Rjuken: icey dreams

The town of Rjuken in Southern Norway, is somewhere that I have wanted to visit for a while. It's international reputation for stable conditions that form quality ice lines in a concentrated area make it the subject of conversation amongst climbers around the world. I remember hearing stories of  Rjuken in the  Aberdeen climbing wall three years ago and in a Petzia in Chamonix last June. The opportunity to vist came in late febuary when myself and Sofia made the exciting 6 hour drive down from Sogndal to find out what all the fuss was about.

The very first sign that we were arriving somewhere special was when we came across a rental car stuck in deep snow with 5 french, Spanish and German climbers collecting branches and wishing that they had opted for rental insurance. After towing them out we had an exciting exchange of words  about the area and the current ice conditions. Now this winter (2016,2017) has been a shocker for winter conditions across Europe (just ask my Scottish friends!). So after studying the slightly soggy forecast we were not surprised to be climbing rather soft ice when we arrived. 

First off we visited Krokan for it's easily accessible single pitch routes. I recognised many of the climbed from pictures and videos but I didn't expect the place itself to be so beautiful.

its a pretty atmospheric place, with an astonishing variety of ice formation poring down into a river gorge. We climbed most of the obvious lines. And enjoyed meeting other climbers for the first time in a while.

Ruken itself provided more entertainment than we expected. The towns rich history can be discovered whilst exploring the local land marks: the statues of pioneering Norwegian hydro engineers pay trbute to the town historic role in the Industrial revolution in Norway.

A Mirror has been erected upon the southern side of the valley, to eliminate the town centre for a few hours during he cold winter day. 

Rjuken is most famous for its World War II history and the brave acts of tehe Norwegian resistance as they successfully stop German efforts to produce an atomic bomb component, heavy water during the war.


The Town that has relay embraced ice climbers and the old school house is the normal hostel  hangout highly Recommended for climbers.

Ice climbing trips and low budgets don't normally coincided with comfort and convince but this particular small Norwegian town provided!

Need somewhere flat to park the van to sleep? no problem, you can park meters from creepy historical buildings and read about the Nazi scientists who once occupied them.

What about clean toilets and free local climbing guidebook loan- the public library provides!

Somwhere to dry your gloves? put them round the back of the radiator in one of the towns two public tanning salons open 8am until 11pm- what more could some climbing bums ask for?

In the evening we went looking for some longer routes on the outskirts of town. nice to watch  the lights of Rjuken lighting up in the distance.

On our final day we checked out a well known route called Osmosis. It felt very steep and pumpy but im manadgeed to lead it in some form of style. Cool photos of the line.

Frudalsfjellet - Ski Touring

I hadn't seen the kayaker crowd in a while. Turns out Helga and Jonas swap there paddles for ski poles for 4 months of the year and on a particularly fine Sogndal day, I joined them on a tour up in the valley.

Wow these guys can ski! I learned loads from them, tapping into their understanding of local snow conditions and enthusiasm for laying down aesthetic tracks in the sun. Brilliant day!

Store Skagastølstind

This trip was a real eye opener for me, a young Scottish lad on a  big adventure abroad. I have done lots of Scottish winter climbing, even a few Alpine routes but this was a real leap up for myself and the team. I was amazed at what you can do with good skills honed on small mountains, careful judgement and really good weather window.

Store Skagastølstind, 2405m, otherwise known as "Storen"  is the third highest peak in Norway and the highest mountain in Scandinavia that requires climbing to reach it's summit.  It is a magnificent tower of Gabro, quite an exceptional landmark in the area as the peak is a promote feature on the skyline. It has always been in the backdrop of our adventures since I arrived in August.

Storen is cherished by the Norwegians- It's first accent in 1876, by Englishman W. C. Slingsby, symbolised the start of mountaineering in Norway ( Baxter. J, 2005).

This photo was taken the day of  our climb, by a party of friends skiing on the neighbouring ridge. What weather we had!

Storen is quite a popular climb in the summer, with many of the local guiding companies capitalising on it's reputation and allure to Norwegian climbers. Winter ascents are comparatively rare, we did however find a few winter trip reports on local climbing blogs from previous winters. Other climbers reported good winter climbing on Andrews renne route.

Conditions were good- little snow for January and two days of exceptional weather forecast. We had to try!

The adventure started with a days skiing to access a cabin. The team consisted of my long term  adventure partner Calum and his Alaskan friend Trevor who contributed with snow conditions observations and phrases like "dude" and "Gnarly."

Skinning into the minge with heavy packs.

5am, Alarm goes off. We ski a further 3 km then adon crampons for crossing the glacier.

Delighted with the conditions underfoot, we reached the start of the climb at sunrise. Sprints were high as we knew conditions were on our side. We had a chance!

What a sunrise!

The spectacular Hurrungane in the early morning sun.

The approach consisted of about 500m of 35 degree snow slope: again each of us commented on the good snow conditions for safe and speedy passage upwards.

The first two pitches were rimed up slaps and corner lines- relatively straight forward. Above we moved together a little and belayed below the start of the real climbing. At this point the climbing ramped up a notch or two. Franky I found it quite intimidating peering upwards at the seemly endless steep climbing.

Me and Calum shared the more technical pitches, the climbing was relatively straight forwards mostly Scottish tec 4 with a few harder sections. However the real difficulties where trying to place the protection. The cracks (often blocked with hard ice) wouldn't accept our rock gear. It was like looking at perfect placements through unbreakable perspex. I did manage to get a few runners in here and there and found that digging in the corners reviled accepting cracks that had been insulated by the snow but this was very time consuming. Around midday the wind picked up, sending golf ball sized lumps of rime onto our faces one of which burst my lip- very distracting on  lead!

Myself leading high above the Hurragane. 

What an environment we were climbing in now- we were easily higher than any of the surrounding peaks and still moving steadily upwards. The climbing was impressively sustained- easily as challenging as anything I had climbed before the Northern Corries of the Cairngorms!

Trevor seconding. the view looking down was awesome.

Calum leading the last of the steep climbing as the lighting changes.

The sun dipped blow the the mountains. As the rope came tough and we new Calum had made the summit.

Trevor and I followed the scary run out climbing and found a exhausted but uplifted Calum on the summit as the sun went down. The look he gave me said it all and I claped him on the shoulder and immediately reconfigured the anchor block for the abseil.

We had pushed ourselves and our skills far, it was time to carefully descend. We took it in shifts to abseil first into the darkness choosing the stances we had identified on the way up. Double checking each other and the ropes as we descended.

I was last to decent on one of the rappels. I turned my head torch off to conserve the batteries as I waited. There was not a breath of wind and I have never seen starts like that. After a moment of lonely darkness and contemplation attached to a block  pitched high on a cold mountain, I quickly turned my head lamp back on. The whole situation seemed much more manageable condensed into the beam of my head torch.

At 11.30 we were on easy ground ground again. We drank the very last of our water and skied back down the glacier to show of the northern lights. By the end of the 19 hour day we were exhausted.

The next morning we enjoyed a short ski decent to the car. We were knackered and our legs sore but the scene of achievement began to settle in. Wow that was Storen- whats next?

Hemsedal Ice

Surprised to find what felt like spring conditions in January we were back in Hemsedal on the hunt for ice.

We spotted what looks like an interesting ice line on a North westerly aspect. Upon closer inspection it looked thin on the lower part but of good quality and ultimately proved climbable.

Me leading the first pitch. The ice seemed very hard and our picks only penetrated a few centimetres.  Fun climbing!

Calum following up to the first belay stance. It looks steep from here!

The top of Calums pitch.

The last pitch was fantastic, a steep ice budge to negotiate followed by a interesting easy mixed ground providing a nice contrast. 

we toped out about 3pm and we headed back to a friend's cabin for the evening. (Sometimes its nice to not walk off in the dark!)

The next day we were hangover and willingly accepted the slow start to the day. I think we left about 11am and staill managed to have a repetitively productive afternoons climbing in Grondalen.

Our confidence is defiantly growing on ice. I love the aesthetics of the experience and the satisfaction that comes safe route planing and configuring the protection.