Arctic Adventure
Michael Hopert
‘Climb when ready!’ Phil says. Hmm, not sure if I am. Until yesterday I never led anything harder than a Severe, and here I am, at the bottom of pitch 3 of Bare Blåbær, one of the classic climbs on the Lofoten – my first VS. Looking up at this (in my eyes) intimidating groove I feel more than a bit out of my depth. ‘How's your laybacking?’ Pete shouts down 45 metres above me from the top of the pitch. ‘’s alright!’ I reply. ‘You'll love this then!’ Great… So what on earth am I doing here?
A few days ago a group of Rockhoppers flew out to Tromsø in North Norway to spend ten days on the magnificent Lofoten Islands. They are known for having some of the most dramatic landscapes in Europe, and we certainly weren't disappointed when we finally got there at midnight after a long day's traveling. We did start to wonder what we brought our head torches for as we pitched our tents and cooked our dinner. Of course we knew that the sun wasn't going to set at all for the entirety of our trip, but we were taken by surprise that we were still able to read in our tents even at two in the morning. It took us a while to adjust to these conditions, much to the dismay of a few inhabitants of the campsite.
The objective for most of us was to climb as many of the classic routes as possible. And classic they truly were. The settings of the climbs were incredible – steep rock faces, short walk-ins and fantastic weather. I think we had about 20 minutes of rain and a few hours of overcast sky, the rest of the trip was bright sunshine. The locals told us this was the best weather they had in three years. We tried to make the most out of it and climbed almost every day.
The walks we went on were equally as good. Dave, Pete and myself set out to climb Munkan. Not quite satisfied with the lack of scrambling and exposure we decided to take on the next summit. The route looked feasible and we would avoid going back the same way we came. We did wonder why this route wasn't mentioned in the guide book, it looked great. Once we were on it we realized why. Loose rock, slippery grassy patches and difficult scrambling forced us to abandon the route and turn around.
One of the most promising mountaineering routes we all wanted to do was the North Ridge on Vågakallen, a 12-pitch climb/scramble on the prominent peak in our preferred stomping ground. Libby and Joris gave it a go and returned at two in the morning (no head torches needed, remember?) after a 13-hour epic. Their account of the day didn't sound too promising with loose rock, difficult route finding and not quite-so-spectacular climbing, so the rest of us decided not to follow their footsteps.
One of the highlights was certainly Svolværgeita, the ‘Goat of Svolvær’. It's an amazing tower of rock overlooking, you guessed it, Svolvær. The summit consists of two horn-like blocks just over a metre apart, which makes for spectacular exposed climbing. It's very reassuring to know that, should you slip, your belay rip and you fall for a few hundred feet, your body won't have to get moved very far as you land right in the local graveyard.
Our two boldest climbers couldn’t resist the temptation to climb the classic route on the Lofoten, Vestpillaren. In twelve pitches it leads almost 500m up Presten, a gargantuan nose of granite. The grade is a mere E2 5b. Speak to Dan and Colin for their harrowing tale of the ascent if you have a couple of hours to spare.
Overall we did too many climbs to mention, the majority nothing short of outstanding. Most of us pushed our grade a bit, even I managed to get up my nightmare pitch on Bare Blåbær.
Our nights we spent on campsites or camping wild, which is very popular and accepted on the Lofoten. The continuous daylight provided enough time to cook and indulge in local delicatessen like elk salami, dried fish and whale. Little time was spent in pubs, no wonder given the price for a pint was £7 and our fine selection of whiskies was patiently waiting for us at our tents. The only downside were the swarms of midges that more often than not would spoil our dinners a bit. So, a loud ‘skol!’ to Mike B. for getting us all together. As you probably guessed we had a fantastic time up in the far north and can only recommend venturing out there. Some of us want to return as soon as next year.
Copyright ©2009-2011 Rockhoppers Mountaineering Club