Northern Lights

Colin packed off home (a super easy flight back to Newcastle) so it is time to head North in search of those mysterious lights that glow at midnight just over the horizon. We hopped aboard the Hurtigruten (Fast Route) boat at Trondheim and sailed north. It is an incredibly civilised way to travel, and damn expensive unless you are careful. With it being peak season there were no cabins available, but there was car and deck-space which was good enough for us.
In the event there was a cancellation and we landed a 'suite' for £70 - about a 20% of the going rate - SD comes up trumps again.
Sailing up the coast is a great way to see the amazing array of undeveloped rock that forms Norway's west coast.

Nissedal - a nice Dale!

A great 10 days up in Nissedal draws to a close, it was busy last weekend (National holiday) and this one too (another National holiday!!!). In between the place has been pretty much deserted. The weather has been kind, a bit too hot to begin with, then cooling down nicely. We have done a host of great routes from single pitch sporty routes, to some fine six pitch offerings on the bigger cliffs.
The second bank holiday caught us unawares, with no cash to pay the campsite and little left in the larder. Hopefully tomorrow we can pay our bills and escape, heading off towards Colin's flight home on Thursday. Beyond that we have a ferry from Trondheim to Bodø booked, though the E6 is blocked by floodwaters - could be interesting!

Nine out of Ten!

It finally rained yesterday, up to that point we had climbed nine days out of ten and to be honest I was starting to wither, and that wasn't just because of the heat. Of course Colin just cruises on and I try to keep up as best I can.
The week+ in the Drammen area was really excellent with a lot of quality cliffs, probably Muserud was the highlight (photo left). Then on the way to Nissedal we stopped at a crag called Espedaled near Bø and it was great, though sheltered in the forest it was almost unbearably hot. The place is already pencilled in for a return visit on the way back to the airport.
Nissedal is a superb as ever; it was busy over the weekend, with Ascension Day on Thursday and Sweden's National Day on Monday the place was pretty busy with lots of folks making a long weekend. It has all gone quiet again now though. We visited a small sport crag on Saturday as we thought the bigger cliffs might be busy. As it turned out there was a team of 10 jolly Swedes there. Unannounced and out of the blue one of them piped up "We thought you guys would be up on Haegarfjell" - apparently they had been reading my Blog - it is a small world!

Keeping a Weather Eye Open

Colin arrived late Thursday and the weather has been pretty mixed, though we have managed to climb three days out of the four, and by keeping one eye on the sky we have managed to stay dry. The cliffs are varied but all share superb rock, fantastic settings and a high level of fixed gear. The forecast is superb so in a couple of days we are heading over towards Nissedal. The distant view from yesterday’s crag revealed plenty of snow up in them thar hills - might be interesting!

The weather has perked up it was 25C today (Friday 3 June) which was a bit of a shock. More great cliffs and brilliant routes!

Its a Breeze

Right that's it: the top-box is attached, car loaded to the gunwales with camping gear, climbing gear, fishing gear, tinned food, a couple of crates of booze plus all the kind of 'stuff' that a long trip to somewhere expensive requires. We are not sure where Colin is going to fit when he arrives. Peak Limestone is handed over, the past month has pretty much tidied it up.
Oddly for late May gales are forecast tomorrow (Harwich to Esbjerg) and Tuesday (Hirtshalls to Larvik) - oh bugger!

Home and Away

It is a month since we got back from Spain, which can only mean one thing; it is time to get back on the road. It has been very pleasant being back home, climbing on a regular basis with 'the team', a mixture of Grit, Lime and Indoors. Plus I have pressed on with Peak Limestone which is starting to look like a proper book - out for the summer hopefully.
We have manage to fit a top-box on the STi (the petrol heads at Halfords were amused) and we have Colin booked for three weeks (Newcastle to Oslo £10 return!!) so it is back to our 2nd (or is it 3rd) home - Norway. No return date fixed.

Back to My Routes

A few days on the grit were great and no harder than expected, which was pretty hard really! Condition were generally excellent and we managed to avoid the rather battering and chilly east wind by picking cliffs that faced away from it. Bamford was a brilliant as ever and quite busy too, there was a continuous stream of folks up the classics, and I was pleased to see that at least on of my routes (Reach VS 4c) was proving popular.
There were a couple of German climbers there - who were grabbing a few last route before getting the Hull to Rotterdam boat home that evening. It turned out we 'rescued' them in Lofoten a few years ago when their abseil rope got jammed. Small world!
Burbage South was another great day, the crag dry but just a bit crusty and skiddy in places. Graham Dragged me up Millwheel Wall (E1 5b) a route that used to be a regular solo of mine - that felt really tough. It brought to mind the 1st time I did it back in about 1975, Steve Warwick belayed be whilst I top-roped it a couple of times, then I soloed it. I looked back down the route from the final jugs to see him hot on my heels - "you made it look so easy" was his reason for the audacious solo!
By early evening I was in the clutches of the grimmest cold I have had for years, it has taken me a week to get over it - maybe that's why the routes felt so hard!