Sunshine climbing

My work at Kebnekaise was finished and I was on my way to pack the bags when I got a glimpse of the weather forecast, perfect! In my opinion autumn is the best part of the snow free part in the Swedish mountains, the nice crisp air the fantastic colors and less people around. If you can combine that with a weather forecast that says no wind no clouds and relative warm temperatures the choice to stick around 2 days more is easy.

First out was to climb the ´´Silhuetten´´ on Tuolpagorni. I had promised Viktoria Lundquist (a guide colleague) that if we would be of the same day that we would climb this route, Also David Lundsten (another guide colleage) was keen on joining.

David excited for the climb

There was a bit of a party going on the evening before so we decided to take an easy morning and start the walk in at around 10 o´clock. I had already climbed the route a couple of times before so it was easy to find the way. We cruised along the route everyone getting the lead they wanted and in meanwhile enjoying the fantastic scenery. Topping out exactly when the wall went into the shade we made our way back to Kebnekaise fjällstation to join in on a three course diner in the restaurant.

Viktoria seconding about halfway up silhuetten

Kebnekaise sydtopp and the famous ridgewalk

For the second day the ´´Ostkammen´´ on Kebnekaise nordtopp was on the menu. Yet again I had climbed this one as well the year before with Andreas Fransson. I had remembered the route as one of the best(if not the best...) in the massif so worth giving it a go.
For the day I teamed up with Karin Holstad. We walked up the start of the approach of ´´Östra leden´´ and once att ´´Björlings´´ glacier we headed over to the start of the route ´´Nygrens led´´ another classic in the area. From here there is a big horizontal ledge that runs all over the east face of Kebnekaise just above ´´Storglaciären´´  and runs directly onto the east ridge. Before hitting the ledge we geared up so that we would be prepared for eventual surprises on the ledge, luckily the ledge turned up to be pretty easy and within half an hour we were on the route. The fun started directly, solid rock (for being Kebnekaise) and quite steep terrain. After a couple of pitches the terrain eased of and we switched to short roping. Before we knew it we were at the final crux pitch, a short steep pitch of maybe grade 5+. After a short struggle to get around a block with my backpack on I basically topped out on the summit cairn! Now it was time for Karin to follow, it was fantastic see how she cleared the crux with so much ease, not even a sound (and then knowing that she started here alpine career this summer!).

Karin toping out on the crux

On the summit the sun was shining and there was not even a breeze, in the distance some people topped out on the South summit of Kebnekaise.

Karin leading the way on the ridge towards the Kebnekaise sydtop

With loads of time and knowing the descent pretty well we almost spend an hour on the summit drinking coffee, eating carrot cake and enjoying the view before heading down.

Summertime

Oh yes it´s time, time to join the blog culture… After spending more time in the mountains I started to feel that it would be fun to except for logging my climbs maybe also share some experiences from and around the mountains.

Of course summer is running to an end and for me work is waiting in autumn and with that much less climbing. But in June and July I was lucky to spend 2 months in Chamonix, just climbing and no working. Here a little recall from the summer.

It all started of with a very snowy Chamonix with loads of steep lines in perfect condition for skiing, of course I had been stupid enough to leave my skis at my parents place after some skitour guiding in the Swedish mountains. So unfortunately no skiing for me this time but luckily Italy and the Arve valley are just an hour´s drive away and houses some fantastic rock climbing. For me that was great having set the goal to get the grades up to 7a onsight during the summer.

A couple of weeks into the trip I met up with a Finnish guy with the name Antti Ahola, a very strong rock climber but not so experienced on alpine terrain. Me having more of that it was a perfect match. I was taking care of the approaches and was Antti the king ones on the rock. We climbed both the grand capuchin by the route  ´´Elixir d´astaroth´´ and a route called ´´Or or´´ on point Lachernal. On ´´Or or´´ it was just amazing to see Antti  onsighting the 7A cruxpitch with a daypack on his back filled with boots, crampons and so on.

For years now it has been a bit of a tradition to do some climbing every summer with my father Tom Doude van Troostwijk. Also this year he came along for almost a month! We managed to do loads of climbing. A lot of our inspiration we found in Rebuffats book ´´100 finest routes´´ mostly high quality fun routes with a lot of challenge for my father and perfect training ground for my guiding skills. We climbed for example on the Aiguille de l´m, pyramide du Tacul, Tour Ronde and much more.  On Tom´s rest days I had the chance to climb the Kuffner Arette. Me and Rhys found the route in excellent conditions so with nice cruising along the route we made it to the summit of the Mont Maudit.

In the beginning of July my friend Daniel Joll came to Chamonix. We had some high ambitions but unfortunately the weather didn´t cooperate so well.  A lot of thundery afternoons made spending nights high up in the mountains less attractive. But still we got to do loads of multipitch rockroutes  on perfect granite some nice climbing on the Gervassuti pillar and a bit of an epic on the Droites. Hopefully we get a new chance on our planned objectives next year.

After the 2 months in the Alps it was time to pack the bags and head north to Sweden. Here guiding on the Kebnekaise was waiting. It was very nice to get back on easy ground and get a ´´everyday life´´ again. My mind was pretty wrecked after the about 45 days of climbing in 2 month’s time so it was time get some rest and new motivation. With bouldering, nice Ice-climbing in an ice-cave and a solo climb on the classic route Silhuetten on Tuolpagorni the season got a very good end.