After talking about it all summer we finally got a plan together and paddled the Raundalselve, in a DAY.  Anyone who knows the Raundale knows just how much whitewater there is up there, with numerous sections that are all amazing and go at different levels. After in a seriously in-depth planning session (about a beer long) we called up Greg, Christy and Benji, set a time for the morning and checked the water levels and weather on the net.  Early the next day we packed the van, took a few bikes and a VRS van to drop at various points for excape options and of to the top of the valley we went.!

Anyone who does not know the Raundalselve, check this out - Randale in Google earth it will give you a rough idea of where things are.

Each section of the raundale has its optimal level, so we had been wondering what level we should go for a full descent.  There are some sections that are full-on with too much water and some that get harder with low water, so finding the optimal full-run flow was going to be hard.  All summer we have paddled most every section, so the game would be stringing them all together, though you can't change the fact that there are over 40 river Kms from top to bottom!

The day started with a bump and scrape down the first section above the Youth Hostel at the roads end.  It is possible to start slightly higher with more water, but to be honest it was not going to be worth it at this flow.  I am not one for running a section just for the hell of a 'full' descent when it aint worth it, so we were all pretty happy at our chosen start point. The sun was low and didn't look like it would get much above the left bank.  At this date in the season fresh snow has already fallen up high and frost was lingering on the river banks.  It was, however, clear as a bell, which is something we have not see a great deal of this summer!  So a perfect day to go long distance and do some running around in canyons!

We completed the first section down to the Hostel in about 30 mins then picked up Christy Long, heading into the next section down to 'Nosebreaker'.  This section has several large, river wide, un-portageable, un-scoutable big ass rapids!  Fortunately we were able to scout the larger ones and could remember the lines from a few trips earlier in the season.  We flew down this section in about an hour, which put our moral high as that was the longest section of the whole trip!

About 12 noon with about 15km done, we sat on the brink of Nosebreaker and had lunch in the sun.  The GPS said we had just 20km to go, but that was in a straight line!  We knew the river weaved its way from here down so we better get into it!  The canyon below Nosebreaker is seldom paddled, as it is known as being full-on, set in a tight bedrock canyon. There are horror stories of people having to climb up and out of the canyon, but the reality is, if you approach nice and easy you can see an obvious horizon line, so get out, and scout.  You then get a to choose your destiny.  For most this will be a portage, about 150m on the left back to below the crux rapid.  If the water is low enough the crux goes, but it is intense!

Once you make through the 'Nosebreaker' canyon your into familiar ground with the Reimegrend section, fly down that in 45 min and your into the rafting section, run the 'Timberhole' for kicks and on down to the play section. At the end of the play section you do reach a stretch that is NOT a go, unless the river is extremely low. This, we generally call 'The Gorge of Doom'  It is the tightest part of the entire river, at one point the whole river goes under a huge rock that is jammed between sheer bedrock walls a few hundred meters high.  So for us, we hiked up the road, found the vehicle we had cunningly left on the drive up and drove a Km down to below the gorge to start 'The Last Canyon'

The 'Last Canyon' is not really the last canyon, but thats what we call it - it is also known as 'Marine Canyon' after some Marines came a cropper there back in the day, probably following orders to 'go down that river boys!'.  At this point on our trip we were down to 3, Greg had split his boat so left us at the end of the rafting section, Christy called it a day at the end of the play section.  Time was getting on and darkness looming!  Benji, Mike and I knew we were racing darkness and still had a ways to go.  The last canyon proved to be some of the trickiest rapids of the day, at low flows there are sieves everywhere, and I guess having paddled 30 km by then didn't help.

Once past the shooting range, it was a slog down to Palmerfossen and then through 'Helvete gjelet' where we had done a 'body search' earlier in the season, which kind of put a feeling in the air, especially when it was about to get dark! The you meet the Strandaelve and drift down to 'Vangsvatnet'.   At that point the light completely died. As we paddled across the lake to the Mini Golf Cafe and Greg and Christy it was completely black, with only the lights from the hotel to guide us!

So there we were, 10 hours, about 40 or so km, 1 swim and several exciting moments later drinking a cold beer in the frosty night air, completely shattered and ready for a good movie next to the fire!  We are not sure if anyone has done this before, we don't think so, but we don't really care, we did it, it was fun and we'll do it again next year, and maybe in the summer when it shouldn't get dark so early!

Have fun..