Telemark, Norway

Durning the our stay in Norway, rain was a huge factor in our lives. From camping, eating, driving, and of course kayaking. With high levels around the greater Sjoa area and frustration setting in due to running scary big water runs. We took a chance and drove 6 hours down south to the Telemark region of Norway. Arriving with a good crew and with Mathias Fossum’s local knowledge we hit 5 rivers in 3 days!

Here is our list of runs:

-Skoksoa
-Austbygd  (Middle & California section)
-Home Run on the Mar River
-Eisoa
-Dagali (Zambezi section)

My favorite river we paddled is a small creek called The Eisoa - pronounced (Aidsoa). This river boasted some of the stoutest drops I had the exotic-pleasure of running in the country. Starting off with a good clean 30 footer the river then greeted us with an entourage of cool slides leading to the lip on a 50 foot falls that had yet to be run. The drop looked doable, but it was a tall freefall turning 90degrees and reconnecting before hitting a small window between the wall and the good zone in the pool. A lot of people have looked at this drop and I'd heard from multiple sources that it was "good to go". We scouted for a while knowing it was sweet, but scared to pull the trigger...Until Gerd Serrasolses (Aniol's older brother) decided it was chill. Sticking the line, bagging the 1stD, and making it look clean...I went, followed immediately by Anton. Directly after this stout is an infamous drop..."Big Girl". It's a 40-foot falls, Heath Springs looking drop that lands amazingly close to the right wall. Then in the cauldron the water pillows up in a tight rowdy eddy and the river then funnels off a 20 foot slot falls. Very Royal Gorge-esque!!!!!! I like!!!! Once again Myself, Gerd, and Anton fired with nice lines and celebrated the running of another scary/great stout! The rest of the run was silky smooth granite-bedrock slides and boofs to the takeout bridge. This was a very "EG" style run...Big Drops & Really Steep = Epic!!!!!!

Telemark has Quebec like scenery with Minnesota/California style whitewater. Wide open river beds hold every thing from long slides, wide falls, tight slots, boulder gardens, stouts holes, and even some good old fashion mank!!!! The rivers we did were longer in general and held lots of different styles all packed into a small section. Which is sweet because you get the whole picture, not just a few pixels!

Telemark is the "Spring Time" zone for Norwegian creaking, normally flowing in May and Early June. However with all the rain we were drenched by, we were some luck sonsofbitches and got to do some TelemarkLOVE with warmer weather, warmer water, and good vibes in the middle of July! PraiseJAH!!!!! Check out some photos from our very short stay in this unique region. Definitely need to go back and check off a bunch more stuff someday....

 A very long exposer shot of our lake side camp...we learned later that the lake is 400m deep!

 Anton bombing the 3rd Descent of the 50 footer on the Eisoa! Very cool drop...its bigger than it looks in this pic.

 Sweden the man behind the camera running the perfect 30 footer on the Eisoa.

 Some Fossun on the Austbygd...we lapped the crap out of this drop. A fun entry rapid off a perfect 30 footer...Why Not?

Making sure that if the rock feel I would be safe...cool geography is kind of just the norm in Norway.

Gerd Serrseolses having a perfect line off Big Girl...I've known about this drop for a long time now and I was very intimidated by it in person.

A Go Pro freeze of myself on the reconnecter...super pumped that we stepped up to run this guy!!!!

Anton having a sick line off Big Girl!

This was a really cool drop...slide, boof, ferry, DROP! Love the combos...

Gerd scouting a massive Uganda hole on the Dagali's Zambezi Section.

Gerd routing first on another clean clean fallllllllssssssssss!

Mr. Papa Mathias showing us the way on the Skoksoa.

Papa getting twisted on the California section of the Austbygd.

Local paddler Morten running the perfect 30!

Sweden on the first 2 drop of the Homerun Combo.

Then you got 3 & 4 right downstream...super fun set of falls to park and huck.

The Skoksoa stout...it was a bit bumpy...probably a 40-45 footer! 

Sweden doing a brown down some granite that is as smooth as Dinkey creek itself!

Sweden running some nice slides in Telemark...you can see the Minnesota style here.

The tin-ish looking brown water of Telemark reminded me of the East Coast here in the US. 

This shot was taken at 11pm right when we took out on the Skoksoa! So sick to be able to put on a 6 mile class V run at 8pm and feel good about it.

Looking back on my trip to Norway sitting here in the dinning room of my parents house...I couldn't be more stoked! Having had the Norwegian dream for sometime now, I feel fortunate to say that I got to visit Telemark so late in the season. With out realizing how epic is was down there prior to my trip, it wasn't on our agenda...but after tasting the nectar of the goods...Telemark is a MUST when planning a trip to Norway. When I go back to Scandinavia...which I promise won't take me another 23 years ;) May-Aug will be my time frame...I'm doin' the whole season! Get ready for the Norway Teaser which will be coming right after Episode 11 drops in a few days!

Later E.G.