When most kayaker's think of the ultimate destination for world class white water two towns come to mind, Pucon Chile and Voss Norway. The latter certainly lived up to its reputation providing two of the best days kayaking I have ever had.
Three of us made the 3 hour journey from Sogndal. Since I was the tourist we took the scenic route across the fjord to Vangsnes then over the mountains.
The Myrkdalen is a steep low volume run that runs parallel to Voss's ski resort. Levels were low, perfect for a first run down the impressive cascades. We met up with two of the Local raft guides, Martin seemed to know every line intimately and I was glad to be in a team with so much local knowledge.
Martin on the first drop. I got this one wrong, missing the critical boof stroke and spending some time rolling around in the stopper at the bottom- not the start I was hoping for but i soon warmed up and my paddeling improved.
Technical drops followed after technical drops. This ones known as the "Triple drop combo."
The first rapid that realy scared me was a long broken slide into a powerfull stopper, A technical entry followed by lots of kickers meant potential for a painful capsize then valiant, involintory surfing experience in the hole. I watched the others run this one first, with varying degrees of success (Jonas Backwards!) Then it was my turn....
Just about made it through the hole at the bottom after a short surf at the bottom.
We continued on down more slides and drops, some the best rapids I have ever paddled. Most just about runable with out inspecting first, purely on the descriptions of the locals. One member able slide was like going down a huge spiralling stair case.
After a arduous mandatory portage, I found myself in a walled in canyon looking at a very significant horizon line. There was no choice but to run it. I chose the left line- a smother transition on the upper section, so smooth infact I found myself flying into the next drop further left that I anticipated.
I was pretty proud of my line on this one and it felt very good to be at the bottom.
The happy international team at the take out!
left to right. Matt (Aus), Jonas (Nor), Me and Martin (Nor)
As it was a Sunday (annoying everything in Norway closes on a Sunday) we got dinner out of the bins outside the super market, 3 of us slept in the van in a quiet part of town and woke up feeling refreshed and reinvigorated for another days hard kayaking (NOT)
The Raundalselva is a classic river of the Voss region. I was amazed how many of the rapids and waterfalls I recognised from watching kayaking videos as a teenager just starting out. The river can, apparently, be paddled from the end of the road all the way to Voss. The top section contains an infamous fall called 'Nosebreaker' and "the tunnel rapid" and is generally pretty bloody serious. The section we ran from Skiple to Urdland is a little easier and certainly less serious. The river is compressed into a long pushy gorge section, with a feeling of commitment and remoteness that certainly made me pay attention. The local knowledge of the guys I was following certainly made this an attainable yet challenging undertaking for myself. I paddled more white water that day than I have done in years in Scotalnd as an active kayker.
The few photos I got were of the portages. I think they portray the general feeling of the river well.
After many Kilometres of class 4. I could feel the exostion started to kick in, narrowly missing the ride of my life in the "buddy hole." At the top I could see the river disappearing from veiw in to a narrow canyon, sprey erupting from it. I asked martin the line who chuckled and said "the line is kind of fucked up- stat right, to centre to right again and boof the big hole on the right" After mistaking one of the earlier holes as being the big hole, (i guess big hole is all relative) I ended up dead centre on the lip of the really big hole, desperately took a rushed boof stoke of the lip, got tail squirted in the tow back which turned me 180 degrees to face the walled- in hydrolic. luckily I was just on the boundary of the tow back and just got away with back paddling escaping a horrible kicking. LUCKY ME!
At the bottom my excited new friends high fived and told me we were just over half way.........
By the time we got to the last rapids there was ice forming on the rocks. I portaged one of the rapids and got some photos of the others.
Possibly the most memorable weekend of all time.
