canyon exploring with Michele Angileri

Fiume Tącina

Among the main rivers in Sila mounts, River Tącina is fed by copious waters coming from the plateau. Despite the water takings its flow-rate is high: in summer it is 2-3 cubic meters per second.
Tącina flows through a long gorge which is never too tight and has only little cascades. So it is possible descending the canyon on foot but it's not so simple because the large flow-rate. You must frequently pass across the running water, trying not to be captured in the flow and pulled into a dangerous rapid. The little cascades must be bypassed, and this might not be quite easy if canyon gets tight.

But once you get familiar with the large flow, once you begin to understand the water movements, to read the lines of flow, then you cannot resist from playing with them and let yourself go into whitewater. This is the time for fun.

I remember ...

In Calabria, in the hottest summer days, when temperatures rise up to 40°C and over, there are places where you can have a cool day of outdoor sport. Places like river Tącina, that seem to be made for you: powerful but friendly, dangerous but not too much, cool the right amount to let you wade and swim without a wetsuit, tasting a kind extraordinary freedom.

Photographs in this website show ultralight ropes (6 mm ropes made of high tenacity fibers). Read multimedia book Ultralight ropes canyoning technique to learn how to use them.

Copyright © 2002- Michele Angileri. All rights reserved.