‘What do you know about Northern Norway multi-days?’, I asked.
‘It’s not Cali.’
That truism statement surely left me skeptical. I obviously knew that Norway wasn’t anything like California. What I wasn’t sure of was, whether or not my interlocutor thought I was a total idiot or not. Being a ‘professional kayaker’ that’s an assumption I face on a regular basis. Like if we threw ourselves down monster rapids without thinking much of it and that our last remaining healthy brain cells would diminish on impact. I would like to think that it is not the case, or at least not my case. That being said, I am also no stranger to Pluto’s allegory of the cave, so who knows… I have accepted that some questions must remain unanswerable, but regarding Northern Norway I guess I just had to go and see for myself.
End of June I packed the car and started the long drive north. After a quick mandatory stop in Voss for the Extreme Kayaking World Championships, I continued driving North. Endless hours on the road and crappy gas station coffee surely reminded me of previous paddling trips in California. But aren’t these the common denominators for most kayaking trips? The slight differences being that when you go east the roads get rowdier and you swap coffee for chai, south coffee is instant, and Italy is the great exception with good coffee and good food wherever you go.
So way too many bad coffees and we finally made it to Trofors, home of legendary whitewater kayakers Mariann Saether and Ron Fisher, and close enough base camp for our first classic Northern Norway multiday : the Lomsdal. With water levels getting low in the area, the idea was to start hiking with some rain in the forecast and hopefully get good flows. The accuracy of weather predictions in Norway is scary.
Next thing you know we finished a long day of hiking in the storm. The last slab we had to down climb was slippery. Setting up camp with strong wind gusts was chaotic. We didn’t sleep much that night. The tent was flapping and making so many loud noises that at times it felt like it would bend and break. Although it was nighttime, we could see it all happen, since it never gets dark during a summer in Norway. The next day we woke up tired and half of our team was soaking wet.
It was not Cali indeed. Cold and wet, the hike was harder, and it turns out the whitewater was great but surely not as clean.
Our next river was the Glomaga and it was amazing. Surely not for the whitewater though. A lot of the big rapids were horrendous so we portaged a lot. The style of whitewater on the Glomaga isn’t the most fun either. The top section can be a bit manky, and down below it gets boily with sticky holes.
Still it was one of the best kayaking self support trips I have ever done. If the paddling is marginal, the landscapes surely make up for it. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen and yet it’s not Cali.
When Tiphaine joined me in Norway after her expedition in Pakistan, I really wanted to share this special place with her. We traded kayaks for packrafts, brought a bit of climbing gear ‘just in case’ and found our way towards Glomfjiords in public transports. Once again our ‘holidays’ turned into a sufferfest. Our load was way heavier than expected, days were long and portaging was rough. By bringing climbing gear we wanted to change perspective. Not just go down but scramble up as well. Exploring this place from further up as well as mixing our disciplines.
Through our trips together we are finding out what we are capable of, when to keep pushing, when to step back. Along the way there is sometimes amazing whitewater, steep ski descents and high altitude for Tiph, big Firsts… but maybe that’s not the most important. In the process we hopefully find growth, meet new friends, create good memories.
So yes, Northern Norway is not Cali, but it’s only as good as you make it.
Photo Essay courtesy of
Nouria Newman
Astral Archetype, Nouria Newman, is the first woman to run Site Zed, the first female to run a 100 foot waterfall and has been voted Female Rider of the Year for a record five consecutive years.