First descent of the Teigdaleselva for this season! With the sun shinning and snow melting hard we gathered a team of 10 to 'huck our meat' on the mighty waterfalls and slides that lay in the Teigdale valley just down the road from our summer home of Voss - Norway. Tylor Curtis and Mariann Saether happened to be in town with their crash-test dummy, Logan Grayling and we had the latest addition to Voss Rafting Senter, the 'Italian stallion' Michele Ramazza ready for initiation!
On the 19th Nov a team of bald explorers, including Shalabh Gahault, Mike Abbott, Sam Hughes, Zak Shaw, Sangrup (our driver from Ladakh) and myself loaded a jeep in Katmandu, Nepal and set course for Gauhati in Assam. 4 days later Andy Phillips arrived and they headed into the hills of Arunachal Pradesh aiming to complete several sections of un-run rivers and expecting to be challenged with situations requiring extreme bravery and ingenuity.
We are just passing through Tespur in Assam after completing the Arunachal Section of the Tawang Chu and also the Tenga River. The Tawang Chu presented itself as one of the hardest to scout rivers ever, but once in the canyon it was well worth the effort! 3 days of amazing whitewater, a few portages each day and 3 hour hike out to finsh off with. We also tried the Nam Jang Chu, paddling the upper section near Zimitang, but decided the lower section down to the Tawang was too steep for sucha short section so we headed off to the Tenga.
After talking about it all summer we finally got a plan together and paddled the Raundalselve, in a DAY. Anyone who knows the Raundale knows just how much whitewater there is up there, with numerous sections that are all amazing and go at different levels. After in a seriously in-depth planning session (about a beer long) we called up Greg, Christy and Benji, set a time for the morning and checked the water levels and weather on the net. Early the next day we packed the van, took a few bikes and a VRS van to drop at various points for excape options and of to the top of the valley we went.!
5 Ladies, 1 guy, 7 days, 8 rivers, 2 guides! A most Excellent adventure!
We have just finished a most excellent week of river guiding and coaching in Norway. Our trip started in Sjoa and ended in Voss, the paddling varying from big volume Sjoa, to low volume steep-creeking on the Branseth in Voss. This year we gave evening critique with video feedback and during the week everyone progressed fantastically. The trip is a mix of holiday and coaching as we believe in having a good time and learning on the way. Check out the trip brief and some images in the full story below!
Its that time of year again! Spring has sprung, rains have swollen the rivers and there is time off work to go check out new runs. The other day we headed over to Eksingedale to try to run a river we rarely see with water. Eksingedale is an amazing valley, starting with a well know 'Lake to Lake' drop the river then flows over 5 ridiculously large waterfalls before flowing to what we hoped would be a runnable section! Little did we know....
The snow has been melting up here for a few weeks now and all the Voss Rafting staff are here, it was time to test the crew on the 'Home Run' the Branseth. It was low water, clear and amazing as ever and our team was looking pretty colourful as we geared up for the full team run. This would be Roberto's day of firsts - his first slide, first creek, first waterfalls in a new boat in a new PFD, so it was bound to be exciting!