Arctic Circle Expedition

Last year I was part of a team that headed to Iceland and the remote Northern Region of Norway. Our mission was to explore previously un-run rivers and to document our adventures for the upcoming kayak features ‘Halo Effect’ and ‘Frontier’. I have shared the stories of our Icelandic adventures in previous blog posts so I thought I’d share with you what we discovered on our journey into the Arctic Circle via Northern Norway….

- The crew enjoying the midnight sun. L to R: Dave Fisher, Steve Fisher, Ben Brown, Shane Raw & Rush Sturges.

- Visiting some old friends in Iceland…

Norway has been on the adventure kayakers radar since the early nineties when teams of gung-ho German paddlers began venturing there in search of new rivers to paddle. Over the ensuing years Norway segments began to appear on the latest and greatest kayaking films to hit the market, showcasing cutting edge extreme kayaking on breathtaking rivers, all amongst an almost as breathtaking scenic backdrop. Norway has now become a ‘must do’ on any serious kayakers wish list and every spring sees more and more paddlers heading to the hills of Norway in search of a taste of her now legendary whitewater. The kayaking regions of Telemark, Voss and Sjoa have become a kayakers Mecca and with every new season comes the annual influx of paddlers.

After some memorable trips into Norway over the past few seasons we had began to pick up on some tales of another epic paddling zone hidden high up in the Northern region of Norway. Stories of Northern Norway’s epic whitewater and huge volume rivers had been filtering through various paddling circles. Tales of a California – esk, granite, lunar landscape had been fuelling our imaginations for several years. Maps tended to back up the enticing theories yet we could find no actual eyewitness accounts of this whitewater wonderland. It seemed that due to a number of factors, including the high cost of road travel in Norway, and the absolute world-class paddling on offer in the more southern regions of the country, the Northern Region of Norway had remained fairly uncharted from a kayaking perspective. This season a crew consisting of Rush Sturges, Ben Brown, and brothers Steve and Dave Fisher decided to sacrifice the classic Norwegian paddle adventure, and head north, deep into the Arctic Circle, to see exactly what Northern Norway had to offer.

- International air travel with excess baggage is never any fun…

Despite the fact we were heading thousands of kilometres north on our adventure, our logistical arrangements (as warped as they may seem) meant that we flew into Norway’s capital Oslo in order to pick up our rental van and prepare for our journey North. This created two difficult scenarios for the team. The first being that we were a minimum of 20 hours driving from our entry into Norway’s Northern Region, the second being that during the aforementioned 20 hour drive we would put ourselves through the cruel and unusual punishment of actually driving through Norway’s current kayak hotspots, and past some our most favourite rivers on the planet. Nevertheless, we had a plan in place and we were going to stick to it, nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that… It was just going to take a little self-control!

Norway is about as far from New Zealand as you can possibly get on this planet, yet the endless Fjords, pristine alpine wilderness, breathtaking scenery and snowmelt fed rivers tumbling in all directions on their journey to the sea all immediately make you feel like you could be somewhere in the South Island of New Zealand. As we drove North the already long sunlight days grew slightly longer, the herds of marauding mountain sheep gave way to groups of Moose and Reindeer, and the landscape began to rise up above us in the form of towering granite domes. What was most exciting for us though was the fact that there was obviously plenty of water in this zone. Waterfalls were tumbling all around us and every valley we drove through seemed to contain a river that looked like it had the potential for epic whitewater.

- Care must always be taken when scouting from railway bridges!

On an exploratory expedition such as this it is easy to become sidetracked and waste precious time by focusing all your efforts on the first river you come across. We set off on our adventure knowing that it was very likely we would find a lot of whitewater. It was for this reason that before departure we hosted one of our now standard ‘map parties’ where we identified specific valleys and zones, as well as individual rivers, that looked like they had a high probability of possessing all the ingredients that make up a classic stretch of whitewater. We knew that in order to get a feel of what was on offer in Northern Norway we needed to focus our efforts around those pre-planned hit lists.

- A google earth ‘Map Party’, where to next boys?

Our first port of call was almost immediately as we entered the Northern Region, just south of the Arctic Circle. We had noticed a lake on the map that had several rivers of interest flowing in and out of it as well as a couple of other rivers in the immediate vicinity that warranted further investigation. After exploring several of the rivers on our list and paddling a couple of the better ones we decided that whilst the paddling was great fun, our time would be better spent continuing north towards the town of Mo I Rana where we figured water levels would be higher. As we headed further north the granite landscape we had been hoping for continued to evolve and we quickly found ourselves in an area very reminiscent of the Californian Sierra Nevada’s.

- Some Northern Norway Magic.

- Just like the southern zones, there are plenty of slides up north as well.

It didn’t take long to find what we were looking for, the rivers had significantly increased in volume and it seemed that we had caught up with the seasonal snow melt run off. What also became pretty obvious was that the quality of the whitewater in Northern Norway was easily on par with what we had previously paddled in the better-known parts of the country. We were lucky enough to coincide our arrival into Mo I rana with a settled period of weather and it is hard to beat exploring epic new whitewater in a far off country with a bluebird sky over your head. Each new day bought a new section of river and it was a great feeling to be achieving what we had set out to do at the start of our trip. After a week or so of knocking off as many rivers as we could we decided to continue on towards the city of Narvik, the largest in Northern Norway. We estimated this drive was going to be at least 14 hours and take us through some pretty amazing countryside. Norway’s landscape is not the only similarity that it shares with New Zealand. Her weather tends to be as fickle as it is in New Zealand and four seasons in one day is one way to describe it! A short time into our journey towards Narvik the heavens opened and it poured down. The hills began to spew water and the rivers we were crossing quickly began to rise with an ominous brown colour. We decided to pull over, base ourselves out of a cabin for the night and take the opportunity to explore some of the small local tributaries once the weather eased up.

The next day bought super high water levels and the crew split up to explore various valleys. The cell phones quickly lit up as the boys discovered raging granite slides ready to be run. We settled on a small creek that charged out of the hills and into a river we had paddled in the previous days. We suited up and climbed up her banks curious as to what we might find. The further we pushed up the river, the more amazing steep whitewater we found and this day turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip as we ran a series of steep and exciting slides all the way back to our vehicle at the base of the river.

- With heavy overnight rain normally dry riverbeds turned into epic slide sections. We weren’t complaining!

With adrenaline levels high we loaded up and punched further north. Aware that we were beginning to get sidetracked a little we drove away from several rivers that looked like they had great potential and made a beeline for Narvik, an area we had high hopes for. As we rolled into Narvik it seemed that we had bought the weather with us and a restless sleep in pouring rain did little the dampen our enthusiasm as to what the next day may bring. Our first target was a huge slide we had heard whispers of via some Finnish paddlers who were also exploring the region. After a few false starts up the wrong valleys we finally rounded a narrow bend in the tight road we were on, revealing the biggest slide any of us had ever seen. Closer inspection revealed an impossibly steep section of cascading whitewater stretching over almost a kilometre. We spent the entire day scouting and theorising as to how a kayak may perform on the slide. The decision was made to return the next morning, scout again from the opposite bank and make a decision.

We returned early the next morning brimming with confidence but the scout from the opposite bank revealed several crux moves in the rapid that made it almost impossible to descend. Feeling a little defeated, but with much more whitewater still to be found, we left the beast for another day.

- Every new river seemed to contain another epic drop…

What we found during our exploring was that the type of rivers and whitewater we were after tended to be clustered together in fairly close geographic proximity. This rang true when we discovered another granite paradise only a few valleys south of our monster slide. There is something very exciting about the moment a new rapid is first revealed to you and driving up this latest valley was one of those special moments. Amongst a granite lunar landscape that scarcely seemed real we found some of the most amazing and unique rapids any of us had ever seen. The water levels were on the low side but the rain was still falling and we wanted our big slide fix! After another damp night in the rain we headed up the valley to see what we could knock off. The previous day we had spotted another monster slide from the road and decided that it warranted further inspection so this was our immediate goal. We suited up, bush bashed down to the river, paddled across a peat lake and eventually found ourselves perched at the top of another massive slide! Everything looked good except for the fact that the pool at the bottom was only about 3 meters wide and we were pretty uncertain about how much speed you would be hitting the bottom of the slide with. After much conversing and scouting we decided to send a boat down the slide half full of water to try and calculate a little better how much speed a paddler would get.

With nervous anticipation we sent the boat on its way and were all pretty surprised (and a little relieved) to see the boat glide down the slide in a pretty controlled manner. We decided that it was time to buck up and run it and Rush opted to go first.

Perched at the bottom, looking up through my camera lens at the small speck that was Rush appearing over the horizon it was immediately obvious that he was going way faster than we had anticipated he would. By the time he was halfway down the slide he was going faster than I had ever seen a kayak go before and with each bounce he was clearing 5 – 10m of river. (A GPS readings from Rush’s lifejacket would later show he was travelling a shade over 76km an hour!) Rush hit the pool at the bottom at full speed managing to lift his left knee as he entered the calm water giving his boat a right angle as it bounced out of the pool and flew 2m through the air clipping the rocks at the end of the pool before coming to rest with both pilot and craft in one piece. After managing to exhale finally we scampered back to the van with our tales between our legs thankful that our team was still in one piece. Hey, nobody said it was an exact science!

- Northern Norway has endless potential for new whitewater…

For the duration of our trip we had, had one major goal in mind. A river we had spotted out towards the western Fjords of Northern Norway that flowed out of a high alpine lake, between Norway’s two largest glaciers as it dropped 750 vertical meters to the sea. The Glamorga River looked to contain all of the necessary attributes that we needed for an awesome multi-day first descent and we were eager to check it out. Due to the exposed and remote location and the unknown nature of the river we were only prepared to go in with a settled period of weather. With the weather maps looking like we might get our window we headed for the base of the river and sent Steve for an exploratory flight in his powered paraglider, which he had bought to Norway specifically for scouting purposes. Two hours later Steve returned from his flight with an excited look on his face. From high up in the air he could peer into most of the dark river canyons and he said we had found exactly what we were looking for…

- Finding first descents the new, and old fashioned way…

We spent the next day negotiating ferries, tunnels and mountain roads to get to our put in, a breathtaking lake, 750m above sea level and the source of the Glamorga River. We had encountered some truly amazing scenery on our travels thus far but what surrounded us at the put in of the Glamorga took the cake. An unbelievably blue lake, flanked on either side by huge glaciers, grinding their way to the water between giant granite domes. As we set off across the lake towards the headwaters of the Glamorga we were both excited and nervous as to what the next few days would bring. There are so many factors that can contribute to the success of a first descent and we were quietly hoping our stars would align on this one.

- Contemplating what lies ahead at the put-in of the Glamorga.

- Paddling across a scenic wonderland at the source of the Glamorga.

Finding and paddling first descents is a difficult game. Normally when a river hasn’t been paddled before there is a pretty good reason for that! When you go to a new country looking for un-run rivers you are potentially looking for something that doesn’t even exist which means that you often come up short. This makes finding and running a river all the more special and in the Glamorga we found one out of the bag.

- Countless awesome rapids, epic campsites and our names on the first D of the Glamorga, adventure kayaking at its very best.

We spent three days paddling the river right from its source and watched it grow before our eyes from a tiny alpine creek into a high volume river. It passed through some of the most foreboding and intimidating, yet ruggedly beautiful terrain I have ever been through. We paddled through some deep and dark granite river canyons and found some world-class whitewater. On day two we paddled across the line of the Arctic Circle and as we entered the lower gorges of the river the canyons began to contain large deposits of marble rock giving the river an almost jade glow. The rapids we found are too numerous to mention individually but we were amazed at how many we were able to run. In two places the river entered box canyons and in parts flowed underground meaning we were required to portage up and around the deep canyons. This was difficult work considering we were carrying kayaks laden with 4 days of expedition gear yet it seemed to add to the adventure rather than detract from it. There is a deep sense of satisfaction that comes with having to work hard for a river.

- The boys pausing for a moment to soak it all in.

- Scenery that literally took your breath away.

- On day 3 the river took on a much more ‘big water’ feel.

Late on day three we arrived at the marble castle, a spectacular marble canyon that is a remote tourist attraction. This signalled the end of our adventure, and our time in Northern Norway. The river had offered everything you could ask for in a first descent and it was a very satisfied team that emerged having completed it. It seemed a pretty fitting way to end our mission. With the autumn rapidly approaching and several days of driving still ahead of us to get back down to Oslo we loaded our trusty rental van for the last time and headed south.

- The successful team at the Marble Castle, the take-out of the Glamorga.

Northern Norway is a truly magical place and we found exceeded all our expectations. We encountered foreboding terrain, massive granite domes, unsettled weather patterns and deep and dark river canyons. However, we also found a veritable smorgasbord of steep creeks, high volume rivers, seemingly endless granite slides and multi-day expedition trips were all on offer. Northern Norway has the potential to become the next kayaking hot spot and there are still countless rivers awaiting those who are prepared to brave the long drive and the horrific bugs! After a month spent exploring as many drainages as we could, and paddling some truly memorable rivers, we came away feeling we had barely scratched the surface of what was on offer.

Below is a couple of TV features on our adventures:

Cheers team!

Ben Brown: www.benbrown.co.nz