View of Alaknanda river from bridge in Rudraprayag
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A couple of weeks ago myself and Nick Clegg had an opportunity to get away from the Ganges river and head off on a bit of a paddling mission. We had heard from other people that this was a nice area to explore. With boats in hand, we headed off for the 8hr bus ride to Chamoli up in the Garwahli Himalayas. After arriving in Chamoli we checked into Hotel Heaven for the night, deciding to head up to the next town on our map in the morning. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake as we ended up a ways above the river. Heading back down stream for 8kms we made it close to the river. Putting in we ended up paddling 22kms of grade3-3+, with one 4 at the end in Nandaprayag. After finishing up there we loaded up and made are way back down to Rudraprayag. We ended up befriending a chai shop owner who helped us get set up with a small room over looking the Alaknanda river for 100 ruppes. The next morning we headed off to Chandrapuri in a share jeep. After about an hour of driving we made it the 28kms to the put in. We had an excellent view of Kedarnath(6940m). The next 28kms of paddling was awesome. Boat scouting a few sections of 3-3+ with a couple of 4’s thrown in. Took us around four hours to get down with some stops for picture taking and rest breaks. Making the carry back to our little hotel in Rudraprayag, we settled down to a few cups of chai and after a afternoon of playing handball with a group of kids, a very good dinner of butter rotis, potato curry, rice and dal. Next morning we loaded up in a bus for the 5hr drive back to base. Since being there I have learned about some other rivers in the area. If you continue up to Josimath, there are some sick rivers. There is also the Pinder river at Karanprayag, the Nandakini river at Nandaprayag and you can go further up the Manadakini river to Kune to get a bit more whitewater.
Great trip. Check out the photos below.
Nick Clegg running a drop just above Chamoli, Alaknanda River.
Nick Clegg running the left line on the falls at Nandaprayag, Alaknanda River.
Map of the Manadakini River, from our our put in at Chandrapuri to the end at Rudraprayag.
Shuttle par excellence, India Styles.
View at the put in, Chandrapuri.
Nick Clegg manouvering between some nice boulders above the canyon.
Nick Clegg flying over one of the nicer drops on the canyon section of the Manadakini river.
Nice grade 3 rapid down in the Manadakini river.
Photos by David Prothero.
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