I have been skiing above the Artic Circle for the last 8 days with John and Fiona Fells, Steve and Brenda Smith and Brian Crosby. We all met in Tromso and started the week with a warm up ski on Stor Kjolen a nice peak close to Tromso on Saturday we transferred to the extremely comfortable Lyngen Lodge. The lodge has been set up by British Guide Graham Austick built on the edge of Lyngen Fjord the lodge has a boat on hand to access the local skiing or you can just skin from the back door. We started our week by taking the boat to the island of Uloya where we skinned up Kjelvagtinden, we had thick cloud on the summit so we didn't reach the main summit as it eould have involved navigating between two big cornices. On Monday we skinned from the back of the lodge, we were planning to cross a col south of Storhaugen but the wind had picked up loading our planned descent with wind slab so we decided to ski back the way we had come. It still gave a great descent. Tuesday we were back in the boat heading across the Fjord to the Strapbreen Glacier, we skiied up this to just below Tofeltinden where we were defeated by the wind,. The cloud closed in just as we took our skins off so we skied much of the descent on a compass bearing. We had some fresh snow to play with on Wednesday so we practised our transceiver training then headed onto Storhaugen behind the lodge. On Thursday and Friday we had poor weather but great snow so we drove round to nRotsund and skiied in the trees making a number of great descents. Some of the team headed out on the boat after skiing and caught some cod which we are looking forward to dinner this evening.
Skiing in Lyngen Alps, Arctic Norway from Bruce Goodlad on Vimeo.
I have been in Rjukan in Norway this week climbing with Andy and Kat Congleton, we were joined by there 6 month old daughter Ellen. The plan was that Andy and Kat would alternate climbing with me and looking after Ellen, this worked really well for them getting a rest every other day but my arms were a bit tired by the end of the week. Rjukan has loads of really accessible ice falls at all grades most of the routes are only 1 or 2 pitches so you can climb a few in a day. The temperature during our stay was unseasonably mild making for damp but soft friendly ice conditions we just had to make sure we chose big stable structures to climb. Andy and I started the week at the ice cragging venue of Kroken we climbed a number of variations on Bullen then the steeper Gaustaspokelse before heading to ultra roadside route Svingfoss. On Mon Kat and I headed into the gorge climbing superb Nye Vemorkfoss Kats first WI5 we also climbed the left variant Bakveinen. The temperature was so warm that some of the snow bridge we had crossed on the way into the gorge had melted so we climbed Lattvann in 2 rope stretch pitches to escape. Tue Andy and I headed o the outlying area of Kong Vitner we climbed the classic of the crag Kong Vitner, Andy wasnt feeling to great so we headed back to the ranch for a change of partner Kat and I headed out and climbed Svingfoss. Wed kat and I started with Vemork Ost then drove up to Kroken where we climbed a couple of variations on Jomfrua then the superb Fyrstikka. Thursday Andy and I climbed Vemork Ost then abseiled into Nye Vemorkfossen climbing the left variant as well. Still feeling really keen we went o Kroken where Andy discovered the problem with leash less tools if you fall off and let them go you may struggle to climb back up to them luckily there was a handy Spaniard to through up a spare. Kat and I went back to Kong Vitner on Fri climbing Kong Vitner and Silikon, andy and I climbed the classic Trapfoss on Sat which was a bit wet but great. Kat and I had a quick morning at Kroken before we headed for the plane.