I’m just in from possibly the best ice route I’ve climbed this year. Kjurlifossen is a huge icefall up one of the nearby valleys and is one of the must do routes of the area, a modern classic by anyone’s standards.
The teams were slightly mixed up today with Russ going out with Dave Hollinger and Martin Moran, while Chris was with Martin Welsh and myself. All the other clients were having a rest day so the two lucky clients had 2 guides looking after each of them
A 6.30am start saw Martin driving the wee 4x4 up the snowed up track as far as he dared before parking and starting the walk. After the snow of yesterday there was quick a bit of trail breaking to do and Chris did almost all of this. The gully to the start of the route was knee deep in places but it was a ‘quick’ hour from the car to the base.
Pitch one looked amazing, a vertical pillar maybe 30m high, it was going to be a fight that was for sure. I racked up all the screws and set off. I found a small cave at about 10m that I could climb round the back off and pop out maybe 4m higher on the front face. This I managed but only just as it was a tight squeeze getting back out. The pitch turned out to be pretty easy, there was a groove that I bridged up before some funky moves broke out left and to the top. It was really cool climbing and very enjoyable despite the huge amounts of spindrift that pummelled down. Both Chris and Martin confirmed that this was probably the best pitch climbed this week, a true gem.
A snow basin leads up the next ice band, which Martin blasted off. This led us to the head wall. I thought this would be a couple of pitches but it turned out to be 4 long ones (what do guides know hey!!). I led two lllooooooonnnnnngggggg pitches on easy(ish) ground to set Martin up for his big lead. Chris and I watched him pick his way up the most amazing ice mushrooms, winding his way round them and over them, it wasn’t super hard climbing but must have felt pretty committing on the lead and a full 60m pitch. He ended up in the middle of nowhere and had to take a hanging belay. It was a crowded stance to say the least and very scary, I ended up taking on the last pitch, which proved to be steeper than it looked. It didn’t take too long to tame the beast and all 3 of us were shortly at the top looking at the view.
Getting down was fine as there was some in situ kit in place although a couple of the abseils were full 60m rope stretchers that were a little worrisome. We were all happy when we got to the last rap point and so to the bags. We trotted and bum slid back to the silver bullet (Suzuki 4x4), which propelled us back to the chalet and that much needed beer.
Quite possibly the best day so far (of the year). Thanks to Martin and Chris for the company.
Be safe and enjoy
Kenton
I’m just in from possibly the best ice route I’ve climbed this year. Kjurlifossen is a huge icefall up one of the nearby valleys and is one of the must do routes of the area, a modern classic by anyone’s standards.
The teams were slightly mixed up today with Russ going out with Dave Hollinger and Martin Moran, while Chris was with Martin Welsh and myself. All the other clients were having a rest day so the two lucky clients had 2 guides looking after each of them
A 6.30am start saw Martin driving the wee 4x4 up the snowed up track as far as he dared before parking and starting the walk. After the snow of yesterday there was quick a bit of trail breaking to do and Chris did almost all of this. The gully to the start of the route was knee deep in places but it was a ‘quick’ hour from the car to the base.
Pitch one looked amazing, a vertical pillar maybe 30m high, it was going to be a fight that was for sure. I racked up all the screws and set off. I found a small cave at about 10m that I could climb round the back off and pop out maybe 4m higher on the front face. This I managed but only just as it was a tight squeeze getting back out. The pitch turned out to be pretty easy, there was a groove that I bridged up before some funky moves broke out left and to the top. It was really cool climbing and very enjoyable despite the huge amounts of spindrift that pummelled down. Both Chris and Martin confirmed that this was probably the best pitch climbed this week, a true gem.
A snow basin leads up the next ice band, which Martin blasted off. This led us to the head wall. I thought this would be a couple of pitches but it turned out to be 4 long ones (what do guides know hey!!). I led two lllooooooonnnnnngggggg pitches on easy(ish) ground to set Martin up for his big lead. Chris and I watched him pick his way up the most amazing ice mushrooms, winding his way round them and over them, it wasn’t super hard climbing but must have felt pretty committing on the lead and a full 60m pitch. He ended up in the middle of nowhere and had to take a hanging belay. It was a crowded stance to say the least and very scary, I ended up taking on the last pitch, which proved to be steeper than it looked. It didn’t take too long to tame the beast and all 3 of us were shortly at the top looking at the view.
Getting down was fine as there was some in situ kit in place although a couple of the abseils were full 60m rope stretchers that were a little worrisome. We were all happy when we got to the last rap point and so to the bags. We trotted and bum slid back to the silver bullet (Suzuki 4x4), which propelled us back to the chalet and that much needed beer.
Quite possibly the best day so far (of the year). Thanks to Martin and Chris for the company.
Be safe and enjoy
Kenton
