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A bit of fun in Scotland, UK

That's a lot of good C-Boating (OC1 and C1).

Sweeeet video! What's the river?

Etive, Etive trib, Orchy, all scottisch classics blended in an awesome week

I'm going back for sure!

jakke wrote:Etive, Etive trib, Orchy, all scottisch classics blended in an awesome week

I'm going back for sure!

Allt a Chaorainn (Etive trib) and Middle Etive, the guys did paddle the Orchy but there is no footage of it there.

Matt has created a collage rather than an accurate timeline so it would be difficult to tell you which river is which without breaking it down and describing each clip, it opens with Mat running 'Chasm', the last rapid on the Allt a Chaorainn, and ends with Matt running 'Right Angle Falls' the biggest (and often last) fall on the middle Etive at around 25 feet.

There was more water on the day they ran the Allt a Chaorainn than the day they ran the Etive so you can't even judge by relative volume, they are probably both carrying a similar amount of water, possibly the Allt a Chaorainn has more!

Glen Etive is kind of a spiritual centre for Scottish low volume creeking. The middle is the waterfall run, 1km long, there are 8 tributaries (arguably one is the upper upper etive) known to have been run with a variety of slides and falls, and there are upper and lower sections for really high water paddling offering grade 2(ish) with one harder drop/rapid each. There is also a bigger fall at Dalness, 30 feet+ into a narrow chasm with submerged ledge, that is not run often although the first descent was in a 4m grp boat back in the day!

All that is along about a 12km stretch of single track road....

You have to come back Jan, you only just scratched the surface!

JimW wrote: You have to come back Jan, you only just scratched the surface!

I know, but first I have to put my newly learned or confirmed skills to practice

Is there a time of year that one could travel to Scotland and be *almost* guaranteed good water? I was an exchange student at Striling back in college, before I was a paddler, but even then I looked at the Etive and other rivers during trips with the mountaineering club and thought "Wow that looks like fun!" Always wanted to go back with a boat.

Thanks,
Shep

Hi Shep,

Scottish paddling depends on rainfall and with our variable climate that means there is no real guaranteed period when there will be water, but if you dig through the historic stats on the UK meteorological office website it should be feasible to identify weeks when statistically there is usually water around.

This spring for the first time I can remember we had enough snow to actually have a few days with proper snowmelt due to warm sunny weather (the video shows the boys making good use of it), albeit in a very localised spot (Glen Etive only). Usually the snow here melts when it rains and most of the snowpack disappears over a day or 2.

To my mind autumn (fall) is probably the best bet - reasonably chance of rainy days but still relatively warm, it's no good if rain falls as snow onto frozen ground.....

It's much easier living here than visiting, we can just react to whatever rain falls....

All of which said we do have some rivers that can be run when levels are pretty low, they just aren't classics at those levels