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[TR] norway - rjukan - various 3/2/2011


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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.

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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

weather-rjukan.jpg

 

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.

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many of the icefalls are visible from the city proper:

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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

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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:

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doug on the more sustained 1st pitch (~40m):

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2nd pitch (50m):

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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 :wazup:

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1st pitch (70m):

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2nd pitch (40m):

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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.

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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.

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these were followed by two long, steep pitches, ~40m in length.

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i love my visor

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on the walkout we decided to jump on another pitch - a fun, plastic 35m WI3:

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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.

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doug on the steep money pitch

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followed by a rambly long pitch

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norwegian definition of "mostly cloudy"

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the route ends right at the Vemork station and offers a mellow walk-off to the lot. done by noon, and off west!

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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

Edited by spionin
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Wow. Thanks V for the great account of this amazing area! :cool:

 

Looking forward to the further "installments" of the trip. :)

 

How would you describe the ice conditions and norwegian grades?

The sewage "shit happens" route does not look remarkably phat. :)

 

 

 

To the mods: my vote for the #1 prize for the March TRs.

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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.

 

 

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Thanks V for the report ;)

 

Just wanted to reiterate how awesome Norway is for ice climbing. I once thought the CA Rockies were the final stop for an ice climber looking for the biggest, baddest lines. The amount of visible and accessible huge 400m+ lines we saw just driving around made me think otherwise.

 

Rjukan was just a small slice from a huge pie.

 

On the walk over to Trappfoss we passed at least 6 ice lines - 3 5s, one 4, some 3s, one 6. All could be linked up in a long day if you so wanted to. This was just one area of this canyon, in one area of Rjukan. Everything very accessible, all very fat, many beautiful lines.

 

The hardest part of this trip for us were the drives to different areas. Not because they were long, or slow speed limits, winding... it was because you see so much ice so close that it just becomes painful after a while to keep passing flow after flow and not climb it!! And we're not talking just dinky flows from roadcuts, we're saying consistently seeing big put-weeping-wall-to-shame ice.

 

Again, we only saw a very small portion of the country.

 

The scenery up there looks like New Hampshire, but bigger.

Having started my climbing in the granite state I will agree that Norway is as much a winter wonderland as NH. Consistent cold temps, low humidity make wonderful fat ice climbing and a good lengthy season! Not much snowfall but what falls stays dry and sticks around.

 

 

Climbing ice in Norway is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend a trip ;)

 

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Nice Doug. Norway is on my list sometime in the future. Funny, I've been looking at some of the Caroline George Climbs and Guy climbs there. Look fantastic. and Just happened to spot this TR. Cool! Looks like you had a great time!

 

Were the routes crowded? Avy info, guessing low because lack of snow? What about cost?

 

 

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Only once did we see a party on a climb we wanted to try out, and we just walked a few hundred feet down the canyon and climbed some other awesome climb with no one on it instead. I wouldn't say it was crowded, but as expected from a developed popular ice climbing area. It seemed like traffic was concentrated to a handful of classic routes.

 

 

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Avy info, guessing low because lack of snow?

 

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.

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Fantastic report and pictures. Thanks for sharing!

 

I climbed a week (and drank 'OL') there in 2001 and recall likening it to Quebec and NH too.

Fantastic country but also very 'western' and less exotic than some places. This makes it easy to get around if you have the dough - it was expensive even then.

I believe the amazing fjord regions are less NE-like.

I have some guidebooks/contacts to share if anyone is similarly inspired for rock.

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