Norge bye Norge last

Not Norway. Can you guess where it is? Answers on a postcard.....

So i seem to have not written any blog posts for a while! Whoops. Largely this is because i felt like i wanted to keep this mainly as a kayaking blog and since we spent last winter skiing (after 2 winters off the snow i was fiending for some sliding) i wasnt sure it fitted in. Hence ive waited til the end of our Norwegian season to get into it. All of which is a long way round saying i was lazy, and also this is going to be a long update. I encourage you to keep scrolling, at least for the photos. Im quite pleased with some of them :P Anyways, heres a couple of gratuitous Chamonix shots just by way of "yes, check out what i did".

Colin de binne & Manue on the Vallee Blanche classic route. Amazing place to be up there eh.

Manue in the middle of the Glacier de Toule. We skied from France to Italy and back that day. Gotta love the crazy shit you can do in Cham :)

It was a great season in Chamonix for us, maybe not the best year for snow but we had a super fun time anyway and i got a few sweet pow days in, a trip to Monte Rosa in March particularly stands out. 60+ cms for 3 days straight? Yes sir! 

It was all over soon enough tho and time for us to think about summer. Before heading back to the land of the midnight sun again we managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Slovenia and a few days of gentle warm up on the Soca. I had never been before but i cant recommend it enough! Beautiful place, great river and just a great all round paddling destination for people of all abilities. A quick pit stop in Venice for sightseeing, pizza and gelato on the way back and we were out on the road. Again. 

See? Pretty isnt it. Manue cruising down the Soca. Still not Norway.

So by now youre probably like "He's taking the piss now, wheres my Gnarway porn?" Relax, im getting there :P
A couple of weeks in Scotland with the folks and Manue and i did the long drive northwards again. This was our 3rd season running the Sjoa Kayak Camp and it was another great year. We had a strange start to it, with a super cold May giving super low water levels well into June even tho we had a huge snow pack in the moutains. It was all to come good but took some time to get going, like high water would normally be the end of May and it wasnt til early July this year. Which was kinda nice actually. Some of you might like to jump straight off the plane and into the super gnar, but personally after a long winter of no boating, i kinda like a nice gentle warm up. So plenty of low water amots to ease the muscle memory back into gear was just what the doctor ordered. Didnt take long to get the charging started tho, and early June brought the lower Rauma into condition. 

Adam "the cunning stunt" Cox on number 2.

 We rallied a massive crew and basically had an awesome time. It was kinda entertaining running it with so many of us, since it meant you spent like an hour sitting around watching, doing photos, safety etc, then 10 seconds paddling. Not my favourite style for any river really, for me 4 is the magic number, but it worked and we had alot of fun. 

Santiago lo Greco on number 3. This is the scary one for me, its a BIG ferry eh.

Joe the Leader on what i maintain is number 5. On other rivers, this would be a notable rapid. On the lower Rauma its boogie water.

 It was a good way to really get the season going and certainly got me fired up. I was on a mission this summer and keen to try and paddle as much as i could. So i did. As things warmed up and the rivers started to rise we rushed south to hit up the Telemark classics once again. The Ausbygdai and home run of the Mar were again on the agenda and we checked out the middle Mar as well. That was unfortunately a bit low the day we went in, and a bit of a portage fest for us, but its definitely worth a look if youve got your big boy pants with you. 
 

Hamish Tills everybody. Styling his lines. Shame they dont work on lady cops.....

Me on the last drop of the home run. Photo: Tom Matthews

Boofing Spannemfossen. Photo: Bart Gevers

Heading back to Sjoa things were on the up and we rallied to the upper Jori a week or so later. We had a much better trip than when we tried to do the lower Jori at the start of July after it had been hot as hell for a week (finally!) then rained like a mofo. In case you are interested do not put on the lower Jori at 140 cumecs and rising. I would like to know what it topped out at but the gage broke at 180 cumecs around 6pm which is about the same time we decided to walk off. It was mental. Heres some pics of the upper at a normal flow anyway....

Dewet boofing in the first slide.

Dipesh sliding halfway down number 2, my favourite on the Jori. This is maybe 1/4 of the whole rapid.

Well guess what? End of June. Norway. You know what that means right? VOSS VEKO!!! Yay! Once again it was time to head over and hang out. I squeezed 4 of us into the car and we rallied over for a quick 3 days of partys and paddling. This year, Voss was afflicted with super high water levels for the whole summer. An enormous snow pack and cold start had kept the rivers running huge and we arrived to find most things off the scale. However that meant a few other things were going, in particular, the Teigdalselvi. I was super stoked to be able to catch it, as this is a river that has been on my mind for years and i wasnt disappointed. We had near perfect levels and i would definitely add the Teigdal to my top 10. 

Santi boofing into the darkness, first drop of Teigdalselvi. Such a sick move on this one.

Adam on a super clean slide. Teigdal provides.

The Teigdalselvi of course culminates in a little thing known far and wide as the double drop. It was a proper huck fest during Veko, it seemed like everyone and their dog was firing off it. After running the rest of the river, the boys were pumped up and duly hucked their meat.

Adam crushing his line. Really nice level that afternoon. 

Who said Nepali's cant fly? Dipesh Gurung.

Following a sick day it is of course customary to go to the bula beany boogie. A good time was had by all, except the git who stole my sweet beany. Off my head! At a party where they are giving away free beanies! The karmic pain induced from such a despicable act has by this time caused their eyes to explode and their ass to fall off. Or should have if there is any justice in the world. Following this disaster, we bravely soldiered on and did some more boating and hanging out at the halfway house. Thanks again Louise, Julian and Suss :)

The Eksingdal 60'. Santi lining it up. Photo: Adam Cunningham-Cox. my camera tho.

 Things went crazy at work after Voss, but i still managed to get out paddling a bunch. Sjoa Fest was a great time as always even tho i was working and didnt get to race. Although if the rumours are to be believed it was the last ever Pimp n' Ho! A change of theme next year isnt going to stop men dressing up as women anyway, but id be surprised if anyone else tries my disguise as "the greased up bald guy", denim hot pants and a bottle of baby oil. I checked the shower was open first and only did it for half an hour, but it was a very entertaining half hour. 

Dropping into Stuttgongfossen on Sjoa. Santi made a mess of the other photos, bad Santi. Photo: Anna Stoller

 The nice thing about this summer was that although i was super busy at work, the levels in and around Sjoa were awesome alot of the time. We did a bunch of Finna laps for example, and got over to the Skjoli a couple of times. Unfortunately the Skjoli isnt a great run for pictures, normally youre way too busy paddling. This also ended up being the case when we took a wee roady for my birthday, during which we did manage to paddle the mickey mouse slides and the Horndola but then basically drove back to Sjoa via Sogndal. You might call it the scenic route i guess.
 

Hucking and tucking on Tessa. Photo: Hamish Tills

Another local spot that was going this summer was Tessa. This is a small creek near Randsverk which normally has been our commercial canyoning site. However the power company changed their parameters on the dam there this year and were allowing a 5 cumec release down it most days. This meant that the bottom drop came into play. The boys had done a 1st D a couple of years back and variously smashed themselves in different ways but with a little extra water it was good to go and people were up there a few times this season. Im afraid to say i got a little over excited and tossed prematurely but still, nice photo.

One of the other runs i visited a few times this year was the lower Rauma, 3 times in total, stoked. The 2nd trip up was just a small crew and my good friend Greig came along with us on a purely media mission. He is an amazing photographer so ill let his shots do the talking. 

Myself on number 1. Seeing the whole landscape gives a sense of scale i think. Photo: Greig McColm

The same moment in close up. He's got 2 cameras! Photo: Greig McColm

Jake "Wonder Boy" Holland running into number 2. Photo: Greig McColm

The classic shot of number 2. Ulvaa meets Rauma. Photo: Greig McColm

Really like this shot of us making our way between 3 & 4. Again, landscape giving scale and a sense of place to the paddling. Photo: Greig McColm

"Boof Limpy, BOOF!" El Limpertino everybody. It is a BIG slide eh. Photo: Greig McColm

I was back again a few days after with a different crew and we had another great day. Its such a sick river. The confluence between the Rauma and Ulvaa at number 2 is one of my favourite places in the world. You can viscerally feel the raw power of nature all around you standing there, and the whole river is really very humbling. Tussen takk for slik at oss til å være der Rauma.

Me on number 3. Photo: Bart Gevers

Things kept going at work and the rest of the season passed by in a bit of a blur. Soon enough it was the Amot race, organised by the wonderful Rob & Ine of Planet River. Thanks again for an awesome time guys!

 

Jake chasing down Linford. Photo: Emmanuelle Belanger.

Autumn comes early in Norway, and this year the leaves had started to turn by mid-August. I love fall boating tho, and luckily we were able to get away for one last road trip to Voss in mid-September. Hamish, Will and i rallied over and bagged a few classics. 

La Tillsolina nailing his boof on the 1st drop of the lower Myrkdal.

Holy diving. Myrkdalselvi

Me dropping into the holy diver. Myrk. Photo: Hamish Tills

 

Will "the body" Hartman on the Hummedola

Me sliding on the upper Brandseth. Photo: Hamish Tills.

The big slide, or at least the bottom half. Me and Will blue angel. Photo: Hamish Tills.

The boys heading down the Reimegrende, Raundalselvi.

Our grand finale to the season was the Danish Whitewater games that this year were held at Riksanlegget. Unfortunately for the Danes, the river came up big that weekend and the slalom course was way too high for most of their paddlers so alternatives had to be found. They were tho, and the whole event was a great success. Which is all she wrote more or less. It was our last season in Sjoa, as Manue and i are going to be moving back to Canada this winter. A massive thanks to all those wonderful folkens of the valley who welcomed us in and gave us so many amazing memories. Much love to you all guys, tussen takk. We're going to miss you all, and the valley so much. Still, BC aint so bad :)

 

Looking back on our drive out. Jotunheim and the Bessegen ridge on a glorious autumn day.

To everyone else, thanks for reading, couldnt have done it without you, honest. A massive thankyou everyone at Colorado Kayak Supply for their continued support. And another massive thanks and shout out to ZET kayaks Canada, super stoked to be a part of the team guys.

All the best, take care :)