Lofoten Rocks!

The rock course was held end of May in Lofoten in the far north of Norway, also called the magic islands.The Lofoten island offer some world class climbing on perfect granite, natuarally protected with no bolts in sight.

It was pretty stressfull before the course week. Several exams on the university had to be done, fulltime work with rope acces and an exam to become a rock climbing instructor. Luckily everything went well and passing all exams i could fly to the north as an fully qualified rock instructor according to the Swedish UIAA rules.

The course consisted of 5 days and in those days the main aim was to learn and understand a good way to guide clients on multipitch rock routes. With good instructors and a great weather forecast we had a good week to expect. The first day we started of with a test of basic rescue scenario´s and discussed different ways of building anchors to learn new tricks and just to be sure that everyone has the same idea about a good anchor. The rest of the days we planned and climbed multipitch routes often in teams of three. It seems that it´s not so hard to climb and guide a party. I guess that everyone who has climbed multipitch routes knows the setting, the rope is a mess, the traverse badly protected because you found it easy and the belay in an uncomfortable place just because you tried to run out the pitch to the max, but you don´t really care because you just cleared the crux and your partner solves the mess for you. In guiding this is a big no go. When you climb with clients it´s al about planning and being several steps ahead. This not only to make it nice for your client but in the end also to make it safer and nicer for yourself. During the days we trained in how to manage the rope, putting in protection for yourself but also for your clients, making the rope run smoother and route finding. Al in al guiding is much more than being able to climb and put up a rope, there´s more to is and that´s trickier then you would think. In the 5 days we actually had one day were some rain was expected so we used that to learn the first steps in a guides technique called short roping. This technique is used in easier but exposed terrain, the rope and a lot of coaching is used to keep the whole party save. As you can guess this is a skill and a craft that is extremely important to learn and the introduction day we had was only a glimps of what to come on the rest of the courses. 

Henningsvear and it´s klatrekafeen as a base for the week.

Rescue scenario with a view

waiting for perfection

is this gonna work good for the client?

Tatu a short roping master?

Råna, an adventurous and amazing climb, 5c/6a in big boots

Lofoten scenery

Plesure climbing after the course, Frederik cruising

Cruising Presten, Vestpilaren

Lofoten, where the sun always shines !? (10 p.m.)

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.