Well, part 2 took longer than expected. Unbearable heat, sunny weather and lots of other stuff were the reasons, but anyways here it is:
Driving over several fjells on our way to Voss we took our
time to take in the beautiful landscapes. This was also the moment that the
huge snowpack became apparent… Places that where complete dry during my visit
in 2011 were now under meters of snow. We got to Voss quite late and camped out
at the lake camp. Talking to other boaters confirmed our fears of high
water in the Voss area in general. However, some runs that usually only run
after rainfall would be just right with the snowmelt.
Photo: Daniel Brasuell
First stop was the Teigdalselva. This run could be the
definition of steep creeking and ends with one most famous waterfalls combos in
the kayaking community. – double drop.
Teigdal starts off with a bang - Photo: Daniel Brasuell
Photo: Daniel Brasuell
Will is like "oohhhhshiiiit!
Taking off... - Photo: Diane Gaydos
The Teigdalselva run just keeps delivering, Daniel Steward
Diane on the last mandatory slide - such a nice one
Sometime around the year 2000 it was the first time that I
saw a picture of Arnd Schäftlein running double drop printed in
Kanumagazin. At the time I thought that was just crazy. Many years have passed by
and double drop gets run quite a lot now. It’s still a big, but it has a clear
line and isn’t that hard to stick. On the other hand, all the carnage videos on
youtube prove the opposite… Anyways, seeing the drop the first time in real, it
didn’t scare me away as I had expected. It actually looked really good to me.
A
couple hours later we were standing at the lip, already pretty stoked after
having run the really cool Teigdal run. I started scouting from the top and
still had a that good feeling for the drop. I decided to give it a go. Waiting for
Daniel and Diane setting up their cameras and Will getting his boat down to the
pool below really turned out to be the most stressful part for me
– I don’t know why, but waiting once I’ve decided to run
something big always gets me really
nervous. After everybody was in position I got into my boat and paddled into an eddy on the other side of the creek and got the thumbs up from Daniel.
Right at this moment the sun came out for the first time this day – perfect
time to peel out into the current. My line worked out just like I had
planned. Getting a bit of an angle on the first drop it was as soft as it gets.
I had enough time for a couple stokes to get where I wanted to be on the second drop and
took one last one while going over the lip. I hit the pool tucked up
and pointing straight down. This hit wasn’t nearly as soft as the first one and
I went deep. Rolling up I had the just a huge smile on my face.
First one - Photo: Daniel Brasuell
Boom - Photo: Daniel Brasuell
We camped out at a little campsite near the Teigdalselvi to
enjoy the only warm shower of the trip. Despite some hurting bodys from the
Teigdal run we continued on to the Brandseth the next day. This one is one of
the best runs around Voss and offers some big slides and combo drops. Lots of
fun!
Daniel Steward somewhere well above the normal put in
Daniel Brasuell runs put in slide
One of the bigger slides - Photo: Diane Gaydos
Photo: Diane Gaydos
slides, slides, slides... always slides - Photo: Daniel Brasuell
Daniel on the same one
A nice 5 meter drop rounds out the slides
Lots of snow up here. It was really hot and all the little creeks coming down became bigger and bigger. The Brandseth basically tripled it's flow towards the evening.
Sundown at 11:00
I took a family break the next day while the others hit the Tysselva and high water play run.
The Jordalselva was another one that rounded out our time in
Voss. We had some
rainfall at night resulting in juicy flows. Arriving at the famous 10 meter
falls only Daniel Steward had his balls at hand. He had a good line, but lost
his paddle after the huge boil at the bottom crashed him into the right
wall. Somehow he was able to get upright at the shore and hand paddle out of
the pocket. After this impressive presentation of force of nature nobody else followed
on this one.
The road to put in was still under snow...At least we didn't have to hike down to the river - Instead we had some sliding action in the snow.
Daniel Steward - bridge rapid
"You think that hole on top does anything?" - Yes it does. ;)
Daniel Steward flying.
Beautiful Nærøyfjorden
Temperatures kept rising and flows around Voss were exploding,
so we decided to drive to our third and last destination around Sjoa and meet up with Reiner and Lorenz for the last days of the trip.
Also check out Daniel's video about Voss!
Part three is coming soon. Thanks to Daniel and Diane for letting me use their pictures!
