Born in 1967 and based in Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium. Interested in wilderness trekking, packrafting, skiing and photography. Blessed with a particular fondness for mountainous and subarctic regions. Trying to maintain middle ground between the desire for adventure, keeping the family happy and fulfilling professional ambitions.
Hello again Filip! Could you please tell me which level the river had in Montbrun at the time you paddled? Seems not so high? Thank you a lot, sincerely, Werner
@@filiphaclaeysу Вас очень хорошо получается ) Очень нравится Ваш пакрафт, у меня баллоны 30’, прощает много ошибок на воде, а у вас будто разрезает все препятствия
@@MidNight-cd9wr Мой пакрафт - классическая модель известного бренда. Он предлагает отличный компромисс между размером, весом (3 кг), устойчивостью, маневренностью и прочностью.
Hello Filip! Really fantastic videos about your Tarn trip! Thank you very much! I will be there end of may this year. Good to see what I have to expect! Good luck and best regards, Werner
very peaceful, great video, thank you, glad I stumbled on your channel. Good luck with it, I know how much work you're putting in to get these videos done so well ✌🏻
The Kaitum river is fed by a couple of large lakes upstream. We actually carried food for 15 days as our trajectory was Abisko - Vistasjohka - Nikkaluokta - Kaitum. See the report linked to in the description for more info on the entire expedition.
No, we hiked in from Abisko (3 days). Then paddled Vistasjohka to Nikkaluokta (2 days), subsequently hiked to the Kaitum river (2 days), and finally paddled the latter to Kaitum village (3 days). The plan was to continue paddling from Kaitum village to Skaulo (3 days), but we got hit by a freak blizzard that dumped 38 cm of snow onto the area and we unfortunately had to bail.
@@filiphaclaeys Wow, respect! Really great tours. I went hiking in the region. About 25 years ago. I want to paddle on the Kaitum or Lainio in the summer of 24
@@kaitravelkai Yes, train to Kiruna after having sheltered in the tiny Kaitum railway station for 2 days. You should maybe read my reports. Link to the Vistasjohka report is in the description. You will find the Kaitum report from there.
Yes, very nice stretch. We in fact did it twice. Maybe some day I will do a multi-day trip including some of the more challenging upstream sections (in spring). BTW, the metal bridge at 16:48 in your video was installed a couple of days earlier, while we were there.
I was reading your report and ended up skipping through this video. The section around 25m looks really bouncy. You're brave to do this stuff alone! I once had an unexpected swim in water like this and my boat was recovered by my partner. If I had been alone I would have lost all my gear.
There's always a risk, but I felt quite comfortable on this river. On the same trip, I did have an uncomfortable moment on the Grimse river (part 1/2, 2:15 - 2:30) when I thought for a sec I had bitten off more than I can chew.
All-being-well to finish off my first season as a mature beginner I'm going there in March right after the French school holidays to avoid the crowds for a weeks practice at my own pace after two weeks of lessons at other resorts. Hope it is as quiet as this.
Hi Philip! Been watching your videoes and looking at your blog. Thanks a lot for your postings. Actually considering Ljøra this weekend. Did you watch the waterlevel at any nearby stations? Just wondering if the level could have sunk lately, cause one of us is a beginner to packraft and the river looks to rough for us if it is at the same level now.
Hi Kjetil, I haven't had time yet to create a video of my entire river descent. Just uploaded this clip as a teaser. So, it may very well be that this wasn't even the most "hefty" part of it. Regarding water levels, all I can say is that the level was higher the days before my descent, and also the days after. I have no idea about the current situation. Is there a website with hydrological measurements of Norwegian rivers? I'm looking at temakart.nve.no/tema/hydrologiskedata right now, but cannot figure out how to use it.
Just found something usable at sildre.nve.no. Here you can see that water levels at nearby Trysilelva have steadily been going down since May 24th (my descent was on the 19th).
Just received info from someone who lives next to the river. Water levels have gone down substantially, waves are much smaller, but rapids are still fun. I guess you can go for it then.
@@filiphaclaeys Thanks alot for your time and insight! We decided on postponing the trip two weeks, as the weather is cold and will probably go to Grimse instead as Ljøra was our backup plan.
@@kjetilhartvigsen4112 Which part of Grimse will you do? During my recent trip, I packrafted the part from Grimsa Bru until Folla, with a portage at the falls in the middle. Will upload videos in the near future. As Grimsdalsvegen was still closed, it was a bit difficult to do the upper part and I hence didn't go there.
Good question. I was planning to walk back 20 km or so along the road, but quite coincidentally encountered a fellow country man who lives in the area and graciously offered me a ride back!
No, I started in the valley, just south of the Swedish border. It would be possible to combine a descent of the river with a hike across the Fulufjellet plateau, but I couldn’t do that due to excess snow. I did go skiing on the plateau the day after though.
Just did same route last week with my packraft! Was lots of fun! Saw your Wikiloc! Found lots of nice Microadventures over there thank you 🙏🏻 are you on instagram too?
Sehr geiles Video 😊. Ich habe auch 2 Packraft' und seit kurzem ein Wildwasser Packraft. Jetzt freue ich mich, es bald testen zu können. Habe mal ein Abo dagelassen. Viel Spaß weiterhin, beste Grüße aus Wolfenbüttel Jens
Summers are busy and water is typically low. You can check the gauge at the Montbrun bridge online. We did it with 84 cm at this gauge, and with a laden packraft, I would not go much below.
Hello ! I really loved watching your viedeo ! It´s amazing what you have gone through on that river. I´m on an adrenaline rush just by watching it. As a longtime kayaker, I also own a packraft (Kokkopelli nirvana) shortly, and I m looking forward to do the same as you on a whitewater river. Have some experience on class 2 rivers. I´m a fun, easy going and open mind person, fast learner and extreme sports guy. Would love to join you on your next trip. If you aren´t in to having a new guy, could you please at lest give me a good contact for the Durance ? With best regards... Christophe from luxembourg I speak english, french, german...🙏
Yes, the Lower Guil / Durance run was amazing. Great weather, excellent flow and hardly anyone but us on the water. In fact, we liked it so much that we repeated the whole thing the day after. If you want to get in touch further, you might want to connect on FB.
