AIA Abisko ice Adventure

After months of work with nine to five routines a hot summer and weekly climbing at the local crags of Stockholm it was time to cool down in the north of Sweden, Abisko to be exact. My friend Anders Nyström had invited me to kick of the ice climbing season in this small town in the far north of Sweden. Anders was going there with some Luleå friends and they were happy to share and invited along everyone who was keen. We ended up with 22 people staying at Abisko Mountain lodge, more or less an ice festival.

Great view and weather

In Abisko me and Anders teamed up for the three days of climbing we had also Patrik Lindgren joining in on the first day. I have been climbing in Abisko before during the time I worked at the Abisko turiststation so I now the area. The first day we wanted something to warm up on, something easy to get familiar again. So of we went to Gömda Dalen(Hidden valley), Kaisepakte. One hours approach gave a 60 meter high and 100 meter or so wide wall covered in ice of fairly easy climbing. We picked the 4 most obvious lines. It all felt a bit shaky but very familiar. ´´Ice climbing is like riding a bike´´, as my friend Christian Edelstam opted a couple of years ago while making his way up a thin ice. I can only agree.

the walk in to gömda dalen

Patrik on the lead

The second day we decided to give the classic and in my opinion Abisko valleys best ice a go; det stora blå (the big blue). Anders took the first pitch and had to clean loads of double ice on the less steep parts, so now it is in shape for the season! I took the second pitch. It´s great climbing on this blue like ice. Just before topping out we made a abalakov for the descent. This makes that you just have to do one 60 abseil and you skip the top out on to grass an moss and basically nothing to abseil of from (i´ve heard rumors of and bolted anchor thou). Back at the car we had plenty of time left so we did some more climbing in the Abisko canyon and Kurvan. At the end of the day some good food was waiting at the tourist station and after that a sauna just at the lake of Torneträsk.

Stora blå!

The last day Lillpakte was on the menu. This is a miniature version of Kaisepakte (thereof the name). We climbed 3 obvious lines of great ice. With the arms reasonably tired the last stop was made at the ´´Artic Thai kitchen`` in Kiruna before boarding the flight back to rainy Stockholm.

Kaisepakte from Lillpakte

Not only ice, also great mixed climbing potential

Anders on the lead at lillpakte

Hopefully  next year there will be a AIA (Abisko Ice Adventure) again, join in!

Check out  http://kiwiclimber.se/iceclimbing/index.html a website by Rick McGregor for detailed description of the ice climbing in the valley.

Romsdalen workout and Summerski at Strynefestivalen

  After my visit to Romsdalen last winter I was eager to get back to this place. Luckily Oscar Almgren from Uteguiden wondered If I wanted to do some guiding at the Strynefestivalen a summer ski and extreme sport festival in Stryn. Ofcourse I couldn´t say no. 
But before heading there I took the opportunity to visit my friend Ted Ekberg with the hope to get on the big rock faces we had been staring at a couple of months earlier. 

first pitches of mongejura ´´sydpilaren´´

Ted was working the first day of my visit but trough his work at Platou Sports I Molde I had the opportunity to test a sea kayak. I took a lap around one of the islands outside Molde called the ´´Moldives´´. 

Me and Ted had been looking around to find a good long route that would suite us. We wanted something long, not to hard for bigger chances of success and for me one of the Romsdalen classics. We soon decided to go for the ultra-classic route ´´Sydpilaren´´ on the mountain Mongejura. This is a face of almost 1000 meters of rock. The route is about 24 pitches of which four are grade 6. Ted had already climbed this route two times before but in the early years of his climbing career so those missions had been very long and strenuous so he was keen on climbing it quicker this time. 

Ted following

classic must have pic from sydpilaren

  We started from teds place early morning. Our plan was to get to the parking lot at 8 and start climbing at 8.45 after that we expected the climb itself to take about 12 hours. We we´re like a Swiss, at exactly 8.45 am we set of on the first ´´pitches´´. The first part is more bushwhacking then climbing following ledges combined with easier climbing. After about 40 min. we arrived at pitch 6 the first crux pitches were coming up. Leading in blocks it was my turn to lead the 5 pitches ahead. These pitches we of great exposed climbing already quite high up the wall. Al the time is was reasonably protected and I got great use of the size 4 cam that we brought especially for these pitches. After my block Ted took over on grade 4/5 terrain so we decided to simulclimb this aswel. We managed to keep good speed and before I knew it is was my time to lead again. This time it was the last crux for the route on the 16^th rope length; A fantastic corner of high rock quality. After this lead we went into simul mode again cruising up to the 20^th pitch were Ted took over for the last part. The climbing was never hard on this bit but the terrain got a bit loose and so full focus was required to climb smoothly and safe. Al of a sudden the terrain eased of and I met the grinning face of Ted belaying me. We were on the top of the climb in what we think a nice time of 7 hours and 10 minutes on the route. After enjoying the lunch that we forgot to eat on the climb we made our way back to the car. On our way home to Molde we passed by a ´´crag´´ called Hornaksla, I joked to Ted that we might climb some more. Before we knew it we had climbed 5 more easy pitches…

Happy after almost 1000m climb

Start to get high up

Mongejura

Ted leading on ´´Gravhammer´´
Hornaksla

Ted showing his offwidth skills

The next day we returned to Hornaksla to climb the route ´Gravrammer´. A great 8 pitch route. In the beginning it´s a bit mossy but get´s better high up. Al the pitches are pretty sustained. The descent is easy, just follow the massive ramp down al the way to the road. This al makes for a great day out. 

 

                 

Easy way down from Hornaklsa
wirh trolltinderna in the
background

After this climbing adventure it was time to head south to Stryn and change the rock boots to ski boots. Stryne Sommerski is an Area that get´s crazy amounts of snow in winter. Once they at the end of spring have dug a way through the snow up the mountain this makes a great place for summerskiing. Stryne Sommerski is not a big area with only 2 ski lifts but makes some good access for ski touring on the glacier surrounding is. Fri Flyt a big Norwegian ski magazine had organized an adventure festival called ´Strynefestivalen´. My friend Oscar Almgren who runs the guiding company Uteguiden was organizing the guided skitours for the festival and asked me if I wanted to help out.
We were extremely lucky with the weather, Sunshine and high temperatures which is kind of unusual for this area this time of the year. Unfortunately this was of course worse for the snow conditions. I guided a skitour where the aim was to focus more on steep skiing. Unfortunately most steeper lines had turned in to waterfalls. On the Glacier towards the Mountain Nuken we were able to find steeper faces where we practiced jump turns, practiced rappelling and discussed techniques to tackle the steeps safely, this al combined with loads with high class slush cruising. The evenings spend on Folven camping offered good company, great atmosphere and partying. Check out http://www.strynefestivalen.no/ ans www..uteguiden.com

Where is the snow?

Top lift not running? Put the skins on!

Great mix of clothing!
everything from full winter gear to shorts and tops.

Czech route and SBO

Already a couple of weeks have already passed by since returning from the Alps. The last week of my stay in Chamonix was pretty exciting! The weather forecast had predicted some good weather so Gabriel Mazur, Gustav Mellgren and me decided to go and have a look at the Droites NE face. We had heard that the Czech route had been in condition a month earlier so we we´re keen on trying that route out.

Party at Grand Montets

No stove needed for melting water

We headed up the Grand Montets with the last bin. It was the last day of the season before closing the lifts so there was a big party going on at mid and top station. We enjoyed the party for a while until the ski patrollers started to send down the party people.  In the end we were the only ones left and made ourselves ready for a night in the toilets. Luckily for us the staff of the Grand Montets had left the heating on especially for us. 

Early morning packing

At 2 a.m. we got up and after a ´´breakfast we started to make or way down onto the Argentiere glacier and up towards the Droites face.
It was already light when we arrived at the start of the route. Looking up conditions looked doable but it temperatures were already quite high. The first part of the route is all easy snow climbing so we made pretty good progress moving together. After a while we came to the first proper ice pitches. Gustav took the lead. By now there was quite a bit of ice coming down because of the warmth but nothing big so we continued.  For the hardest ice pitch it was my turn to lead. Al three of us were pretty skeptical because it was very warm and the ice was just dripping. I climbed up to take a look, it was obvious… time to turn around. 

first easy snow slopes

Gustav taking the lead

Bergschurnd crossing

We abseiled down and had a great ski out, we all agreed on the fact that summer was officially here.

The Days after the climb it was testing time.  Already a year ago I got accepted to the Swedish mountain guide course SBO. Unfortunately back then there we only three of us that got in so they decided to postpone the course with a year.
We had 3 days on which we got tested on rock climbing, Ice climbing and skiing. It all went well for me and coming winter me and 7 others will start the course. I am already excited!

Vent du Dragon

the route, it tops out by
the rock spike on
the ridge

This is a route that I have been trying to climb for a very long time, and no it´s nothing big. In fact it´s just a 5 pitch M5 route extremely easy accessible from the Midi cable car. I´ve had this route as a for the easy day or not so good weather options. Somehow every time I was thinking of giving it a go, something turned up; no keen partners, lift opens way later because of deneigement or because of construction work you´re not allowed to abseil from the bridge…

Gustav rappelling down into the
Cunningham Couloir

Today it was again a Vent du Dragon day. Lots of snow latest days and todays weather was only going to be good in the morning, Perfect for a quick outing without too much snow plodding. My friends Oscar Wahlund and Gustav Mellgren were keen on joining.

We didn´t get on the first bin but that didn´t matter the lift was actually running! Once we came up on the top station we were not the only ones wanting to do the 5 abseils from the bridge into to the Cunningham couloir. There were some skiers in front of us so we took the opportunity to check the route out from one of the viewing platforms.

Easy start of the route

No Oscar, you are going to
the Ice runnel... Even if you´re
option looks cool :)

Oscar leading pitch 3

Finally it was our turn to abseil down; we made 3 rappels and down climbed the rest making it down in front of the skiers… We made our way to the start and found it looking that easy that we soloed the first bit. After 40 meters of climbing we took out the rope and made 1 long pitch to the start of the difficulties. The pitch to come was a fantastic looking ice runnel of about 70 degrees. Oscar was the man on the lead and he was more or less running up the start of the pitch. After some minor route finding difficulties me and Gustav started to follow. A High quality pitch with a squeeze under a block in the end to make it to the belay.

From here it was my turn to take the lead, a mixed pitch of almost 50 meters. The pitch offered good and enough ice to climb it confidently sometimes some athletic moves had to be used. In the top part there was a lot of snow to clear so that took a while. From the end of this pitch it was easy ground to make it up onto the Cosmique arête. Luckily for us Nordnorsk Klatreskola (http://www.nordnorskklatreskole.no/) had been there just before us and left a nice path. Some 30 minutes later we were back at the Cablecar.

Squeeze trough the hole! (pitch 3)

Bit more about the route:

-You reach it making 5 abseils from the Midi bridge
-The route has the same start as the route Profit Perroux
-The route is about 5-6 pitches long with al bolted belays
- the route is in one way committing because the only way is up to get back to the cable car (Profit Perroux and Burnier Vogler are both slightly easier options)
-The route keeps a grade of About M5 with ok ice conditions
- On the last meters of the last technical pitch (pitch 4) there are some loose rocks and one bigger block that you easily can torque of with your axe... Be very careful here!
- Ben Tibbets has a nice description of the route on his blog. http://www.bentibbettsguiding.com/alpine-conditions-midi-tacul-2/

4th and last technical pitch, Oscar and Gustav following

Bit of a weather change... (pitch 4)

Gustav on the Arrete de Cosmique on it´s way back
to the cablecar.

Multipitch and roofclimbing

When driving from Geneva towards Chamonix you´ll drive through a valley with big walls of limestone. I would guess that for most people these walls look completely inaccessible but funny enough there are loads of established routes on almost every wall you can see.
Me and Gustaf Larsson went to check out the Balme cliff a coulpe of days ago. This wall is probably the most accessible of all the walls in the valley and up to 200 meter high in places. You park your car and at less then 5 minutes you are the closest climbing routes. Because of being the first multipitch for me this season we picked an easier route and with the possibility to combine it with other routes, in that way we never had to exceed 6b if needed. It was still a bit cold when we started of and Gustaf was keen to tie into the sharp end. The first pitch we both needed to get used to the rock a bit but soon we were at the first belay. From here we encountered what is so typical for the l´Arve valley the bolts are pretty far apart… Most is bolted on lead by very strong climbers so often you just find bolts at the best handholds. It was my time to lead so nothing to complain about and just do it! It all went really well from here. The climbing was great apart for some short sections with crappy rock (had a 10 kilo rock in my hand which I had to throw down…). I felt so comfy that we spiced it up a bit and tucked in two 6c+ pitches. The way down is fairly easy you just rap of fixed anchors. To get some more workouts we climbed 4 more pitches on other parts of the wall. Al together we climbed almost 300 meter in 9 pitches at lowest grad 6a (easier than that is hard to find in this valley) and hardest 6c+.
 A great start to Multipitch season! More of that!

Gustaf following on a fantastic(mostly) 6b+ pitch

First pitch!

Some days later me and Steve Pearson went to a crag on the Italian side called ´´Sarre´´ roof in the Aosta valley. This place is surreal! First of all it is super steep; you can easily climb here when it´s pouring down with rain. Second of all it´s more or less man made with drilled holds and last but not least you´re climbing above a working railway. I got spanked big time, the climbing is cool but hard. I managed to climb a 6c and worked on a 7b whilst the others at the crag were warming up on my projects, sending 8a and working on 8b+ routes. Give me a bit of time and practice and I’ll fight together with the other climbers, this is a place to come back to!

only in Italy

If you´re belayer lowers you to much
You get hit by the train... it´s al about
trust in climbing...

If you don´t like rain...

Macho couloir trip report

Today the goal was set on the macho couloir that begins at col du Diable. We skied down from Aiguille du midi out on the Vallee Blanche and rounded up Point Adolphe Rey to get to the start of the day´s ski mission. We crossed the Bergschrund and climbed up the couloir just right of the Grand Capucin. When the Couloir came to an end we made a long traverse and crossed another bergschrund. From here it was only up and the snow felt good. Once we were on the steepest section clouds started to close in. Already feeling tired after yesterday´s mission and with that not feeling super comfortable on the steeps in bad visibility on skis I decided to bail together with Niko Palo and Lauri Harjukoski. Mikko and Jesper continued they had just half an hour left to the top of the col.
The ski down was great; the snow was generally good withjust a few icy sections and some heavy sluff at some points. A pity that I didn´t do the complete run but I’ll be back! 

Can you see the intended line!? Enlarge to see it :)

First Couloir just next to the grand Capucin, Jesper is the track machine!

Jesper working hard in deep snow on the traverse

Bit of rock on the steepest section

Niko and Lauri coming down from the clouds

Lauri just jumped the schrund and Niko is next