I admit there was some hesitation on my part when hearing Kačka's idea of our summer break - canyoning with some friends near Lago Di Garda in Italy. Spending one week,  near the climbing Mecca Arco and the mountain biking heaven of Lago Di Garda,  participating in some strange sport while my climbing shoes and bicycle will stay at home was not too appealing for me.

So, just what exactly is this canyoning craze? In short, it is a way to travel down the river by means of abseiling, swimming and more interestingly jumping and sliding. One needs a neoprene wet suite, helmet, harness, slings, carabinas and ropes, preferably static ones. It is also recommended to hire a guide or, that is what we did, to have a canyoning guidebook for the area and the map. Our guidebook contained very detailed information about how to locate canyons, how many abseils are there, recommended months to visit and average water levels for those months, escape routes, the quality of protection, required rope length, and many more with the previous two turning out to be our main selection criteria. Pity, the guidebook was in Italian ;-).

Friday evening saw our expedition vehicle, stuffed with the necessary equipment, heading for the Czech-German border and then further south past Innsbruck, Brenner and Trento. Saturday was spent meeting up with the group of friends, finding the start of one canyon, a swim in Lago di Tenno, food and beer.

On Sunday, we set off for a little hors-d'oeuvre of what was to come. Short canyon Torrente Albola a.k.a Jacuzzi started with 40 minutes walk from the S. Giacomo church in Riva Del Garda. The canyon was nice and not very demanding, ideal for beginners one would say, although it took over 4 hours to complete (in comparison to 2,5 hours from the guidebook) for our rather large group of 9 people. Everyone felt quite comfortable and a smaller group drove off to do another canyon called Torrente Palvico while Kačka and me pointed our car towards Arco (yes, climbing). While finding our way through vineyards of Nago the heavy rain sorted our climbing plans for the day, and we followed the footsteps of our friends into the town of Storo (only to hear how beautiful the Palvico canyon was).

Author in Torrente Albola

Lower part of Torrente Albola

Rio Nero a.k.a. Jurassic canyon was our choice for the next day starting near the little village Tiarno di Sopra. The guidebook said that this 4 hours long canyon is very beautiful with a lot of water and some 22 abseils. It did not look that beautiful at the beginning due to cold weather, even colder water and very slimy rocks. My opinion gradually improved and after a few jumps and waterfalls this turned out to be the most beautiful and the most demanding canyon so far. “Nice one but I am glad it's over” expression could have been seen on our faces when we finally reached the car park after 7 hours in cold water. This is definitely the one to do again when the weather is warmer or preferably very hot.

Rio Nero

Jurrasic

Two and half an hour long Torrente Bianca canyon near Storo, which we did on Tuesday, proved easy and a kind of boring after the long “Jurassic” adventure from the previous day. Driving a very twisty and narrow road to the start of the canyon and the last 50 metres long abseil were, in my view, the only attractions of the day. Anyway, nice and easy day was needed by all of us to recover and get ready for Torrente Palvico, our plan for Wednesday.

Finish of Torrente Bianco

Torrente Palvico is actually another canyon on the same river as Jurassic. It is just a stone throw from Storo and in line with its higher relative it is truly beautiful but much shorter. Essentially, this canyon offers 3 hours of jumping, sliding and abseiling. The first abseil leads into the system of caves from which you emerge in a rock window at the top of the waterfall. Now you need to abseil 50 metres long waterfall and finish in the little lake below. One can also enjoy a bonus in form of admiring, at least I thought so, looks from the sunbathing Italian “chicks”. The popularity of this canyon is high and we had to share it with a few local guides and their clients. To their credit they are very friendly, unlike some alpine guides, and do not hesitate to share their knowledge. There are usually two or more abseil anchors to allow for speedy progress of multiple groups. To sum it up, if you only have time or guts to do one canyon then it ought to be Torrente Palvico. It was our last canyon in the area, so the next morning we payed the last visit to our favourite ice cream shop in Storo and with the delicious taste of liquorice ice cream slowly fading away, we drove towards the east bank of Lago Di Garda.

Last abseil on Torrente Palvico

“Are you sure this is the right way?” everyone asked our Spanish friend Chavier, the only one who could understand at least something from our canyoning guidebook written in Italian. “Yes, I think it is somewhere here.” he replied prompting frowns from drivers who did not like the fact that we have already passed two “no motor vehicles” signs and the road was more less a 4x4 track at this point. The canyon itself is nice and easy with a lot of short abseils, slides and pleasantly warm water but I am not sure that the following 4 hours of fun were worth risking possible problems that could result from the troublesome access.

“Under the ground” on Torrente Campiglio

And to finish the canyoning week off we made “the wrong” choice again. Torrente Baes a.k.a. Mugnaia Canyon begins with 45 minutes long accent from the Lake Garda beach and promises to take you all the way back again, so that you can have a swim in the lake at the end. The canyon would be nice if the road bridge upstream was not being repaired giving the water a “special” milky colour. If you can put up with the milky water then the canyon is well worth visiting as it takes its explorers through the ruins of an old castle before reaching Lago di Garda.

Torrente Baes

And that's all, folks :-). If you are up for a change from your typical climbing holidays and do not have allergy to water then give canyoning a try. It is great fun!

Water melon party / Lago di Garda

Guidebook: Gole & Canyons, part 2 Italia Nord-Est Maurizio Biondi, Francesco Cacace, Roberto Schenone

Inspiration (in Czech): Canyony 2003 http://www.lezec.cz/clanky.php?key=2381

Pictures were taken and are owned by all “expedition members”.