spionin

you make it sound so... straight-forward rad, dude.

very kind words and a fitting tribute. nice report, thanks!

thanks for the kind words and the suggestion, vinny! heinrich - i feel like a bioterrorist

ha! rabbit fur climbing gloves? ... ...and a norwegian belay jacket!

thanks much! mmm! maggot soup! i think i'll leave this option until after i let the antlers spend a hot, dry summer vacation in eastern washington.

i found these two reports from january, and they mention serious avy conditions in eidfjord area: http://www.alexandrebuisse.org/resources/trip-reports/The-fifteen-most-terrifying-seconds-of-my-life http://sightly.net/peter/trips/norway2011/

just found a pair of links on gravsports to climbing in Eidfjord. it really seems that we picked a great time to go - http://www.alexandrebuisse.org/resources/trip-reports/The-fifteen-most-terrifying-seconds-of-my-life http://sightly.net/peter/trips/norway2011/

Trip: norway - vang - some more routes Date: 3/8/2011 Trip Report: after leaving Bergen, we had only a few days left before flying out. we decided to spend a few more days climbing inland, and headed to the region of Oppland, just west of Lillehammer. our friend (and local hardman) Øyvind had mentioned seeing mad ice around Lillehammer in January, so that was a great suggestion. also, this site has a nice map with clickable locations, which sealed the deal: http://www.isklatring.no/kart.html. off to the Valdres district we went! oh, and the weather looked great (notice a pattern here??) 03/07: drive east to Vang 03/08: climb some big ice line (~200m) 03/09: climb Drøsja (~180m) 03/10-03/12: Oslo, fly back to Seattle despite some information about the general area, we once again didn't have a definite climbing plan or lodging this time. we decided to drive to Vang/Fagernes area and just stop whenever we saw something worth climbing. HA! the drive was painful. we could have stopped every 10 minutes along our 280 km route. consider this image and the striking ice line visible from afar. and as we got closer it's difficult to communicate its actual size. this is the type of stuff we had to deal with on our way east. when we finally decided to stop, we had to find housing. it seems that most huts were closed for the season, or we couldn't find owners to ask about rental. we literally went around knocking on doors, and came across Skogheim hytter. the owner, Tormod, agreed to rent us a hut - and gave us an amazing deal! our mountain palace could sleep 6, had a wood burning stove, a full kitchen, and sat on top of a cliff... 2 minutes away from the lines we were hoping to climb! roughing it at breakfast anyways, our 1st day there (8th day in Norway, and 5th day climbing overall) we climbed this: the approach took us up a powdery drainage and to a couple of ice steps. Doug chose the very stout pillar for p1 (about 45m) i followed up with a long moderate pitch (60m) two more moderate rope stretch pitches took us up to a large snow shelf there's all the ice above too, but we couldn't even see it through the trees, and the prospect of hiking up through deep powder wasn't very appealing. it was mid-day and we felt that we got our fill with the steep pitches we'd climbed. ah, the luxury! as in Eidfjord, all raps were off v-threads and trees. guess what we found on the approach??! another C-T hammer hard at work! after some serious banging, we succeeded at breaking the skull and splitting the antlers. we shipped them home, but will probably need to treat them somehow before hanging on the wall. if anyone has suggestions for killing off the current residents of the marrow, please let me know. the 2nd day we climbed a huge flow east of our previous day's line. this line is also described in this guide: http://www.isklatring.no/valdres/drosja.html and this overview of the area: http://www.isklatring.no/valdres/vangsmjosa_nord.html. it's listed as a 70m route, but really the ice goes on and on... we pitched out 4 sections totaling at least 180m, and there was a snow walk in-between. it was amazing, what can i say? as usual, Doug took the odd- and I, the even-numbered pitches. long, sustained pitches. warm sun. no belay jackets. sparkling ice! INTENSE CLIMBING! last swings... and another completed climb to bring a stellar finish to our norwegian vacation.

found this picture in a norwegian climbing guidebook - thought you'd appreciate!

Trip: norway - eidfjord - some climb Date: 3/5/2011 Trip Report: ...having nicely warmed up on ice cragging in Rjukan, Doug and i continued west towards the coast. the drive took us through the Telemark region and past Hardangervidda national park. it seems like every town has its own ski resort! the terrain is super beautiful, the pictures just don't do it justice. the rolling hills and perfectly-spaced trees looked amazing for skiing. 03/04: drive to Eidfjord 03/05: climb some ice 03/06: drive to Bergen, hike up Fløyen 03/07: drive east to Vang Eidfjord is a village of about 900 on the Hardanger Fjord in south-western Norwegian county of Hordaland. big thanks to Andreas Spak for answering our emails about Eidfjord. his guiding company (Rjukan Adventure) runs some trips there and has put up a small website about the area (http://iceclimbeidfjord.com/). not much info is available about the area, although Will Gadd, Caroline George, Chad Peele, and former local Seth Hobby have all done some spectacular ascents there. the climate is mild and it was raining when we rolled in late in the evening. we weren't sure whether anything would be in. but the forecast wasn't looking too bad: we got put up in a posh hytte in Måbødalen and decided to just look for something to climb in the morning. we got up around 6 as usual, had our huge breakfast of coffee, bread, cheese and jam. norway is the most expensive country in europe, BTW. we really cut costs by cooking our own food, but not necessarily skimping on the local delicacies. pepper herring goes well with instant Idahoan potatoes. fish cakes (fiske kaker) are delicious cut into a lentil stew mix. and fish pudding and shrimp are cheap enough for sandwiches all day long. a loaf of cheapest bread goes for about a dollar/loaf at grocery stores. candy bars? $5-6 apiece! and the beers are $12+ a pint. burn. anyways, back to climbing. hmm... what to climb? maybe zees thing outside of our window?? (this picture is meant to be viewed with Norwegian national anthem playing in the background) this route is also shown on this page: http://www.iceclimbeidfjord.com/index.php?action=page&article=1866379550&node=219 the ninja and i got started from the car at 8:40, and approached the first ice step at around 10. p1 was a WI-warmup of about 45m. then followed a 65m WI fun, and 200m+ of simuling WI calf-burning rambles on some enormous pieces of ice. the weather got more and more beautiful as the day went on [i'll just give you a minute to look at that ice again] ok. then came the full 70m pitch of WI real. it was 70m. on that picture above i'm at ~ dot 3 from the bottom. it took me longer to climb than expected, and by the time doug got to the belay, it was 15:20. we decided to avoid having stupid rappels in the dark, and started to descend. it was heart-breaking. we did three full 70m raps and one 35 m rap. RAPPELS. you can do the math. the following morning we drove around the area and wildly pointed fingers out of the car window like we'd never seen frozen water before. i'm just going to put a few pictures up, but there are many, many more. these are just photos and don't show how huge these lines are. i'd like to think we weren't just drooling because we are ice-starved pnw-ers. the size of ice lines there is truly increidble. our next stop was in the coastal city of Bergen. we didn't climb ice there, but we ate some good food, including reindeer steak for doug, and some smoked whale (tastes like sin). and we hiked up a local hill Fløyen (elev. 1050 feet!) along with about half the city's population. some hikers were dressed in fur coats and heels, and others - in full spandex and running shoes. with a populace that actually voted for prohibition and a resulting $12/pint of beer, i guess this is pretty entertaining activity for a sunday evening in norway. next stop - Vang! Gear Notes: 70m rope is very helpful. Approach Notes: left car at 8:40. back at the car at 18:45.

Rjukan got about 2 feet of fresh snow about a week before we got there. it remained very light and fluffy when we were there, and didn't seem very layered at all. the avy danger was about zero - the sides of the canyon are fully vertical, and there was no accumulation on the top. we were warned, however, that eidfjord has much higher avy potential. there, i think, mostly because of possibility of wet slides.

no joke. $12/pint is more expensive than just about anywhere. but hey, this helped waking up at 6 every day we were there

super cool! congrats, sol and jjb!

yet another entertaining tr! good humour, thanks!

the conditions were amazing. all routes were HUGE. we heard that rjukan had a banner year, and it was incredibly cold from november on. however, it seems that the standard ice season inland is from late october to april, and i'm not sure how lean it looks in "bad" years. we were told that Vemorkbrufoss Øst was really lean - go figure. climbing conditions were variable: rjukan ice fest took place a week before we were there. the climbs definitely saw traffic and some felt very bucketed. the grades felt soft, but i'm not really a numbers person. and i haven't climbed in canada so i can't compare. all ratings i've listed are those in the guide, not assessed by me personally. the other places we went to - we did not see a single screw hole or pick mark. saw a faint trail near one of the routes, and few steps on the approach to another.

thanks guys! p.s. reports from the other areas coming up...!

Trip: norway - rjukan - various Date: 3/2/2011 Trip Report: Doug (cbcbd) and i just got back from a little vacation (11 days) in norway. i'd been wanting to go for some years, and the time/partner finally worked out. with all the reports from climbing there in the past 2 years, it was definitely THE place to go. in short, the trip was incredible. we only saw a small part of this beautiful country, but explored a few different areas. ice seems to be hanging off just about every cliff (and there are LOTS of insanely huge walls, especially in the fjord regions). the nature, the incredibly friendly folk, and the gorgeous weather all made this worthwhile, and we highly recommend for everyone to go there! [i like JF's format...] 03/01: arrive Oslo Gardemoen, pick up rental car, drive 6 hours west to Rjukan. 03/02: climb Vemorkbrufoss Øst (WI4, 2p) and Tungtvann (WI4, 2p) 03/03: climb Trappfoss (WI4, 4p) and Nedre Swingfoss (WI3, 1p) 03/04: climb Nye Vemorkfoss (WI5, 2p). drive out to Eidfjord. Rjukan is a very well known and well developed climbing area. depending on the source, 150-190 frozen waterfalls are described. googlemaps tells me that driving there from Oslo takes 3.5 hours, but with ice patches on the roads, winding one-lane highways, 40mph speed limits, and a stop at a grocery store, it took us about 6 hours to get there. good page: http://www.rockfax.com/areas/area.php?id=1027. there is a guidebook in english available for the area (see link above, with chapter on lower gorge climbing for free download), but we mostly used this free guide (http://www.mountain-environment.com/rjukanguide2005.pdf) and additional bits of info available online. a list of top 50 routes was very helpful: http://www.rockfax.com/databases/best50.php?area=1027 given the access and popularity of the area, we saw quite a few other groups: poles, french, and lots of brits. the weather was incredible a common lodging option is hytte, a traditional hut with a mini kitchen, beds, and sitting area. our hytte was about 20 min driving from the climbing area. many of the icefalls are visible from the city proper: these lines at the base of Gaustatoppen mountain are 15-17 pitches long! Vemork hydro station was an important site in WW2, and many of the routes are named in reference to it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vemork the first day we planned to climb Rjukanfossen, but after hiking out and deciding that we didn't want to first rap down a 3-pitch route to climb it, we went to a far more accessible upper gorge/vemork bridge area. we first climbed the 2-pitch Vemorkbrufoss Øst. upper pitch of the route visible next to the bridge: doug on the more sustained 1st pitch (~40m): 2nd pitch (50m): next we walked about 10 min and spotted this great route, Tungtvann ("heavy water") - route in orange. the green line on the right approximately follows another route, "shit happens", which is formed by the sewage runoff from the houses above 1st pitch (70m): 2nd pitch (40m): the second day we climbed Trappfoss. the route is located at the farther end of the upper gorge, and took a whopping 50 min approach. upper pitches of the route are visible from afar. i think the route description includes the small ice step and a long ice ramp as separate pitches (both soloed). they both had screw holes and multiple v-threads in them. these were followed by two long, steep pitches, ~40m in length. i love my visor on the walkout we decided to jump on another pitch - a fun, plastic 35m WI3: on our final day in Rjukan we climbed the local über-classic Nye Vemorkfoss. it's described as a 3-pitch route, but we did it in 2 mondo pitches with our 70m rope. doug on the steep money pitch followed by a rambly long pitch norwegian definition of "mostly cloudy" the route ends right at the Vemork station and offers a mellow walk-off to the lot. done by noon, and off west! Gear Notes: 70m 8.2mm rope and tagline was very helpful. no need for stubbies Approach Notes: 10-40 min walking from the parking lot

haha! awesome report, fantastic side notes, and a word up to feisty!

nice report!

a vote for canon. love my little SD780. and the battery has lasted days (3+) at high altitude, and in cold temps. one thing to look out for in any camera - flat edge of the camera body if you're ever planning to set it down on a surface to take a pic. ...i have a number of SLRs (NOT digital), rangefinders, and a complete photo lab at home - and i love this little p+s.

very entertaining. way to get yourself off the couch! cheers!

nice climb! glad to hear that you took advantage of the conditions and had a great climb, summit or not.

wow - great report. hats helmets off!

whew - reading that was totally intense! haha! awesome report!

nothing worthwhile as far as beta - they turned out really crappy. but the snow was really nice, light, a few groups were out skiing coleman. compare this picture (not mine) from last feb: you should totally ski the polish route. d.c. would have!