Italy Mountain Games, Ivrea, Val Chiusella

-Honza Lasco on the Extreme Race Day 1 - Photo Arnd Schaeftlein

After 26hrs stranded in Milano Linate airport I had a break through and next minute I had a friend of a friend yelling out from his car getting my attention, quickly loaded the car and before I knew it I was on the motor way heading for Ivrea! Kees Van Kuipers was on his was and running a bit late so was on time to call in and save me from my spell in the airport! Within a few hours we were up in the hills but unfortuantly just missed the down river extreme race but good news was already out with Bliss-Sticks, Honza Lasco in 1st and Mike Dawson in a close second!

-The View from my tent the morning after 26hrs in the airport! Happy to be here! - Photo Josh Neilson

That night I got to catch up with the crew and hear horror stories from the race that day! The course is steep and technical and over the day there was broken ankles, ribs and other various injuries from running the Gnar at speed!

-Sam Sutton rolling off the start ramp - Photo Arnd Schaeftlein

Early the next morning was the Teams race! This was the first part of the overall World Championship title! Team Switzerland was missing a paddler due to the day before's incidents so i paddled for them which was an experience running the whole race blind without ever seeing the river before! I got in behind and kept close and rolled off every drop in the same place as who ever was in front in hope they stuck their line so i would too! At the bottom I was stoked to be down, uninjured and back on the river!

- Brad Lauder flying off the upper drops at full speed! -Photo Arnd Schaeftlein


- The Upper Gorge - Photo Arnd Schaeftlein

- Over all 2nd Mike Dawson navigating the upper race course - Photo Arnd Schaeftlein

Team kiwi (Mike Dawson, Jared Mehan and Sam Sutton) took the days top time taking them into the second round 15seconds up on the France!
The races now moved into town down the hill to a beafy slalom course where the boatercross, downriver sprint and the second round of World Champs for teams would be held!
I got a 7th place in the down river which was cool and only 2.6 second behind Italian Filippo Brunetti!

-Mike leading the pack in the boatercross - Photo Josh Neilson

-Louise Jull Coming from the back of the pack to win the Womens Boatercross - Photo Josh Neilson

-Louise Jull keeping focused and winning the womens extreme slalom - Photo Josh Neilson

To split up her slalom tour in Europe, Louise Jull who is traveling round in a truck with Mike Dawson, came to the race and dominated. Unfortunalty she didnt have a kayak to race in for the Val Chiusella race which means she couldnt be eligable for overall winner but she did cleanly win the slalom and Boatercross which was awesome to see!
Next up was the Teams Slalom which I moved down the pack to 27the out of 46 as this is definalty not my specialty but it was a fun race.
The next big event was the teams slalom. This was the second part of the World Champs for teams racing. With some very strict rules of missing a gate a 50sec penalty and also a touch of a gate 50 sec penalty it meant that if any team had even a touch they would be out for sure!

-A touch of NZ in Italy, this flag flew for the kiwi mens world champion team! -Photo Josh Neilson

Team NZ was last to run and with the French having clean and fast lines through the course! This meant that if NZ touched a gate they would loose the title right there! Mike came through the course clean followed by Jared..... Sam was the last to come into the last gate and also hit it clean! NZ took the title for World Champions for teams racing which is awesome!

- Team NZ (Jared Mehan, Sam Sutton, Mike Dawson) World Champion team racers - Photo Josh Neilson

The overall times for every race were added up to find the title for the Teva Cup and Mike Dawson took 2nd place which was another great result for NZ's Extreme racing crew!

Teva Cup Overall 2nd Place Mike Dawson - Photo Josh Neilson

Right after the event I loaded up a car with Valarie Bertrand from Norway and headed on a bit of a mission over night to Germany where she picked up some new kayaks then straight back to Italy to pcik up our kayaks we had left with Filippo.

-On our way to Germany we camped by the river to find this sign early the next morning! -Photo Josh Neilson

We went out for pizza itallian style and then a tour around Verona, Italy! A town we easily passed by on the way but stoked we got to check out! We walked around the city til 3am looking at castles, statues, arena from the Roman time and even checked out the place where Juliet lived and saw the balcony where Romeo stood below! An amazign town rich in history and very beautiful!

-Panoramic view of Verona, our last site before heading to Norway - Wikipidia

-1 of 12 bridges into Verona - Photo Wikipidia

-Verona square! beauty! - Photo Wikipidia

-One of many Castles along the way - Photo Josh Neilson


-Following Team Italy home from the race in Ivrea - Photo Josh Neilson

Straight from there we drove 1.5 hrs and caught a plane Olso Norway and then a 4hr drive to where i sit right now! Back in Norway and looking forward to the next chapter in the 09 mission! Tomorrow we will be back on the river here in Norway and getting ready for Voss Extreme Sports Veko next week! Lets go!

- Hanging with team Italy pre party on saturday! -Photo Josh Neilson

Vail Mountain Games training

-Downtown Vail - Photo Ron Fischer

Sweet so we are up here in Vail, Colorado after a sick mission to Quebec and a 3700km drive across USA to a small but nice Ski town. We arrived and met up with Ron and went to check out the race run at Homestake Creek about 10 minutes from downtown Vail! So the deal is stay upright, stay straight and wear as much body protection as possible! The run is short and tight with about 3cubic meters of water going down it!
We have done a few practice runs so far and its hard! Also because we are at 9000 feet above sea level, breathing becomes a bit hard and by the end of the 2-3minute run you are stuffed!
So here are a few shots from the paractice and will have more of an update as the races begin!
Cheers

-Josh Neilson, Homestake creek race training - Photo Anna Bruno


-Josh Neilson, Cold and tired in the mank - Photo Anna Bruno

-Sam Sutton avoiding the rock right in the middle of the drop! - Photo Anna Bruno

-Ron Fischer getting in some practice - Photo Anna Bruno

-Sam Sutton in amongst the rocks! - Photo Anna Bruno

- Relaxing at the flashest hotel ive ever been in! Cheers Ron - Photo Ron Fischer

-Lou Urwin dropping into the gnar - Photo Anna Bruno


- One of the nicer drops in the race - Photo Anna Bruno

- An old mining town below the race run on Gilmans Gorge - Photo Ron Fischer

Thanks for the photos from Anna Bruno and Ron Fischer

Quebec exploration

A few days ago we were introduced to a guy called Pat Levesque who lives up on the Saguenay River in a town called Chicoutimi. Pat invited us to stay at his place and on his days off he would show us the area. Over dinner on our first night Pat showed us his extensive research he had done on the area over google maps. Hundreds of pin points on the map all in a relatively small area area of bush north east of the town. This was one of the most amazing areas of whitewater potential Ive ever seen from space! The river that caught all our attention was the Bras Pilote which from space we could see it had some cool canyons and one stand out waterfall which looked massive but possibly runnable! At the put in we knew we had about 4 sections of big drops including the BIG one and some other fast moving bouldery stuff too! Right off the bat the bouldery stuff was bigger and faster than we expected but I guess anything looks small when you have scouted it from thousands of meters above the earth!

-Pat Levesque and I on the slide before the big one - Photo Tyler Fox

After an hour of sweet bombing down fast drops we came across a gem. It was a sweet 15foot clean drop which was a nice change from boulder gardens.

-Josh Neilson on 'Take Off' - Photo Pat Levesque

-Pat Levesque on 'Take off' - photo Tyler Fox

-Josh Neilson Below 'Take Off' - Photo Tyler Fox

Not long down stream after a slide looked like the edge of the earth! Usually horizon lines on rivers make kayakers excited at the potential over the lip. But when you are in the eddy above and can not see anything but sky out over the horizon then its a bit different. With a quick scout on the right and a peer over the edge it was apparent we were definatly portaging on the left. The height was possibly managable with a bit more flow but the entry was tight and too hard to clean a line over the lip.

Pat and I above the big one! - Photo Tyler Fox

-Tyler and Pat peering over the edge - photo Josh Neilson


-Me looking contemplating the possibility - Photo Tyler Fox

-Pat and I at the bottom feeling the power - Photo Tyler Fox

This was our first experience with a bit portage in quebec and all I can say is its hell! The trees are bunched up there is snow making caves to fall in and its steep! at the bottom looking up it was definalty an amazing place to be!

- Me portaging in the snow - Photo Tyler Fox

From here it was more class 3-4 bombing down to the bridge and take out near the confluence of the St Margarete.

-Tired bodies at the take out - photo Lou Urwin

The rest of the day we drove around in the park area scouting potential new first descents. The plan was hatched there and then for the next few days kayaking...

-Scouting Ulrich, Not fun! - photo Josh Neilson

Early the next morning we got up early and made our way into the park again. This time we were headed for Olaf Creek which flows into the St Margarite. At lunch time we made it to the put in and we were off. Tyler and I made our way across a few lakes before the gradient showed its face. When it did it did so fast!

-Josh Neilson on early drop on Olaf - photo Tyler Fox

Once we were a few small drops in we came across the first big land mark on our google map beta. A sweet slide but no exit point before a certain death gorge. The decision was made to portage high on the river left which took us about 1 and a half hours. It was brutal! By 2pm we were around the gorge but thinking hard about what was to come! We knew there was 8 more land marks we could see like this from the google map images so knew we had to keep the pace up to make it out before night! We put in on a ledge right below the last mank drop and ran it out. From above it looked like small holes but turned out they were huge and some big boofs needed to get out! From here the Olaf dropped consistantly and steeply all the way to the confluence to the St Margarite but with little time on our hands we didnt stop to document any of the drops. Definatly worth while though even with the portage in there!!!

-Some nice fun stuff in between the Gnar - Photo Tyler Fox

Here we paddled into the St Maragarite which now trippled the water we had on the Olaf and we knew there were some big drops ahead! Luckily the first was runnable! A sliding ramp into a big hole at the bottom! Tyler flew through it and i had a bit of a stall out in it but all sweet!

-Josh Neilson in Beaver Dam Falls - Photo Tyler Fox

- Josh Neilson below Beaver Dam Falls - Photo Tyler Fox

The Images from google shows a lot of flat water in between big drops but with this flow and more rocks than we expected there was some quality read and run rapids in betweens the big ones! There were only 2 portages in this bottom section and they were MASSIVE! Even if we felt like stepping up on the day these were still portages! maybe at low water they might go but not today!

- Portage of BIG holes and Gradient! - Photo Josh Neilson

- Another steep - Photo Tyler Fox

- Amongst the trees in the last portage of the day!! - Photo Josh Neilson

Soon after we were on the home stretch to the bridge right above the confluence of the Bras Pilote from the day before.

- Lou cooking in our new shelter at the Ulrich Drops - Photo Josh Neilson


-Put in for Ulrich at the lake - Photo Josh Neilson

That night we set up camp on a viewing platform next to some drops on Ulrich Creek with the intention of waking up and running 8km of that creek from the lake down. Tyler and lou ran shuttle and then we were on.

-Josh Neilson on an fast fun one - Photo Tyler Fox

Right away the river made its way down but we were soon met with a portage! Hopefully this was not going to be the theme for the day!

-Only Portage on Ulrich, might go lower flows... Photo Tyler Fox

We soon realised it was not and it got better and better! This was to be the only portage of the day and the drops were all classy! Sometimes boofs, sometimes melts, sometimes boulders sometimes slides... The real prize came near the end where we got a cool 4 foot boof into a pool then an easy sloping drop into a pool! It was so good I even went back for a second go!

-Josh Neilson above 'Pinacle Falls' - Photo Lou Urwin

-Dropping in - Photo Lou Urwin

- Lou taking the First D - Photo Tyler Fox

- Tyler Following orderly - Photo Lou Urwin

-An easy slide towards the end - photo Tyler Fox

The river kept dropping all the way tothe take out above a section of possibly runnable slides and drops but more water would be nice for these.

-The bottom part of the bottom section, more stacked on top of this! - photo Lou Urwin

So huge thanks to Pat for showing us this area and setting us up with 3 sick sections of whitewater to explore! Unfortunatly he couldnt come on the last 3 of 4 first descents but he now knows he has some classic runs in his back yard for the future! Exploration trips like this are a lot of work and preperation and Pat did a lot of this for us! With all the Driving, Scouting, Portaging and runnable whitewater in mind I have to say Im definalty coming back to this place again soon! All worth while!
We are now back in Chicoutimi thinking about plans for 1 or 2 more runs then the big haul down to colorado for Mtn Games. See ya soon!

-Lou Urwin- Photo Tyler Fox

For more info on rivers up here in Quebec contact Pat Levesque at www.centretorrent.com or info@centretorrent.com

Quebec Update 2

Here is just a quick update on today. We had a day of updating everyone on the net and then Tyler and Lou decided to whip across town and park and huck this sweet little drop in town. This drop is called Chute de la HaHa.

-Tyler Running the entry drop- Photo Josh Neilson

-Tyler on the main drop - Photo Josh Neilson

- Lou immersed in the curtain at the top, spot her paddle.. - Photo Josh Neilson

We are now getting ready for a mission tomorrow and now have another first d lined up for Thursday or Friday too! Too much to choose from! So little time...
Stay tuned