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The Tysselva
It's rained every night, yet last night
was special because it rained more than normal. We're finding the joke
to be true about some summers in Norway; don't blink or you'll miss it.
We must have blinked. It's another day of searching for something that
isn't too high. We decide to drive up the Tiegdalselva and look at the
infamous "double drop" that is supposed to go well with healthy flow.
Healthy flow indeed, too healthy for our taste.
So we pull out the guidebook and drive
around. How about the lake to lake drop? There couldn't be a more
fitting name for it, a massive two tier slide that goes between two
lakes. It's also very high and looks highly questionable.
At least it's great scenery while driving around getting skunked.
Each corner reveals something new.
Stateside
this would be an iconic location to photograph. Here just typical
Norway. I don't think this slide has been run. It is the river we will
paddle today, just a section much higher up. Between where we take out
is a gorge full of slides and falls down to the one seen here. I wonder
if any have attempted it?
It's quite a drive up and around, by the time we get to put-in the river flows through surprisingly open terrain. Rok Sribar.
Looking downstream. It's supposed to be a class IV run but it seems like we may have a lot of water.
The first class IV slide looks big. I guess we do have a lot of water because this doesn't feel like class IV. Manu Koehler.
Rok Sribar on the same, some of us make a big move to the left then back to the right.
Reiner Glanz heads left at the bottom.
The above slide results in the only
swim of our trip. The river is well padded and as we make our way
downstream we paddle long pools and start portaging small slides with
terminal hydraulics. Adventure kayaking is a good way to look at it.
At the end of a beautiful pond we're out scouting a big chunk of
gradient.
At high flows the Tysselva is full of big holes. Too big for team silver fox, we portage again.
Oddly enough the mandatory portage of the run fills in and looks somewhat runnable. Somewhat. We portage again.
We make the assumption we'll paddle down to the famous big slide. The river is just too high for this, and we end up hiking back upstream to a private driveway. Manu Koehler.
Just a touch too much water for our taste.
Put In and Take out Via Google Maps.
