Intermission update - Upper seti mission and head cam footage

Heading into the upper canyon, Porters make life a lot easier! photo Anton Immler


Montage pic of Me on and looking at OUT, Photo Anton Immler





While i take some time out to update you on the Nepali Girls kayaking Expedition I had the opportunity to head back into the hills once more with some old and new friends to check out what Will Clark and Anton Immler had found a few weeks ago. At 5.45 the alarm went off and Anton and I gathered our gear and in the darkness headed for the main st. As light came in over Pokhara a few other guys we had met arrived for the same mission. With the Jeep loaded up we headed about an hour out and with porters laden with all our gear we headed for the Upper Canyon of the upper Seti River. We thought we may have time to get the Upper canyon today also but with no idea on where the track was and diminishing daylight we were forced out of the first descent and down into the gorge that had only been run for the first time a week ago. This was no dissapointment as i knew we were still in for a ful on afternon! We nailed about 100m of First descent then it was into the lower canyon section. About 20mins of class 3 bombing then we were at the canyon entrance. We made the call that we had enough time to make it out with light and dropped in. Within minutes we were at drop 1, now named 'IN'.

Josh Neilson - Rapid IN - Photo Tim Ripper

The reason for this is this is the only way to get into the gorge is to run this drop, no portage. It is a sweet 40foot drop but has a nasty cave on the right and a not so bad one on the left. After comiting to the gorge there is another must run drop called ' twist', a manky drop which u have to bust hard left but avoiding the wall so u dont bounce back into the right and into an undercut seive! 2 people have been through this sive already and its no t pretty. They made it through fine though. Right after twist is 'OUT'

Me loking at Tim Riper running OUT - Photo Anton Immler

The reason for it being called this is the only way out of the gorge is to run this drop, no portage. Once again it is a 40foot drop with a fast wavey lead in. this time there is also caves on both side but not so bad.
Now that your out of the canyon you still have 2 more sweet drops, 'Scream' and Shout'. Smaller but a lot of fun! from here the steepness lowers but the drops keep coming. Due to our late afternoon paddle we got in a line and bombed our way down to the take out following the tail in front and keeping an eye out for the person behind. At the take out we thought we might have the natural hot springs to ourselves but no luck, seems there was some sort of festival on and people everywhere.

Paddling away from OUT - Photo Anton Immler

The boys have headed back into the Seti today with overnight gear to try get up above the Upper Canyon and explore up there as well.
Chur
josh

Tomorrow there will be more info on the Himilayan River girls trip and maybe a head cam vid from the upper seti, Internet here is pretty slow so have to do things slowly. It will come
Cheers