On 4^thSeptember, D’s brother and sister arrived in Oslo to visit us. Stuart flew in from L.A. and Kathryn flew in from Toronto, and we did not give them long to settle in - just time to grab a coffee and then to drop their things off in the house. Then it was time to repack their clothes, and we were out the door and headed for Jotunheimen National Park.

The park covers over 1, 000 square kilometers and is home to northern Europe’s two highest peaks. This sounded like an excellent place for us to start our adventures with the Matheson siblings.

To begin, we hiked Besseggen on the morning following our arrival. We had heard that it was a wonderful trip. However, what we didn't know is that hiking Besseggen is one of the most popular touristy things to do in Norway. About 40,000 people make the hike each year. I have to admit that the mountain is gorgeous, but I was a little shocked by the number of people making the ascent with us.

Fortunately, we are all good hikers and a hike that is meant to take the average tourist 7 hours with no stops, took us just under 6 with a long lunch break, not to mention ridiculous detours for photo opportunities.

After getting back from this hike we drove the two hours to our next destination: Fjellføring. This is where we were going to make our glacier tour. Kathryn is an Earth Science major, or something like that anyways, and she was very keen to go on this trip. In fact, we all were. I have never been close to a glacier before, let alone walked on one. It was quite something. The only down side was the fact that we had to go with a group, and they were not up to our superior fitness levels (HA!). One fellow on the trip with us must have about 400 pounds and he decided to wear jeans. I was not too sure what to think of that.

Just to get to the glacier demanded 2 hours of hiking, and for the last 30 minutes it was along an arete - a sharp ridge that goes straight up. The walk up took us 30minutes, but "Jeans-Guy" took closer to an hour, I was freezing by the time he caught up. From this point on, we were all roped together, in case someone fell into a crevasse. This meant plenty of standing around waiting for those at the back of the rope to catch up. If you went too fast you kind of pulled people along, which is not the brightest of ideas when there were massive holes and crevasses all around. The walk on the glacier was great, but even then I think our guide took it easy on us because of some "weaknesses" in our group. I would have liked to tried a little more adventurous stuff, but even as it was, the trip was still magnificent.

My favorite part was when we went into an ice cave. It was the most beautiful blue ice. Even though we were all wearing crampons, I still decided that my best option going through was to be on my hands and knees. You try to figure out how foot crampons can possibly be useful in this position. However, I did eventually make it through without mishap, even though it turned out that I am definitely not made for the ice.

After the hike on the glacier, we jumped right back in the car and drove to Sjoa where we were going to go white water rafting. We arrived late and were really tired, so we all had a good night's sleep that night. Our day started the next morning at 10:00 am when we met our guide Martin from Montreal. How weird is that? I had not met a Quebecer since arriving in Norway, and here I was in the tiny rafting town of Sjoa with a Montrealer as my guide. Not only this, but Martin had learnt his trade rafting on Quebec's Riviere Rouge. My father actually owned and operated the first white water rafting company (W3 Aventure) on this same river. Bizarrely I never even mentioned this fact to Martin. My brain seems to work slightly differently than that of most people.

I loved getting the chance to speak a little French with Martin, and was more than amused to hear his command of the French vernacular as he swore his way down the river. We had planned to spend the day rafting, but to be eligible to take part in the afternoon run, we were obliged to qualify for it. This meant that we had to be put through our paces in the morning to make sure we were capable for the more demanding afternoon section. The owner of the place had warned Martin that we all looked a little young and small for the afternoon's challenges - those Mathesons again - so he gave us Martin who is his top guide. Martin was more than thrilled to find out that we were more than just capable! He thought it was hilarious that his boss believed we might be too weak, small or incompetent.

However, we still had to go through the testing and this was not fun at all. It was not a cold day, but the water was off the glacier and about 4 degrees. Meanwhile, the air temperature was only about 11 degrees and it was raining. Our first test was swimming. In a quiet place on the river he tipped us unexpectedly into the water. It was a massive shock to the system to be thrown into the freezing water, and I can’t remember swimming at all - just gasping - before I scrambled back into the boat. This little dip made the rest of the trip a little miserable as no one likes to be freezing cold.

Our next test was when we went through a rapid and our guide decided to flip the boat. I don’t remember much, but I do remember Kathryn landing on top of me and then finding myself directly under the boat. When I finally did find air, I had moved to the front end of the boat and had two paddles in my hands. I still can’t figure out where the other one came from. Martin eventually found me clinging to the bow and hauled me back on board. We all made it safely back in, except for D who chickened out and swam to the other boat. This isn’t actually true, but I enjoyed the brief response it elicited. The real story is that she wa told to let go of our raft as we flipped it back over and she was subsequently swept downstream and had to be rescued by the other raft.

We had passed the tests with flying colours, but we still had to finish rafting the morning river, and we were frozen. Martin also insisted on having a little “fun” and took us surfing. This meant heading back up into a rapid and submerging the front half of the boat. This might be enjoyable in the warmth of summer, and it might be fun for the guide who gets thrown up into the air. However, for the rest of us it was pure misery. We front end paddlers were dunked in the river and what the heck is fun about that?

By the time the morning session ended, we were looking forward to lunch and getting into some dry clothes before heading out again. However, this was not on the cards. We were told that there was no point in changing as we were going to be heading straight back out again. We did at least have some hot food and drink standing by the fire. We were all frozen to the bone though and even sitting on the fire did little to warm us up. We were still steaming from the fire and shivering with cold when we were told to load up again, I think we were all rethinking our decision to spend the entire day rafting, but none of us wanted to be the one to chicken out..

The afternoon turned out to be a fantastic experience. It was so much fun. We were the only boat and with one safety boat we were able to really enjoy the experience. There seems to be a direct link between enjoyment and being dunked. Although I was almost thrown out by the waves on one occasion, Kathryn claims my foot grazed her nose, I pulled it out and held on for dear life.

We had pre-ordered a sauna for when we returned, and other than the fact that the sauna wasn’t on by the time we arrived back this was a perfect afternoon, (or as perfect as the Norwegian temperature allows. Martin soon had the sauna going and even encouraged everyone to take a dunk in the freezing river to really feel the medicinal effects ….Both Kathryn and I respectfully declined while the other fools took a turn. How the heck can you work so hard to warm up and then jump right back into the river?

This was a fun, but exhausting day and the drive to Per’s cabin seemed to take forever. It was good to arrive though and get some food going, I was really hungry. We had a quiet evening before heading to bed. Then we hit the road again the next morning. We had to get back as soon as we comfortably could as D and I had an exhibition game to play at 6:00 pm for Team Strommen against Kolbotn. The game went well and we won 3-0, but there is still plenty of rust and hard work needed, before our September 15^th game again Trondheim in the Norway Cup semi finals.

 

 

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