The Gronda and the Sorba Slides
			‘L'indecisione è la chiave alla flessibilità’

The Gronda

The next day we drove up one of the side valleys to run the drop-and-pool classic of the Italian Alps - the Gronda.

The put-in is just above the village of Rassa - park in the village and hike up as far as you want and hop on. It's a short but intense section back to the village with lots going on, particularly as the group size got slightly ridiculous, with plenty of overlapping groups and in-eddy introductions the order of the day.

Here's Rosie, recently arrived from the aforementioned wedding in Slovenia, standing on the bridge, looking pensive.

Let the fun begin... Ferg gets the activities underway...

Mick follows him down on one of the early slides...

Then there's Ash, in her big old orange boat. We haven't had a Random Orange Thing in a while; thanks Ash.

Wherever you find Ash, there's sure to be an Ollie lurking somewhere close by. There he is, buried up to his half-paddle in the bottom of that drop.

If we didn't get a photo of you on this particularly drop on this particular day, then really, who are you?

Here's Catherine, powering through. More of that later...

Rosie, less pensive and back to her more usual, ear-to-ear grinning...

Jim...

Not sure what's going on with Catherine here. She doesn't look too happy. The guy on the left is one of the fine English gentlemen who were knocking around. Pete is the man's name. Pete Cornes, I believe.

Here’s a great photo of Catherine charging into a boulder slot. Years of whitewater racing gone into that paddle action...

This drop was a little sketchy - a good line required a clean, but restrained boof onto a boil and then a quick exit through a slot. Lots of people needed a rope to get clear of the boil. Rosie prepares herself with Jim watching on. Rescue below is being set by our two Oregon paddlers; Christie and Austin, both here for the upcoming Teva Games.

Rosie gets the seal of approval from Austin...

Catherine works the boil...

...eye of the tiger, and all that.

Nothing to see here folks - everyone moves on to the next drop...

This is what it all looks like, looking upstream from the bridge in the village of Rassa. It doesn't look like much until you get down to the waterline and see just how much this excellent river packs into a short distance.

Everyone regroups above the drop immediately above the bridge...

Two drops come together, both look too shallow to land safely, but the speed off the lip in each case is sufficient to get good boofs and drive you across the shallow pools into deeper water beyond.

You kind of just have to believe...

Sorba Slides

Coming in from river right at this point is the Sorba with this nasty looking combination slide - shallow, messy, pinball alley. Austin styled it, but alas, we have no photos. Lots of potential for this to go wrong, but Austin reckons once you're on line at the start and charging hard, you'll be good.

Below the confluence, the river becomes the Sorba and there's a short paddle under the next bridge down to the famed Sorba Slides...

The Sorba Slides are loads of fun, and fairly non-technical, particularly compared to the Gronda stretch.

Ash leads the way down the first slide...

Followed, as already mentioned, by Ollie, the master of the rightside low brace.

Next down is Mick. All lines down this slide are fun.

With barely a glance back at the first slide, Mick is off to the second slide...

To be honest, the second slide is more of a drop. As you can see, more of a boof practice than a slide...

Meanwhile, Simon cruises down the first slide. Ferg watches from the road...

Tom tries out a rightside line, just to mix it up a little...

Simon looks like an elephant that's just seen a mouse...

Serious Ferg contemplates what he's going to do on the slides. He's going to put those paddles into the water, just like Simon does. That's the plan...

So many paddlers, so many slides. Jim...

Catherine really likes slides. If she had her way, all rivers would have slides...

Jim boofs into the eddy on the second slide...

...followed by Catherine...

Ferg on the third of the slides. Seriously, I thought we talked about this air-bracing thing after Portugal. Are we going to have to get the whole gang around and have another intervention? Do you want another lecture from Der Commandante?

By complete coincidence, here's a picture of Ollie, showing how a man with only one blade still manages to get it into the water...

Ollie out the bottom of the slides...

Here's a series of photos of people running the third slide. As long as you stay to the right, you'll be fine.

Jim at the lip...

Rosie about to drop into the slot...

Tom in the slot, really working that textbook low-brace position...

...and Jim emerging from the white...

In case the constantly changing personnel in the last series of photos was too confusing, here's Catherine showing how it's done, all on her own...

Dropping in...

...still dropping...

...into the white...

...emerging...

...and safely at the bottom...

It takes a while to run the Gronda/Sorba Slides the first time. Any subsequent run is a lot quicker as the entire thing is very short - hiking back up to the top is not even ten minutes. Back at the cars, Ferg ties up the boats...

Thanks to Kala for taking all the photos on the Gronda and Sorba Slides.

Evening run on the middle Sesia

After all that drop-and-pool excitement, some people went for a evening run down the bread-and-butter run of the middle Sesia back to the campsite. But not before Simon finds the car keys...

...and not before Tom pulls on his wet shorts, ruining this nice shot of the Sesia valley, north towards the border with Switzerland...

The days of rain we experienced lower down in the valley had fallen further up the mountains as days of snow. This was to be our 'reservoir' of water for the rest of the trip. As it melted, it kept everything ticking over nicely in terms of water levels, particularly the Sesia.

It's fairly beautiful up there in the mountains...

Deadly zoom on this camera, wha?

This is pretty much the entirety of the town of Mollia. One building in three is a church.

This is Italy after all...