Minnesota is COLD! But the rivers are RAGING!

another cold spring day on the North Shore

Early season paddling in Minnesota started off with some flooding creeks. Temperatures in the Twin Cities jumped in early April, and the surrounding rivers flashed all at once. Mobilizing was unique, there are only a few kayakers based in the Twin Cities that really fall into the class V-caliber. Nonetheless, I was introduced to a hand full of dedicated paddlers, and early season kayaking commenced.

A cold and snowy beginning to the Minnesota season from Chris Baer on Vimeo.

May snow storms bring June flowers?

The first snow to melt was in the vast farm fields to the southwest of the Twin Cities. A few of us felt the early season itch and made our way to a small drainage: Sand Creek. The river was packed full of debris; logs and ice were abundant, the class 2 creek was feeling a little intense. Luckily the river had a redeeming feature; an unmaintained Dam that was creating a fun eight foot pourover. It allowed the local paddlers to practice their delayed boof stroke and even let one of them get in a little swim practice.

Todd Dammitt trying to dial in his boof on the dam

Originally, when I packed for Minnesota I stumbled upon my self-support equipment. Being the tallest peak in Minnesota is Eagle Mountain at 2301' and Lake Superior is at an average of 591', I knew that the sustained vertical needed for a typical multi-day trip was lacking. Funny enough, on Easter Sunday, my second day of paddling in Minnesota this year, we put on the Minnesota River for an overnight self-support adventure. Thankfully, the weather stayed relatively nice as we paddled through the beaver and eagle infested flat water.

not that skittish

Bald Eagle lurking in his perch

Next up was the mighty Vermillion, a stock low-volume (200cfs) training ground for the city boaters. Lucky for me, the sun was shining and upon arrival I was greeted with approximately 2000cfs. A quick inspection led to the fact that the run still worked at huge flow. There was a couple of monster hydraulics that needed to be avoided. The 2000cfs four minute espresso tour went exceedingly well.

making my way down the Vermillion river at 2000cfs, water is way up in the trees

charging past one of the big holes on the Vermillion River

Upon wrapping up the Twin Cities metropolitan whitewater tour, it was time to head North to Duluth. If you have never been there, Duluth is classic Minnesota. The accents are more prominent and wearing a fur hat is not just a trend. Upon arrival to Duluth, the snow started; It would accumulate another two and a half feet during my stay. As the snow continued, the Duluth crowd showed off one of their very odd, but rather respectable surf spots, Stoney Point on Lake Superior. The water is COLD! but the waves were fun. The fact that there were a dozen people on the break during a snowstorm attests to the core nature of Minnesotans.

Scott Ewen showing off the North Shore break

adventure brought to you by Chris Baer

A wonderfull trip to Morocco

Morocco !!!

After 7 years of delay, the trip is finally on !! The plan is to stay on location to scout and organize as well as possible. So Alex and I drove with the 5 boats on the roof and the rest of the crew meets us by plane in Marrakech later.

45h of driving and ferrying gets us to Tilouguite, further up Lake Bin El Ouidane. Amazing landscape all along the way. The village of TIolouguite was our base camp for the whole trip and it is a great starting point.

Bin El Ouidane LakeMorocco !!!

Tilouguite Village

Traveling around

One thing we learnt in Morocco : don't try to stick to a plan or schedule !!! You'll loose time, energy and money. Moving is slow and weather changes quickly. We've been super lucky and within one day of driving plus one day of donkey hiking, we've been able to spend 4 days on the water along 100km of class IV-V kayaking.

Classic Moroccan view

Awesome blue sky

From the top of Akka Tiflout, merging on the Assif Meloul, then on the Oued Ahensal. It's easy to get food on your way, you find many villages on on the riverside. Though, it is always good to have water filter, food supplies for 1 day at least and a lighter.

Lunch !! Bread and tuna

Easy times

Later on, we got lucky with the rain and been able to first D a small steep canyon in Tilouguite.

Scouting the canyon

And dropping

2Km of awesome slides

Stephane Pion Charging

And as a last mission, we decided to run the famous drop section on Oued Ouzoud downstream the huge waterfalls. It took us 2 days to get the authorization after driving 200km between : The Hydro Agency to the local authorities to the regional authorities to end up at the governmental authorities… But it was worth it and we then spent two days hitting those amazing drops in this amazing (but REALLY touristic) place.

Ouzoud Falls put in

Myself on one of the first drop

Alex going for some freestyle move

The crew enjoying

This has been an awesome trip and we'll come again since there is so much more to discover or rediscover !!!

Thanks to Beyo for accommodation, Moha and Lahoucine for guiding, Momo for the Ouzoud help !!!


Videos are coming soon !!!


Photos : Hugo Clouzeau, Stephane Pion, Louis Hetier, Mathieu Coldebella

Thanks guys for the trip

Spring 2013

Last year, we had been very often on the road in February but this year unfortunatly there was no thinking about it. There was still winter at home in austria and the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup was in full swing.

Finally in early March it has been getting warmer in Central Europe too. But then there was to much water on the rivers so we had to go to secondary streams. So we drove the known  Roman case , this river normaly has just enough water that frogs can live there.

Photograph: Robert Machacek

River: Taugl/ Austria

A week later we wanted to make altitude, since all standard runs had too much water anyway, so we went to Upper Austria to improve our Boof technology.

Photograph: Gregor Unterdechler 

River: Weissbach/ Austria

For some time a good friend, Lukas Strobl, and I are seeking for another project, we want to drive together with the Dynamic Duo my home run the Untertalbach. For this project we had to learn to deal better with our boats. So we drove on a standard waterfall to see how we manage it.  

It went very well and so there is nothing in the way for a soon run on the Untertalbach.

Photograph: Christoph Strobl 

River: Laussafall/ Austria

Photograph: Christoph Strobl 

River: Laussafall/ Austria

We had a great photo shoot with the photographer mirja geh. I had already two photoshoots with her last year and it's always nice when you see the pictures and think WOW thats me.

Unfortunately we were unlucky with the water level this time and we had to avoid to old Classics. But Mirja can get great pictures from any spot.

After this super photo shoot spring has finally started and the streams were becoming fuller and fuller. During the week I tried as often as possible to paddle, cause I live in the midst of very great rivers and on weekends I drive through Central Europe to enjoy the nature and the streams.

Photograph: GoPro HD 3 Black

River: Untertalbach/ Austria

So the saison can start now and photos and videos will follow. At the end of May I'm driving to the U.S. and wanna to run as many streams as possible.

Thanks to all my sponsors without them all that wouldn`t be possible.

greetings Daniel Egger

Another extremely committing canyon in Colombia, Rio Junambu

Joel Fedak enjoying the entry rapids

My six-week trip to Colombia was quickly coming to a close and our team was in the southwestern corner of the country. It was going to take a solid three days of van, bus, and pick-up trucks rides to get back to Bogota and depart.

such a huge country with so much to offer

Jared Page heading towards the gorge

One more, one more, one more, is a recurring theme in my life. After a quick discussion we realized that we could sneak out for yet one more adventure. The boys had paddled the Rio Junambu the previous year and spoke of a deep canyon with quality class 4 rapids.

smashed into the mini van

Access to the canyon took a little longer then anticipated. The road had degraded over the season, and was now exceedingly jarring. Exacerbating the situation was the fact that we packed six deep into a mini van, with all three of our creek boats loaded inside the van with us.

Rio Junambu, Colombia from Chris Baer on Vimeo.

An arching bridge marked our put in, and upon inspection the water level looked a little low. We bumped and ground our way down the river for a bit until we reached the first major tributary on the right. The confluence rewarded us with double the water. From here down there was one small tributary after the next. Unfortunately at least a couple of these tributaries are the runoff from villages far above. These streams brought in an abundance of trash and some interesting smells.

Jared Page in the boogie

As the river got bigger so did the rapids. It was fun class 4. We picked apart the rapids, finding alternative and interesting lines.

more great class 4

Jared Page entering the canyon

As we approached the canyon sheer walls shot straight up. The gorge was a few hundred feet deep. It was beautiful. Unfortunately the gorge wasn't very long, so we stopped and took a small break enjoying the location and a quick snack.

our take out bridge

Paddling out of the canyon leads you to two different historical bridges, both are arches, and it would be really easy to misidentify the one that your shuttle driver was waiting at. After hiking the few hundred vertical feet out of the canyon we continued switchbacking our way up to the new yellow bridge at its rim. The hike was exhausting. My hope that our shuttle was in the right location dwindled, along with the light.  A handful of phone calls later we luckily contacted Yander Gavilanes a local rafter in the community. It took a few more calls and Yander re-coordinated the shuttle driver.

yes we hike to that yellow bridge

Yander also invited us to hang out in the town of Buesaco. The next morning we took a small tour of town and of a local farm. Colombian coffee is amazing especially when it is served piping hot, feet away from where it was grown.

enjoying breakfast on the farm

the view from our 20 dollar hotel in Buesaco

The Junambu was a great way to wrap up an awesome six-week adventure in Colombia. A huge thanks to all the Colombians for making this one more trip of a lifetime!

another adventure by Chris Baer