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.