TRUE NORTH BEYOND THE ARCTIC CIRCLE IN NORWAY AND SWEDEN

The rivers of southern and central Norway have fueled kayakers’ dreams and filled the pages of social media for years. More recently, paddlers have pushed north, bringing into the global limelight the rivers around Hattfjelldal and the Saltfjellet National Park. Yet the far north, the 700 km from the Arctic Circle to the Northern Cape, has remained a blank spot on the treasure map of Norwegian whitewater. In July of 2015, four German paddlers spent a month exploring this area’s remote whitewater riches.

Words and photos: Sebastian Gruendler

The main focus of the trip is the northern Norwegian county of Finnmark, and our goal is to run about a dozen auspicious looking rivers, a number of which will only be accessible by foot. We also intend to paddle several rivers close to Sarek National Park in Sweden. It has taken nearly two years of scouring Google Earth and pouring over detailed hiking maps to work out a list of must-run rivers, but finally plans are laid and in July 2015 Ulrich (Kitt) Kittelberger, Jens Reinhold, Peter Luppa, and myself (Sebbi Gründler) abandon our 9-5 jobs for a trip to the far north. Heading first for Sweden, we leave Nuremberg in Kitt’s mothership and begin our mission to Sarek National Park. Stopping only for gas and snacks, we crank…

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Kayak Session (Digital) - 1 Issue, KS#56 (winter 2015)

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