UKC

Hi me and some mates want to go to Rjukan for some ice climbing, we have done a fair bit in scotland. But we are tempted by the short walk ins.

I have never climber abourd before. Any surjuestions for what i need to sort out??
Flights, cars, accomindation and budget etc.
Many thanks.

In reply to laurentb: Yes flights, cars, accommodation and a BIG budget. Seriously if you want alcohol buy it in the duty free and take it with you.

Some good accommodation is listed in the guide book "Heavy Water". When you book your flight make sure that you hire a car from the same airport as there are two.

Great venue and brilliant climbing. Get a hold of the film "Heroes of Telemark". You get glimpses of some of the ice falls as well as the plateau and it will encourage you to visit the museum. Some of the climbs finish in its grounds.

Al

In reply to laurentb:
try rjukan hytteby for accomodation fair priced (for norway). just google hire cars for collection from the airport, i would pay the extra to limit your excess especially if you haven't had any experience driving abroad on icy roads/roads made covered in solid ice. i think we spent about 400-500 pounds each for a week in rjukan.

make sure you have plenty of screws, you will need enough for two belays and runners for the multipitch routes.
enjoy

In reply to laurentb:

Some info

http://www.iceclimbrjukan.com/index.php?action=page&article=1458116857&...

In reply to James B: You're right, great photo even better comment and reply !

In reply to robdan:

Hey we went this year and it cost us about £400 all in. There were 4 of us in total.
we stayed here http://rjukan-hytteby.no/no/index/
we hired a car which was the biggest cost at about £300
and we ate like kings from the local supermarket also went as far as a few cheeky beers.

The year before this we did it on public transport, as the bus network in Norway is very good. this did slow down the amount of climbing we did though. So i think having a car is Ideal.

hope this helps

John

In reply to laurentb: Yes cheers for the tips. Going to have to be a mega budget trip. Money is in short surpply for me atm.

In reply to johnbale:

£400 doesn't sound that much for a week's holiday abroad particularly in Norway and at a brief glance that accomodation looks alright. Typically a week's unguided ski-touring in the Alps would be about £600+ for me largely depending on flight cost from Scotland. A week's resort skiing potentially more given how crap the pound is.

Is my idea of the expense holidays completely out of kilter or are the Rjukan stories over-egged when it comes to cost (or were you particularly canny)?

In reply to laurentb: www.dictionary.com

In reply to laurentb:
Hi we did it a couple of years ago flew from glasgow, hired a hut on a campsite outside of rjukan itself and hired a second hand estate car from a company called rent-a-wreck very good value about 250-300 for a week no booze tho!

In reply to laurentb:

hey

we went there last year for a week, i had never been before either but i want to go back for definite,

we booked cheap flights which you can do with any cheap airline flying to oslo, think we paid about £70 or something like that, just be careful with baggage costs! try booking sports luggage for all your climbing gear.

car hire we got from the airport in oslo but you can book that in advance to get a better price, we had 2 golfs for the week which was great for the 8 of us, think it was only £30 each or something like that. its about a 4 hour drive to rjuken if i remember rightly.

accommodations wise try looking on here http://www.rjukan.co.uk/ not sure where we booked ours because a friend booked the apartment but you can get some good places for cheap online, think it was about £40 each.

all the walk ins are about 5-10 mins from the car parks so you can relax when your climbing.

food and things are expensive in norway so i wouldn't eat out if you can help it, most places you find to stay have good cooking facilities so i would eat in house.

we took £100 spend with us for food but i would prob take £200 just to be safe,

all in all i think it cost me about £300-£400 but it was worth every penny, just make sure you take plenty of ice screws with you, and plenty of warm kit, which i know speaks for its self but when you are belaying, there can be a lot of standing around in -15 to -20 degrees with no sun light, its a lot colder than Scotland especially on your face, my friend got frost nip on his nose from about 20 mins of belaying.

and take lots of dvd's because booze is so expensive and its dark about 4 in the evening so you will be sat around a lot.

hope this helps

Sam Wall

In reply to niallk:

The accommodation is basic but its everything you need. its warm and has good enough cooking facilities. Along with digital TV in english to keep you entertained once it goes dark!
We kept the costs down by keeping the food fairly basic and cooking as a group without being to fussy and not eating or drinking out.
This is the second time I've been out and never found it to be particularly expensive if you don't indulge too much. we also got fairly cheap flights from ryan air at about £60 return.

In reply to laurentb: car hire we used rent a wreck. Got a 5 year old clio, fully decked out for winter. Good service and very reasonable prices. They dropped it off at the airport for us.

In reply to laurentb: i can highly recommend staying at the climb inn..food is excellent it has a bar and large screen tv downstairs showing climbing dvd s all night..and you can walk from there all of five mins to vermork bridge and the climbs!! just make sure your axes and screws are as sharp as possible.. oh and the climb inn also supply test axes and have files and a workbench for sharpening your axes enjoy!

In reply to laurentb: Flew BA, they were still beahivng then. Rjukan Hytteby, was a great place to stay, self contained cabins are great, clean and warm. The Climber in gets good reviews as well. We hired a car from Avis, with roof racks and the lot as we went skiing as well. They will supply the vehicle with winter tyres, the price was very good.

If you have time, I can put you in touch with a guy in Gos and Hemsedal, the ice there is quality and generally untouch. Some of the mountain stuff is fricking huge, think Ecrin.

Cheers,
Scott

In reply to laurentb: we went out in early march , just as the sun was touching the south facing slopes , but the N facing ones stayed in great condition . the benefit of going slightly later in the year was the ambient temp was around -5 C during the day which wasn't too bad when compared with the temp in Dec /Jan.

the upper gorge is the place to head for , multi pitch routes and superb quality .

just dont expect the picturesque beauty of the Ecrins , Rjukan is an industrial ghost town and has little in the way of inherent charm. If it wasn't for the climbing , I dont think you'd want to visit ,

Have a good one

In reply to laurentb: ps , there's a pic of climbing in the Upper gorge in my Gallery if you're interested , it'll whet your apettite