80 Feet Waterfall Kayak Drop, Austria

Austrian river Salza is well known among kayakers. They often sing the praises of this bluish river; the most beautiful, the warmest one, the best. The Salsa is passable already from the Prescenyklause dam but due to a wider riverbed, small riffles, and a low water level, most of the kayakers usually go down the rapids from Wildalpen. For the daring, carving through the Salza river, the Enns River is where the real adventure begins - at its end the Salza Stausee waterfall is to be found - an 80 feet drop that makes for the finishing highlight of any canyoning trip.

28. 3. 2014

The source of Salza's river starts in Traisenberg area, Lower Austria and flows South through the Styrian nature preserve of Wildalpener Salzatal. After 88 km, it meets the Enns around Großreifling.

Usually the drop and the canyon above are regulated by a dam. Just after really heavy rain the dam releases some water trough the gorge, but you will always have to drive in and check it yourself.

It was last year, when Robert Machacek and Daniel Egger from VBOYZ, white water kayak team and community from Austria took a quick look after some heavy rain showers, and were surprised to find a runnable looking gorge and drop (however they were not prepared and the water was a bit too low then). From that moment on, the thought of the highest yet to be run waterfall in a kayak in Austria has been set in their minds. Every now and then after rainshowers they took a look - always finding a too low looking drop.

The Drop

After some really heavy rainshowers during the flooded years in Austria, they knew there had to be water in there. Although the water was still too high, they organzied a group of people to check it out. At the first look, their impressions were mixed. It looked passable, but the sheer power of the water and drop itself made everyone in the round quiet. Also a look from the other side revealed a scary looking wall on river right, and a big pillow that pushed behind the curtain. They walked up the little trail to look at the waterfall from the top. Looking at it from 10 meters above was just overwhelming. All of them immediately saw a line and knew where they wanted to be, if they decided to run the drop. The entry was just 10 meters before the lip and around a blind corner, which made the whole thing pretty tricky...

Lukas Strobl a month before Daniel's attempt

Daniel and the rest of the crew immediately started to discuss whether the drop was a good idea or not. They talked about the risk and the worst-case scenarios. A lot of stuff went through Daniel's head. If there was a time to run, it was now. He put in and waited for the others to get in positions. He visualized his moves and the line again, committed and concentrated he eddied out - no more thoughts.......

You can read all about Daniel's and Lukas's attempts in vboyz original article. Lukas Strobl in picture.