Day 2

We woke up to find it snowing and quite windy. Nick is feeling much better, but we've decided not to climb today. We drove south for 25km to meet Kjetil, a forester, park ranger and mountain rescue volunteer who works at the nicest municipal offices I've ever seen anywhere. He gave us coffee and biscuits in his bright, new office, then we got the maps out. He marked up the locations of quite a few climbs, enough to keep us going for at least a week, and gave us tips on climbing venues for different weather conditions. He also put us in contact with another keen climber. There is no climbing guidebook for this area of the far north, so we are very grateful for his help.

On the way back Nick discovered that the rental car we've been driving in for 2 days has 4 doors. He'd thought it had 2.

Here's a clip from yesterday.

Northern Norway - 27 Feb 2011 (day 2) from Jim on Vimeo.

Arrival and Day 1 - Kafjord

We touched down at Tromso mid-afternoon on Saturday. Stein-Are, the son of the owner of the place we are staying, met us at the airport then kindly showed us the way to a supermarket. Food shopping in a foreign country when hungry and dazed from lack of sleep is not ideal. We ended up with a trolley half-full of Norwegian snacks and hardly any fruit and veg.

We left Tromso in the wet and dark and drove for a couple of hours to Skibotn. At Strandbu Camping, Stein-Are's dad met us and showed us the cabin. It's perfect: warm (with a wood-burning stove!) and has a good shower. No freezer compartment to the fridge though, so Nick buried 2kg of frozen chicken in the snow at the side of the cabin.

Woke on Sunday morning to find a magpie trying to dig out the bag of frozen chicken from the snow. The view from the cabin's porch is out over Skibotn river as it bends towards Lyngen Fjord. It's amazingly still and quiet here after London.

After breakfast we drove north up Lyngen Fjord, scouting for ice. Turning right at Birtavarre into a valley away from the fjord, we soon saw a couple of fine-looking icefalls on the right.

We turned round and drove back to a turning and small road which took us over a river and to a parking place 150m from the bottom of the route.
We tried out the snowshoes for first time on the walk to the route. Easy.

The climb we chose (the longer one to the right in the above photo) turned out to be a 240m WI3/4, of 5 pitches. Both of us found it easy climbing technically but it was hard work. I'm not as fit as I could be, and Nick, though fit, wasn't feeling 100% well. By the time we abseiled off (5 abolokovs) and got back to the car, Nick was feeling completely drained.

Arriving back at the cabin we had a visit from Stein-Are's dad and his daughter. I like him - keen-eyed and quick to smile. The purpose of their visit was to put us in touch with a local ice climber who works in the Town Hall 25km south of Skibotn. They rang him and sorted out a meeting for the next morning. Very kind!

Do you sell slippers?

I forgot to pack slippers. As everyone knows slippers are essential kit for a climbing trip, so I scoured the shops in Gatwick airport for some.
"Do you sell slippers?" I asked the lady in Next.
"Er no. And you may have trouble finding slippers in a departure lounge"
Doh.

Weather obsession

Nick and I are becoming weather nerds, checking the excellent Norwegian MET office site every day to pore obsessively over forecast charts for northern Norway. After a longish period with temperatures around -8C and little snow it looks to be warming up a bit over the next few days, with some snow on the way.

You may not be interested but we are. Very.
We fly tomorrow, hurrah.

Tiny mountain, big adventure

Good footage of Ian Parnell and Tim Emmett climbing the hard Scottish mixed route Pick'n'Mix IX,9. I could never push the boat out that far!

Training for northern Norway: southern chalk

Nick and I are off to northern Norway at the end of February for three weeks of arctic ice climbing. Inspired by the thought (and yes, it's VERY inspiring) we threw off our festive lethargy and drove down to the south coast for a bouldering workout on the chalk cliffs.

The cliffs sheltered us from the northerly wind, and the winter sun shone on our backs. So although it was the 2nd day in January we trained in T-shirts.

Of Gods and Men

Powerful, very moving, beautifully shot and superbly acted. Go see!

New Year lessons

Good blog by Ian Parnell about keeping "life's little speed bumps" in perspective.

Cold climbs

Andy Kirkpatrick often hits the mark when he writes about climbing. His latest blog is about how today's middle-grade winter climbers can make a step up to grade 5+. His post includes this classic observation about the differences between climbing today compared with 40 or more years ago:

Buy [Cold Climbs] and sit and look at the pictures over and over. Look at the crap gear they had, cutting steps or swinging axes people wouldn't want to climb grade I gullies with. These men weren't gods, they just had balls. You on the other hand are also not a god, but to those guys you'd look like the ice climbing version of Predator; decked out with alien technology curved axes and mono points, boots that together weigh less than one of theirs, and clothing that you could nip up Everest with - not to mention 8.5mm dry coated ropes, cams, nuts, ice hooks, tri cams, helmets, GPS, up to the second weather and avalanche forecasts and UKC posts about conditions. So instead of flicking through Cold Climbs and looking how hard all the routes look, just think about the outrageous advantage you have over those guys. Frankly it's cheating.

Penshurst Place

On Sunday I took a train down to Leigh, in Kent, and set off to walk through the snow to Penshurst. The walk takes you up a short hill and onto a ridge with views into a valley to the south. Soon a great house comes into sight, lying in the valley surrounded by fields and low hills.

I'm not a great frequentor of stately homes but the old house at Penshurst is fascinating. Parts of the house are medieval, but it was extended in the time of Elizabeth I. Other parts were added later but the house retains its ancient character. The great hall (below) was built in 1341 and is completely unaltered.


In the grounds is an old oak tree. Ben Jonson claimed that it was planted at the time of the birth (in the house) of Philip Sidney, the Elizabethan poet, in 1554. The tree is now known to be much older - nearly a thousand years old. It may have been a sapling at the time of the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066. Certainly the oak was already at least a century old when the original house was being built in the twelfth century.

Here's a short video I took on my walk:

Jeff Lowe documentary

I'll definitely be getting this film about the life and climbs of Jeff Lowe when it comes out. More information, and an opportunity to back the project here.

Miso soup

There's nothing more warming, healthy, and homely than a bowl of miso soup. Perfect after a day in the snow. Here's a recipe for 4:

1. Grind 100g toasted white sesame seeds in a pestle and mortar until sticky, almost like a paste.

2. Heat 800ml dashi stock in a saucepan. Before it comes to a boil, add 300g soft/silken tofu, tearing it into pieces first.

3. Gradually add 4-5 tablespoons of awase miso, stirring until dissolved.

4. Add the sesame paste to the soup and stir in well.

5. Bring almost to the boil then remove from the heat. Serve sprinkled with some ground sesame seeds and, if available a sancho leaf or some finely sliced spring onion.

So simple.

In our house we're working our way through a fine cookbook by Harumi Kurihara called Everyday Harumi: Simple Japanese Food for Family and Friends. Thoroughly recommended.

A snowy day in London

I woke up this morning to find fox tracks in fresh snow in the back garden.

For someone who doesn't know what London's foxes are like, that opening sentence might conjure up a bit too romantic an image. City foxes here live on mouldy frankfurters and other stuff from bins. They smell pungent and earthy like the old tramps you sometimes find sleeping on the Tube. But they are truly wild, and when you meet them under the street lamps at night they're likeable for their insouciance. So it was a good to see that a fox had been about.

After doing some work this morning I walked through Green Park to Piccadilly to do some Christmas shopping in the West End. Green Park is one of my favourite London parks, and it was lovely under snow today. Here's a short video from the walk.

Snowy day in London 18/12/10 from Jim on Vimeo.

Extreme soloing

Just seen this video of Alex Huber climbing Hasse Brandler, without ropes.

At one point he tests a hold with his fist to see whether it's attached to the face, before pulling on it. Terrifying.

Snow (1963)

Britain is in deep freeze at the moment. Here's a good seasonal video, made for British Railways, showing what things were like in 1963.