IsaacDVT: 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.