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| My wife and I had an extended
break from work scheduled and were looking forward to the time off to
pursue our true passion in life - Scrapbooking! Unfortunately, a
horrible mishap involving a nasty paper cut left me unable to use glue
or paste (on doctors orders), and severely restricted my ability to
use those wavy scissors that produce a decorative border. So we
decided to go to the Spanish Pyrenees to the 2nd International
Canyoning Rendezvous instead. |
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| The event was held in
Ainsa, Spain - a small town located in the northeast corner of the
country where the Rio Cinca and Rio Ara meet (for those of you, who
like me, do not speak Spanish, Rio means 'River', don't let the
language thing intimidate you, all you really need to remember is that
'Cerveza' means 'Beer'). The plan for the event was canyoning during
the day and movies and slide shows in the evening. The local Elk's
Lodge must have been booked however, so the organizers settled on the
use of a local castle as base for the event instead. El Castillo was
completed in 1610 by Felipe II to provide fortifications against
French invasion. |
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| Due to jet lag and a
general lack of motivation (keep in mind the whole scrapbooking
incident weighed heavily on me) we awoke rather late on the
first day and arrived at the castle to find that almost everyone had
already left. John, my wife and I hooked up with a British fellow
named Evan (who is obviously just as lazy as we are) and our gracious
host Koen (Poco
Loco Adventures) outfitted our ragtag group with gear and pointed
us in the direction of a little canyon down the road called Foz de la
Canal. Skies were overcast by the time we arrived at the trailhead and
as we hiked to the canyon the clouds opened up and unleashed sheets of
rain. Given that none of us had been through this canyon before, and
we weren't really familiar with canyons with flowing water, and we
didn't know whether the possibility of a flash flood existed, we made
the only sensible decision given the conditions ..... and decided to
go for it.* Here I am rappelling on my butt. |
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| (Photo by
John Hart) |
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| The dynamics of flowing
water make these canyons very different from most of those encountered
on the Colorado Plateau in the US. The roar of the falls makes
communication difficult, the force of the water makes rope placement
critical and drowning suddenly becomes a real danger. On the positive
side it makes it much easier to conceal the fact that you've pee'd in
your wetsuit. |
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| Emboldened by surviving our first Spanish canyon, we joined a larger group on
Day 2 for
an excursion down Consusas Inferior. The canyon is longer, somewhat
more difficult and has a checkered history. It is also fed by snowmelt
this time of year, so we fervently hoped we wouldn't be swimming in
the frigid, icy water. |
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Oh well ............. |
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| Bertrand and Delphine from
France did an exceptional job leading the trip. The language barrier
didn't seem to pose much of a problem, since the team was bound by the
camaraderie of the shared activity (by the way, traveling in France is
easy even if you don't speak the language thanks to the fact that
the French word for 'Beer' is 'Biere'). This is the big rappel at the
end of Consusas Inferior. |
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| * Lest I seem
irresponsible, Foz de la Canal is both short and drains a small area.
A discussion of whether to continue did occur before entering the
canyon, and the risk associated with proceeding was determined to be very low.
Those who held misgivings were eventually won over by our infectious
stupidity. |
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