Wow what a day we have had today. An early rise was needed for our mission, leaving the Chalets just before 7am.
Russ Chris and I had decided to climb the Haugsgjeli, a super impressive icefall that’s situated just outside Laerdal. The approach was kinda hard work; it was basically a 2hr up hill boulder scramble, which was less than ideal. The only thing that kept us going was the fact that after about 1hr 10mins we rounded the corner and stepped into a really impressive amphitheatre with the icefall holding centre stage at the back. It still took another 40mins over pretty nasty ground, but with the climb in sight Russ forged a trail in to the base. We all thought the icefall looked pretty short 150m to 200m max, little did we know!!!.
The 1st pitch proved to be a full 60m-rope stretcher. The lower part was covered in a rain crust that had to be bashed off before being able to place an axe, followed by a steep brittle pillar into a basin and the belay. The next was again a full 60m, up easy ground to start then into a steep groove on good ice this was a great pitch. The wind was howling here and blow snow all around making things very atmospheric especially with the echoes of us climbing bouncing off the rock walls.
Pitch 3 was a long traverse in deep snow that leads to the upper sections. Another 2 huge pitches brought us under the last pitch and a choice of routes. There was a very impressively hard looking pillar (very scary) and a not so scary looking one to our right, or follow the easier line directly above us. Further inspection of the not so scary pillar showed a big gap at the bottom, this was enough for me to scuttle up the easiest line with out a second look at the really scary pillar. It was yet another 60m pitch that brought us to the top. This pitch was funky and a number of pick placements had water gushing out of them soaking ropes and gloves alike. The view from up here was awesome, looking north up the fjord and the nearby snowy hills.
The descent was quick as we had pre placed all the abseil anchors on the way up (clever us!!). Once back at the sacs we were faced with the boulder field of despair back to the road. It didn’t disappoint and it was 3 tired narked off climbers who reached the road about an hour later.
I’m now sitting writing this with sore ankles from the boulder field but with a warm glow from a great day out.
Kenton
Wow what a day we have had today. An early rise was needed for our mission, leaving the Chalets just before 7am.
Russ Chris and I had decided to climb the Haugsgjeli, a super impressive icefall that’s situated just outside Laerdal. The approach was kinda hard work; it was basically a 2hr up hill boulder scramble, which was less than ideal. The only thing that kept us going was the fact that after about 1hr 10mins we rounded the corner and stepped into a really impressive amphitheatre with the icefall holding centre stage at the back. It still took another 40mins over pretty nasty ground, but with the climb in sight Russ forged a trail in to the base. We all thought the icefall looked pretty short 150m to 200m max, little did we know!!!.
The 1st pitch proved to be a full 60m-rope stretcher. The lower part was covered in a rain crust that had to be bashed off before being able to place an axe, followed by a steep brittle pillar into a basin and the belay. The next was again a full 60m, up easy ground to start then into a steep groove on good ice this was a great pitch. The wind was howling here and blow snow all around making things very atmospheric especially with the echoes of us climbing bouncing off the rock walls.
Pitch 3 was a long traverse in deep snow that leads to the upper sections. Another 2 huge pitches brought us under the last pitch and a choice of routes. There was a very impressively hard looking pillar (very scary) and a not so scary looking one to our right, or follow the easier line directly above us. Further inspection of the not so scary pillar showed a big gap at the bottom, this was enough for me to scuttle up the easiest line with out a second look at the really scary pillar. It was yet another 60m pitch that brought us to the top. This pitch was funky and a number of pick placements had water gushing out of them soaking ropes and gloves alike. The view from up here was awesome, looking north up the fjord and the nearby snowy hills.
The descent was quick as we had pre placed all the abseil anchors on the way up (clever us!!). Once back at the sacs we were faced with the boulder field of despair back to the road. It didn’t disappoint and it was 3 tired narked off climbers who reached the road about an hour later.
I’m now sitting writing this with sore ankles from the boulder field but with a warm glow from a great day out.
Kenton
