Todays offering
After having the snowshoes in the car the entire winter a moment of madness saw me put them back in the house.
Our first effort was to swim into what is called "A hidden pearl in Valdres". This comprises a vertical pillar in a gorge. The highlight of the swim in was nearly stumbling into a fox. After what I thought was super human effort, we set the ropes up to abseil to find first the pillar was in bad shape and secondly our rope to short. We retreated. Second phase, we headed up the valley to a place I have wanted to visit for ages. We parked and immediately began swimming. At one point we crawled. At times each had to find there own peace within as crawling up hill in bottomless snow became, slumping downhill. soaked with sweet, its -10 you know as soon as you stop its going get cold. Stubbornness takes over, neither one wants to be the first to show a sign that this is pointless. Someone stops, another takes over, reluctantly and continues to swim as best they can. We reach the route, it looks good, really good, possible never climbed before. Excitedly we gear up. I get 10m up, alarms are ringing, warning signs are rushing through my head. Its not that steep, I can stand on my feet. The axes hits the ice, its this noise and feeling. It isn't right. In norwegian you often hear the phrase "tilbake melding" a return message, and the return message isn't positive. I push on, another ice screw. the alarm is becoming nauseating. I Place an axe, there something not quite right about it, none of them have been right, I weight it, it holds, I move my feet up. The axe rips, suddenly. The other axe and feet take the shock, I compose but not fully in composure. I quickly subdue the ego, get an ice screw in and respect the main rule, the leader never falls on ice. On the ground feeling wimpy I hand over the sharp end, he makes nice comments about having a bad day etc and heads off, shortly afterwards he's back on the ground. Something not quite right with the axes he says. I have another go, another axes suddenly, unexpectedly fails. Seemingly good, but clearly not. I make a thread and descend. We'll be back stronger we say, and start the swim back to the car. Next time with skis.
There is no shame in turning when things aren't right
Conditions on the southside, or falls in the sun: Rotten. On the North still formed, but due to cold temperatures at night and warm during the day care will be needed to choose a good fall.
Skiing off-piste looks good.
Walking off-piste without skis or snow shoes: Not recommended unless your into training
Post edited at 16:23