Wicked Big Canyon: Italian Rio Simon

It's our last full day of our trip and it was a big one. When we started doing research about our trip to Slovenia, we found a canyon in Italy that looked really exciting (Rio Simon) and was only about 1 hour away from where we would be staying in Slovenia. I looked into options for doing it, but none of the outfitters guide it because customers would have to be experienced canyoneers to do it. One outfitter said they would try to make it happen for us, but it didn't work out because they could not get two more people who wanted to do it (in order to make it worth their while), even after trying to collaborate with other outfitters. It seemed that it just wasn't in the cards for it to happen and then the Universe stepped in and did us a solid. Our guide Andrej from Fratarica Canyon was chatting with us after we finished the canyon. When we mentioned Rio Simon, he said that he has really wanted to do that canyon as well, so he got in touch with his guide buddy (Roman) in Italy to see if he could make it happen for all of us. After a series of texts flying around, we figured out dates, times and details. And we prepared ourselves for a BIG CANYON experience.

In the morning, we checked out of our apartment and hit the road early. It was a beautiful drive through a mountain pass into Italy. Overall, I think that Slovenia is more aesthetically pleasing than this region of Italy.

On the drive from Slovenia into Italy

Dan got better at working the espresso machine in our apartment

Crossing the border from Slovenia into Italy - easy peasy

The clouds were doing a dance in the mountains this morning

An avalanche tunnel

Views in Italy

More views in Italy

Our meeting spot was a pull-off on the side of the road. Andrej (our guide from Fratarica) arrived next followed by 2 more cars, one of which was our guide, Roman, for Rio Simon and the other were 3 friends of Roman whom he had invited (we didn't know this). In our group, there were 4 Czechs, 1 Slovenian, and 2 Americans. Roman proceeded to pull all of the gear out of a station wagon type car with a bumper sticker that said "fake taxi". From here, we got into our bathing suits and turned our wetsuits into backpacks with our helmet and harness inside. The approach took about 1:15 and was no joke - there was significant elevation gain and we kept up a solid pace. Once at the start of the canyon, we got on our gear and had a safety talk. Dan and I had done some research and knew that there were 21 jumps plus big walls and waterfalls in the part of the canyon we were doing. Candidly, I let the group know that I was pretty nervous about doing the canyon and would be going slowly and carefully.

The meeting spot where our guide showed up with all of the gear packed in his station wagon

The entry point of the canyon was a 25 foot jump into a narrow spot, which was maybe part of the culling process.

Dan rappelling

Some big walls around Dan

We had some long rappels in this canyon, some overhanging, some with slippery walls - Dan & I have done a lot of rappelling and we both found these extra tricky

I loved this jump

Another fun jump

The color of the water made the canyon even more beautiful

Dan jumping

After surviving the BIG canyon, we went out for pizza with the group. For the group of 7, I think 9-10 pizzas were ordered - we were hungry! Being in a canyon all day without lunch will work up a big appetite. Canoyoning actually takes a lot of effort from maneuvering on slippery rocks to swimming hard to not get pulled into eddies that suck you under powerful waterfalls. The pizza hit the spot, especially because we were in Italy. Canyoning Rio Simon was awesome and definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

So many pizzas were ordered

With our two canyoning guides (Andrej, left and Roman, right)

After Rio Simon, it took us a little less than two hours to drive to Skofja Loka, a picturesque Slovenian old walled city, where we spent the night. Dan's achilles was bothering him, so I walked around the city solo and of course, got some gelato.

A town in Italy along our drive

Crossing the border back into Slovenia. Once again, there were only guards if you were leaving Slovenia

Dan was quite appreciative that we had a nice hotel room since we would be flying out in the morning

Skofja Loka - a beautiful old walled city

Very narrow alleyways

A bridge in Skofja Loka where they have a jumping competition every year

It was almost sunset when I was walking around the city

Some of the old walls to the city

Mmmmm...gelato

Can you tell that I really liked this bridge?

Love locks

The next morning, we hit the road for the airport early. Everything went smoothly until our flight from Slovenia to Zurich was delayed. In Zurich, we only had 25 minutes to get to our next flight which involved a bus, a train, tons of escalators and 2 border control points. This called for "sport mode" with my Crocs. We ran through the Zurich Airport like nobody's business and were the last ones to board our flight (they even had told the flight crew that no more passengers were boarding before we got on the plane). Making this flight was such a relief - it meant that I would make my floor hockey game and that Dan would get a good night's sleep before going to work tomorrow. Our checked bag didn't make it, but that was no big deal.

All in all, we had an awesome trip to Slovenia. We were able to summit mountains in all three mountain ranges, do via ferratas in three different countries, canyoneer two canyons in two countries, meet wonderful people, eat tasty food, see Slovenia advance in the Euro Cup, eat a ridiculous amount of gelato, learn about the country's complicated history and most importantly, Dan and I were able to do this together 💗