spionin Posted March 14, 2011 Posted March 14, 2011 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. Quote
YocumRidge Posted March 14, 2011 Posted March 14, 2011 Another awesomeness! Doug is lacking a fur-coat here for extra style points : Quote
spionin Posted March 14, 2011 Author Posted March 14, 2011 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/ Quote
YocumRidge Posted March 15, 2011 Posted March 15, 2011 Yeah, that http://www.alexandrebuisse.org/resources/trip-reports/The-fifteen-most-terrifying-seconds-of-my-life http://sightly.net/peter/trips/norway2011/ does not look inspiring at all. Glad you guys really lucked out with the conditions and weather. Quote
spionin Posted March 15, 2011 Author Posted March 15, 2011 Doug is lacking a fur-coat here for extra style points ha! rabbit fur climbing gloves? ... ...and a norwegian belay jacket! Quote
YocumRidge Posted March 15, 2011 Posted March 15, 2011 Excellent choices, V, for climbing in the PNW cascades! Quote
televinny Posted March 15, 2011 Posted March 15, 2011 Fantastic! sounds like an awesome adventure! Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.