Guiding Nye Vemorkfoss

Yesterday was a long day out on ice for our Irish friends. The plan for the day was to do Nye Vemorkfoss and Sabotørfossen, but since there were several parties on both routes, we headed over to Nedre Svingfoss, where Aine got to complete her first lead on ice. Leading ice requires absolute control and focus and the margins for errors are small, but Aine showed that two days of intensive training on top-rope, has payed off.

After a few hours the new goal for the day was to climb Nye Vemorkfoss, which means both the main pillar and Bakveien, which is a less steep version of this route. Andreas did the main pillar with Aine and Ola climbed Bakveien with Simon and Alex. Though everyone seemed a bit tired from a few very active days, both parties did the 150 meter long route with speed and efficiency. Despite challenging ice quality on the main pillar, conditions were generally excellent for ice climbing.

Rjukan 2010 edition

Our clients since yesterday are Simon, Aine and Alex from Ireland. Simon and Aine took a climbing course last season and now they are back for some multi-pitch action in the valley. Yesterday we spent the day refreshing skills at the short routes in Svineroiveien. Everyone climbed really well so today we went to Vemork to do laps on Vemorkbrufoss West, a 60 meter WI4 / WI5 route with a 5 minute approach. Excellent!

Tomorrow we're going to climb the classic routes Nye Vemorkfoss and Sabotørfossen. It's always a pleasure to take people on world class routes such as these!

Last Ice Camp of the year

Tomorrow is the last day of the last Ice Camp course of this year. On Monday we plodded through the canyon in at least a meter of snow. Due to the snow fall a few days earlier it was pretty extreme snow conditions on this route and the snow depth at the bottom of the first pitch was almost 7 meters! Despite tough snow conditions the ice was almost perfect and all clients climbed the route without problems. The steep pillar in the middle of Nye Vemorkfoss can sometimes be a challenge.

Yesterday we woke up to -15 C and decided to spend a day in Krokan practicing teqniques for steep ice. We climbed the classic route Topp, which is one of the most popular route in the area. When it is as cold as yesterday it's important to move as much as possible, and you can get a lot from even a short session on steep ice. We are always flexible in terms of what we climb every day, which is important for any sport where the rules are set by nature.

Ice Kick-off, clinics and courses

This weekend's Ice Kick-off with clinics and films at Buddy's is over. The pace throughout the weekend has been high, with clinics, one Ice Intro course and one Ice Camp course running at the same time. Not too many climbers showed up at Buddy's on Saturday evening, but this is a result of few climbers in the valley, compared to previous seasons.
We started both the Ice Intro course and the Ice Camp course on Saturday and so far we have had two days of perfect conditions at Krokan and Vemork. Fredrik Sträng, who has great experience from alpine climbing, have contributed with valuable tips and techniques from a life of climbing high mountains, which are relevant also for ice climbing. Inspiring and interesting!

Tjønstadbergfossen

Yesterday we had an amazing day climbing Tjønstadbergfossen with our clients Dave and Rosie.  The classic route Tjønstadbergfossen, right above center of town, is a 3-4 pitch route of relatively easy climbing, perfect for climbers who want to do their first multi-pitch ice route. Nice angle, big ledges and you can pretty much just walk off anywhere on the route and rappel off from trees. We did the left hand version, which is the steepest and most "clean" line.

Because there were four of us climbing we used one single rope and one double rope, which is a very effective and fast way of climbing long routes. While Ola was leading, Rosie belayed with a Gri-Gri and I gave instructions about belays, route planning and other general stuff about multi-pitch climbing. This is probably the best and most hands-on way to learn about clmbing long routes.
Forecast said temps were going to raise during the day, so we started reasonably late and topped out at dusk. We got a beautiful view of Rjukan by night when we walked down from the mountain. Another amazing day at work!