The Paddler ezine WW kayak collection 2013 | Page 122

ThePaddler 122

The snow melt usually
starts earlier in the east with the region of
Salzkammergut, well known to the German
speaking kayaking community as a spring
destination. Out to the west the melt comes a
little later. The River Inn is the main point of
focus, with tributaries such as the Sanna,
Pitzbach, and the Oetz all adding to its size
along the way making it the biggest volume of
white water in the Alps.

Austria is often regarded as summer destination
that should be paddled during July and August.
The Inn is at its highest and so too is the Oetz
Valley – an intimidating river that shows no real
mercy in its upper reaches and the lower can also
be slightly nerve racking in full flow! But during
the month of June the rivers are more
manageable and for a good kayaker it is good to
know that there are plenty of options as all the
major rivers and sections are running with flows
that you can enjoy but also take on a challenge!

Warm up

We met up with Tony from New Zealand and
Peter from California in St Anton am Arlberg and
laid out the plan. Basing ourselves in the west of
Austria for a couple of days gave us the
opportunity to warm up on the Inn and run
some of the tributaries such as the Sanna. The
Sanna is a classic Alpine Class III-IV river. It has
quite a steep gradient and everything keeps on
flowing and the technical feel is also coming
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