Romsdalen

It had been a while since my last climbing and skiing outing so I was keen to head out again and get the winter season going.  The destination was Romsdalen, an area/fjord at the coast of Norway. Romsdalen is a famous climbing an tourist destination, known for the deep fjords and the high mountains, the ´´Trollstigen´´ (a winding mountain road) and of course the´´ Trollwall´´ (the tallest vertical rockface in Europe, 1100 meters) I had never been here before and thus super keen to go here and see what this place had to offer.
With days off around New Year’s, reasonable priced tickets, and my good friend Ted Ekberg living in Molde I had nothing to lose.

Talking to Ted just a couple of days prior to departure it sounded like the climbing conditions were getting into good knick. With a couple of melt-freeze cycles and everything covered in snow and on top of that a high pressure forecast predicting cold temperatures and good weather  for the days to come the snow hopefully would become perfect neve and the ice falls nice and big.

The flight in to Molde was very spectacular the clouds where thin and every now and then you could see the mountains and fjords below.  At one point we were more or less making a ridge traverse with the aircraft.
Once on the ground there was less snow than expected and temperatures well above zero, apparently the weather forecast had changed…

On or way in, not to much snow... Our intended line is exactly in the middle of the picture
©Ted Ekberg

First pitch ©Ted Ekberg

The first day we had our eyes set on Urfjellets north face. Being two teams, Håkan Staffansson and Larissa Darvell friends from Älvdalen in Sweden had also joined in for the week.
On this face we had a couple of easy routes close to each other so that we could climb within sight of each other and get the feel for winterclimbing again.
On the walk in me and Ted directly spotted a line going that looked appealing and as far as we knew unclimbed, so for us the decision was easy. Håkan and Larissa picked a route left of ours called ``Septomania´´.
I had the honor to climb the first pitch, this was very interesting and pleasant climbing on rock, kind of frozen turf and moss and snow. I guess the grade was about M4/5. After my lead Ted took over and continued in about the same type of terrain for another pitch. After that the terrain eased of and we started to simul-climb on mostly snow and frozen turf and moss, every now and then we could put some protection in some rocks. At the end of the route we ended up in the snow gully of ´´Septomania`` and timed perfectly we met up with the other team. From here it was easy climbing to the summit. Once on the Summit the wind had picked up and was loading the descent gully with a lot of snow so we decided to go down the longer but safer way around the mountain. Of course we ended up in the dark but at this time of the year that´s part of the experience.

Some spindrift
©Ted Ekberg

The valley below Venjetind and Romsdalshorn
©Ted Ekberg

The second day we got the skis out for a run. Because of the weather being so warm we wanted to try our luck a bit higher up. We went for the area around Venjetindan and Romsdalshorn. We didn´t aim for the summits but for some nice turns. Unfortunately we didn´t find powder but still it was good fun. With the snow being so hard it turned out into a micro alpine experience with skinning, bootpacking and using the ski crampons. In other words the perfect way to run through the gear knowing it´s working before going on longer days.
After our little ski outing we still had some daylight left so we went for some sightseeing in the Romsdalen valley checking out one of the most impressive walls I´ve ever seen; the Troll wall. Even if I know this wall is known for the rock fall it definitely gets a climber going, so impressive!
We also checked out some other walls and routes and now I really want to get back in summer to try some of the stuff out.

Windy approach

The third day we wanted to get back on the ice. The day before we had seen some ice-lines in the Venjetind valley, these lines where probably one of the few in condition at that moment. The weather forecast predicted high winds and yes we could feel that! Just on our way in we fell over about 3 times each and there was more to come. This raised some doubts about the climb itself but we saw it as good Patagonia climbing practice so went for it. Me and Ted climbed one pitch each, we really had to cling on to out axes not to get ripped of the ice by the wind. After the second pitch we got the message that Larissa and Håkan had turned around on their attempt on another route nearby so we did the same. With the wind in our backs the ski out was very quick!

Me and Ted on the first pitch kind of enjoying the wind

Rock climbing in January!
©Ted Ekberg

For day four to six rock climbing and caving was on the menu. The temperatures had been so warm that ice climbing was over and the snow crap, at least for one day outings. Also I had caught a cold and somehow my shoulder was hurting so I decided to stay on the ground for the climbing days.

Caving ©Håkan Staffansson

Desperate for powder?
©Ted Ekberg

The seventh and final day was here.  I still wanted to do 2 things, get some kind of good snow and meet up with my friend and former colleague Oscar Almgren. Oscar is living in Stranda in the Sunmøre area some 2 hours away from Molde.  Luckily this is quite a good combo. Oscar is running a guiding company called ´´Uteguiden´´ (www.uteguiden.com) and has been living in Stranda for some years now so he knows the area pretty well.  Oscar promised powder. For that we had a walk in of almost 2 hours before we even started to gain height. The approach had more of a spring skitouring feel than being beginning January jumping small streams and taking of skis on snow free patches. Once we came up a bit the snow actually started to build up and in the end you could call it powder even if not so deep. We did a couple of runs on the best spot before heading home and yet again end up in the dark on the walk out.

I had some really good days and am superkeen to head back for more, but for now it´s back to work for a short while before heading to the Alps.

Thanks Ted, Mia, Larissa, Håkan, Oscar, Hedda and Ulrika!