evanojenkins
04-04-2010, 11:52 AM
There are a group of canyons in Europe that flow out from below the biggest alpine glaciers. These canyons have enormous water flows in the summer months and would be completely impossible to descend, but in the months of October, November, and December the water starts to fall, and for a short period of time canyoning them becomes a possibility before they freeze up for the winter. Perhaps the most famous of these is Trummelbach, the deep slot below the glaciers of the Eiger, but there are many others (probably many more to discover too), so I spent lots of the weekends of November and early December in central Switzerland experiencing some of these magnificent descents.
Gamchischlucht near Kiental in the centre of Switzerland was at the top of the list. It had been descended before, but very little information was available. So at the end of October 2009 I met up with Stephane Cote, Pascal van Duin, and Manu Belut to make a descent. The hike up was in deep snow, right up to the glacier which we crossed passing ice caves and crevasses. It felt more like hiking into a backcountry ski run than a canyon. Then at 2000m altitude the canyon began!
Initially the canyon was open and we even got some sun as we rappelled down the icy waterfalls. But then we came to a drop where the water poured out of sight. It didn’t look like a big drop, in fact I though I could make out the bottom 30 ft below, but when I was on rope I swung into an enormous underground void. I whistled up to Pascal for more rope as although I couldn’t see the bottom I clearly needed a lot more rope. Then as I continued it became impossible to avoid the main flow and my head lamp broke off my helmet and fell down to the bottom of the drop far below before going out. The remainder of what turned out to be a 60m (200ft) rappel was quite memorable in pitch black, ice water blasting into my wetsuit which I’d not fully closed, and hoping that Pascal had enough rope to get me to the bottom with a delay for a changeover!
It was, and we re-grouped at the bottom to share experiences from the drop. What followed next was an incredible section of canyon in almost pitch black darkness (luckily we had a spare headlamp). Several more rappels, including another in a very strong jet. Finally the roof opened high above and a beautiful walking section led to a final crawl under a rock to exit the canyon.
Gamchi was an amazing adventure, and was repeated the following few weekends by friends and other canyoners based on our recommendation and description. It’s certainly joined the ranks of the most interesting canyons in Europe.
Photos below from Pascal, Manu, and me:
Evan
Gamchischlucht near Kiental in the centre of Switzerland was at the top of the list. It had been descended before, but very little information was available. So at the end of October 2009 I met up with Stephane Cote, Pascal van Duin, and Manu Belut to make a descent. The hike up was in deep snow, right up to the glacier which we crossed passing ice caves and crevasses. It felt more like hiking into a backcountry ski run than a canyon. Then at 2000m altitude the canyon began!
Initially the canyon was open and we even got some sun as we rappelled down the icy waterfalls. But then we came to a drop where the water poured out of sight. It didn’t look like a big drop, in fact I though I could make out the bottom 30 ft below, but when I was on rope I swung into an enormous underground void. I whistled up to Pascal for more rope as although I couldn’t see the bottom I clearly needed a lot more rope. Then as I continued it became impossible to avoid the main flow and my head lamp broke off my helmet and fell down to the bottom of the drop far below before going out. The remainder of what turned out to be a 60m (200ft) rappel was quite memorable in pitch black, ice water blasting into my wetsuit which I’d not fully closed, and hoping that Pascal had enough rope to get me to the bottom with a delay for a changeover!
It was, and we re-grouped at the bottom to share experiences from the drop. What followed next was an incredible section of canyon in almost pitch black darkness (luckily we had a spare headlamp). Several more rappels, including another in a very strong jet. Finally the roof opened high above and a beautiful walking section led to a final crawl under a rock to exit the canyon.
Gamchi was an amazing adventure, and was repeated the following few weekends by friends and other canyoners based on our recommendation and description. It’s certainly joined the ranks of the most interesting canyons in Europe.
Photos below from Pascal, Manu, and me:
Evan