We were fortunate to have the opportunity to explore two wonderful gorges, with very different characters during our adventures in Norway.
The Frya Gorge: Several gorges with fun rapids, and a chance to get rowdy at the end.
The hike down to the gorge.
The Frya is a smaller creek flowing out of Lake Furusjøen and into the Lagen River. Relatively unknown, and often overlooked, the Frya Gorge is a pearl of the Sjoa + CO region. We were very fortunate to get on this one at good water levels thanks to some rain the few days before.
The Frya begins as a boulder strewn creek with some mellow class III rapids before digging its way into several deep gorges containing a variety of coninuous boulder garden style rapids with fun boofs and interesting lines. However, the nature of the Frya remains relatively tame, with no rapids harder than class IV+.
But this is what made the Frya so enjoyable. The whitewater was fun, but because it did not demand your complete and undevided attention at all times, we were free to lean back and simply enjoy the sights and sounds of such a remote and unspoiled piece of river. In places, the Frya is squeezed down to less than 2 metres, while the gorge walls, covered in places with yellow moss, arch in overhead. It was very peaceful to be able to just sit there in a clear pool and take it all in.
The clear water and overhanging walls of the Frya Gorge
It was in the depths of the Frya that Tyler related to us a well known Norwegian fairy tale. Norwegian children are told that the hanging lichen growing on the pine trees, which resembles stringy geen hair, is in fact the hair left from the arms of trolls roaming the forests. I personally like the fairy tale explanation better than the text book one!
Once the gorges come to an end, the Frya opens up momentarily before spilling into a final spectacular gorge. The upper section is unrunnable, but we were able to walk the rim of the gorge, and scramble down and put back in just above the exit drop of this last gorge, and fire up the awesome double drop. The first drop is a 10-12 footer that falls into a boiling pool in a tight mini gorge, which is then quickly followed by a 8-10 footer out of the gorge and into the pool below. This was by far one of the coolest drops of the whole trip!
Justin on the lead in to the last drop.
Logan launching off the first drop.
The Finna: A long, tight gorge with steep drops
The Finna has a very different character than the Frya. A bigger river, the Finna has some bigger rapids, some of which are must run, in a very committing gorge. Overall, the Finna felt alot like Vallecito in SW Colorado, except longer at 9 km's (most of which is gorged in) and with slightly smaller rapids than Vallecito, mostly in the class IV+ to V- range.
The Finna put-in drop on the Skjerva. The Skjerva joins the Finna about a 1/2 mile below here.
The put in for the Finna is actually on the Lower Skjerva, a steep lower volume creek that joins the Finna after a fun 1/2 mile of so, and offers a good warmup for the river below. Once the Skjerva joins the Finna, the flow doubles and it is not long before the Finna enters its gorge.
However, before even getting to the gorge, we ran into trouble. Underestimating the speed and power of the river, Ben found himself face to face with a nasty undercut, and was forced to swim after being uncerimoniously shoved underneath. Luckily, we were able to corral him, and his gear shortly below and hit the restart button.
Right below where Ben swam is where the Finna takes a sharp right, and drops into the first major rapid at the entrance to the gorge. Once through this rapid, the walls rose sharply up from the river, and we were locked in.
Chris going deep pn the entrance rapid to the gorge.
The rapids began coming in quick succesion. Most of the rapids consisted of technical moves through big holes and pour overs. I was difinitely impressed by the power of the water through the drops, which were willing and able to spank the slighly offline boater. Despite the power of the rapids, they were relatively forgiving and had good recovery pools.
Tyler & Tyson lowering the boats on the only portage in the Finna Gorge
Though the gorge was locked in, it was possible, although difficult to scout the majority of the rapids, and it was awesome having Tyler and Logan to route us through the countless horizon lines, saving us from having to check them out ourseleves. Looking back, many of the rapids are a blur, though the two that stick in my mind are the must run and the very last rapid.
Looking above as Tyson gets ready for the boof on the must run.
The must run was a great rapid, consisting of a relatively straight forward entrance followed by a hard ferry to the right, and over an eight foot boof. I was up first, caught the eddy on river left, and then started my ferry to river right, and the boof. However, I miscalculated my ferry and got pushed into the flow against the left wall and melted into the boil/hole below. Knowing that the line went, I just waited to pop up and deal. Luckily, the boil/hole spit me out into the deep pool below and I rolled up, and proceeded to watch the rest of the crew come through. Half of the boys made the boof, and half didn't, making me feel a bit better about my botched line.
Ben missing the boof line on the must run....
...and catching a bit of a tooling
Justin, nailing the boof line
The next rapid of note for me was the very last one. Looking down at the horizon line, all we could see was a mess of white, and an ominous bend below where the gorge bottled down even tighter. I should note that as the gorge goes on, it just keeps getting deeper and tighter, and at this point the needle on my fun meter was definitely starting to get close to the red zone. I was still having fun, and was loving being able to route through the rowdy rapids on verbals. But the tight gorge added to the pucker factor, and I was beginning to feel like I was ready to enjoy a cold beer on the downstream side of the gorge.
So, dropping in behind Tyler, we crashed our way through the rapid, and towards the ominous bend. As we came through the bottom of the rapid, Tyler turned around and, probably seeing that my eyes were as big as saucers, yelled to me, "We're Done!" The ominous bend turned out to contain the tightest portion of the gorge, where the Finna is squished between dead vertical walls to less than 3 metres wide. However, there was nothing in there except for a nice current and a good acoustic reveration of our hoots, hollars, and cheers!
The quality of whitewater in Norway is simply amazing, and in our whole trip we paddled nothing but amazing whitewater on spectacular rivers and creeks, making it hard to pick a favorite. But if I had to, the Finna would definitely take the crown, and reflecting back, I would place it in the top 5 favorite rivers list.
Stay tuned for the third and final installment of Gravity Sessions trip to Norway: Slides and Waterfalls!
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