Alp visit

At this time of writing I am in Stockholm working. About 3 months ago I left Stockholm and drove south to the Alps for some skiing, climbing and the first course for the mountain guide course. Unfortunately this winter hasn´t reached any records yet when it comes to snowfall. Green Christmas celebrations had been reported from all over the Alps. With a quick stop in Chamonix to collect some gear I went to pick up Gustav Mellgren at the airport in Geneva. We had both done some research on for that moment the best ski locations. Andermatt was high up on the list, when Gustav on top of that by coincidence met his friend Klas Englund at the airport with the same destination in mind, the choice was made.  

Being the days just before new year´s finding accommodation was not the easiest, luckily at the famous ´´Swedish house´´ a.k.a. ´´Villa villakulla´´ (a group of seasoneers that rent a house and nowadays work and live fulltime in Andermatt) they were kind enough to let us stay for some nights, even though it already was very busy.

In Andermatt we actually found fairly good conditions. We varied lift skiing with some easier touring. Al the time we had to be quite cautious because of the tricky avalanche situation that is the main theme in the Alps this season…
The main discovery of this trip was the Gotthard tunnel to the Swiss kanton Tiscino. On the bad weather days this was the quick escape. With a ride of just under one hour from Andermatt you enter a complete different world; sunshine, warm temperatures, palm trees and one of the best bouldering i´ve ever done.

Klas Englund cruising in Andermatt

picking lines in Andermatt

Cogne with warm temps

After the trip to Andermatt I went to Cham for a couple of weeks trying to make something of the conditions. I filled the days with some skiing, working out, drytooling and some easier alpine climbing. Something that´s almost a must do is to start a ski or climb from the aiguille du midi-lift but for the first time on I don´t know how many trips to Cham I never made my way up there…strange idea.

Short visit to Verbier

Gustav Mellgren climbing rock instead of ice...

Sunshine skiing with my dad :)

Before it was time to go back Sweden, I went to Davos. Even I you would think that, I didn´t go there for the WEF. In Davos the ´´Schnee und lawinenforschung´´SLF is based. This is one of the world leading institutes on avalanche science (www.slf.ch). The Swedish mountain guide organization (SBO) had planned a week long avalanche course for us as part of the guide training.
The course started with a refresher of our skills and a visit to the ski patrol. Two full days where spent with Manuel Genswein, a real guru, and probably the mind behind your transceiver. By his lead we trained a lot on transceiver search methods and how to solve tricky multiple burials. If we got cold that was easily solved by practicing digging, jup even that you can optimize by digging in a V-shape or so called conveyor belt.
The other days we had some shorter lectures about snow physics and national avalanche forecasting but mainly we were out in the field together with Stephan Harvey, a mountain guide working for the SLF. We dug snow pits to examine the snowpack, trained on route finding in avalanche terrain and much more. It was very interesting given that there was a lot of avalanche activity. We even managed to trigger some small avalanches from a distance, a clear sign of instability.

Conveyor belt or V-shape digging

Stephan Harvey measuring density

Mikael Almlert checking out the avalanche we triggerd remotly 

Can you see the weak layer?

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.