Whitewater tour into the Engadin

We arrived on Saturday, and the paddling started on Sunday. As the first river, the Sanna was chosen, which is formed by the confluence of the Trisanna and Rosanna and flows into the Inn after about 8 km near Landeck. Since the section is relatively short, the Sanna is usually run twice; experienced whitewater paddlers call these „runs“. Some paddlers did a via ferrata in the morning and didn't take part in the first run. Except for one swimmer at the well-known and popular Pians rapid – a relatively steep gradient stretch with some blockages, but who was quickly rescued – the section was run successfully. For the second run the group, with an impressive 15 paddlers, was now complete and ran the Sanna this time without incident, so that everyone arrived at the campsite happy and content in the late afternoon.

On Monday we paddled the namesake Inn section around the Swiss town of Scuol, where, as in the whole Engadin, people speak the fourth Swiss national language, Romansh. The drive that day was a bit lengthier, as the busy Reschen Pass road to Italy was closed and so a lot of traffic had to roll over the small road in the Inn valley. The Scuol stretch is a scenically very beautiful section with whitewater grade 2–3; the key spots Happy Snapper, Locomotive and Frenchman are a bit harder at grade 4 but can easily be portaged. Since everyone in the group already knew the stretch, we ran it through, enjoyed the lovely scenery, the weather and the lively water without incident. Just before the take-out at the Praedella reservoir, we could see that another former key spot, an impressive cushion wall called „black wall“, which disappeared a few years ago through a mudslide, is slowly being washed clear by the river again.

On Tuesday we went a little further up the Inn; the Susch section was paddled – beginner-friendly grade 2 combined with the Giarsun gorge, more demanding grade 3–4. Since Wolfgang and Christian hadn't yet paddled this section, the excitement was a bit greater, also because aborting the run in the Giarsun gorge is no longer possible: as the gorge is surrounded by high rock walls, you can only get out of the gorge right at the start and shortly before the end of the stretch. Thanks to the good lead paddlers Werner and Werner, this section too was successfully mastered. Christian, born in the Altmark, the home region of Reich Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, was thoroughly tossed about once at the key spot „Prussian slingshot“, but was able to continue without getting out thanks to a confident command of the capsize roll.

On Wednesday some wanted to run the Scuol stretch again. Since the Inn had low water and the Scuol stretch, apart from the key spots, gives experienced paddlers rather fewer adrenaline rushes, Wolfgang and I joined a breakaway group that wanted to paddle the namesake Ache in the Ötztal, commonly called the Ötz for short. The lower section had an unusually high water level and thus promised more excitement. Apart from the fact that the car parks at the put-in in the village of Ötz and at the take-out in Haiming now cost money too, there were no changes worth mentioning compared with previous years, and this day too was spent happily with a lovely paddle tour.

On Thursday the Giarsun gorge was paddled once more. A small group of 5 paddlers, including Wolfgang and Christian, did a somewhat longer paddle tour and paddled the Ardez gorge directly adjoining the Giarsun stretch. This is a bit more demanding than the Giarsun gorge; here there's the „Bock chute“, absolutely unrunnable at this water level, which was portaged somewhat laboriously on the left bank over logs and (big!) rocks. Another highlight is the so-called „sky gazer“, a drop about 2 m high where it looks as if the person in front suddenly disappears. This spot got its name from the time when whitewater was still paddled in long 4 m boats. With these long boats you inevitably got water on the stern after the drop and did a candle, so the paddler could look at the sky. For the two of us, because of the high, straight drop, it at first felt more like a „hell gazer“, but we were able to paddle the section successfully. On the previously completed Giarsun section, the Inn again showed that it can determine the paddlers' origin very precisely and tossed Christian about once more.

On Friday there was finally a paddle-free day; the two of us went hiking from the campsite. We hiked the very beautiful Raduschl gorge, the handsome high valley and nature reserve Pfundser Tschey, and the local mountain Pfundser Frudiger, about 1200 vertical metres away at 2153 m. Since the total distance, at around 25 km, wasn't exactly short either, we were both relatively tired in the evening and, for a change, went to bed early.

Saturday was farewell day; most of the group departed, of course not without paddling together one more time: again the Sanna in Landeck, but this time at a far lower water level, which in my opinion made the Pians rapid a bit more demanding, as more blocks protrude from the water than with more water. But then again, it flows (a little) more slowly too. No one had to get out or roll, and so a very lovely week of paddling came to an end!