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!