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Polar Opposites
Paddling a Norwegian river may be a walk in the park for explorer Børge Ousland, but it's a major triumph for his son

By Børge Ousland


	(Eyewire)

To his 14-year-old son, Max, he's Papa. But in the world of exploration, Børge Ousland is Hercules on skis. The Norwegian's feats are nothing less than monumental: He was the first person to ski solo to the North Pole (1994), the first to ski solo across Antarctica (1997), and the first to ski solo across the frozen Arctic Ocean (from Siberia to Canada, in 2001). But last summer Ousland swapped his 375-pound sled for a collapsible canoe and the frozen ice pack for the frigid waters of the Karasjokka River in northern Norway. Excerpts from his journal reveal that the nine-day, 62-mile canoe trip down the Class I-II Karasjokka with Max, and guide and friend Stig-Tore Johansen, was his most memorable adventure yet.

Monday, July 29
Miles paddled: 0
No Man's Land

"Aren't there any trees here?"

Max glances down at the tundra-like landscape with dismay as our flight lands at Alta, the main town in far northern Finnmark County. Stig-Tore, who traveled 280 miles from his home in Kirkenes, a Norwegian mining town sandwiched between Russia and the Barents Sea, meets us. Together we drive from Alta two hours southeast to a village on the Finnish border, Karasjok. Here the indigenous Sami people have survived by herding reindeer for more than a thousand years. We find the mouth of the Karasjokka River, where we leave the car.

Our plan is to charter a four-seat Cessna seaplane south from Karasjok to the headwaters of the Karasjokka in the Øvre Anarjokka National Park, then canoe our way back downstream. When we arrive at the Karasjok runway to catch our seaplane, Max spots an elderly man in rubber boots and an open shirt walking slowly toward us. "Is that the pilot?" Max whispers apprehensively in my ear. But Max need not worry—Ole Julius Eriksen has been a local bush pilot since 1964. By the time we've finished loading the plane, paddles are sticking out between our heads in the small space.

Access & Resources

Stig-Tore Johansen guides canoeing and fishing tours on the Karasjokka River. A weeklong tour includes gear, meals, and local transportation and costs about $700 per adult and $350 per child age ten to 16. Johansen can be reached at 011-47-9019-9117 or yourtours@start.no.

Spanning more than 12 million acres, Finnmark is Norway's largest county and a sort of Scandinavian Alaska with its stark coastal landscape and verdant river valleys. I am hoping this trip will instill a love of the outdoors in Max—he needs something exciting enough to sow the seeds now, before girls and other interests take over completely.

After flying south for half an hour, Eriksen lands the plane on a little lake by the side of the Karasjokka River as gently as a mother putting down her baby. It's 9 p.m. and still light, so we have absolutely no desire to go to bed. We carry our canoe and backpacks down to the river and set up camp. I notice that there are hardly any mosquitoes this year. A summer's evening this far north can be chilly; soon we're sitting around the campfire staring into the flames. Max and I had been camping not so long ago—in May, in the woods outside Oslo. It's good to be camping together again.

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