Diving the Verzasca

The Verzasca valley is located in the north of Locarno. It got it's name from the the river Verzasca, which flows into the Lago Maggiore just next to Locarno. There is only one serpentine going up from Locarno through Gordola into the valley. Just at the beginning of the serpentine you will find the huge Verzasca ###. These impressive construction, which is 220m in height, served as scenery for the James Bond Movie "Golden Eye" and is since then an attraction to a lot of Bungee Jump fans, who are willing to jump in the depth. Due to a long periode with no rain, the reservoir seems to be a bit empty, but still gave a amazing view on the mountains.

Past the ### the road continues through picturesque old villages. In San Bartolomeo the first gumpen (areas where the rocks hold the water of the river) can be found. More of these gumpen can be found from here river upwards. The number of diveable gumpen is depending on how much effort one is willing to take in climbing up and down to with all the dive gear. There are some gumpen, which are easier to get to, which means that no climbing equipment is needed to get there. The "Römerbrücke" and Posse 1 and 2 are the more famous ones.

I did my first dive in Verzasca in the Posse 1, which is in San Bartolomeo in about 490m altitude. As I was traveling alone in terms of diving I was happy to meet Thomas Lüthi and Mario Balmer on the car park in front of the pizzeria close to the Posse preparing their diving gear. To my luck I could join their little diving group, which saved me, because I couldn't find any open dive base around Locarno, where I might have found some dive buddy. Thanks again to Thomas and Mario. Both are underwater photographers as well and were a bit annoyed of leaving their photo equipment at home as we had almost perfect conditions; clear water, with 10m visibility at least, bright blue sky with some decorating white clouds and only a bit of a current. As I didn't expect a lot of fish or any other significant objects in the foreground I decided to leave the strobes at home and to concentrate on ambient light shots of the granite rock formations and their fine markings.

The way down to the dive entrance is a bit of an effort, but worth everything. The crystal clear, shiny green water invites to directly jump in. Surrounded by bright granite rocks and the mountains in the back it is a beautiful scenery. By the way, the green water gave the river it's name, because Verzasca means "green water". The dive starts with a bigger gumpen, which is 10m deep at the deepest place and big rocks on the bottom. Altough not many some trout can be found hiding under some rocks. Almost every rock is round and smooth in shape through the continues flow of water. Due to the slight current we could get very close to the area where the water drops from one gumpen to the next. There we could watch the dance of the many tiny bubbles. As there wasn't a lot of space between the rocks and me only using the 17-40mm Canon wide angle lense, I couldn't manage to get proper shots of that scenery as I would have liked. So for the next time I will get the fisheye ready. As mention earlier the place forms a perfect scenery, which can be used for half and half shots very well, too.

After the dive and a sweaty way back to the car park, we could decide between the grass in front of the car park or the pizzeria to rest a bit. We decided to have a nap on the green respectivly on the smooth granite rocks. I used the time also for some half and half shots in the shallow areas of the river without dive gear. I was only stopped by the cool water, which was about 14 degrees cold.

After a coffee and an interesting discussion on underwater photography on the terrace of the pizzeria, we decided to dive the Posse 2. Completely dressed in full diving gear we went down the steep path. As we finally reached the dive area I noticed that the sealing on the left arm of my dry suit had just broken. That cancelled out all my diving plans. Hoping to find an open dive centre around the area, which could help me fixing the sealing or lending me a suit, I went back to the car and drove to Locarno. Unfortunately all dive centres had closed already or decided to have holiday on their own.

As my dive plans took a sudden end I decided to wander around the river close to the "Römerbrücke" and to take some more photos in the shallow areas, just buy snorkeling. These seemed to be rewarding as well, but have a look yourself...




The "Römerbrücke" is located in Lavertezzo in about 536m altitude. It is said that the bridge was build by the romans, but this is only told to attract the tourists. Nevertheless it makes a nice scenery with the river underneath and the mountains in the back. Looking down directly from the bridge divers can be seen in the clear water. This serves as a good motivation to carry down all the dive equipment over the bridge and down to the river. As the "Römerbrücke" is one of the main tourist attracations lots of people can be found on the granite rocks, just lying there and taking a sun bath. I just missed the chance to photograph a fearless guy jumping from the bridge.

Verzasca is doubtless a nice place for photographers - under and above water. The best time for photographs is as usually noon. This is even more true in such valleys like the Verzasca valley, as they are wedge formed with steep slopes around the rivers. This causes shadows even in early afternoon and leads to low light situations underwater very fast.

As we did have luck with the currents, this isn't always the case. Therefore you should take proper preparation to dive in mountain rivers and not underestimate the currents within these rivers as this has already caused diving accidents.