08-01-2011
tros-marets, België
Mr Guide:Due to the huge melting snowpack and warm weather, level remained steady around 95cm, even without rain. Second objective was to run the Tros-Marets but prospects were not too good with alarming reports on wood and tree traps. With Thomas bottling out due to family obligations a team of 5 pushed on and found their thrills with the river well filled and luckily not too many trees in bad places. In fact 95cm is OK level for the Tros-Marets but everything moves on fast and eddies are small and scarce so upfront inspection of the key sections is a good idea (not that we did this in practice, , tracking around in the knee deep snow is really killing, assuming that you find a good eddy to get out first?.). Around that time, Peter and Stef decided to slow down the pace by putting in a leisurely swim at the Deux Chenes drop that never fails to come as a surprise. The ensueing boat chase drained a lot of energy so only two were up to run the little gorge. In fact, Stef joined midways where we recovered his boat. It was mainly at the big drop and the subsequent steep section that it really became clear that the river was on the high side of medium, putting us temporarily in survival paddling mode. The boil after the big drop was quite substantial and I did not manage to clear it right away, exciting with Jorg coming in close. Luckily he opted for the far left line followed by a nice backender? By the time we arrived at the Saut des cuves, only two were still paddling and for me, that is really where the story should have ended. After running this final drop, the imminent lack of good eddies and completely exhausted arms had me boofing in a not so pleasant tree trap on one of the last boulder rapids. Pinned vertically with nose up and out of reach&sight of the team, I was lucky enough to escape from my kayak and only surrender my paddle to the river? An appropriate price for not paying enough respect?
When the remaining gear was assembled, darkness started to kick in so no triple Crown (Hoegne-Tros Marets-Bayehon) on this day?.
't rekkerken:
We hebben een probleem bij de uitstap van de Tros Marets. nl. Door de sneeuw kunnen we de auto's niet parkeren. Uiteindelijk na wat heen en weer rijden en enkele telefoontjes kunnen we alle misverstanden snel oplossen en parkeren we een beetje verder aan een camping. Bij de eerste verkenning ziet de rivier er nogal heftig uit. Dat is ook zo. Ik moet niet eskimoteren maar bij het varen is de bovenkant van mijn boot is soms dichter bij de rivier dan de onderkant.
Om het met de woorden van Bruno te zeggen: ?combat paddle? dus.
Dat winnen we,... voorlopig althans. Bij les deux chênes gaat het al mis met de nodige zwempartijen.
Ik en Johan besluiten om de kloof om te dragen. Bruno en Jorg varen de kloof stef stapt halverwege in. Na de kloof kom ik direct weer in de problemen en besluit ik dat het beter is om te voet verder te gaan.Niet lang daarna maar na enkele probleemjes besluit de rest van de groep dan ook maar te stoppen met varen.
