Norway day 4: climbing the Store Venjetinden

Our last day with David and the most ambitious of the trips: climbing the Store Venjetinden via the route "Dream Dihedral". The peak is super prominent and dominates the view out the living room window of our flat, so it's extra fun to be climbing it.

There are clouds in the valley, which leads to some nervousness (particularly after yesterday), but we drive up out of them and end up under lovely blue skies, yay!

We put on the packs (heavy since we have crampons and ice axes with us) and head steeply up, up along a clear  use trail (well, clear as long as you know where it starts). At first we're in green, then we transition to moving up and across some slabs. We're in the shade (which is nice for ascending) and have great views back across the clouds in the valley. At some point it's steep enough (at and times slippery enough) that David has us rope up and start moving on a short rope. Up, up we go until we hit a larger snow patch. Here we break out the ice axes and head up, up the steadily steepening snow (by the end it's over 40 deg, but it's good "Trittschnee", so not overly nervous-making for g) until we hit the rock.

Transition to the rock, some food, on with the climbing shoes, boots into the packs, and the real climbing starts. It's a very, very nice route. The rock is great and there's a lovely mix of styles (face, crack, and stemming), such an absolute pleasure. Having David do the leading means all we have to do is enjoy the climbing... luxury! Too bad it's only six pitches, we would happily have done more, particularly of the dihedral!

When we get to the ridge we change back into the big boots and enjoy the views a bit (except for the view down onto the couloir which we plan to descend... that makes g unhappy) before doing the last bit to the peak on a short rope. Some traversing under the ridge until we meet the "N ridge" route, which we follow up to the peak. Really amazing 360 panoramic views from here! 

After plenty of pictures and fun we start the descent. This seems funny at first because we start out by going the wrong way, but after some walking and down-scrambling and snow crossing we end up on "Gallery" path: a really nice narrow path along a band that takes us around the corner and to the top of the couloir between the Store Venjetinden and the Lille Venjetinden. It's a great relief to g that the snow doesn't seem as steep as it did when we were above it. Out come the ice axes, on go the gloves and we start the descent. An initial experiment with sliding ends up with a three-way wipeout, so we just go with plunge-stepping down. Down down down we go until the snow runs out at a short waterfall. David lowers us over this (yay! canyoning!), abseils down to us, and then we continue. Down, down, until near the end of the snow, transition to rock, more descent and traversal, down another snow field, down, down, transition to rock, more traversing, down down another snow field, and then we're back on the path we took up in the morning. Last bit of descending and then we're at the car. David had estimated 3 hours up, 3 hours of climbing, and 3 hours for the descent; it took us 9:13 including all the breaks.

Stats: 9:13, 7.9km, 1390m up and down.

Norway day 3: climbing the Bispen E Ridge

In contrast to the past two days of cloudless blue skies, today we wake up to low clouds. There's a pretty good chance that this would result in a change of plans if we were at home, but we've got a trip planned with the guide, so off we go. We meet David in Andelsnes and then drive up the valley to the Trollstigen. It's still early, so there's essentially no traffic, which is a bonus on the windy road up to the pass and into the clouds. By the time we get to the pass itself we're fully in the cloud.

We park, grab the gear, and then follow an unmarked trail up, up the valley side. Visibility varies from decent to marginal, but following the path is easy. At some point we turn off along a much fainter use trail which we follow more gently up and around the corner of the Bispen and onto a set of slabs. Near the base of the South ridge we put on the gear and rope up so that David can short-rope us the rest of the way across and up easy (but exposed) slabs to the base of the East ridge.

The climb up the East ridge is fun and easy. The rock quality is mostly quite good and climbing in the big boots is no problem. David mostly leads, but like on the Romsdalhorn he does let us do a couple of the easier pitches and follows along to coach and make sure everything is done safely. It turns out that climbing in a cloud is really no big problem: we didn't have views, but it wasn't actively raining and we could always see where we were going. 

We're at the top sooner than it seems like we should be. There are no views to appreciate, but we still do a short food break before doing a brief practice session on setting nuts (something we don't often do) and then heading down the North ridge. This is a hike/scramble and we do the scrambly bits short roped (we are, after all, with a guide) before packing the gear away and doing the rest of the descent back to the saddle and then down to the parking lot. 

By the time we get down to the car it's lightly raining and the clouds are quite thick... the drive back down is a bit nerve wracking until we end up behind a big bus, which makes everything easier.

This was a good day of climbing and it was quite nice to spend some time doing trad climbing with someone providing advice and suggestions. G isn't convinced that this is something we want to make a frequent habit of (you spend too much time thinking about gear placement and not enough time actually climbing), but it's definitely good to know and it would be nice to have the option to safely do more pure trad routes.

Noteworthy aside: though we have now climbed to the top of it we still haven't actually seen what the Bispen looks like aside from on photos. We'll have to go back in better weather to check it out!

Stats (for whatever reason it took a while for my watch to pick up the GPS signal): 7:11, ~8.5km, 830m up and down.

Norway day 2: climbing the Romsdalhorn

We figured that it made sense to start our Norway trip by spending a few days climbing with a guide so that we can learn more about the place and the conditions and get a good overview. This was our first of three days with David.

The goal for the day is the Romsdalhorn via the North face. We meet D and drive up into the Venjesdalen (aside: the camera-based automated toll system is nice) and park near the end, under the ridge which leads to to the Romsdhalhorn. The weather is beautiful as we hike up to the ridge and then follow it to the base of the route. On with the gear and then we start the climbing. It's easy climbing (we're wearing the big boots) on mostly good rock and we head up reasonably efficiently. After a few pitches, D lets us each lead an easy pitch so that we can practice. G is too nervous about building an anchor to benefit from this, but A takes full advantage, observed by D. There's only one other group underway: another guide and guest pretty far ahead of us who abseil past when we're about 2/3 of the way up. We're to the broad top all too quickly and have a nice break to enjoy the views, check out the shelter up there, eat something, and take a bunch of pictures. Then it's time to abseil down. There are nice bolted anchors for this and it also all goes quickly. At the base of the route we say bye to D, who's meeting another guide to change some of the abseil anchors, and then head directly down the valley wall and back to the car.

Nice short climb on a very prominent peak in great weather and a good intro to David and what climbing in the area is like.

Technical/efficiency note: when abseiling, D had us both get set up with the rope through our guide plates before he abseiled down. Once he was below we then followed without needing a prusik since he could always stop us by pulling the rope taut. This would be a good one to remember when climbing with people with less experience.

Stats: 6:41, 6.5km, 990m up and down

Climbing in the Sierras: Mt. Emerson South East Face

yet to come

Climbing in the Sierras: Mt. Whitney East Buttress

yet to come

Climbing in the Sierras: Crystal Crag's East Arete and Ridge Traverse

After a rest day (and some laundry!) we're both feeling fresh and fit. We get an early start and drive from Bishop to Mammoth Lakes to meet our guide L. After having a coffee we pile into the car for the short drive to the trail head at Lake George. Now along the same path we followed five years ago when we hiked up to the ridge here (no blog post for the hike, unfortunately). Up and up and then turning off from that path towards Crystal Lake and then off on a use path that leads us to Crystal Crag and to the foot of the route up the East Arete.

On with the climbing gear and some more clothes (we are in the shade and it is cold). After a quick discussion of rope signals we start the climbing. This is all done with L leading and then the two of us following (on separate ropes with the last clearing all the gear). At each belay we repeat the process. It's still quite cold, so it's nice that we can climb in the big boots and that the climbing isn't too difficult (not much feeling in the fingertips for subtle holds!). Great rock, fun climbing. At some point we hit a pitch of pure white quartz crystals. Amazing!

Eventually we hit the ridge, the sun, and the first summit, and then continue on a single rope with a mix of down climbing, scrambling, and ridge following until we hit the second summit. Needless to say we got nice views from the ridge and the summits, but we aren't too sad to start down-climbing to get out of the wind. A bit of good down-climbing on the rope (good that we practice this!), and then a walk down to the bottom. Off with the gear, back to town, goodbye to L, lunch, then the drive back to Bishop.

Amusing side story throughout the day: it's cold when not climbing in th sun. L. Mentions the possibility of changing our plans for our two-day trip to do a route that has morning sun. We discuss this while she's climbing and decide, emphatically, yes!. At the next belay, as we get ready to mention this, L gets a text from the office telling her that the trailhead we were planning on using is closed due to a fire, so we'd need to change anyway. L mentions that Mt. Whitney has a great climb for cooler days since the East wall get sun early. We were just there and know how fantastic that wall is, so we agree that it'd be great to climb there if a permit is available. This seems unlikely, but L asks the office to check, says she'll think about other options, and climbs on. At the next belay L gets the text that we have permits and that we're going to climb Whitney as a plan B. :-)

No track for this one.