mandag 24. desember 2012

The summer that was, Part 4!

In part 1, I wrote about the epic canoe trip Ole and I had in Lærdal. At the time I thought the video files where lost on my (still stuck in the mail!) iMac, but as it turns out I had backed them up :) So, after a bit of editing, I am now proud to present the canoe short: 


Part 4

After some "well deserved" vacation time in Norway, (much needed after a winter of hard redpoint climbing in Spain), it was time to do some (payed) work and start saving up for the coming winter. 

In a time where most of Europe is suffering from one financial crisis or the other it´s great to be Norwegian.
The Norwegian "krone" is stronger then ever and saving up enough to live in Spain each winter requires a bare minimum of work on my part.
When I come to think about it, the only reasons I actually have to do a bit of work is because photo and videography is so freaking expensive...

I worked in a "normal" job (driving a forklift in a warehouse) for about 2 months in one of those long summers of my youth. That is probably the longest I ever did the 9-4 thing.  

Now a days I do all sorts of odd jobs like route-setting, bolting, photo gigs and so on for short amounts of time, and then usually only when I feel like it. 
Mid summer, from the end of june until sometime in august, is the only time a year I work more then a couple of weeks.
This is when I go to the mountains!

"My mountain home, "Kassa", parked in front of Hurrungane" 

When people ask me what I do up there, I usually just tell them I work as a mountain guide.
In reality what I do is more coursing then actual guiding. I guess the correct term would be something like a high mountain climbing instructor.

To those that might wonder, the difference is that while the guide works with clients on one day trips and drags them up on what ever mountain they choose. 
I work with the same people on week long courses where they are supposed to learn something, and maybe more importantly, I get to choose where to go.

For me personally this makes for a much more diverse and interesting way of taking people up into the mountains. Not only do I get to know the people better and see them progress during the week (which is rewarding on it´s own) but you get away from the grind of doing the same thing every day, and that makes all the difference.

There are many company´s offering a wide array of courses and guided tours in my part of the mountains "Jotunheimen", and having worked for most of them, my favourite employer is currently Breoppleving. 
Breoppleving (directly translated to something like glacier experience/adventure) have what I think is the best course where, ironically enough, I do not have to do any glacier walking. But I get ahead of myself.

This summer started as they usually do with a "Fjellsport 1" (Mountainsport 1) course for DNT (The Norwegian Tourist association). I tag along on this course almost every year to get back into the mountain thing and hang out with some of my old instructor buddies Hans Petter Håkonsen and Bjørn Balle. 

                        
                                                                        "Petter the pirate"
                        
"Bjørn the bear"

Working with these two guys makes this poorly paid and demanding course worth while. We always have a great time telling jokes, play around and when there are young couples, ruthlessly flirt with the poor guys girlfriend.

                        
"Bjørn teaches the couple about spotting"

The course itself consists of 2 days on a glacier, 2 days at the crag and 2 days on semi guided mountain trips + 1 evening with meet and greet, going through the gear and so on. 

As I have many courses during the summer I will not bore you with the details of each one but rather display some pictures from the different trips that hopefully showcasts the essence of what it´s all about.

It should be said that I never bother taking pictures with anything but my heavy 5D rig, and as I rarely bring my camera out if the weather is bad, the pictures tell a story of nice weather, that is not necessarily the case most of the time.

DNT Fjellsport 1, July, Krossbu, Jotunheimen, (Norway)

"On our way to Skeia (2100+ meters) way early in the morning, Hurrungane in the background"

"Bjørn attempting "the mountain leap" over the Smørstabtind´s. Skeia is second from the right"

"The ridge between Kalven and Skeia just before I lost my 50mm down in a deep hole..."

I did luckily manage to fish my lens out a week later using some fishing equipment a couple of telescope poles and a spoon, and thanks to Canon´s great build quality the lens was unharmed even after having rolled/fallen down several meters on rocks and literally speaking lain on ice for a week.  

"At the base of the climbing, Skeia rising up in the left corner of the picture" 

"Climbing (a new variation) on Skeia"

"The couple we decided to play around with, here coiling the ropes after finishing the climbing"

"The girlfriend posing for my camera after skilfully having been separated from her boyfriend"

The second mountain on this course was Store Austabotntind (2200+ meters). The weather was not great, and as one of the guys got sick I got to turn back and lead him back down after just an hour and a half.
Forgetting that my car keys was locked into another car then the one we borrowed to drive back to camp, I ended up spending a couple of hours learning how to break into my own car instead.
This was surprisingly easy using the oil measuring pin and a Swiss army knife (Macgyver style) to fish pick the lock wire at the front window.

Breoppleving Fjellsport, July, Lom/Hurrungane, Jotunheimen

After finishing the Fjellsport 1 course for DNT, I was off to solo instructing (something I prefer to avoid as it is more work and responsibility) on a 3 person customised "Fjellsport" course for Breoppleving.

Since I had lost a camera lens up on Skeia the week before I brought my new group up there as well so that I could fish it back out (which I did!).
 It was snowing almost all the way down to Krossbu and we saw no more then 10 meters in front of us all day. The climbing was suddenly in "winter" conditions with ice and snow all around, but I got no pictures of that as the camera remained in the car.

The second trip got canceled as two of the three had to go home and the last girl bailed as the weather forecast was horrible.
We did however get a few nice days down at the crag in Lom where I set them to work on multipitch trad climbing.

"The first pitch, grade 4-ish"


"The second pitch, grade 3-ish, "hanging" belay in a tree 20 meters off the deck"

"Great view of the "Lom delta" from the top of Tronoberget" 

Breoppleving Klatrekurs i Lom og Hurrungane, July, Hurrungane, Jotunheimen


Next up was my favourite course, Klatrekurs i Lom/Hurrungane, (Climbing course in Lom and Hurrungane).
This course gives me the opportunity to hang out in Lom and climb at the crag for 2-3 days, got no glacier coursing and only contains 2 "hard" days of walking in the mountains. 
The mountain climbing is of course great, but the problem is the long walk in and out. To get to the climbing we usually have to hike 1000 vertical meters up before we even tie in. Then walking the same or more back down is a killer on my knees if I do it often.

Breoppleving usually attracts a reasonably young clientele with the occasional 40 year old here and there. This time for some strange reason the occasional 40 year olds all ended up on the same course, making for an unusual but great week for me with both a dinner inside the way expensive hotel Turtagrø and a tip at the end of the course.
Added to this I got an apprentice to look out for and give a written review.

The groupe dynamics where great, my apprentice could take care of herself and for the first and hardest trip, we got lucky with the weather. The goal was Dyrhaugsryggen from the south and yes, I brought my camera. 

"The exposed first pitch in the morning fog" 

"The fog lifting as we reach the third belay"

"My apprentice leading up the crux pitch"

"Following on the "crux", Norway's third highest mountain Store Skagadølstind (2405m) in the back"

"Moving out of the "chimney" on the final pitch"

"Mountain jumping!"

"Leaping the Skagadølstind" 

(I sold a similar picture last year that now hangs on big national park posters down in Lom.)

"A happy crew at the end of the Dyrhaugsrygg traverse" 

On the final trip we went to "Store Austabotntind" at 2200+ meters. The weather was bad with a strong wind, fog and rain/snow. One girl bailed at the beginning because of the weather and all the slippery rocks and on the final ridge a second decided to turn back. My apprentice waited with him in a survival bag (as seen here in one of the only pictures I tok that day) while I ran to the top and back with the only guy left standing.

"Close but no cigar, a few hundred meters from the top"

While walking off the mountain, marking the end of the course, my next group was already gathering down at the car park.. 
Tired, wet and cold I entered the camp to welcome the new crew while still saying my farewells to the old. 
With no downtime I was now starting the dreaded hardest course of the summer, Fjellsport II for DNT. 5 days + 1 evening, a one day trip and a two day trip (with sleeping out in the mountain!), one day on a glacier and just one "rest" day at the crag... 

But in the spirit of not making epic long blog posts I will keep the story of the rest of my mountain summer for Part 5.
Stay tuned and marry christmas!


fredag 14. desember 2012

A brief glance at the present while still lingering in the past..


My ambitions to update the blog to the present before things started happening down here in Spain did (as you probably know by now) not really go as planed..

Basically since we got down here the house has been crowded with people and things have been happening left and right.
It started out with loads of wet holds in the cave and nothing going down the first week and a half.  Then it finally dried up in one windy night and Hannah, looking very strong, immediately sent her long time project, la Novena Puerta (8c+).

"Hannah getting close to the mid rest 8b+/8c on one of her attempts in the spring" ©Henning Wang

La Novena Puerta (The Ninth Gate) is the first part of La Novena Enmienda 9a/+ that Magnus did back in the day (the Magnus video can be found here:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRHSd4Q7Tq0

Hannah´s accent was the first female accent of the route, the hardest route climbed by a girl in the Santa Linya cave, basically one of the hardest climbs done by a girl in all of Spain.
I will not say the world, as I have no way to compare the routes here to the routes in for instance the Red River George, (or the much harder routes Jousune climbed in Switzerland back in the day) so I will leave it at Spain.

Previously two Austrian girls (Johanna and Angela) have climbed "8c+" in Santa Linya, but as the routes in question never actually was 8c+ I will say that Hannah is the first to do a proper one here.
To those climbing geeks out there that wonder wtf I´m talking about I will give a short explanation for my conclusions:
- Angela did Ingravids Eskerpes Extension before the hold broke (much easier crux section), basically about as hard as Rollito Sharma Extension is now (8c).
- Johanna did Open your Mind that has the strange guidebook grade of 8c/+. People log it at 8a.nu as 8c+ for the points, but the reality is that its about the same as Fabelita (8c) and much easier then Fabela (8c+), the benchmark routes going out from the same start...

But enough about the present, I am telling a story of the past :)

The Summer that was, Part 3!


Now in my story of the summer that was I had just retuned from Flatanger to Sogndal to take some pictures of Rockstar Adam Ondra crushing Lars Ole´s routes at Kvam. (se the summer that was, part 2)

It was then time for the great yearly boulder comp at the extreme sports week at Voss, and with a rainy weather forecast, we got Adam to tag along.
The money prices here are fairly good and Magnus usually turns up to take it home. With Adam now in the comp and a short notice for the route-setters, the stage was set for a great show.
As per usual I brought my camera along and shot some video when I did not climb myself.
A bit limited by time and other projects here I decided to just make a short quick clip from the finals:

https://vimeo.com/55346093

I also helped out filming Dag Hagen from the Norwegian climbing magazine (Norsk Klatring) do an interview with Adam about his tour of Norway. Fun to watch as we now know that he would go on to put up possibly the hardest route in the world in Flatanger!

https://vimeo.com/45354680

Voss has been one of the best Norwegian boulder comps for a long time, mainly because the most important criteria for a comp is usually met, that is, good climbers actually show up..
The route-setting is good and the atmosphere great even thought the comp has been plagued by rain the last few years.
How ever there is a couple of huge flaws that, even thought I love to compete there, will not see me compete again (at least not until the issues are dealt with...)

- Flaw one: The entry fee... This year it was up to staggering 425 kr (58 euros)! for about 1 hour of bouldering, that is one hour for the most of us that have no shot at the final and the money prices...

- Flaw two: The party fee... a one day pass to the festival is about 500+ kr, almost half the price of the entire week, making it way to expensive to go into the festival tent when you only come for the boulder comp (I did how ever manage to sneak in and not pay anything, but that is besides the point).
The summary I guess is that Voss is a great comp, but one that I can no longer afford to go to...