Finally having been on the road
delivering courses since late March I got to spend some time at home in Finland. June 5th -11th had been in my diary for months for a 7 day
IRF Guide training program combined with a Rescue 3 Europe Whitewater Rescue Technician Professional course based at the ideally located
Basecamp Oulanka, on the shores of the beautiful Kitkajoki river, in the land of
the Midnight sun.
I arrived home in the south of Finland
for few days rest before the 9 hour drive northeast to Basecamp. This gave me
time to make some lesson plans and prepare for the workshop. Miia told me to
check the weather? I happily fired up my trusted weather website of trust www.yr.no to check the weather. Doh -1 degrees
and snow, it was June for crying out loud as I reached for my dry suit &
extra thermals.
The course was based just outside the
Arctic circle in the village of Juuma. June in Finland is normally the beginning
of summer and most of the snow and ice have melted. The rivers are at ideal levels
and we are blessed with the Midnight Sun. During the drive north I realized this
was not going to be the case. All of the lakes were still frozen & there
was plenty of snow around still. The forecast for later in the week was for highs of +25 degrees and sun. I
thought to myself I won't hold my breath?.
The guys at Basecamp Oulanka had given me a
really nice room and I unpacked my kit and prepared myself for a scouting trip the next day.
After a quick breakfast I threw on an
extra set of thermals under my drysuit and met Henri, the host for the workshop.
We were also joined by some of the course participants as this was going to be
the first trip down the river of the season. So not only did I need to re-familiarize
myself with the Kitkajoki, we also needed to see if the winter had made any changes
to the river. Before all of this could happen we had to brake a trail through
the ice on the lake in order for us to get to the river. Easier said than done!
The commercial section we were to paddle today
was called the Wild route, a short section around 5km in distance. The trip
begins on the Juuma lake and then make it's way down the beautiful picturesque canyon
with the Myllykoski rapid class 2+ and the amazing 900m long Aallokkoski rapid
before for a compulsory portage around the Jyrävä waterfall. The trip normally
lasts for around 2 hours. One of the unique points about this run is that the trip
almost completes a full circle leaving a 15 minute walk back to the base so no
return transport needed as its' all done on foot.
The Wild route is the most technical
section of commercial whitewater in Finland. Rafting is not a huge sport in
Finland so the rafting community is quite small and closed. With the lack of international
experience throughout the years rafting trips are still operated the way they
were 20 years ago, this includes equipment and approaches to river running and
guide training. Hats off to Basecamp Oulanka for having the sight to see that
things need to change.
The checkout run went well, we even got to
see an impressive snow bridge over the Jyrävä waterfall.
This weeks course was going to present
me with 6 trainees & 2 trip leader candidates one of which (Nathan) had
travelled all the way from Singapore to attend the course. The course progressed the
following way:
Day 1
The ice had slowly been melting so we had
a bigger pool to practice our basic paddling techniques & commands. I am a
big fan of spending some time on the flat water for the first day of a guide
training programme. I feel it gives the students a chance to feel how a raft
moves before you take it to the moving water. We also looked at safety talks
before we got on the water. I delivered 2 examples of a safety talk. One of
which was completed in silence to emphasize that actions speak louder than
words. We then took to the Wild route to look at basic guiding and moving water
skills. I got to test the skills of the 2 class 3 trip leader candidates
(Nathan & Henri) on the Aallokkokoski section and they both did a really good job. The
homework for day 1 was to learn the IRF river signals. I noticed them practicing
these well into the night.
Day 2
After watching Henri & Nathan give
some really solid safety talks we took to the Wild route. The guides were
starting to grow in confidence which was heartening to watch. A visit from the
local press in the afternoon gave us the chance to look at swimming skills.
Having spent 8 seasons working in Iceland as a guide I thought I was accustomed
to cold water but I noticed that the water was freezing cold and I was happy that
all of the students were in Ursuit drysuits. I made a mental note to myself to
soften up a little and maybe start to use some neoprene gloves in my old age. That
thought lasted as soon as I watched someone try to pack a throwbag wearing
gloves. The local press were really interested in the course and produced an
amazing article. Day 2 homework = safety talk planning.
Day 3
Off to Russia we go. The logistics on
the Kitkajoki are not easy, every few days the guides need to transport the
rafts 20km down the river to the nearest road on the border with Russia. I took
the opportunity to give the guides as much stick time as possible so I made them R2 5 rafts down the river and this enabled them a full day of stick time. We
focused on eddy hopping, ferry gliding & river running strategies. The day
started with ghosing the rafts down the Jyrävä waterfall. We stopped for lunch
at a small fireplace in the Oulanka national park. The weather was now sunny and +18, the weather had changed at last.
Day 4
The morning session started with the
candidates each giving a section of the pre-trip safety demonstration. The
candidates had the choice to do this in Finnish or English. I had roped my
partner Miia & her mother to be live rafting customers for the students to
practice and this turned out quite well. During today I wanted to assess both
Henri & Nathan for their class 3 trip leader awards. I set 2 challenging
scenarios on the river which both included run away flipped rafts and various
amounts of devious carnage. Both Nathan & Henri demonstrated strong trip
leader capabilities when dealing with the scenarios, hats off to the guys.
Day 5
Today was the first day of the Rescue 3
component of the workshop. My biggest
selling product this year has been the combined IRF & Rescue 3 workshops and this
was to be my 5th one since March. I like to keep both of the aspects
separate. This way I can concentrate solely on the core: raft guiding skills on
the IRF section of the workshop. I can then incorporate the remaining IRF rescue elements into the WRT component, including swimming, flipping, throw bagging, rope work. Both the IRF & Rescue 3 elements
complement each other really well. Next year I am already planning advanced
workshops combining WRT advanced with
class 4 trip leader & safety craft.
We spent the day working through the
Rescue 3 philosophy, incorporating it into swimming & throw bag sessions and
then into more complex situations including rescue harness release &
tethered swimmer rescues.
Day 6
Today we looked at shallow water skills
along with foot & body entrapments. After lunch we all spent some time on a
simulated strainer exercise before finishing the day with a mechanical advantage class
where we also completed the IRF rope work test.
Day 7
I was starting to feel it I have been
running course nonstop since March, today I felt as tired as the students
looked. Straight onto the water we spent the time looking at 2 point tethered
rafts and tensioned diagonals along with line crossing techniques. The weather
turned poor in the afternoon so we finished up the course by looking at the
theory side of the WRT programme before the IRF written paper & final debriefs.
During the debriefs I wanted to focus on
making the students realize that practice practice practice is the recipe for
being able to move forward and gain more experience.I look forward to visiting
Basecamp Oulanka next year to see the progression of the guides.
In the meantime congratulations to Henri, Nathan, Jessica, Maiju, Tiia, Janne, Markus, Miia, Kaisa & Ilkka, it was a pleasure to work with you.
Many thanks to Miia Komi & Basecamp
Oulanka!
Next week my travels will take me from
the Arctic to the jungle in Thailand where I will get the opportunity to work some more with enthusiastic raft guides.
Happy paddling,
Mark