Rjukan, Norway

By Craig Marsden

Members Present for February 13th-22nd 2009: Colin Maddison, Rob Allen, Susan Marsden, Craig Marsden.

Guests Present: Thomas Marsden, Roisin Maddison, Phoebe Marsden.

The now almost regular strap line of ...Fed up with variable Scottish conditions and poor if any ice, want virtually guaranteed conditions with a maximum of an hour and a half walk or as little as 2 minutes, want a choice of some 175 ice routes then Rjukan in Southern Norway may well be the place for you...

The reality was even better as 7 winter hopefuls stepped off the Ryanair flight to Oslo Torp, Snow yahoo!! And it is blooming freezing.

Our friendly car hire chappy gave us swift and efficient service and we set off in our superb steeds, Kia and A class Merc. We eventually arrived in Rjukan to find our beds awaiting at 2 am.

Saturday was a sorting out day, for the skiers and getting us all fed to face the cold (-10C) and snowy conditions. Glorious views from the ski area... Followed by an outdoor Jacuzzi, hard core we are! Roisin and Phoebe even danced outside in the snow and ice in bikini's.

An inspection of new gear was the conclusion of the day with Craig's sparkly new axes and Colin's introduction to the world of mono pointing, but not without stabilizers!

Day One of Climbing started on the Sunday with a snowy trip into the Lower gorge.

A nice warm up on a WI3, Knerten. Cleanly led and followed. Off to a flying start, but not literally this year! A couple more classic single pitch WI3's were completed for a more leisurely start to the first day. The Skiers were off to a flying start, going straight into the advance class with the benefit of a 1:3 ratio. Sunday night introduced us to Craigy/Craigie and the Beer Fairy!

Day Two: Monday

Saw all skiers onto the snow, with Sue going solo again on the cross country and the kids into their advanced class. Sue had the delights of some fantastic mountain scenery virtually alone.

Monday saw the climbers heading towards the Upper Gorge, giving Rob his first lead of the holiday, the long first pitch of Tracey's Eyes, a nice WI3. A nice descent down a snow filled gully, which Colin enjoyed so much he felt he had to repeat it! (axe hunting). After this pleasant introduction, off we went to introduce Rob to the verticality of WI4, Tungtvann a stern little number to test out the sparkly new axes.

Day Three: Tuesday

Skiers, as Monday but with Pizza! (SPM 2009).

Climbers up to the ice cragging delights of Krokan. Colin started with a nice lead up an old favourite, Kjokkentrappa and proved it to be an ultimately slimming route with a nice special K shape. Rob also introduced us to the delights of new climbing gear, the first ever ice rope that can be used to form all kinds of shapes.

Day Four: Wednesday

Skiers, as for Monday & Tuesday but Sue had a much longer cross country session and swim in pool on the best day of the week so far. The day was finished off with a trip to Gaustablikk for a Yurt barbecue organized by the ski instructors.

The boys were into the Upper Gorge again for Bakveien, a nice 3 pitch WI4 with a Scottish feel giving a good lead.

An example of road side cragging is shown to finish off the day, with Svingfoss another steep WI4.

Day Five: Thursday

The day saw the downhill skiers further developing their skills with some jumping and a taste of atmospheric night time skiing, and Sue going on a long solo trip to soak in the beautiful mountain environment.

The lads big day started by heading for the Upper gorge for the magnificent 3 pitch WI4 of Trapfoss, that Craig made into Trapfoss super direct WI5, because it looked better! (go Craigey go sang the cheerleaders, a very unlikely pair!)

The long second pitch of Trapfoss took sometime and Colin with numb fingers urging the two #### ahead to get a move on was reward by being given both ends of the rope to hold ('the dumb blonde dropped the rope today!'). We are not amused and had we been closer we may have heard the immortal words of 'that's a little harsh!'

Day Six: Friday

Skiers; the last day of lessons for the downhill skiers and solo cross country, and an extreme café experience in the nice hotel to wind up the formal part of the skiing trip (though most definitely not the end).

Colin and Craig decided to revisit one of last years classics (Vemorkbufoss Ost) a superb WI4 and to do the opposite, alternative leads from last year, this provided Rob with an orgy of photographic opportunity with the best documented climb in the history of the KMC, if you have a blu ray player we might be able to provide the disc.

Day Seven & Eight: Saturday & Sunday

Saw the party split with the Marsden's heading for the delights of Oslo to see friends and the Skiers, Rob, Colin and Roisin taking to the slopes. Rob provided the piste basher with a major challenge to remove the imprint of his forehead from the slopes, I am told there is a photo but that it may be too gruesome to show (not sure whether this is the before or after shot, sorry Rob couldn't resist!)

Another very successful if small trip into the paradise of Norwegian ice climbing, there are vague plans to organize another Norway trip for Feb 2010, so watch this space!