyone!
Idyllic setting for a campsite, on an island in a river in Italy's Val Verde, or green valley. Photo by Sean Murphy. The view we wake up to every morning is spectacular, and covers 360 degrees. Pictures simply don't do it justice.
That's it for now. Stay tuned for another update in the next few days giving the full story of our training week in Val Sesia, Italy. Later!
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