After a long day travelling yesterday we had a bit of a slow start this morning. So that we could make the most of the day, and get used to being on ice again we headed to the friendly single pitch venue of the Krokan.
I spent the day climbing with David, while 4 others had a days tuition at the same crag. We had a good day with lots of fat ice, although some of it was a bit drippy.
We started the day climbing the classic route Bullen, as there were already a few other teams on it we just went up the last free line which was one of the steeper finishes. This provided interesting climb and was an excellent way to get back into ice climbing.
After this finding route which were not busy was a bit challenging, so we walked down the crag and ended up climbing ice which looked good around the WI5 Unkown route. With the current fat ice conditions none of these route were WI5 but one of the routes started to feel a bit more tough and pumpy which was great.
By this point it was well into the afternoon so we headed back to our bags for lunch, but couldn’t avoid climbing a classic WI4 , Gaustaspøkelse, on the way as it was free. This turned out to be a fantastic route with sustained climbing up the first half, to a steep but solid finale.
After this we ate some food and finished the day by climbing another WI4 classic of Jomfura. David stuck to the RHS of the route to climb one of the steeper lines, this turned out to be surprisingly steep and was an excellent pumpy finish to the day.
Gearing up before climbing one of the ‘Unknown’ Ice Pillars
The others on Bullen
Me leading Gaustapøkelse
David on Jomfura
Looking down Krokan
Great scenary
Tired at the end of the day
Rjukan is still on my wishlist! ?