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.

Kaisepakte from Lillpakte

Not only ice, also great mixed climbing potential

Anders on the lead at lillpakte

Hopefully  next year there will be a AIA (Abisko Ice Adventure) again, join in!

Check out  http://kiwiclimber.se/iceclimbing/index.html a website by Rick McGregor for detailed description of the ice climbing in the valley.

Vent du Dragon

the route, it tops out by
the rock spike on
the ridge

This is a route that I have been trying to climb for a very long time, and no it´s nothing big. In fact it´s just a 5 pitch M5 route extremely easy accessible from the Midi cable car. I´ve had this route as a for the easy day or not so good weather options. Somehow every time I was thinking of giving it a go, something turned up; no keen partners, lift opens way later because of deneigement or because of construction work you´re not allowed to abseil from the bridge…

Gustav rappelling down into the
Cunningham Couloir

Today it was again a Vent du Dragon day. Lots of snow latest days and todays weather was only going to be good in the morning, Perfect for a quick outing without too much snow plodding. My friends Oscar Wahlund and Gustav Mellgren were keen on joining.

We didn´t get on the first bin but that didn´t matter the lift was actually running! Once we came up on the top station we were not the only ones wanting to do the 5 abseils from the bridge into to the Cunningham couloir. There were some skiers in front of us so we took the opportunity to check the route out from one of the viewing platforms.

Easy start of the route

No Oscar, you are going to
the Ice runnel... Even if you´re
option looks cool :)

Oscar leading pitch 3

Finally it was our turn to abseil down; we made 3 rappels and down climbed the rest making it down in front of the skiers… We made our way to the start and found it looking that easy that we soloed the first bit. After 40 meters of climbing we took out the rope and made 1 long pitch to the start of the difficulties. The pitch to come was a fantastic looking ice runnel of about 70 degrees. Oscar was the man on the lead and he was more or less running up the start of the pitch. After some minor route finding difficulties me and Gustav started to follow. A High quality pitch with a squeeze under a block in the end to make it to the belay.

From here it was my turn to take the lead, a mixed pitch of almost 50 meters. The pitch offered good and enough ice to climb it confidently sometimes some athletic moves had to be used. In the top part there was a lot of snow to clear so that took a while. From the end of this pitch it was easy ground to make it up onto the Cosmique arête. Luckily for us Nordnorsk Klatreskola (http://www.nordnorskklatreskole.no/) had been there just before us and left a nice path. Some 30 minutes later we were back at the Cablecar.

Squeeze trough the hole! (pitch 3)

Bit more about the route:

-You reach it making 5 abseils from the Midi bridge
-The route has the same start as the route Profit Perroux
-The route is about 5-6 pitches long with al bolted belays
- the route is in one way committing because the only way is up to get back to the cable car (Profit Perroux and Burnier Vogler are both slightly easier options)
-The route keeps a grade of About M5 with ok ice conditions
- On the last meters of the last technical pitch (pitch 4) there are some loose rocks and one bigger block that you easily can torque of with your axe... Be very careful here!
- Ben Tibbets has a nice description of the route on his blog. http://www.bentibbettsguiding.com/alpine-conditions-midi-tacul-2/

4th and last technical pitch, Oscar and Gustav following

Bit of a weather change... (pitch 4)

Gustav on the Arrete de Cosmique on it´s way back
to the cablecar.