By Steve Brooks

Photos: Steve Brooks and Ute Heppke

Steve Brooks Bio

Steve has lived in Austria now for over 20 years and from being a place to come and work seasonally on the river, to a base camp and finally making Austria his home! Steve’s love for kayaking and adventure is infectious and this can especially be seen in the kayak school he set up 11 years ago. Based out of the Arlberg region in western Austria, the school runs courses for beginners plus coaching and instructing kayakers through all the white water grades, including creeking and river running. In-between the kayaking season in Austria, Steve can be found kayaking and leading courses, adventure trips and expeditions in the Soča Valley, Indian Himalayas, Peru and Chile in South America. He speaks Austrian German like a local and is trying to work out if he speaks Peruvian, Chilean or Argentine Spanish. Along with his wife, Ute, they have now bought some land on a mountainside in Pucon, Chile. With stunning views and some 10,000m², their dream project is now becoming a reality. When Steve is not kayaking, he searches for that perfect powder run in the off-piste in his home mountains of St Anton am Arlberg or riding his Royal Enfield Bullet in search of undiscovered rivers in the Himalayas. For more information check out: www.gokayaking.at and www.gokayaking.at/blog

Time to spend in… Austria

Well, where to start? I was asked if I could put some words and photos together from my trip to the Indian Himalayas. I wanted to go and kayak the Lohit River in Arunachal Pradesh on the far north eastern side of India. I have heard so many great things about this river and it has been on my plans to kayak it for the past decade. A friend of mine said it was the Futaleufu of the Himalayas, so it must be pretty good to say the least!

The plan was to drive from Shivanandi River Lodge with Stanzin and Chotak for five days straight to Arunachal Pradesh, however the day before we were supposed to depart, Chotak saw that the state of Arunachal Pradesh closed their borders to anyone not from the state. So though we could not kayak the river, we saved ourselves a 10-day mega road trip driving across India and back!

I decided to stay in Shivanandi and ended up spending Holi, the festival of colour, up at Pawan’s village and what a festival it was! I have spent quite a few Holis in the Himalayas in both India and Nepal and for me this years was one of the best experiences I have had celebrating this manic festival. Pawan was explaining that they do not see many foreigners in the village in the foothills of the Himalayas and of course with the festival in full swing I was made so welcome!

It was not long before I received a message that Austria was going into lockdown and my ski resort was one of the main epicentres! So the following week was spent trying to organise my flights and make a plan to get home!

Epic

After an epic 41-hour journey, which included walking across the German/Austrian border with all my bags and camera equipment, I made it back home. I then spent six weeks in quarantine, including celebrating my 50th birthday. The ski season was over and as restrictions started to relax we were finally allowed to go kayaking!

We are usually in Slovenia over April to mid-May, coaching and guiding on the stunning Soca River. However, with bookings postponed and with the rest Europe still in lockdown, I dedicated my time to getting paddle fit, enjoying our home rivers and also looking at a few new ones that I had never had the chance to paddle before.

I was kayaking laps of the Sanna, one of the gems of the Alps. A sweet river that has changed over the 23 years since I have lived here and though it has dropped down a grade (caused by horrendous flooding in 2005), it has come back to life over the years because of the landslides from various streams that brought in some huge rocks and boulders. Added to that, the local government also spent time and money on the river making new eddies and trying to keep the river looking as natural as possible.

We also have a small but very dedicated bunch of ‘local’ white water kayakers here in the upper reaches of Tirol. I say local as the majority of us were born elsewhere but we have all decided to make this part of Austria home!

Ramona was back on the river after having a child and it looked as though she had never been out of her kayak. Steve has been wanting to push his skills to the next level and we have been working with him on our local river – the Rosanna. Connie came on a cruise down the Lech River before heading up to Denmark with Jacob. It was great to see Connie develop so quickly, her roll is still solid and though she was super nervous at the put-in she completely styled it!

Argentine Spanish

Finally, Lu decided to stay here in Austria rather than trying to escape back home to Argentina. She has been super keen wanting to spend as much time as possible in her kayak. So the deal has been that I work on her technique and river skills while she tries to teach me Spanish. Again, I say Spanish, actually it is Argentine that she is teaching me. Lu is tirelessly trying to improve my Spanish. The only thing is I am not too sure if my Chilean friends will be happy with my improved Argentinian dialect, though Lu has given me a few phrases to respond to los Chilenos just in case that happens – all of which are unrepeatable in this article!

We also met up with Bastian Striebel on the Loisach in Bavaria. We have known Basti for years, he always comes over to the Peak UK stand at the Kanu Messe looking for t-shirts and beer and or we catch up with each other when we are both in Pucon, Chile. It was great kayaking with Basti, especially since he brought my brand new Striebel Designs carbon paddle! We have been testing Basti’s paddles for the past year or so and absolutely love them. Not only do they perform really well but that look so cool, there is not a single paddle that looks as good as a Striebel Designs paddle! If you don’t believe me, go and try one for yourself, you will love it! Our clients in the kayak school were also testing them and were blown away just how good they are!

beautiful Alpine meadows

Apart from kayaking and coaching on the classic rivers and sections this part of Austria has to offer such as the Rosanna, Sanna, Imst Gorge and Toesens Gorge, we spent a lot of time in the Lech Valley. The scenery is incredible with snowcapped mountains, the stunning colour of the river and of course those beautiful Alpine meadows along its banks. However, the side streams that come into the Lech have long been on my list of rivers to paddle.

After plenty of walking and checking out some of the rivers I managed to paddle the Hornbach and Madaubach. I was told not to bother with the Hornbach but since I had plenty of free time I thought it would be worth it, but to be quite honest, I doubt I will be rushing back to kayak it again for a while!
The Madaubach, however, was different. It takes 50 minutes to walk in, followed by a 60-metre abseil down to the belly of the canyon and the put-in. Unlike the Hornbach, it is a lot mellower and with nowhere near as much wood in it. The gorge is incredible and once you drop in, you are literary going to have to kayak to get out of the deep gorge.

We also managed to get to the upper reaches of the Lech, which we had not kayaked for nine years or so. Ute was with me and we also took Lu with us as well in what proved to be a great and unforgettable paddle all the way down through the village of Lech. The rock slide close to Zug provided some great entertainment and it certainly tested Lu’s nerves!

fantastic evening entertainment

Now summer is finally beginning to arrive here and it has been sunny and hot throughout the day before the big thunder and electrical storms arrive late in the afternoon. We live in a very tight valley where the rumbling sounds of thunder vibrate throughout from village to village and over the mountains and topped with the big forks and cracks of lightning. This provides some fantastic evening entertainment, especially when the communications antennas take a direct hit up on the summit of the Valluga Mountain and our tv and internet gets knocked out! It also means the rivers are constantly getting topped up from the evening storms.

Our first courses start this July and we are looking forward to taking people on the river, coaching, guiding as well as showing people just why this part of the Austrian Alps is so good for spending holidays kayaking on the rivers around Base Arlberg. It’s going to be a lot quieter this season regarding work but the positives are that we get more chances to kayak for ourselves.

I’m hoping we can fly to Pucon, Chile in October. It will be great to kayak, catch up with friends and of course spend time in our brand new house up in the mountains with amazing views of the snow-capped volcanoes!