UKC

We've pretty much decided to spend the summer driving the van to Norway and going on a tour doing some climbing and biking. I don't know anything about the place, other than hearing lots of rumours that there's lots of good sport crags and single pitch trad around. I'm pretty keen to stop at flatanger for a while, but what are the must visit crags/areas, especially in the south.

And finally, are mosquitos likely to be horrendous in August?

Thanks in advance for any help, links, suggested guidebooks etc

Ged

In reply to GDes:

http://www.climb-europe.com/RockClimbingShop/Climb-Norway-Sport-Climbing-Gu... this book would be the place to start now I guess - it covers the whole country from the far south to the Arctic.

Lots of possibilities across the border in Sweden too. If you go up north this place https://27crags.com/crags/niemisel comes highly recommended by serious sports climbers I know. It's not in Norway, but if you cut through Sweden to get to Narvik it could be "on the way".

I just dabbled in some sport on rest days when up in the North, some of the places I've been have been fun and had nice views but sort of seemed to be missing the point when surrounded by amazing granite walls and monoliths, but Flatanger is obviously amazing for sport and friends said Eggum on Lofoten is also superb. At least in the north mossies can be annoying but like scottish midges, camp near the sea with a breeze and you are fine. I've just come back from Scotland and think the midges are worse than Nordic mosquitos.

In reply to GDes:
In Kristiansand Sykehusveggen is a popular spot for hard sport climbing, with shortish, bouldery routes up to 7c+. Location isn't spectacular, as the crag is literally in the car park, but it is convenient.

Odderøya is also a very popular spot, with sport, trad and bouldering.

If you go to: http://www.ckk.no/foerer.aspx there are a few pdf type guides available online.

Storheia and queens crag (soldal) are also very popular and decently bolted. These crags are all in sorlandet rock - the most current guide for Kristiansand and Mandal.

Further East towards Risør there's more climbing although some of the crags don't see all that much traffic so can be a bit gritty/dirty.

Kanalen at grimstad has plenty to go at, and is regularly climbed at by Grimstad, Arendal climbing club, so pretty clean. Kløfta ( nearby to Kanalen) is also regularly climbed at and so is clean, and has routes both on bolts and trad pro.

There are 4 crags in and around Tvedestrand which are worth mentioning, Solfjeld is the most developed and has well bolted routes mostly vertical to overhanging (a couple of slab routes at the lower end of the grade scale.) Was there yesterday and although some routes are a bit gritty by and large they were clean. There is also Bertnes bitter, flåteveggen and Østerå.

https://27crags.com/crags/solfjeld/topos/sector-b1-and-b2

Flateveggen should have a little floating pier, as all the routes go straight up from the sea, but I'm not sure if that's still there.most of the routes are in the 6's.

In Risor there's vaktusheia which although hasn't got a ton of stuff at it, it is worth a look. It will be getting a clean up soon courtesy of the local club. Grades from 5c to 7B ish.

Also there is Skarvann activities park ( don't let the name put you off its not actually an activities park)

There is more steep stuff here than you could shake a stick at. It's also where the norwegian rock masters comp was held in 2010, I believe Steve McClure has a write up about it some where. Again not seeing massive traffic, but an impressive bit of rock and definitely worth a look. There is a guide of sorts on ckk.no

Guidebook wise Sorlandet rock and sorlandsforer should have you covered from Mandalay to Risor. Sørlandsfører is out of print now, and like hens teeth, but I know that klatresiden.no have a few copies as that's where I picked up mine. They are based in larvik, so close by if you are flying to torp.

Hope this helps.

Matt

In reply to Nordie_matt:
Thanks Matt, that's great. Cheers for posting

In reply to TobyA:
Thanks Toby, the spot in Sweden looks very good

In reply to GDes:
If you are heading to Flatanger then a trip to Ekne is well worth a visit!

Ekne

You will need the Trønder Rock guidebook. Most of the routes are missing from the UKC database. Everything up to n9. Also supposedly Norway's best n7- route too. Absolutely spectacular location. A bit of a walk in (ca 30 min), but there is good parking and plenty of options to camp.

Also 'Norway select climbs' covers all of the major sports crags. Or at least the best for each area throughout the entire country.

In reply to GDes:

Hi Ged,

Posted this before in a similar thread:
http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=641753&v=1#x8303849
See also some of my previous comments by clicking my user name (there was one about driving around Europe where I wrote something about driving around Norway, another about locations). Happy to help out if you've questions – I'm in Bergen with a van, doing similar things this summer, it's great so far: the midges haven't quite turned up yet, although there's definitely more insect life around now than a month ago. But if there's a breeze then they disappear, and round here it's easy enough to find a breezy crag on one of the islands.

In reply to GDes:

Hi ,we spent a few months there .Take loads of dried foods rice pasta etc and load your van up with whisky! It will make you very popular and can be used to barter with.

In reply to DWS gibraltar:


Not advised, as they do occasionally check what you're importing... and booze limit is 1 liter, after which you'll pay a hefty fine, taxes and customs fees..

Generally they haven't been interested in other than booze, wine, beer or tobacco, though.

In reply to HeMa:

There have been incidents reported of meat, cheese and butter smuggling!