Quite possibly the best trip of the year!
Arrived Saturday and booked in at the Rjukan Gjestegard – nice place but not the best drying room. Temperatures a very mild 1° or 2°C.
Sunday – a visit to the Lower Gorge, which should have been an easy 10 minute walk in but somehow took us nearly an hour as the river wasn’t frozen. None of the ice was formed here but we did find a WI 2 50m pitch which delivered us back up to the road. A quick drive up the road to Krokan, and a 10 minute walk in gave us more ice than we have ever seen in Scotland in 10 years. By the end of the day, we concluded that if we didn’t climb anything else, it was still a more successful trip than all the Scottish trips put together.
Monday – A late start to avoid the rain got us to the start of the 3 star route, Bolgen (WI 3, 5 pitches, 200m). Quite imposing and a big day for all of us. Once we got to the top, we then made 4 abseils back down to the base, avoiding advice to abseil from trees on the right (which didn’t look ideal really).
Tuesday – a lot colder today so a relaxed drive to Ozzimosis and a 5 minute walk in to find another perfect location. Lots of low and medium grade ice and all very accessible. Best story of the day goes to Thomas, who took a lead fall on Ozzimosis (WI 4), to find his dropped axe sticking out of his helmet after asking the immortal words, “Where’s my axe?”…
Wednesday – return home.
Points to note – A brilliant location and very easy access to a lot of ice. The single pitch nature of many of the venues mean any Club members would find a lot of success here, with big easy routes also accessible for all. Rjukan is bigger than we expected and there is plenty to do on a rest day if required. The only thing to improve was the drying room at the hostel, so the next trip might spend some time finding an alternative.
