Spean Gorge and Snow

As promised we woke to six inches of snow. The first thought was are we going to go out paddling, with many roads being closed and other's not gritted we had to wait for the green light from the lodge staff. This gave time for a quick walk around the grounds in a snow blizzard and few photos of the snow covered mountains. When the green light was given we loaded the mini bus and began to depart, after sliding on the ice, nearly jack knifing the trailer and getting a tad stuck we all jumped out and gave the bus a nudge! The forests we traveled through on the way to the river could be describe as Nania, very picturesque. After a lengthy journey we had left the snow behind and arrive in the town of Spean where the sun decided to make an appearance. We kitted up again with dry kit quite a novalty thanks to the super facilities at the lodge and entered the river. The gorge produced some very technical turns and drops. The first rapid which we spent a good two hours on constantly running again and again until we perfected the line down, we have the video evidence as proof ;) Our instructor jake, described how to take forward motion into a side ways action as we had to cross the flow in opposite directions very closely together. The first obstical was a stopper a 45 degrees across the river (not one you wanted to drop into side ways), the other a large boil covering a rock hard on the river right. The correct line was to push hard right onto the rock and through the centre of the boil, just to the left of the boil was a little drop and a good boat grabber forcing you into an extreme high brace or roll, a little incentive to get the line right. Further down the gorge offered some very tight slots, twists and turns, and plenty of essential one man eddy hopping. At times our instructor would disappear behind two or three tight turns and towering boulders, all you heard was a yelp signalling for the next man to find his own way down to the eddy at the bottom. The only incident of the day was a water enema Adrian recieved through his nostrals after rolling over on a tight left hand turn. That will clear him out. The journey back to the lodge was mostly in brilliant sunshine until we turned the corner straight into a snow blizzard. Throughout the evening it continued to snow this made excellent viewing whilst eating dinner, another 3 courses.