Canyoning in the French Alps

Tweet

The more time you spend traveling, the more you will realize that opportunities to do cool stuff and meet interesting people often come when you least expect it.  The day after “Gorgeous Girls, Fast Boat, French Riviera” I found myself enjoying one of the specialty 1 Euro beers on the patio at Villa St. Exupery hostel.  As I was trying to figure out what to do the next day, a guy came up to me who spoke very little English.  Aside from the word “canyon” I couldn’t really make out what he was saying, however the pictures he provided were all I needed to see. Imagine:

natural water slides cascading into crystal clear pools, at the bottom of a 500 ft canyon.

Umm, yes please?  Want my money, here you go, take it, just get me to this place!  That is basically how it went.  After having to get up a little earlier than we were used to (“quarters” was the game of choice the previous evening) we somehow made it in to vans that carried us away from Nice and into the French Alps.  The mountain views were spectacular, and proved to be a nice compliment to the prior days we had spent lounging on the Mediterranean.

Once we reached the  trailhead, we each took turns cramming our bodies into the oldest, and tiniest wet suits known to man.  See picture for full effect.  Groups of nearby hikers looked at us like we were insane.

Picture a group of clueless people in wetsuits in the middle of the Rockies in June.

Yeah that was us.  But it only took a few short minutes for our humility to turn into all out awesomeness.  As we hiked down the trail in our suits, harnesses, and helmets (Bicycle helmets circa 1994, to be exact) we reached a creek.  Hmmm, nowhere else to go.  Down the creek we go, walking, swimming, falling, whatever worked!

About 5 minutes down we reached a cliff.  It probably measured about 15 feet high and there was no way around it.  After a few confused moments our guide shouted “jump!”  We then took turns jumping into the mountainous pool below and feeling like total badasses in the process.  Little did we know, this was just the beginning.  The entire canyon was about 2km long, and was filled with about a dozen drops that were anywhere from 5 to 45 feet.  In addition to the drops were natural water slides that were a cross between Raging Rapids and National Geographic.  200 foot long mossy rock slides, that weaved in and out of the narrow canyon, pretty cool stuff.

The most tense moment came about two thirds of the way through our decent when the guide gave us the option of another slide that dropped off about 15 feet into a pool, or doing the 42 ft. jump.  To do the jump, you had to clip into a rope and shimmy your way up a cliff side to get to the leaping off point.  Only four out of about 20 of us decided to go this route.  Upon reaching the top our guide calmly reminded us to make sure we jumped in the absolute perfect way (over the five feet of vegetation, into the middle of the pool, with your legs together)…

…because someone died two weeks prior doing the same jump.

Sweeeeeeeeet.  Well…there was no turning back.  Fortunately, no one died.  Although, one of the Canadian’s did take kind of an awkward fall into the water.  Before the adrenaline could wear off from the jump, we immediately encountered the next obstacle: the 60 foot waterfall.   Once again, only one way to go: down.  We set up the ropes and took turns rappelling down the water fall.  When was the last time you rappelled down a water fall?

This whole trip all gets back to the idea that you have to be willing to accept adventures when they come along.  I think Heath Tully of Project 183 said it best, “never let uncertainty get in the way of a great opportunity.” Take this trip for instance, I could have been put off by the crazy French guy who drove the most run down car imaginable.  But instead, I have one more memorable experience that I can write about here!

Have you ever been canyoning or taken a similar adventure trip?  Tell us about it in the comments!

Tweet