UKC

I'm planning to go to Norway in august with a friend and we're struggling to find out what grades each place has. We want to go to romsdal but if it's out of our league there's no point. We want to do mainly long multi pitch climbing but with some at around f5 or up to hs to get into it a bit. Also is anyone had a guide for anywhere that they could copy a few pages of it would be great!

Thanks, help with this is very appreciated!

In reply to PauI360:
Romsdal is a good shout (having been there a little while ago). See my last post here: http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=587704&v=1#x7800415

Shall ping you a few pages...

EDIT: I presume you are flying into Aalesund from Gatwick with Norwegain and hiring a car? It's the cheapest and fastest way to do it.

In reply to PauI360:

You say 'around F5' - are you looking for sport routes or trad?

Nissedal, Romsdal, Innerdalen, Jotenheim, Lofoten, Stetind, Kvloya all have long routes - almost exclusively trad.

Bergen, Stavanger and Olso also have a lot of great climbing nearby, including a lot of sport, but mostly single pitch.

The country is well over 1000 miles long - you might need to decide which bit you want to go to 1st?



Chris

In reply to PauI360:
The island called Sotra (actually a collection of islands) 30mins west of Bergen is home to 100's sports climbs, trad climbs and the excellent multi trad pitches of Liafjell. Something for everyone. Although Bergen is not renowned for its Mediterranean like climate, the island Sotra receives little less rain than Bergen itself. Round Oslo (new guide book out) again there are stacks of sport and trad climbs. Kolsås near Sandvika is home to some excellent trad / sport climbing with many 2 / 3 pitch trad routes. If your into slabs then Vardåsen near Asker has loads of multi pitch slab routes as well as the odd sport multi pitch route. Nice place. There was an old guide book for Stavanger called Klatring i Rogaland with many multi pitch routes in it. There is also Kjerag, with its classic multi pitch climbing but that's a little out of my league

Hemsedal is not just for winter. The delightful Skurvefjell with many 2 / 3 pitch trad routes is just wonderful. Longer routes, up to 450m can be found on Skogshorn. And if you want to get away from the crowd-less climbing there is Storhorn, a truly majestic crag off steep steep climbing. The crag is 1km long with relative few routes.

Out with Bergen, over Hardangerfjord are the gigantic slabs of Uskedalen home to some amazing climbing (New guide books out - Klatring i Uskedalen)

The Jotunheim! Alpine climbing. long approaches. Glaciers! Some classic long ridge traverses. The north ridge traverse to Storen is a classic long day. Never hard but continuous scrambling with the occasional VD / S pitch. Just outstanding!

Innerdalen.... This place looks great!

Romsdal. Only skied there. A guide books had loads of modest climbing. Not sure if you cans till buy the climbing guide anymore.

Its a myth that it rains in Norway... yeah right

In reply to Jamie Simpson - Alpine Dragons:

I recently baught the klippkKlatring i Rogaland guide and was dissapointed to see it only has sports routes, when i was realy looking for trad and bouldering around stavanger. When i asked in Platau (the local climbing shop), I was told it was the only guidebook out......

In reply to dapperdan:

Haven't seen the new guide but the old one was full of trad routes.

In reply to PauI360:

The old Stavanger guide is available in pdf format for free on the BRV website.
There are also other topo's there for other developed areas, both sport and trad.
FWIW klippeklatring does = sport

In reply to PauI360:

I highly recommend Lofoten. Absolutely stunning place with amazing climbing. There is a rockfax guidebook available.

I've got the (new) klippeklatring i Rogaland guide, it does have trad in it - we did some trad routes a couple of weeks ago at:
Spinneriveggen http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=10093
Skrussfjell http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=21007
Dale http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=2158

The norwegian grades are technical only, but apply to both trad and sport.

Also, klippe = cliff so klippeklatring = cliffclimbing

In reply to annak:

fair enough, how do you know which crags in the book are trad and wich are sports?

In reply to PauI360:

I was blown away by how much climbing there was in the Stavanger area. There's maybe more climbing around Stavanger than around Sheffield! Look at the number of new route topos on the BRV website since the fairly recent guidebook for example. Almost enough material for a week long trip alone. There is quite a bit of trad around Stavanger. The latest guidebook doesn't seem that generous with awarding stars for them though. I suspect it's because nobody is climbing them. Some good routes if you go hunting though.

As mentioned above, Hemsedal is a really good bet. Loads of long routes in the lower grades and you will likely be the only people climbing at the venues.

In reply to dapperdan:

A few words of Norwegian are all that is needed. The Spinneriveggen section is online here:

http://www.brv.no/postmann/dbase/bilder/Spinneri%20%20F%C3%B8rer%20Rev%203....

The trad routes are labelled 'Nat', or described as 'naturlig' in the description. Bolted routes will have eg 8BB (BB = 'borebolt' = bolt).

In reply to Mr. Lee:

great stuff, thanks for that big lee

In reply to dapperdan:

Only seen the old book.

In Bergen (ref climbing on Sotra) the climbing club has split the old book into Sport and Trad climbing. The climbing guide for Oslo and area has both.

For Hemsedal it has both. But its only written in Norwegian (a new translation to English is on the way.) There is also a very good Ice climbing in Hemsedal guide book, written in both Norwegian and English.

There is also a guide called "Klatre perler" (I think) that covers a rang of crags around Norway. Kind of like a road trip type book. Quite good.

In reply to PauI360:

I have some recent posts on my blog that also may also help with ideas (Hemsedal, Nissedal, Setesdal, etc):

http://leeharrisonclimbing.blogspot.no

In reply to PauI360: molledalen and Uskedalen are both possibles for you

In reply to Jamie Simpson - Alpine Dragons:

Reminds me of the old joke - tourist gets off the boat in Bergen. Sees a lad selling papers on the quay. "Hey, sonny, how long's it been raining?".
"Don't know, I'm only eight"

In reply to PauI360:

My wife's climbed at Nissedalen - it looks cool, very much a yosemite-style granite dome.