Eggum, but no chips!

Colin's three weeks went quite slowly - but then suddenly it was time to deliver him to the the tiny airport at Svolvaer for his return trip (which will include spending the night at Bodo airport because of the connections).
We decided to visit Eggum out on the north coast on the last day, a recently developed sport crag with about 20 routes - mostly in the harder grades. Colin cracked of three of the easier ones - up to Norwegian 7+ (about F7a) in good style, we had a wander out to view a sculpture (a strangely intriguing head on a plinth) on a foggy headland then headed for home. The shot is a montage of the sculpture from two different directions!

Up with the eagles

A couple of cool showery days came and went then it was back to hot (22 degrees) and sunny. We decided to head up to Glamtinden, I nice little peak we climb every year, and have a look at Eagle Ridge. The route was worth the effort, though some of the rock was a bit soft and crumbly. Despite this the positions are quite superb, making up somewhat fot the sections of 'iffy' rock. The views from the summit are magnificent.

Rest for the Wicked?

After over two weeks of excellent weather, we finally got a day's rain and a chance for a bit of a rest and to catch up on all the jobs that have needed doing. We have done some great routes, including High Priest (on the Priest) yesterday afternoon, getting back from just as the sky started to turn milky and the wind started to get up.

We had arranged to go out in Thorbjorn's new boat to gets some crag-shots of the Priest, but the strengthening wind and the fact that we were late down due to a jammed abseil rope (hats off to Colin for eventually extracting it from the depths of the crack) meant we decided to leave for a calmer evening!

Lofoten - reprise

Great to be back in the 'Magic Islands' and so far (3 days!) the weather has been kind, in fact almost too hot! We spent the first evening poking around Paradise, and yesterday on Pianokraken, where 8 pitches were dispatched in good order. Highlights were the excellent jamming crack of The Piano Player (6 - about HVS 5b) and the superb finger crack of Tapir (7- maybe E3 6a) - good to report Colin is going as well as ever!

Northwards

The North Sea ferry was a little bumpy (just for a change), but we arrived at Bergen OK just before sundown. A two hour drive got us to Gudvangen, where it had just stopped raining for the first time for four days - the waterfalls were spectacular - as the photo shows.
A cruise on the Nordlys, up the Norwegian coast under a clear blue sky - apparently whilst still raining in the UK - was excellent, we crossed the Arctic Circle whilst we slept and arrive in Bodo a few hours before Colin jetted, from Edinburgh via Oslo. We spent four days climbing in the area, the shot is of a typical Grade 7 route at Bratthammeran. After getting suitable rested we drove on north to Skutvik to catch the two hour ferry crossing to Lofoten - it was was clear blue and flat calm.

Pokketz Rockets Rocks!

A quick mid-week visit to Birchen was in order - Mr Gregory was desperate for a day out and his car was playing up - so I took along a copy of the brand new Pokketz guidebook to give it a quick test-drive (test-climb?).
The volume performed as expected, locating the routes was easy AND it fitted snugly in my trouser pocket. We did a dozen routes and at the end of the session the guide had performed admirably, which is more can be said for the climbers - they were a little worse for wear (combined age of 128 probably had something to do with that!). We showed the book to a few other climbers and the response was favorable - and although there may be no need to carry the book up a 10m gritstone climb there is obviously potential on mountain crags and sea cliffs - anyone for a Gogarth Pokketz?

Northern Soul

After weeks (and weeks) of dodgy weather, the weekend held the promise of something just a little better, so Friday night we skipped up to Colin's and Saturday Bruce joined us for a day on Highcliffe Nab on the North York Moors, it was a breezy squally day, with impressive shower clouds being pushed along on the wind. We only got wet once though, checked out some good routes and got all the photos I needed.
Sunday was better again, Colin had an afternoon appointment in Scotland so we galloped along to Hadrian's Buttress, and zipped up it (Severe!!!), he headed north and we walked out via the Roman Wall.

On to Causey Quarry for a bit of bouldering, one last photo-shoot, then its back on the road to Sheffield - as successful a weekend as we could have hoped for.