Norway, the land of whitewater, endless days and steep goodness. Working full time in Norway during this summer, gave me the thrilling opportunity to paddle some of the worlds most stunning rivers and experience one of Europes last wild places left, at its full magnitude.
If you drive a car of a ferry and, within half an hour drive you are at a put in for a beautiful class IV+ Gem, amongst endless mountain ranges full of potential. Mist rising from the fjords illuminating the atmosphere and great friends to greet you, you know you reached a destination that has to be recokned with. Sadly we had to leave all the big boating expeditions to the boys rushing through on their road trips. However, once in a while, even raft guides get time of work and we got to go out and have a play as well.
Most of the times we kept our footsteps to the beaten paths and stuck to the guidebook classics, Sogn og Fjordland, More og Romsdal, Voss and Soja.
Every now and then, though, you pick up your phone, and you get to paddle a undiscovered gem in the heart of Norway. Surprisingly, first Desents are still to be made in a country so highly frequented by whitewater kayakers.
This year, I was lucky enough, to be given the opportunity to partake in an expedition that took a first glimpse down one those deep, unexplored, bedrock canyons. Stay tuned forupdates on our little side mission for next year.
Whilst the icey cold rain of the Norwegian fall is hitting the windows of the ferryboat, I am starting to drift of into dreams, of warm water, catching up with good friends and hopefully more boating missions to come, bring it on, Aotearoa (New Zealand)! Credit goes especially to IR, for hooking me up with a sweet deal of gear. I’ve been rough on all my equipment all summer, taking it every day on the river, and it never let me down.
Huge thank you again, boys! I had a little bit of time on my ferry ride to play with the computer. Hopefully everyone enjoys the pictures and the video as much as we did taking them. Enjoy! Go hard and play safe everyone, till we meet again!
Norway 2011 from Joerg Waidelich on Vimeo.
Text by Jörg Waidelich
Pictures by
