Shredding the Fjell

This summer we spend some time up north kayaking and mountainbiking in Norway and Sweden. Lots of rain and low temperatures made conditions for biking less optimal but nevertheless we enjoyed the trails in Are, Oppdal and Hafjell.

more rain on our way back south, Dovrefjell

the last push up, Oppdal, Vattahaugan

Lausi enjoying the view down Hovden and myself shredding down into the Drivadalen

Biking around Oppdal seems to be kind of different from home, since there are allmost no roads up the mountains, so you have to ride or push your bike up most of the trails. Around Oppdal there are several skiing areas that make the exeption to the rule and have some roads (and a gondola) to ride uphill.

typical weatherconditions

nicely built trails down Rauhovdin

Rauhovdin with beautiful views into Trollheimen and the Gjevillvatnet

Lea attacking the attacking flies

If you are interested in mountainbiking around Oppdal, there is a nice guidebook by some locals. You can get it at Vertical Playground in Oppdal (https://www.vpg.no/).

The local community puts lots of work in maintance and building of new trails. So buying the book is a good way of supporting the work. There is also the possibility of shuttling some of the trails and using the gondola up Hovden eventhough the official bikepark there and in Vangsalia has been closed. 

Camping in Drivadalen

Vangsalia resting

Are

Gypsy Camp in Hafjell

So for us Norway is a long ways to go and probably not a first hand biking destination, but if you make your way up, its for sure worth to bring your gear. Among others the areas around Oppdal and Romsdalen have very nice trails and the bikeparks of Hafjell and Are are very well worth a visit. 

So now: Let the snow fall !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheers, Re

20th annual Green River Race 2015

2015 was my first trip to the famous Green River Race. The 20th anniversery of this race seemed like a perfect time to visit the Narrows for the first time and try to post a good time in the longboat. A week before the race we had high levels, making it hard to get good practice laps at a 100% flow. Fortunatly I had Eric Deguil showing me lines all week. On race day I had a very good first half of the race and started screwing before the monkey, followed by a mistake in Scream Machine. After loosing approximatly more than 20 seconds I posted a time of 5:04, only 3 seconds faster than in my short boat. Missing my goals (sub 5, possibly sub 4:40) there is probably no way around coming back in 2016...

Thanks to Shane Benedict and Betsy Towns for their hospitality, Eric Deguil for the nice week of boating and Daniel and Diane Brasuell for their support! Big ups to John Grace, Colin Hunt and all the others for organizing such a cool event and having this anniversary! See ya next year!

Liquidlogic

Sweet Protection Whitewater

Alpin Action

System X

Wet Times Up North - Movie

In the summer of 2015 the GlanzBrothers were both up in Norway, but on separate trips with different groups. This video is the summery of two very wet, cold but successful trips to the classic creeks and rivers of Norway. 

Edit: Harald&Reiner Glanz 

Camera: Harald&Reiner Glanz, Diane&Daniel Brasuell, Manuel Köhler, Darin McQuoid Boaters: Harald&Reiner Glanz, Diane&Daniel Brasuell, Daniel Steward, Will Rudisill, Rok Sribar, Manuel Köhler, Darin McQuoid, Polo van Ooij 

Music: Flight Facilitis - With You & Stand Still, Alt J Tesselate, Skero - Gfrei di 

Thanks to Liquid Logic kayaks, Sweet Protection, Alpin Action and Kokatat!

Wet Times Up North

This summer I decided to take off work for almost two months to spend some time in Norway for some kayaking and mountainbike adventures. 

Store Ula, Rondane

The first ten days my cousin Lorenz and myself started out outrip in the Sjoa region where we met the group with my brother, Daniel and Diane. After doing some runs with them we quickly drove up north to explore the less known rivers around Trondheim. Weather was really bad, with rain and cold temperatures, but spirits were still high and we managed to put on 22 runs in ten days, also thanks to our new toy, a "shuttlemaxi". Taking pictures and video is kinda hard when you are in a goup of two and its almost snowing, so sadly there is not that much footage exept POV that is hard to show without shame ;)

Spätzle, wine and there is the good mood.

Store Ula, Mira Kodada

Norwegian Fairydale Village

Lorenz, Frya

After Lorenz left by plane from Trondheim the next group arrived. Manuel Köhler and Michi Wutti from home and Darin McQuoid and Rok Sribar from the US (bzw. Slovenia) joined us. 
Unfortunatly Wutti got hurt on the first run and had to fly home right away.
The original plan was to explore some of the more northern regions around Hatfjelldal and Mo i Rana that have been getting more focus the last years. Unfortunatly weather and snowconditions provided us with too high levels in this regions, so we decided to stay a little more south. 
The weather conditions were still far from great, but kayaking is a wet sport and we continued to have quality runs.

New group after a 25 hour drive, Trondheim Airport

Driva, Graura Put-In

Lea and the fighting sheep

First we ran the Graura Section on the Driva at a nice high level. Nobody of our group knew this section and it provided some fast and demanding action.

Then we decided to run upper Rauma and Ulvea.

upper Rauma, Little Huka

upper Rauma

After this we drove further to the south and spend some time around Otta and Sjoa with Jori, Finna, Skjoli, Sjoa and Skjerva at good levels. Skjoli scared the shit out of us, while Finna was one of the best runs of the trip. Thanks to Adrian, Olli and the rest for showing us the lines.

does the boat fit?, Skjoli Put-In

Skjoli, one scary ride!!

"Shuttlemaxi"

Road to Voss

Art ?

Also Lealausi needs some GoreTex

With weather conditions not getting any better we decided to drive to Voss and try to run whatever was not too high. So we caught the Brandset, upper Jordalselva, Tysselva and Teigdal Double Drop at runable flows, eventhough the Tysselva was a little high I guess ;) 

Tysselva Slide, anybody wanna have a go??

Brandset Put-In Slide

what are they doing?

Myself and Rok on the classic Jordalselva Drop

Teigdalselva, Double Drop, 10pm

After a few days in Voss Darin and Rok had to go home and took the train to Oslo. Manu and myself continued to have some good and scary times on upper Sognedal at high flows and finished our trip on lower Skjerva and Finna witch has to be one of the best combo runs out there.

no fish ever bite when I fish :(

didn`t fill up for free, although its my gasstation...

Stay tuned for the video which is in the works and for some mountainbike action as my wife and myself continued our trip to Are, Oppdal and Hafjell for some serious freeriding.
Thanks to Darin, Manu and Ali for the pictures and everybodyelse who joined us on this trip.

cheers, Re

thanks for the support to: Liquidlogic Kayaks, Alpin Action, Sweetprotection, Kokatat, System X, Hf