Lower Tryweryn 03 April 2010
On 3rd April three members of SVCC travelled up to Canolfan
Tryweryn to run the Lower Tryweryn, joining club members Paul and
Sue who were already on site, and club associate Jo.
Today's dam release was 10 cumecs giving a slightly
faster/bigger than usual trip.
This time we started just above Chapel Falls, with all running
it except Sue, who was our open boater for this trip.
Chapel Falls is a drop of around five feet with a stopper on
river right that can be rather retentive, as other members of SVCC
can testify. On his occasion it was run without incident, maybe
with the larger flow through helping.
After Chapel we proceeded on downriver through the many grade 2
and occasional grade 3 rapids that make this river such a great
trip, with Will demonstrating his rolling ability in the largest
grade 3 section.
Our first stop to play was under a bridge with a diagonal wave
great for practising ferry gliding.
First casualty of the day was Jeff, who hit a rock and capsized
in a shallow grade 2 section midway down the run and was unable to
setup his roll in the foot deep water. He redeemed this later down
the section with a roll back up in a bouldery section just after
lunch.
Carrying on downriver without incident we finally came to the
ubiquitous Bala Mill Falls. This was run by Will, Dave, Jeff and
Paul, all successfully.
Well done Will for running his first grade 4 rapid.
Lastly despite having successfully completed the Bala Mills
Falls rapid, Jeff capsized again in a wave train just before the
get out letting go of his paddle. Despite retrieving it and
attempting three rolls with a misorientated paddle, he bailed out
upping his swim count to two, much to the mirth of the other
participants.
Final swim score for the trip- Jeff two, everyone else nil!