Kayak adventures in the Sesia valley

Last week we jumped to our van and drived to Italy, to the Sesia valley. It is not so far from Milano, next to the Swiss border. It is a whitewater kayaking paradise, but perfect place for biking and hiking as well. On the end of the valley is the Monte Rosa, so there are possibilities to climb higher peaks as well. The main valley is the Sesia, and there are steep side creeks too.

First day, although we were tired from the journey, we were sitting in the kayaks and paddled one of the upper section of Sesia, 10 kms finishing in Balmuccia.

The last kilometer leaded in a beautifull canyon, where the big drops ending in pools.

We were camped next to the river, in one of the rafting company’s base and slept well after the long day.

Next day morning we run 11 km of the Sesia from Balmuccia, very injoyable Class 3 with waves, and some small drops.

For the afternoon we wanted to paddle some more exciting part, so we drived up to the put in of Egua. Steep river with low water and with a lot of rocks. It was almost dark, when we finish paddling.

Third day we started on the easy part again playing more in the waves and eddies.At mid day we went to Varallo to have a walk, to see the nice small town, after we went to paddle again.

We chose the Sesia river above Piode. Continous rapids with more water and with one realy big rapid, where we run the chicken line. A szakasz érdekessége volt, egy gát, melynél nem kellett átemelni, hanem egy beton alagúton lehetett lecsúszni a gát alá. Kinézetre nem volt túl bíztató, de gond nélkül lehetett átcsúszni.

Sötétedés után senkit nem kellett altatni, hamar eltette magát holnapra kis csapatunk.

The fourth day we had to choose different direction. Our friends stayed in the valley, couse they attended the ValSesia Kayak Festival. We went for a short excursion, we had half day, before start driving back to Bovec.

We returned to Bovec with a lot of good experience and nice moments in our mind.

you can find here more pictures:
http://socarider.com/sr2/index.php/en/kayak/67-kayak-adventure-in-the-sesia-valley

First kayak school of 2012

In the Soca valley it was really spring. When the tulips, narcisus are blooming, the tries are starting to  dress in green colour, the days are longer and warmer, the conditions are ideal for a Season opening kayak school!

Thanks for some rainy days, our kayak school could choose from different section of the river.
The upper Soca with the good waterlevel and with its wild beauty was a perfect choice to warm up, to refresh, what we learn last year. After a lot of practis we paddled the secund part of Koritnica, what is really fine for kayakers having some experiencies, because normally only after the rain you have enough water to paddle it. It is quite smaller river than Soca, but very beautiful, and thanks to its canyons, it is technical and exciting easy whitewater!

Our kayakers liked the Koritnica so much, that next day they wanted to run again.
And finaly we just finished the kayak school on the classical section of the Soca river (Srpenica-Trnovo) with bigger waves, continous rapids with more technikal lines between the rocks!

If you would like to have some adventurous days on the Soca, controlling your one person  kayak, come, and visit our Whitewater Kayak School!
More about SocaRider kayak school

Soca river cleaning action

On the weekend there was the traditional Cleaning Action in the Soca valley.
In the morning of 24 of March we were meeting with kayaks, gloves and plastic bags on the airfield of bovec. After a small briefing we started to clean the Soca river and its bank.
More than 70 people was in Bovec on the Cleaning Action. Not only kayakers and rafters, but kids and old people as well. Somebody started with kayak on the Koritnica and upper Soca rivers, others cleaned the put in and take out places on foot.
When we finished our work, we the orgeniser invited us for a good dinner!

It was a nice and usefull day, for the clean Soca!