{"id":21603,"date":"2019-11-02T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2019-11-02T19:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=21603"},"modified":"2019-12-04T13:28:51","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T21:28:51","slug":"birth-of-the-austervefsna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2019\/11\/02\/birth-of-the-austervefsna\/","title":{"rendered":"Birth of the Austervefsna"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThwack!\u201d Sweat flies off my shoulders as I\u2019m hit again with a set of birch branches, freshly picked by a S\u00e1mi woman who keeps telling me it\u2019s \u201cgood for blood circulation.\u201d I\u2019m not sure if I believe her, but the smell of torn birch leaves fills the canvas sauna with a pleasant, greenhouse aroma. It\u2019s a welcome reprieve from the stank of sweaty kayakers and rafters also gently whacking each other with birch branches around me.<\/p>\n

My head eventually starts to swim from the heat, and I exit the sauna to plunge in the tourmaline blue waters of the Austervefsna River mere feet away. The Austervefsna is a pristine, big water run that originates near the Swedish border and flows west through 35 kilometers of gorged-in wilderness before its confluence with the Svenningelva River near the town of Trofors. Both the river and its confluence town can best be described by their remoteness. We\u2019re about four hours north of the city of Trondheim, in a breathtaking yet rarely visited region called Grane in the center of Norway\u2014the skinny part of the country.<\/p>\n

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RiverNorth Base.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I lift my body out of the water and stand warm in the evening chill, reminiscing about the day spent paddling and the space around me. In spite of the isolation, the area is a river runner\u2019s paradise. Our hosts, Mariann Saether and her partner Ron Fischer, learned this early on, which is why they started the region\u2019s first rafting company two years ago and have worked diligently with the locals to build a whitewater culture from scratch.<\/p>\n

Mariann turned heads this year as the first Queen of the North Fork, winning the women\u2019s title on the first year the race included an all-female division\u2014it was her first time ever seeing Idaho and the North Fork of the Payette River. Born and raised in the mountains of Norway on the Sjoa River, she first transitioned from a high school baton twirler to a world-class kayaker at 18 years old. But she made a name for herself in the world of kayaking long before the NFC, running rivers that few have ever heard of. In the early 2000s, she boated the Austervefsna for the first time.<\/p>\n

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Mariann at the 2019 North Fork Championship. Photo: Liam Kelly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201c[The region around Trofors] was a little bit of a secret. Norwegians didn\u2019t really share it with foreigners,\u201d said Mariann. The first time the region ever landed on the international whitewater map was after Rush Sturges, Ben Brown, and Steve Fisher released some footage of the Glom\u00e5ga River in 2010. Despite the brief publicity though, the location still flies way under the radar relative to its potential.<\/p>\n

Mariann and Ron had been spending their summers basing kayaking adventures out of Trofors for a few years when the idea of a rafting company first sprouted. Ron, who is a world-famous Swiss kayaker, laughs when he says he never thought he\u2019d be a raft guide until the idea to start a rafting company entered his head. The couple went to the Trofors township for support, which they received in spades. The town wanted to tell the world about the region\u2019s treasures, and a rafting company was the catalyst to do so. Mariann ran into the mayor of the town, Ellen Schj\u00f8lberg, while eating ice cream at a local gas station following a kayak run on the lower stretch of the Austervefsna one day, and the two began a conversation about how to put Trofors on the map.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of rivers nearby, and a lot of water,\u201d said Ellen. \u201cIt was a gift to get Mariann and Ron to start up a tourism company, and I think they inspire a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n