Fluaz

Fluaz

Descent of this huge canyon, finally we did it but in difficult conditions

This is the start place, in the upper valley there is the Gavirolas canyon we did the day before; today the other 4 teammates decided to go back because it was lightly raining during the walk in, they missed a great day

From the first meter the canyon is extraordinary, the carvings are crazy, smooth

We can climb a lot and rappel only short drops 

There are plenty of rock arches, it's really gorgeous

and here a siphon, too deep and cold to dive it ! Today i am with Manu and Vincent

WE are very excited and too quick

Here a little jump, it's all 4 stars level !

Water is quite high but not a problem here

Little nice drop

After this slot the canyons open for a very long section with plenty of complex waterfalls to rappel and climb, we are descending for many hours until we reach the last big waterfalls dropping into the artificial Lac da Pigniu

The water flow is high and we have some hard time

I'm down after the last big drop !

Vincent and Manu rappel the last 40-50 meter fall;
many hours of descent to get out, we had to place anchors and still many drops don't have a bolt. This canyon like others in this region and in the Oberland are possible only in this period of the year and you need to be lucky with meteo and snow. It took us many years to be able to do those canyons, the good period is really very short and some years  you can't go there ! Like the Segnas canyon i did after waiting 3-4 years, in 2013 i was the only one to do it with 3 friends ! And also in Fluaz we have been the only one this year !

Gavirolas

Gavirolas

Good canyon at high altitude

We are high in the Grisons mountains, above the Lac da Pignu, the start today is close to the snow line in the left of the picture, in the center is the main Fluaz canyon, the upper part of this gorge is not very interesting, the are few waterfalls and a couple of narrow sections with lots of rocks

Lots of gear to prepare, we are many people, it's good we can better share the gear, in those canyons you have to be ready to put anchors, this canyon has been done only a couple of times before

Good trails here, like in all the Swiss, this is more or less the altitude of the canyon start

After some more walk we reach the canyon start; we are immediately inside a little slot, nice rock, there is some ice we have to be careful.

Now a section with very narrow falls, american style slots, but here there is flowing water and it's cold !!! Some we can climb but not all of them

The rock changes and we go trough this excellent narrow, there is a nice arch just behind the corner

Class C canyon, people would say in the USA...

After we exit the narrow on a big 60 m waterfall

But a couple of falls are again very narrow, that's not very common in the Alps

So in a short time we reach the main Fluaz canyon, part of the team decide to stop, i continue with Manu and Vincent and we descend a part of Fluaz,  we do 5 more drops and we have to set anchors. We will continue the next day to finish this long trip. Here we have another kind of rock, layers are changing making the canyon shape often different.