Hemsedal Mixed climbing with a danish man and his mustache!

Gustav is a danish man with a moustache and no hair who realy likes climbing and dairy products- hence why he lives in Norway.

Tricky conditions so we headed to Hemsedal, which seems to hold on to the cold temperature for longer. We chose to go for one of the classic mixed routes on Skurvefjell,  Gustav said it would go even with the unconsolidated snow covering, i was a little less conviced but decided to keep an open mind to what climbers here describe as "in condition."

The poor van drove us as close as was sensible and then a bit further before the three of us slept in the back and awoke at 6am to walk in in the dark.

The approach relay atmospheric. The glow in the background is actually the ski centre.

Gustav lead an alternative line on the last pitch with I though must have been bloody tricky!

Calum topping out.

here is a little video Calum made.

Early Start for ski touring in the valley

December has brought a mixed bag of weather overall. The start of the month remained relatively cold with the snow cover staying around long enough for a few ski touring excursions in the local Sogndal Valley.  As most of my time is having to be spent in the Library right now its being harder to fit in days out. On this particular trip I picked up Sofie at 7am for a sunrise ski-her idea.

ridiculous moment worth mentioning: whilst Sofie got changed in the back an old Norwegian man failed to check his mirrors and revered his 4x4 into the Van. luckily no damage......

so worth the early start...

looking back down the valley towards Sogndal.

Me looking like i know what Im doing... you can just about see the Hurrungane on the horizon.

looking back from the summit.

On the way down a quickly realised that Sofie (being Norwegian) had totally overestimated my sking ability and I embarrassing had to keep my skins on for the steeper parts of the decent! 

I was back in the Libary by 1pm and felling rather proud of our morning outing :)

Traditional Friluftsliv

We have been reading a lot about traditional Norwegian Friluftsliv in class. Literary translated as “free air life” (Tordsson 1993,) There is an astounding array of literature to suggest that Norwegians attach an ideology to outdoor recreation.  Gelter, 2000 described friluftsliv as a “philosophical lifestyle based on experiences of freedom in nature and spiritual contentedness with the landscape.” Furthermore, Friluftsliv has been characterised by simplicity, “a rich life with simple means” (Tordsson 2007) in contrast to-at least at a theoretical level- the more commercialised outdoor recreation activities in North America and Continental Europe.”(Kaltenborn, B. 2001.) 

Towards the end of October the class was combined with the Norwegian students for a week long excursion into the local forests. The aims of the trip were simple, to cook our meals on the fire, improvise shelters and get to grips with the more reflective, slow passed outdoor recreation typical of traditional Friluftsliv.  

It was raining heavily and we headed out into the forest armed with cooking pots, axes, saws, matches and a lot of food.

The whole of the first day was taken over by one task; making a fire in the sodden forest proved very challenging. 

In our desperation I learnt a new Norwegian word, "Terri" witch turned out to be wood chipping from the roots of pine trees with a very high resin content- ideal for starting fires in damp conditions. 

it smells realy good.....

The next day we made rock pit ovens and slow roasted some delicious meat. It was a relaxed and sociable day. There seemed to always be lots to do around camp. 

making the rock oven.

The focus seemed to be on making ourselves as comfortable as possible. I was quite amazed by the quality of food cooked outside and our campsite became more and more developed with sleeping platforms and improvised 7 stone ovens for baking bread.

On the Wednesday we formed smaller groups and moved camp. It was great to spend so much time learning from the Norwegian students. I was amazing to see young guys as excited about making fires in the woods as about steep skiing. I think there relay is a cultural difference, Norwegian friluftsliv takes pleasure in simply being in nature.

The groups fire preparation skills were pretty dialled by the time we put our watches on again and returned to civilisation. 

References

Gelter, H. 2000, "Friluftsliv: The Scandinavian Philosophy of outdoor life." Canadian Journel of 

environmntal Education.

Kaltenborn B. et al. 2001, "The Public Right of Access- some challenges to sustainable tourism Development in Scandinavia." Journal of Sustainable Tourism Vol. 9, No. 5 2001

Tordsson. B, "What is Friluftsliv good for?  Norweigian Friluftsliv in a historical Perspective"

ICE IS NICE!

After a hectic few days travelling back to Scotland for a job interview, I returned to Sogndal to find things had changed- A week of unusually cold weather had brought winter to the valley. Im always amazed how quickly the seasons progress here, totally transforming the landscape and swapping recreational opportunities.  I was less than an hour off the plane and already I was having photos of local ice falls shoved in front of me and being told we were going ice climbing in the morning.

The venue was 15 minutes drive from my house, crampons whent on at the van and after 20 minutes walking on the frozen river we arrived at the base of the 120m frozen cascade.

(I realy like Norway!)

Another team ahead of us.

Myself leading up the first pitch- learing quickly about climbing a totally new medium. I realy need to sharpen my axes!

Calum looking for steeper sections.

first ski tour of the season.

It was the 23rd of October and we were going skiing! We heard of fresh snow in the Jotunheimen mountains so myself and Calum headed for Fannarakbreen-the classic early season tour in the area. As the weather was somewhat atmospheric it was only a Scottish team out today.

A short walk in ski boots got us to the foot of the glacier and from there we made quick progress upwards. 

Summit of Fannaraki 2068m. In the cloud I could have swarn we were on the Cairngorm plateau in Febuary. 

Calum about to drop in the steeper section above the galcier.

We were soon out of the clouds. Defiantly my best skiing experience to date.

Fjaerlands: Exciting Tuesday

A days climbing Fjaerland proved to be one of the more exciting Tuesdays of my life. I found a blog entry describing relatively straightforward days climbing: 

http://heihaaklatring.blogspot.no/2014/09/silkebrisen.html?m=1

Google translate struggles with this one, key information simply doesn't make scene. But without thinking too much about it myself and Peter (one of the only climbers in Belgium) decided that the library could wait for a rainy day and took a short drive though lots of tunnels to Fjaerland.

Me starting up the fantastic 1st pitch. 

Pieter on the second.

The third pitch was too scary for photos, 30m of slab padding with out any gear.... I think we were off route.

On the 5th pitch we decided to keep on going upwards, it seemed like the natural line and the climbing was good quality. 

 We ended up climbing the rising spurs and broken scrambling terrain for a further 700m! a mixture of glorious, (probably never climbed before,) super high friction crack lines and wet, chosy, louse , dangerous, shitty ground- proper adventure climbing! We raced up the last few hundred meters, moving together for most of the way and reached the 1290m top just as darkness fell. walking around the foot of the glacier in my rock shoes I felt distinctly under-prepared, the scale of the Norweigian mountains was defiantly settling in. I was relived and humbled to find a gift of a decent route to the south east, the only weakness in the cliff lines largly free from ice and snow.

9.30pm back at the car.

October Trad Climbing Adventures

High pressure over Norway. Its getting realy cold at night now but the sun warms up southern aspects nicly for rock climbing adventures!

One of the lecturers at the University told me about a lesser known mountain crag in the Ustadal valley. Myself Calum and two of Calum's strange french PHD student friends took potentially the last opportunity to go rock climbing in the mountains.

We walked up to a small cabin arriving just before darkness on Friday evening.

I LOVE NORWEGIAN CABINS! what a fantastic resource for anyone looking to spend as much time as possible in the mountains.

In the morning we looked for the crag. The temperature difference from the shaded areas to the sunny aspects was very stark.

We picked our sunny spot and went for it.

The climbing reminded me a lot of the Cairngorms, similar mixture of slabs and corner cracks left over from the last glacial period. In the background we could hear the glaciers cracking.

Voss

When most kayaker's think of the ultimate destination for world class white water two towns come to mind, Pucon Chile and Voss Norway. The latter certainly lived up to its reputation providing two of the best days kayaking I have ever had.

Three of us made the 3 hour journey from Sogndal. Since I was the tourist we took the scenic route across the fjord to Vangsnes then over the mountains.

The Myrkdalen is a steep low volume run that runs parallel to Voss's ski resort. Levels were low, perfect for a first run down the impressive cascades. We met up with two of the Local raft guides, Martin seemed to know every line intimately and I was glad to be in a team with so much local knowledge.

Martin on the first drop. I got this one wrong, missing the critical boof stroke and spending some time rolling around in the stopper at the bottom- not the start I was hoping for but i soon warmed up and my paddeling improved.

Technical drops followed after technical drops. This ones known as the  "Triple drop combo."

The first rapid that realy scared me was a long broken slide into a powerfull stopper, A technical entry followed by lots of kickers meant potential for a painful capsize then valiant, involintory surfing experience in the hole. I watched the others run this one first, with varying degrees of success (Jonas Backwards!)  Then it was my turn....

Just about made it through the hole at the bottom after a short surf at the bottom.

We continued on down more slides and drops, some the best rapids I have ever paddled. Most just about runable with out inspecting first, purely on the descriptions of the locals.  One member able slide was like going down a huge spiralling stair case.

After a arduous mandatory portage, I found myself in a walled in canyon looking at a very significant horizon line. There was no choice but to run it. I chose the left line- a smother transition on the upper section, so smooth infact I found myself flying into the next drop further left that I anticipated. 

I was pretty proud of my line on this one and it felt very good to be at the bottom.

The happy international team at the take out!

left to right. Matt (Aus), Jonas (Nor), Me and Martin (Nor)

As it was a Sunday (annoying everything in Norway closes on a Sunday) we got dinner out of the bins outside the super market, 3 of us slept in the van in a quiet part of town and woke up feeling refreshed and reinvigorated for another days hard kayaking (NOT)


The Raundalselva is a classic river of the Voss region. I was amazed how many of the rapids and waterfalls I recognised from watching kayaking videos as a teenager just starting out. The river can, apparently, be paddled from the end of the road all the way to Voss. The top section contains an infamous fall called 'Nosebreaker' and "the tunnel rapid" and is generally pretty bloody serious. The section we ran from Skiple to Urdland is a little easier and certainly less serious. The river is compressed into a long pushy gorge section, with a feeling of commitment and remoteness that certainly made me pay attention. The local knowledge of the guys I was following certainly made this an attainable yet challenging undertaking for myself. I paddled more white water that day than I have done in years in Scotalnd as an active kayker.

The few photos I got were of the portages. I think they portray the general feeling of the river well.

After many Kilometres of class 4. I could feel the exostion started to kick in, narrowly missing the ride of my life in the "buddy hole." At the top I could see the river disappearing from veiw in to a narrow canyon, sprey erupting from it. I asked martin the line who chuckled and said "the line is kind of fucked up- stat right, to centre to right again and boof the big hole on the right" After mistaking one of the earlier holes as being the big hole, (i guess big hole is all relative) I ended up dead centre on the lip of the really big hole, desperately took a rushed boof stoke of the lip, got tail squirted in the tow back which turned me 180 degrees to face the walled- in  hydrolic. luckily I was just on the boundary of the tow back and just got away with back paddling escaping a horrible kicking. LUCKY ME!

At the bottom my excited new friends high fived and told me we were just over half way.........

By the time we got to the last rapids there was ice forming on the rocks. I portaged one of the rapids and got some photos of the others.

Possibly the most memorable weekend of all time.