Deep in the eastern Alps

This last trip in and around Austria has been a special one. We haven't ever been on a kayak trip through our home country for two weeks since that's usually enough time to drive to Piemonte, Ticino or even Norway. We ended up on this rountrip because Daniel Brasuell decided he wanted to visit the eastern alps and Jim Janney decided to come with him.

Since this area is something like our backyard and we spend many weekends there, we figured it would be fun to show Daniel and Jim around the Eastern Alps.

Reiner picked the guys up in Munich Sunday morning and we all met up at Gimbach before noon to warm up with a little hike-in for the short but fun run. The weather was very cold and it had rained and snowed the last couple of days. The rain was actually very well timed since all the runs in the Salzkammergut area wouldn't have been possible without it.

You can call it FAIL, you can call it ART.... Fact is, I was too slow setting the ISO...

Robert Machacek

Jürgen Maier on one of the slides

Jim Janney waking up after a long flight

After Gimbach we bombed down Rettenbach and finished the day on the infamous Koppentraun run at somewhat high levels.

Since the weather got even colder in the evening and a boat also needed some welding we decided to spend the night at our uncle and aunts' house. Also the sauna there isn't bad when it's 5°C outside.

Because of the cold weather and since the rain had stopped we decided to drive to Untertalbach the next day, so it wouldn't drop out on us. After a fun first lap with taking pictures and video we had some more quicker laps. Untertalbach is one of the best creeks in the eastern alps and despite the level being medium-low the group had a lot of fun there. Also it turned out that taking pictures near angry farmers can also be much more dangerous than running the waterfalls.

Untertalbach!

Daniel Brasuell, same drop

The GlanzBros. entering the mini gorge, Photo: Jürgen Maier

short while later, on the slides, Photo: Jürgen Maier

To end the day we drove on to Lammer to have some evening laps on the Lammeröfen, another classic in the Salzkammergut area. It's a short run with nice whitewater and breathtaking views.

The Lammeröfen: what a rad place!

Well, we hoped to get on a (illegal) run in Germany the next day, but the creek turned out to be too low, so we ran the Saalach gorge instead and decided to switch over to Slovenia next. Some did the scenic drive over the Großglockner pass road while Harald picked up Hannah and the kids in Villach.

Saalach Lofer gorge, another short but beautiful classic

Cooming soon: Soca.

Harald