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Quick trip report: Got back sunday after a very long drive South from Northern Norway. 7 days of climbing in decent to very good weather.
Left friday evening for the long drive up. After the obligatory close encounters with a moose and various reindeer whilst going too fast through Finnish and Swedish Lapland we crossed into Norway and got to Stetind saturday afternoon. The summit was continually in cloud and we decided not to do the route (see Rockfax mini-guide) if we couldn't see the view, so on sunday climbed Eidetind (c. 850 mtrs) nearby (picture in Stetind miniguide) by its northern East Ridge. From straight on this looks very impressive, but in profile you see the angle isn't too steep. We started at the lowest rocks and followed various groove lines up, most of the climbing is around Severe, but with a few moves of 4b or 4c. We found insitu bolt anchors but never in the right place and belays weren't a problem with trad gear. We did about 6x50 mtr pitches before moving together for a couple of hundred metres then two more rope pitches. Then the buttress becomes a very fine ridge with scrambling and walking over another two mini summits to the main summit about a km to the the west. Just before the summit there is a cairn and a descent marked with strips of yellow plastic down the north face. This was useful as the descent is complex due to the huge areas of slabs on the face. All other descents would involve multiple abseils by the looks of it. The descent takes you down grass rakes to and easier area where you want to hike west past a small tarn to easy slopes down the the E6 road. We went down to directly and had to one 50 mtr abseil down slabs to get to the road.
A great mountain day out and well worth knowing about if you are waiting for better weather on Stetind. Absolutely fantastic views. I might be able to do a mini mini-guide for it if Andy and Alan are interested as we took lots of digi-shots. Competent British VS climbers will do the the route with ease.
Monday the weather still not good so did the drive and two ferries (95 kr and 265 kr) from the mainland across to Svolvaer on Lofoten. In the evening we did Spurven-Colibrien (Sparrow-Humingbird) link-up on the "Troll Church Buttress" above the Kalle campsite. Great climbing for five pitches at UK E1. The Colibrien "RP Crack" (which ironically doesn't need RPs and the "Direct Crack" both giving excellent 5b climbing. We did the easier last pitch but the harder crack looks excellent and two English women who did it said it was excellent climbing.
Tuesday, we did "Gamle Rev" on Gandalfveggen, perhaps the least impressive of the Lofoten cliffs, but a very good route. Don't try and run the rope out too far on the top pitch. Once the finger crack is done look for a belay on the first ledge, I went higher and ran out of rope and had to take a rather unconvincing belay! Then we went up to Store Festavegg for my partner, Dave, to lead the Skier (my third ascent of this route - its rather good!) as its such a classic. In the evening I led "Living in Paradise" at Paradiset, a short but satisifying hand crack much hyped in the guidebook but has taken three trips and TobyFK's soloing skills to finally be identified!
Wednesday we tried to do the North Ridge of Vågakallen, the mountain that dominates that part of Lofoten. A rough hike got us to the start of the ridge, but the guide description is pants and we ended up on the ridge too early on the worst granite I've ever had the misfortune to climb. Then it started drizzling so we rapped off. That day was my 30th birthday and the rough plan had been to start as mean to go on, climbing a fantastic route on a beautiful mountain in the sunshine. The result was ironic but perhaps more in keeping with my climbing career so far! Ces la vie. If anyone wants some tips on getting to the route's real start I can give them.
Thurday start was a little slow after some birthday drinkies the night before on the campsite. I did a tape-glove making master-class over breakfast, then Dave myself, and two Finns we met on the campsite went off to "the Ape" a little outcrop fist crack just a few minutes walk from the camp. After a few falls and some blood everyone made it to the top. I also tried out Dave's huge 6.4 mtr flex-foil kite on beach which was an amusing and slightly worrying eexperience. In the afternoon we did the the four pitches of Presten's Vestpillaren Direct Start. I wanted to try the harder pitches that TobyFK led when we did last year and Dave wanted to climb something on Presten even if were weren't going to the top. If you go to Lofoten and aren't sure whether you are ready to do the complete Vestpillaren (12 pitches, UK E2), try these four. Abbing off is easy as there are fixed anchors and if you get up them OK, you know you are capable of doing the rest of the route.
Friday we did Forsida on the Svolvaer Goat. Pleasent climbing at about HVS but not as good as I had been led to expect. I redeemed my pathetic failure to jump between the the two 'horns' when I first did it via another route 5 years ago, although I didn't enjoy it and managed a smaller jump from lower on the slab than the brave do.
Saturday we did the 8 pitch Myyga (Mosquito, probably HVS) on Vågakallen, which has some nice climbing but as the guide suggests, isn't a classic due to a bit too much vegetation. We rapped the route which seems much preferable to the scrambling descent, and added a couple of nuts to some of the more dubious looking anchors, so as long as no one nicks them the rap points will be better now. At 4.30 pm we got on the ferry back to the mainland and started the rather tedious haul for 1300 kms home to southern Finland.
Overall, Lofoten is great. Everyone should go.
Left friday evening for the long drive up. After the obligatory close encounters with a moose and various reindeer whilst going too fast through Finnish and Swedish Lapland we crossed into Norway and got to Stetind saturday afternoon. The summit was continually in cloud and we decided not to do the route (see Rockfax mini-guide) if we couldn't see the view, so on sunday climbed Eidetind (c. 850 mtrs) nearby (picture in Stetind miniguide) by its northern East Ridge. From straight on this looks very impressive, but in profile you see the angle isn't too steep. We started at the lowest rocks and followed various groove lines up, most of the climbing is around Severe, but with a few moves of 4b or 4c. We found insitu bolt anchors but never in the right place and belays weren't a problem with trad gear. We did about 6x50 mtr pitches before moving together for a couple of hundred metres then two more rope pitches. Then the buttress becomes a very fine ridge with scrambling and walking over another two mini summits to the main summit about a km to the the west. Just before the summit there is a cairn and a descent marked with strips of yellow plastic down the north face. This was useful as the descent is complex due to the huge areas of slabs on the face. All other descents would involve multiple abseils by the looks of it. The descent takes you down grass rakes to and easier area where you want to hike west past a small tarn to easy slopes down the the E6 road. We went down to directly and had to one 50 mtr abseil down slabs to get to the road.
A great mountain day out and well worth knowing about if you are waiting for better weather on Stetind. Absolutely fantastic views. I might be able to do a mini mini-guide for it if Andy and Alan are interested as we took lots of digi-shots. Competent British VS climbers will do the the route with ease.
Monday the weather still not good so did the drive and two ferries (95 kr and 265 kr) from the mainland across to Svolvaer on Lofoten. In the evening we did Spurven-Colibrien (Sparrow-Humingbird) link-up on the "Troll Church Buttress" above the Kalle campsite. Great climbing for five pitches at UK E1. The Colibrien "RP Crack" (which ironically doesn't need RPs and the "Direct Crack" both giving excellent 5b climbing. We did the easier last pitch but the harder crack looks excellent and two English women who did it said it was excellent climbing.
Tuesday, we did "Gamle Rev" on Gandalfveggen, perhaps the least impressive of the Lofoten cliffs, but a very good route. Don't try and run the rope out too far on the top pitch. Once the finger crack is done look for a belay on the first ledge, I went higher and ran out of rope and had to take a rather unconvincing belay! Then we went up to Store Festavegg for my partner, Dave, to lead the Skier (my third ascent of this route - its rather good!) as its such a classic. In the evening I led "Living in Paradise" at Paradiset, a short but satisifying hand crack much hyped in the guidebook but has taken three trips and TobyFK's soloing skills to finally be identified!
Wednesday we tried to do the North Ridge of Vågakallen, the mountain that dominates that part of Lofoten. A rough hike got us to the start of the ridge, but the guide description is pants and we ended up on the ridge too early on the worst granite I've ever had the misfortune to climb. Then it started drizzling so we rapped off. That day was my 30th birthday and the rough plan had been to start as mean to go on, climbing a fantastic route on a beautiful mountain in the sunshine. The result was ironic but perhaps more in keeping with my climbing career so far! Ces la vie. If anyone wants some tips on getting to the route's real start I can give them.
Thurday start was a little slow after some birthday drinkies the night before on the campsite. I did a tape-glove making master-class over breakfast, then Dave myself, and two Finns we met on the campsite went off to "the Ape" a little outcrop fist crack just a few minutes walk from the camp. After a few falls and some blood everyone made it to the top. I also tried out Dave's huge 6.4 mtr flex-foil kite on beach which was an amusing and slightly worrying eexperience. In the afternoon we did the the four pitches of Presten's Vestpillaren Direct Start. I wanted to try the harder pitches that TobyFK led when we did last year and Dave wanted to climb something on Presten even if were weren't going to the top. If you go to Lofoten and aren't sure whether you are ready to do the complete Vestpillaren (12 pitches, UK E2), try these four. Abbing off is easy as there are fixed anchors and if you get up them OK, you know you are capable of doing the rest of the route.
Friday we did Forsida on the Svolvaer Goat. Pleasent climbing at about HVS but not as good as I had been led to expect. I redeemed my pathetic failure to jump between the the two 'horns' when I first did it via another route 5 years ago, although I didn't enjoy it and managed a smaller jump from lower on the slab than the brave do.
Saturday we did the 8 pitch Myyga (Mosquito, probably HVS) on Vågakallen, which has some nice climbing but as the guide suggests, isn't a classic due to a bit too much vegetation. We rapped the route which seems much preferable to the scrambling descent, and added a couple of nuts to some of the more dubious looking anchors, so as long as no one nicks them the rap points will be better now. At 4.30 pm we got on the ferry back to the mainland and started the rather tedious haul for 1300 kms home to southern Finland.
Overall, Lofoten is great. Everyone should go.
In reply to TobyA:
I am sure we would be interested. We could easily stick it in with the Stetind MiniGuide.
Did you manage to scope -Blood Red Sepetmber Night- on Edetind?
Excellent report - Thanks.
> A great mountain day out and well worth knowing about if you are waiting for better weather on Stetind. Absolutely fantastic views. I might be able to do a mini mini-guide for it if Andy and Alan are interested as we took lots of digi-shots. Competent British VS climbers will do the the route with ease.
I am sure we would be interested. We could easily stick it in with the Stetind MiniGuide.
Did you manage to scope -Blood Red Sepetmber Night- on Edetind?
Excellent report - Thanks.
In reply to Andy Hyslop Rock + Run:
I was thinking similar - Eidetind was clear of cloud whilst Stetind remained hidden on a number of days - it seems to get better weather, so it might be good as an alternative if Stetind is not in good weather.
Not closely, but we presumed its on the north face in which case it looks amazing. It looks in profile rather like Presten, but perhaps bigger and with an unhelpful looking steepening near the top. Its hard to gauge how wide the face is - in profile both as you look from the east (from the junction of the E6 and the road that takes you down to Stetind) and from the west (on the ferry crossing to Bognes) the face looks similar. Even from the summit it is hard to judge as that part of the mountain looks to be 500 mtrs wide, maybe more.
The route we did is visible in this photo http://home.c2i.net/arognmo/eide.htm It is basically the ridge dropping down towards the camera. As I said it looks well scary from face on, but is actually reasonably angled. I suspect that the fixed anchors are "Klubbruta" (Norwergian 4 according to various websites I've found), and we followed pretty much that line.
BTW a couple of teams we spoke with disagreed with the miniguides description of the descent of the normal route of Stetind as one ab and then "easy ground". We were told it was rather exposed and a bit tricky in places! Perhaps you guys are either too good or had perfect weather!
And another BTW - is this http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.php?id=7848 the Direct crack on Spurven? It looks suspiciously like it. Hopefully when my photos are developed I'll have a similar picture of Dave.
> (In reply to TobyA)
> [...]
>
> I am sure we would be interested. We could easily stick it in with the Stetind MiniGuide.
> [...]
>
> I am sure we would be interested. We could easily stick it in with the Stetind MiniGuide.
I was thinking similar - Eidetind was clear of cloud whilst Stetind remained hidden on a number of days - it seems to get better weather, so it might be good as an alternative if Stetind is not in good weather.
> Did you manage to scope -Blood Red Sepetmber Night- on Edetind?
Not closely, but we presumed its on the north face in which case it looks amazing. It looks in profile rather like Presten, but perhaps bigger and with an unhelpful looking steepening near the top. Its hard to gauge how wide the face is - in profile both as you look from the east (from the junction of the E6 and the road that takes you down to Stetind) and from the west (on the ferry crossing to Bognes) the face looks similar. Even from the summit it is hard to judge as that part of the mountain looks to be 500 mtrs wide, maybe more.
The route we did is visible in this photo http://home.c2i.net/arognmo/eide.htm It is basically the ridge dropping down towards the camera. As I said it looks well scary from face on, but is actually reasonably angled. I suspect that the fixed anchors are "Klubbruta" (Norwergian 4 according to various websites I've found), and we followed pretty much that line.
BTW a couple of teams we spoke with disagreed with the miniguides description of the descent of the normal route of Stetind as one ab and then "easy ground". We were told it was rather exposed and a bit tricky in places! Perhaps you guys are either too good or had perfect weather!
And another BTW - is this http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.php?id=7848 the Direct crack on Spurven? It looks suspiciously like it. Hopefully when my photos are developed I'll have a similar picture of Dave.
In reply to TobyA:
Thanks for the TR. Yr ridge on Eidetind looks great.
Well to be fair, it only says easy ground after Halls Peak. The rest is described as scrambling - which it is. Certainly no harder than much of the Cuillin Ridge, tho' of course exposed. The good thing in bad weather is that there are no route finding difficulties - unlike the Cuillin.
Yes.
What did you think of Colibrien pitch 3? Given that I wouldn't hang my coat on the peg; I thought it was pretty run out and E1 5b, rather than the VS implied in Webster.
We hope to update the Lofoten Mguide later this year with stuff we did this yr inc:
Colibrien/Spurven +Directrisset ***
Colibrien/Fingerisset ***
Swedish Corner ***
Living in Paradise ** - when you can find it - but we have good photos now - not back to front as in the Webster guide.
Engelvinger -The Goat ***+
Ypprespresten ***
and a few others - I forget.
Toby - I would be interested sometime to get yr knowledge on ski touring in Lynggen. I will be looking for new venue next yr. I can give you info on Narvik area if you're interested.
Cheers
Thanks for the TR. Yr ridge on Eidetind looks great.
> BTW a couple of teams we spoke with disagreed with the miniguides description of the descent of the normal route of Stetind as one ab and then "easy ground". We were told it was rather exposed and a bit tricky in places!
Well to be fair, it only says easy ground after Halls Peak. The rest is described as scrambling - which it is. Certainly no harder than much of the Cuillin Ridge, tho' of course exposed. The good thing in bad weather is that there are no route finding difficulties - unlike the Cuillin.
> And another BTW - is this http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.php?id=7848 the Direct crack on Spurven?
Yes.
What did you think of Colibrien pitch 3? Given that I wouldn't hang my coat on the peg; I thought it was pretty run out and E1 5b, rather than the VS implied in Webster.
We hope to update the Lofoten Mguide later this year with stuff we did this yr inc:
Colibrien/Spurven +Directrisset ***
Colibrien/Fingerisset ***
Swedish Corner ***
Living in Paradise ** - when you can find it - but we have good photos now - not back to front as in the Webster guide.
Engelvinger -The Goat ***+
Ypprespresten ***
and a few others - I forget.
Toby - I would be interested sometime to get yr knowledge on ski touring in Lynggen. I will be looking for new venue next yr. I can give you info on Narvik area if you're interested.
Cheers
In reply to TobyA:
>>Overall, Lofoten is great. Everyone should go
RT Uber-picnic July '04??
Why not?
>>Overall, Lofoten is great. Everyone should go
RT Uber-picnic July '04??
Why not?
In reply to TobyA:
Sounds like we were lucky with the weather as I think we did the stetind south pillar the day before you were due to do it. I certainly heard rumors on the way down that there were a couple of english people at the bottom waiting for good weather. i guess that was you.
I would definatly recommend the route and would also recommend camping at the bottom of the start if you are fat and unfit (as i am) as there are some nice flat grassy areas for your tent.
good climbing, but we got a tad lost a couple of times but this is not really that bad because you can prettty much climb anywhere at the same grade. The top three pitches are fantastic and defo worth doing as they dont actually feel much harder than much of the rest.
As for the descent ridge. it is reasonlably straightforward as long as you dont look down! definately the most exposed ridge i've ever been on. My brother hasnt done much climbing so were roped up for the odd part which certainly helped the old confidence.
Like the sound of Eitetind. looked amazing from the road. There were also some good looking walls and a spire along the road from there to stetind. Does anyone know if they've been climbed?
Sounds like we were lucky with the weather as I think we did the stetind south pillar the day before you were due to do it. I certainly heard rumors on the way down that there were a couple of english people at the bottom waiting for good weather. i guess that was you.
I would definatly recommend the route and would also recommend camping at the bottom of the start if you are fat and unfit (as i am) as there are some nice flat grassy areas for your tent.
good climbing, but we got a tad lost a couple of times but this is not really that bad because you can prettty much climb anywhere at the same grade. The top three pitches are fantastic and defo worth doing as they dont actually feel much harder than much of the rest.
As for the descent ridge. it is reasonlably straightforward as long as you dont look down! definately the most exposed ridge i've ever been on. My brother hasnt done much climbing so were roped up for the odd part which certainly helped the old confidence.
Like the sound of Eitetind. looked amazing from the road. There were also some good looking walls and a spire along the road from there to stetind. Does anyone know if they've been climbed?
In reply to Jonathan Lagoe:
do you mean the one he calls the "RP pitch"? If so Dave led it, not me so I can't say too much. I thought the moves were 'fall-off-able' although not particularly hard. Dave got a bomber nut in the crack below the crux and then another above it before getting the peg. I thought the peg seemed OK - a reasonably new Camp knifeblade? Could be mixing it with one on another route though... I'll ask Dave what he thinks.
We are both a bit hopeless at UK grades as I had only done a few E1s when I left the UK, Dave even less so. Most of the harder routes I've done have been in Norway and Finland. I can't grade for toffee anyway as I'm hopeless at certain styles of routes, that E1 on Svenskveggen - Blåcklokka - I fell off and thought it was desperate, whilst Dave said it was easier than lots of the other 5b pitches we had done that week. I don't think the RP pitch was any harder than say the top pitch of Gamle Rev, although there was a bit more gear on the latter.
What grade do you think Swedish Corner is?
No problem.
> What did you think of Colibrien pitch 3? Given that I wouldn't hang my coat on the peg; I thought it was pretty run out and E1 5b, rather than the VS implied in Webster.
do you mean the one he calls the "RP pitch"? If so Dave led it, not me so I can't say too much. I thought the moves were 'fall-off-able' although not particularly hard. Dave got a bomber nut in the crack below the crux and then another above it before getting the peg. I thought the peg seemed OK - a reasonably new Camp knifeblade? Could be mixing it with one on another route though... I'll ask Dave what he thinks.
We are both a bit hopeless at UK grades as I had only done a few E1s when I left the UK, Dave even less so. Most of the harder routes I've done have been in Norway and Finland. I can't grade for toffee anyway as I'm hopeless at certain styles of routes, that E1 on Svenskveggen - Blåcklokka - I fell off and thought it was desperate, whilst Dave said it was easier than lots of the other 5b pitches we had done that week. I don't think the RP pitch was any harder than say the top pitch of Gamle Rev, although there was a bit more gear on the latter.
What grade do you think Swedish Corner is?
> Toby - I would be interested sometime to get yr knowledge on ski touring in Lynggen. I will be looking for new venue next yr. I can give you info on Narvik area if you're interested.
No problem.
In reply to Steve Powell: Were you the guys who had "flown in for the weekend" and had hired the Volvo? We thought that sounded pretty cool! Did you climb it on the saturday? I think you met our Finnish mates (3 guys 1 girl), who were there with all their spear fishing gear as well as climbing stuff. Supposedly they got some amazing cod!
I think I know which peaks you are talking about as you drive down to Stetind from the E6. There is one with quite an amazing looking ridge on it. We were trying to work out how to get to the start of the ridge as the col it began on was guarded by huge slabs. It looked like you could hike along the hill that dropped to the col before the ridge narrows and begins to climb again... We didn't have a map to that area so it was hard to see if there were any potential descents besides down climbing or numerous abs.
I think I know which peaks you are talking about as you drive down to Stetind from the E6. There is one with quite an amazing looking ridge on it. We were trying to work out how to get to the start of the ridge as the col it began on was guarded by huge slabs. It looked like you could hike along the hill that dropped to the col before the ridge narrows and begins to climb again... We didn't have a map to that area so it was hard to see if there were any potential descents besides down climbing or numerous abs.
In reply to TobyA:
Yes the RP pitch. - Nowt wrong with the peg itself- just that you could waggle it about in the crack with no effort.
Swedish Corner - E2 5c we reckoned. I tried to bridge at first and fell off when my foot popped unexpectedly. Ended up laybacking which was OK - but good 5c I think.
Yes the RP pitch. - Nowt wrong with the peg itself- just that you could waggle it about in the crack with no effort.
Swedish Corner - E2 5c we reckoned. I tried to bridge at first and fell off when my foot popped unexpectedly. Ended up laybacking which was OK - but good 5c I think.
In reply to Jonathan Lagoe:
Quite clearly the best tactic is to not waggle it then! Dave let out a sigh of relief when he clipped it - fortunate he didn't try the waggle test!
I'm in good company then. I also fell off, but being with very good French lads they made me rehearse the move, lower off, pull the ropes, rest and show them how I was going do the move on the ground. I went back on it an amazingly found myself at the top. I know I can't really claim an E2 when I've fallen off it, but it shows what a bit of redpointing can do!
> (In reply to TobyA)
>
> Yes the RP pitch. - Nowt wrong with the peg itself- just that you could waggle it about in the crack with no effort.
>
> Yes the RP pitch. - Nowt wrong with the peg itself- just that you could waggle it about in the crack with no effort.
Quite clearly the best tactic is to not waggle it then! Dave let out a sigh of relief when he clipped it - fortunate he didn't try the waggle test!
> Swedish Corner - E2 5c we reckoned. I tried to bridge at first and fell off when my foot popped unexpectedly. Ended up laybacking which was OK - but good 5c I think.
I'm in good company then. I also fell off, but being with very good French lads they made me rehearse the move, lower off, pull the ropes, rest and show them how I was going do the move on the ground. I went back on it an amazingly found myself at the top. I know I can't really claim an E2 when I've fallen off it, but it shows what a bit of redpointing can do!
In reply to TobyA:
yup, that was us. i was amazed that it was do-able in a weekend and it was not all that expensive. flights cost £250 and it was all very convenient for a short last minute trip.
My brother had never lead anyhting until the weekend before and said he wanted to do a mutlipitch route so i sent the pic of stetind and the idiot took the bait! All in all he did better on the route than i did!
We did it on saturday and came down to the car sunday noon. i think i saw your tents but couldnt see you anywhere. great rasberries near your tents by the way.
Met a surprising number of finnish guys and girls up there. I think i remember your friends. These finnish girls are tough. and they dont look it. what a rare combination...
yup, that was us. i was amazed that it was do-able in a weekend and it was not all that expensive. flights cost £250 and it was all very convenient for a short last minute trip.
My brother had never lead anyhting until the weekend before and said he wanted to do a mutlipitch route so i sent the pic of stetind and the idiot took the bait! All in all he did better on the route than i did!
We did it on saturday and came down to the car sunday noon. i think i saw your tents but couldnt see you anywhere. great rasberries near your tents by the way.
Met a surprising number of finnish guys and girls up there. I think i remember your friends. These finnish girls are tough. and they dont look it. what a rare combination...
In reply to TobyA:
Re: Colibrien third pitch
Dave thinks it was harder than what he was lead to expect from the Webster guide. I couldnt get any RP's in but did get a small nut some distance below the crux which was Ok but not bomber (at least that was how I viewed it standing a couple of meters above it), I thought the peg was crappy cos it moved easily but I still was happy to clip it. I thought the pitch was as hard as any of the other Norwegian 6- pitches we did - why not UK 5b?
Great place and a good trip. Yet another place to go back to.
Jonathan - I've collected a bit of published info on ski touring and ski mountaineering in Lyngen if you are interested, its mainly in Swedish and Norwegian and some in English but I've also been drawing route maps from my own four skiing visits there. I'd be happy to exchange for some Narvik information and even more for some Lofoten skiing information!
cheers
Dave
Turku, Finland
> (In reply to Jonathan Lagoe)
>
> [...]
>
> do you mean the one he calls the "RP pitch"? If so Dave led it, not me so I can't say too much. I thought the moves were 'fall-off-able' although not particularly hard. Dave got a bomber nut in the crack below the crux and then another above it before getting the peg. I thought the peg seemed OK - a reasonably new Camp knifeblade? Could be mixing it with one on another route though... I'll ask Dave what he thinks.
>
> [...]
>
> do you mean the one he calls the "RP pitch"? If so Dave led it, not me so I can't say too much. I thought the moves were 'fall-off-able' although not particularly hard. Dave got a bomber nut in the crack below the crux and then another above it before getting the peg. I thought the peg seemed OK - a reasonably new Camp knifeblade? Could be mixing it with one on another route though... I'll ask Dave what he thinks.
Re: Colibrien third pitch
Dave thinks it was harder than what he was lead to expect from the Webster guide. I couldnt get any RP's in but did get a small nut some distance below the crux which was Ok but not bomber (at least that was how I viewed it standing a couple of meters above it), I thought the peg was crappy cos it moved easily but I still was happy to clip it. I thought the pitch was as hard as any of the other Norwegian 6- pitches we did - why not UK 5b?
Great place and a good trip. Yet another place to go back to.
Jonathan - I've collected a bit of published info on ski touring and ski mountaineering in Lyngen if you are interested, its mainly in Swedish and Norwegian and some in English but I've also been drawing route maps from my own four skiing visits there. I'd be happy to exchange for some Narvik information and even more for some Lofoten skiing information!
cheers
Dave
Turku, Finland
> great rasberries near your tents by the way.
I agree, they were... our Finnish friends were almost self sufficient, cod and saithe from the sea, boletus mushrooms from behind the camp and rasberries outside the tent door.
> Met a surprising number of finnish guys and girls up >there. I think i remember your friends. These finnish girls >are tough. and they dont look it. what a rare >combination...
Also agreed. I'm married to one.
cheers
Dave
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