I am you average grade 3/4 Student paddler. Last year in the French alps we had decided to run the Claree into the Briancon gorge, however as a group we were unaware of the Malefosse gorge gr5+ section between these.
So taking it casually no worries just some easy grade 2 paddling before we knew it Jason was vertically pinned and everyone else had found eddies, I was tail end Charlie and there was no room in the eddies remaining. So there I was alone paddling my first Gr 5 in a playboat on my own, blind. No eddies to catch i had try and read and run it, everything came up fast, i made the first few ledges, surfed a hole took on another drop took alot of rolls then another drop, boom I was pinned on my back deck in the shallows, time to swim. Still not aware of the magnitude to the situation I held on to my gear, then when I was struggling for air I let go and swam for it, THUD I had hit a rock, I scrambled my way up. There I was sitting in the middle of the flow. There I sat in the cold alpine flows in a shortie and bordies for an hour without seeing anyone. Finally someone came to pull me of, I could barely hold on to the rope as my legs dangled over the next drop. I was out cold and gear gone.
It came out that Gforce had been caught in a syphon trying to chase me, however lifts were hitched and weak and cold I was forced to eat TWELVE MARS BARS, and struggled to help move gear to the road. Some guys went on search of the boat which was battered and recovered it, however paddles were gone. My back was bruised and my ego battered humbling.
In the car people were reading carefully the guidebook and horror struck us when in small print at the bottom of the page. “below this section is the notorious grade 5 Malefosse section that has claimed several lives”.
However luck was in 6 months later back in england a I received a call from a raft guide saying he had my paddles, shock, really they must be destroyed. No they look surprisingly good. It turned out they were no worse off than before I lost them. Result
Cheers for reading.