The Norwegian mountaineering community has lost two of its finest with the deaths of Bjorn-Eivind Aartun and Stein-Ivar Gravdal.

The two were attempting a new ice route on the big wall of Kjerag, which rises more or less directly out of the Lysefjord in southwest Norway.

When they didn't return, a helicopter search was initiated, and on the morning of February 10 the two climbers were spotted hanging upside down on the face, motionless, and with considerable evidence of blood on the ice below.

It's surmised that they may have been hit by collapsing ice.

• Read the full report by Lindsay Griffin for the BMC: BMC WEBSITE