Читать книгу Canyoning in the Alps. Graded routes in Northern Italy and Ticino, Austria, Slovenia and the Valais Alps онлайн

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On foot

A reasonably well-marked path climbs from the car park at the end of the road. Follow signs to Geimen (reached after 40mins), then Blatten (40mins) and finally Riederalp (20mins to Parking B).

Public transport and hitch-hiking

There is a bus stop at the turning to Hegdorn. Buses (service 12.624) go all the way to Parking B. They start at 7am and run every hour until 11pm. See the Postbus website (www.postbus.ch) for more details. With so many cars plying up and down the road, hitch-hiking is unlikely to be too difficult.

APPROACH FROM PARKING B

Follow the road that descends to the base of the dam. Cross the river (parking possible) and go right to where a flood-warning sign marks a faint path to the river bed.

DESCENT

The descent begins with 30–45mins of boulder hopping in open streamway. The canyon narrows for a few short pitches with deep pools before the boulders begin again. Look out for the tunnel on the left (intermediate access point). There is more nondescript streamway, then things get more interesting again, with a string of three enclosed pitches. The third is awkward to rig, requiring acrobatic manoeuvres over the pitch-head to reach the main anchors. A more open section then follows, where the striped gneiss gives way to white granite. The canyon then closes down for the most spectacular section, the ‘Cathedral’, where all the water is funnelled through a 1m-wide gap before plunging into an airy 25m-deep abyss. An enormous boulder field is the final obstacle, where route-finding can be difficult. The canyon ends at an old water conduit on the right.