Germany, Austria, Slovenia

Our annual fall Europe trip took us to Germany, Austria and Slovenia (and Italy, but only shortly). In Leipzig we checked up on the Zoo, always an interesting outing! On the way to Slovenia we stopped at Koessen (fortunately we came through on a weekday as it is very busy on weekends), then continued on via Bischling to Lienz where we met a BC friend. We got to watch the Dolomiten Mann Red bull contest, flew Lienz and had an interesting encounter with the valley winds. Always something new even with over 1000 flights! After Lienz we headed to Camp Siber in Tolmin and got lucky... one of their cabins was free. Much more convenient than our tiny lightweight tent! Flying in Slovenia was fantastic again with my longest flight almost to Gemona and a couple others over the gap on Stol. I also explored for the first time the slopes of Krn. On the way back we drove up to Mangart and hiked/scrambled up the ridge.

Nahanni and Broken Skull Rivers, July - August

In July and August we paddled Broken Skull and Nahanni Rivers in the Northwest Territories. We were on the water for 21 days and paddled 500 km. The landscape is protected as a Canadian National Park and is also a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. For Peter and me this was the first river trip in canoes, up to now we have only used kayaks or rafts. But our friends had lots of canoe experience.

It took 2.5 hours to fly from Fort Simpson to the put-in at Divide Lake. Amazing untouched landscape of endless mountain ranges and big river valleys of the Mackenzie Mountains under our little bush planes (a Beaver and a Cesna).

From Divide Lake we paddled on the crystal-clear Broken Skull River through alpine landscapes past moose, bears and wolves.

Highlights along the Nahanni River were the Cirque of the Unclimbables with its sky high granite towers, thundering Virginia Falls (around which we had to portage our canoes and equipment) and the canyons of Nahanni.

On the river we saw only 5 other paddlers. This was a surprise as the Nahanni is a very popular canoe destination.

The three weeks on the river were our longest ‘expedition’ so far, requiring special preparation for the food, as the weight for the plane was limited and we had no refrigeration on the river. That's why we dried and dehydrated everything from vegetables over yogurt to tomato sauce and salsa. It worked out well and was tasty, even Jiri's spam dinner!

The North is famous for its mosquitoes but except for the last few days they didn't bother us too much. But as soon as we reached the end of the canyons the pesky insects came out en masse, so bad that we skipped the last hot springs - nobody wanted to take off the paddling jackets and expose any skin.

Canoes on board

Mackenzie Mountains and no sign of humans for hours!

At Divide lake

Broken Skull below Swallow Falls

Whitewater action

Good hiking here

Hot springs

Northern river views

One of our camps on the Broken Skull

Cirque of the Unclimbables

Virginia Falls

After the portage

Porcupine

Pulpit and gate in the third canyon

Deadman Valley (fortunately no dead man found)

First Canyon

Bison crossing!

Nahanni-Liard confluence

Epic Flying: July 24-28... without us

The weather for paragliding was not that great in May and June. Unfortunately when the conditions were ‘epic’ for one week in July with high cloud base and new Canadian records flown (two 200 km triangles by Igor and Alex) we paddled our canoes down the Nahanni in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. Guess you just can’t be everywhere at the same time, especially if the distances are great (23 hours by car ... interesting that we think of distances in driving times, just like 'light-years'!).

End of the Books

I finally shipped out the last of my whitewater guidebooks - to the MEC. When we brought the boxes full of books into our basement over 10 years ago I never expected that the books would out-last our whitewater paddling adventures and that we would move onto doing different things (like paragliding).

Missing this amazing time exploring rivers and creeks with good friends but it has been replaced by different views and adventures...

Whitewater in Southwest British Columbia - March 2007