Sorry for the delay in getting this posted but I've had a few problems with the site sorry Guys. Anyway here is the report from the last days of the trip.
The last day of the week’s course and a tricky one for me. Russ and Chris had such a good day on Thurs that it was always going to be hard to top. Our rest day on Fri was spent drinking tea and checking out Laerdal. I must say there isn’t much to do; even the local café run by an English Guy was boring.
Temps had warmed up on Fri and overnight making a few of the icefall unstable so we decided to get the guys leading again. We chose a 4 Pitch route that Dave Hollinger had climbed on Tuesday. The walk in was a mellow 1hr 10 or so and it had a good feel about it all. All 3 of us said that there was a very relaxed atmosphere to the morning as we geared up beneath the 1st pitch.
Chris set up first through deep wet snow and quickly dispatched the pitch belaying to a tree high on the right to bring Russ and myself up. The next section was a snow slope that seemed to take an age due to the knee deep wet heavy snow. This took a while to grind up, but we finally got under a cool blue sweep of ice. This was about 60m high with a ledge at about ½ height. Russ was keen to lead the first section, which looked like it would be the steepest bit. He led it really well (see video below) placing ice screws on some of the step ground and looking super solid. It was about WI 4 and I was really impressed. Chris led us through the top pitch showing good style on an awkward rising traverse.
We got down to the snow in one huge 60m rap and then waded down the snow to the final abseil. Back at our sacs it sunk in that this was the last climb of the week and that home was calling. We walked back to the car in very warm conditions, with little conversation between us, each lost in his own thoughts reflecting on what a great week we had just had.
Back at the Chalets we all had dinner together (take out pizza ha ha ha) and some drunk a little too much whiskey (bad Martin). It was a nice end to one of the best weeks ice climbing I have ever had.
It wasn’t all over as on Sunday while driving to the airport a jack Knifed lorry caused a huge delay and we only just made flights (in my case I had to plead to be let on). The week maintained its sense of adventure right to the end.
So that was Norway 08, how to sum up??? Well let’s just say it was totally awesome.
Thanks to Martin Moran, Martin Welsh, Dave Hollinger for being such cool fellow guides and to the crew Andy, Kristy, Alan, Steve, Julian, Ken, Russ and Chris, with out you guys it would never have happened.
Thanks
Kenton
Sorry for the delay in getting this posted but I've had a few problems with the site sorry Guys. Anyway here is the report from the last days of the trip.
The last day of the week’s course and a tricky one for me. Russ and Chris had such a good day on Thurs that it was always going to be hard to top. Our rest day on Fri was spent drinking tea and checking out Laerdal. I must say there isn’t much to do; even the local café run by an English Guy was boring.
Temps had warmed up on Fri and overnight making a few of the icefall unstable so we decided to get the guys leading again. We chose a 4 Pitch route that Dave Hollinger had climbed on Tuesday. The walk in was a mellow 1hr 10 or so and it had a good feel about it all. All 3 of us said that there was a very relaxed atmosphere to the morning as we geared up beneath the 1st pitch.
Chris set up first through deep wet snow and quickly dispatched the pitch belaying to a tree high on the right to bring Russ and myself up. The next section was a snow slope that seemed to take an age due to the knee deep wet heavy snow. This took a while to grind up, but we finally got under a cool blue sweep of ice. This was about 60m high with a ledge at about ½ height. Russ was keen to lead the first section, which looked like it would be the steepest bit. He led it really well (see video below) placing ice screws on some of the step ground and looking super solid. It was about WI 4 and I was really impressed. Chris led us through the top pitch showing good style on an awkward rising traverse.
We got down to the snow in one huge 60m rap and then waded down the snow to the final abseil. Back at our sacs it sunk in that this was the last climb of the week and that home was calling. We walked back to the car in very warm conditions, with little conversation between us, each lost in his own thoughts reflecting on what a great week we had just had.
Back at the Chalets we all had dinner together (take out pizza ha ha ha) and some drunk a little too much whiskey (bad Martin). It was a nice end to one of the best weeks ice climbing I have ever had.
It wasn’t all over as on Sunday while driving to the airport a jack Knifed lorry caused a huge delay and we only just made flights (in my case I had to plead to be let on). The week maintained its sense of adventure right to the end.
So that was Norway 08, how to sum up??? Well let’s just say it was totally awesome.
Thanks to Martin Moran, Martin Welsh, Dave Hollinger for being such cool fellow guides and to the crew Andy, Kristy, Alan, Steve, Julian, Ken, Russ and Chris, with out you guys it would never have happened.
Thanks
Kenton
