A week ago I arrived back home after spending two weeks in one of the best whitewater regions in the world. Back in 2013 on our trip to Ticino I had talked Daniel Brasuell into coming to Norway this year to keep our yearly meetings going. Norway was the fourth trip together in three years. It was the most exciting one yet! (Although Cali was sweet too...)
Hannah and I decided it was better to part ways on the long drive to Norway and back. I would hit the road up north and meet Hannah and Moritz at the airport in Oslo. They came flying from Vienna and this way we had a really relaxed start of the trip. We met up with the Americans and started off to our first destination of the trip - Telemark.
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| Hannah and Moritz arriving in Oslo |
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| First breakfast of the trip! |
Late June is usually too late for good waterlevels in the Telemark region. But with the epic snowpacks of 2015 the creeks (at least some of them) were still running. To help the American members of the group getting rid of their jetlag I suggested to jump on the homerun of the Mar. This short run is really a highlight since its basically five nice drops back to back ranging from two to seven meters.
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| Daniel Steward on the first drop |
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| Daniel Brasuell - number 2 |
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| Diane Gaydos - number 4 |
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| Same moment, different angle - Photo: Daniel Brasuell |
Later that night Will joined the group so we were then complete. Diane Gaydos, Daniel Brasuell, Daniel Steward, Will Rudisill, Hannah, Moritz and myself.
Since the Göyst had already dropped out we made the short drive to the Austbygdai. This river entertained us for the next two days or so. Impressive and sometimes intimidating bedrock slides are the name of the game!
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| Boofing the first slide - a fun one! - Photo: Daniel Brasuell |
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| Will runs a big one on california section of Austbygdai |
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| slides |
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| more slides |
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| Diane comes out of a fun one |
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| Upper Austbygdai - not as steep as california section but equally good |
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| Diane in a maze of a slide |
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| Will boofing a big hole |
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| The upper section ends with a bang! Spänemfossen! |
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| Diane styling it |
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| Photo - Diane Gaydos |
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| The stoke is high - Photo: Daniel Brasuell |
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| Having fun in the snow |
Well, with no more runs on our list in the Telemark we decided to make the drive to Voss. Already on the way we got the information that all "everything in Voss is way too high". Since most creeks around Voss aren't known for easy class four that gets better with high water we did get quite nervous about the news. However, since alternatives were lacking we continued on our drive to find out for ourselves if really everything was to high...
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| Off to Voss - Photo: Daniel Brasuell |
Part two coming soon!
Big thanks to Kokatat for the support and for making my drysuit arrive shortly before I left for the trip. I have never stayed as dry on any trip before. That's so important on a trip where it can be cold water and weather!
Also thanks to Diane and Daniel for letting me use their pictures! Check out Daniel's Telemark
video!
Cheers,
Harald
