UKC

Getting ready to book flights for Norway, any advice as to conditions and snow cover in mid to late June appreciated, looking at the logbook, most ascents seem to be July/august although the guide says June should be okay to climb. Not too worried about snow on the approach but patches on the route / seepage would be more of an issue.

We're going to be doing to south pillar route.

Any other advice welcome.

Thanks

In reply to Petarghh:

It obviously depends on the weather, but June should be fine. The only thing to be aware of is the fact that it is the Scandinavian holiday season and places might be busier than you were expecting:

http://chriscraggs.blogspot.fr/2011/06/midsummer-dreaming.html

Chris

In reply to Petarghh:
Scandinavian school hols get serious in the first or second weeks of july. However check the weather - the last few years s norway has been very wet in june - not sure on lofoten.

In reply to wbo: thanks for the comments so far, I think we will take the risk so far as rain goes. If it's really awful there is always the easier line up stetind. I was more worried about there being too much snow on the mountain to climb. Norway can't be much wetter than the Lake District !!

In reply to Petarghh:

I could imagine with lots of stable snow, getting to the route might be easier but then having to carry even light boots up and maybe even an axe would be a pain.

Accessing the morraine bowl when its all snow free is a bit tricky we found, first you have to find the path, then there are few moves that are exposed where you have to be careful.

My handy cut out and keep access topo is on my blog http://lightfromthenorth.blogspot.fi/2013/09/stetinds-sydpilaren-south-pill...

In reply to TobyA:

I doubt I'll ever do the South Pillar now - can't face the walk - but that is a really useful resource. Thanks for it,

Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:

The walk isn't too bad - decent path that's easy to follow. It can't be any more than the walk into Ben Nevis for example.

In reply to TobyA:


Me out too Chris. Great trip report Toby.

In reply to TobyA:


And you could always make a trip of it and camp up at that nice spot by the big boulders where the scrambly approach starts.

In reply to Petarghh:

Im hoping to do the normal route in June as well I hope the weathers ok and its not too busy. How busy does Romsday get?

In reply to Chris Craggs:

On the busy or not issue, when we were there in August (we camped at the Stetind camp area at the start and end of our week) there were noticeably more people about at the weekend, but locals mainly I think. But people from all over Spain, Ukraine, Swedes etc. through the week, but it was still only a dozen or so camping there, not mobbed.

The interesting thing was that when we did it no one else did the S Pillar, everyone else was on the Normal Route, so it was quite a lonely experience. Some friends did it a few days later and again I think they were the only team on it that day too. The Normal route is more popular than I realised and possible the S. Pillar less so, although the guidebook does mention Goldfish as an alternative route when S Pillar is crowded.

In reply to Petarghh:

I sat looking at this for a week and a half mid July. It rained a lot. One day it stopped raining for a few hours, so we walked up to have a look, the summit looked wintery for the top 200m. My mate had been out for longer and the only thing I missed was rain. Having said that, I have had good weather for two weeks in Lofoten.

I flew into Narvik main airport (although I think this may have now closed?), but the better way to do it is fly into the one of the other side of the Fjord and get the ferry across.

In reply to Petarghh:

I was up there in early June a couple of years ago with the intention of doing the south pillar. The route was fine but we could not get across to the base due to too much snow on the traverse, it looked horrible. It was a fairly normal winter snowwise and this was after a good few days of 20 deg plus weather.