UKC

Njupeskar - Blog Post

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 alexm198 28 Jul 2016
Morning chaps,

Back in January I went to climb Sweden's tallest free-falling waterfall. I've written up a blog post about it with some photos - feel free to take a read! I'd be really grateful for any feedback/critique, too.

Hope you like it!

http://www.punterism.com/njupeskar/
 Pids 28 Jul 2016
In reply to alexm198:

Looks a nice waterfall, two pitches of friendly ice - sounds like a great weekend if you in the area
OP alexm198 28 Jul 2016
In reply to Pids:

Definitely worth the trip for the atmosphere!
 TobyA 28 Jul 2016
In reply to alexm198:

Looks great. If you really want critique, I think it's a bit "over-written", some great metaphor and analogy in there but perhaps too much. If you think of climbing writing going from Mick Fowler on one end ("it was a bit tricky and conditions were nippy, but all in all jolly good fun", describing 7 days of hideously technical and dangerous climbing at -20 up some completely unknown face in the remotest Himalaya) through to Mark Twight/Steve House/Nick Bullock: non-stop existential angst and terror and everything about to kill you but you probably deserve it for your life choices [OK, that's being mean, but you know what I mean]), your piece is towards the latter end. Alternatively, you had a great weekend climbing trip with a mate. But keep at it, fun to read and great pics!
OP alexm198 28 Jul 2016
In reply to TobyA:
Thanks Toby, that's really helpful to hear actually. I tend to enjoy the Twight/House/Bullock end of the spectrum a bit more for its emotive weight, but yes, important to try and keep a light touch even with that writing style.

If it was fun to read that's all I can ask for!
Post edited at 12:24
Tom Knowles 28 Jul 2016
In reply to alexm198:

Agree with everything Toby said! Made me laugh actually, always thought the same about those authors! Nice photos though, keep it going!
 TobyA 28 Jul 2016
In reply to alexm198:

I suspect my blogging in the past has tended towards the Fowler end of the spectrum, but then I am really crap and always seem to end up going for the cheap laugh. One of my last weekend ice climbing posts from when I lived in the frozen north even got "reprinted" on Climb magazine's website, when looking back at it, it is mainly concerned with the food we ate rather than the climbing that got done! http://lightfromthenorth.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/buffets-donut-and-other-sto...

I have tried in the past to describe just how ferociously hard I find climbing vertical ice http://lightfromthenorth.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/fight-or-flight-ice-climbin... but at the end of the day the routes I can do are all a bit too weedy to really deserve the Twightian/Houseian treatment, so it's mainly back to cheap gags and Fowlereque self depreciation (although of course I am not very good, unlike Fowler who is very good and just pretending not to be!).

BTW, how hard was the Swedish route do you think? Were there signs of other climbers having been on it or did you get it in a virgin state? Great blog name by the way.
 Jim Fraser 29 Jul 2016
In reply to alexm198:

Excellent day out. Well done.

No bears then? I am disappointed.


(I set off on a short-cut across the hills in the Carpathians in the middle of the night with no torch once and it was only when I was deep in the forest in total blackness that I had a sudden thought about local fauna. Lynx? Wolves? Bear? Eh, well, was this really a good idea? I didn't meet any of those but I did meet something wild and growling on the other side of the hill that turned out to be only a mad Polish guy in a 4x4.)
 paulh.0776 02 Aug 2016
In reply to alexm198:

Great blog and a very enjoyable read, you could add a few bits of practical info at the end, so that anyone wanting to visit these places can follow in your foot steps, flights, b+b, car hire tips etc...
OP alexm198 02 Aug 2016
In reply to TobyA:

Thanks for the links - enjoyed them both! I actually stumbled upon your blog on Stetind's Sydpillaren a few weeks ago and will definitely be using it for beta-providing purposes when I'm up that way this month! Can't wait to do the route, looks amazing.

Njupeskar was about WI4+, if we'd gone straight up the RHS of the falls I think it would've been more like WI5, maybe harder. Looked pretty unrelenting. The line we took was steep for long sections but had adequate rests where needed. Before we went out we could find pretty much no info on it being climbed, apart from this chap's blog http://www.mikec.se/Climbing/25_Njupeskar/

Certainly no other signs of other climbers having been on it when we were there. My partner had spoken to a few climbing shops in Stockholm and all had been skeptical about it being frozen, so maybe we were lucky and everyone else didn't want to chance it! Climbing completely virgin ice is definitely a different affair to the average hacked out Rjukan trade route.
OP alexm198 02 Aug 2016
In reply to paulh.0776:

Good idea, that'd be a nice little debrief to add at the end of future posts. Thanks!

For reference, I got return flights from Stansted to Skavsta super cheap (about £40+ baggage fee). I booked them mid-December for a trip end of January. Skavsta is a pain in the ass because it's so far out from the city centre but there were regular coaches for about a tenner in each direction.

I then met my climbing partner in Stockholm Arlanda airport (he lives in Uppsala so it was easy to get to for both of us). We hired a car here - the whole trip almost got canned because they wanted a £700 deposit on the car. Fortunately we managed to scrape enough funds to put this down but it required some grovelling phone calls! Probably could've been hired cheaper elsewhere but it was logistically more straightforward to get it from the airport.

The drive was boring as hell, it's on the same road pretty much the whole way. About six hours with traffic and fuel stop. Fuel was pretty cheap from what I can remember, plus the petrol stations had free coffee which was a godsend!

Wouldn't know anything about B&B - we slept in the boot of the car...

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...