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.

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!