Picture above: Some of our head gear

Down gear

Kind of obvious. You need plenty of it. In addition to sleeping bag and jacket, there’s a need for down pants, camp booties, mitts and jacket. All of mine are made by Valandré: Odin sleeping bag, Immelman jacket, Oural mitts, Olan booties and Baffin pants.

Face protection

Extreme winds combined with cold requires pretty trough face / head protection. I will be using Untraced Backbrez mask and Thermarider hat together with Spy Soldier goggles. While these will provide 100% protection, I’m a bit worried about the ease of breathing with the mask on as well as condensation. However as the mask warms up the air, it should compensate the ease of breathing quite a bit. Furthermore warming up effect of in-hailed air should make a big difference in terms of warmth.

Boots

I’m skiing up with Dynafit ZZero4 C-TFs. I’m using the standard Palau liner, though my colleague has resorted to the Intuition Pro Tour liners. In addition we’re wearing Fortybelow Fresh Tracks over boots – a really crucial addition to warmth in cold conditions. One of more curious additions are the Exped VBL socks (VBL = Vapor Barrier Liner), which will keep the boots dry. As they’re a bit uncomfortable (like standing in a knee deep in sweat) I’m not yet sure if I’m going to wear these through out the expedition. I will start with them in any case. Closed cell foam should stay warm even when a bit wet and there’s always the option of keeping the boots on while sleeping.

A few more gear images:

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Picture above: Heading up to the Stortoppen, mask is Untraced

We parked our car to the parking lot near Riksem mountain station. The Akka and Akkastugan our accommodation pretty much at same level across the lake. For some reason both of us had more or less depicted the crossing as fairly short, 3 kilometers long perhaps. After first hour of skiing we started wondering why isn’t the shore on the opposite side coming any closer? After second hour it became obvious; there was a “slight” underestimation with the distance. Worse still we had left all the water at the car to save weight, after all we were not supposed to need any during such a short crossing… obviously. After three hours we finally reached the shore… of couple of islands; still at least one third of the distance to go. In short it was kind of long thirsty crossing carrying heavy rucksacks. Despite this my friend Juho S. (yes we share the same first name) felt fit enough to take a short 2h tour to the top behind the cottage.

Our first morning at Akkastugan was clear and as a result we decided to head up to our main target, the highest peak at Akka, Stortoppen (translation: Big peak). Weather was pretty okay until we reached the saddle and for a moment it seemed to be clearing up entirely at that point. Instead by the time we had gotten off the skis there was a total white out. No problem, reached the summit, hanged around a while waiting for better weather which never came and skied down. There were couple spots of good snow and skiing was fairly straight forward. Overall roughly 8h trip.

Second day was a lot more snowy. As forecast promised better weather by the evening we took the morning in pretty relaxed manner and left the cottage by 11. The goal was to get ourselves to the Dubbeltoppen double diamond line or to the glacier next to it that was supposed to have plenty of good snow. And it actually had. We ended up going up to the other glacier. There were heavy avalanche marks all around, but as the conditions at the time seemed relatively safe decided to go all the way up. The glacier ends into wide and fairly steep bowl, which together with the fairly narrow ravine, where all that snow gets directed explains the avalanche marks well. The snow in the bowl was really good and we were able to find good stripes all the way down, but the white out made the skiing a bit difficult.

Picture above: Posing in Mammut gear after the glacier trip.

The third skiing day then was the stormy one. Björn, the warden of the Akkastugan, looked at us bit weird when we said we’re heading up in any case. It was snowing and forecast expected winds well over 20m/s. This time we headed up to dubbel toppen. While our route was somewhat protected, it was still very windy. Even worse there was some sort of underfrozen water flying around that covered our goggles and made the visibility in white out really bad. It wasn’t good without the ice, but with the ice almost zero. Couldn’t even see my feet clearly. In any case we were able to get to the top, or to be accurate perhaps 10-15 meters from it; the ridge ended into a huge snow bulge that would have required some climbing gear + snow protection. Very good gear testing for Mt. Logan in deed.

Finally, one tip: There’s a guy who lives in odd looking building just before Riksem mountain station. He can take you over the lake with a snowmobile, costs about 35€/person… we used his services on our way back. Pretty interesting snowmobile ride. The sides of the sled were about 10cm high, and the guy didn’t shy with the speed.

Picture above: Our snowmobile ride back to Riksem.

More information

• Akka at wikipedia

Location details

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A few images from the trip below:

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Picture above: Maija and Tuomas after a climb in Tamokdalen

We camped in river side at Tamok valley next to three easy access ice falls (+ a few more down the valley). As the falls were close, you could unload all the camping gear directly for the car and there was good access to fresh water from the river, I consider it almost ideal camping spot in Tamok valley. In my books it’s one despite the frequent snowplough trucks driving nearby road and avalanche prone slope across the road (just be a bit wary on heavy snow deposits on top of the slope, it depends on wind conditions and snowfall + there are avalanche fences that will certainly keep the smaller avalanches on the other side of the road).

The first day we went ski touring. We planned to go to into famous bowl in actual Tamok valley (that goes into mountains), but miss red the map and ended up in to valley before it. It’ wasn’t a bad though. The weather was ok, and we found fairly good profiled slope with enough height difference and good snow from there too. We also had time to do some reconnaissance around the Ljyngen and spotted dozens of good quality climbs and possible touring targets from there.

Next day we climbed the long ice fall down the valley. It involved couple of complications; My first lead fall during the trip + we ended up into right stream instead of left one where we aimed. So we had to make fairly long running belay, belay from a large stone + some rock protection to reach the top of the fall. I had my helmet camera on, unfortunately it had ran out of battery long before the most exciting parts.

Durign the three remaining days we spent the first climbing one of the falls on opposite side of the stream; a straight forward two pitch climb; second by longer ski touring trip to the Tamok valley and third climbing an easy ice fall closer to Skibotn (and taking my second lead fall). The ski touring trip to the Tamok valley was really a success. We actually found the valley we were looking for and it was exactly as good as it is said to be. There’s a huge powder bowl, that seems to be well enough protected to accumulate and hold good snow almost in any circumstances. The skiing was excellent and it made me easy to agree on those accounts that praise Tamok as one of their favorite ski touring spots.

Along with the two lead falls I “enjoyed” during the trip, there was this huge realization of the fact that how well the ice climbing and ski touring compliments each other; Ice climbing is much less weather and visibility dependent than ski touring. So you can spend the “bad weather” days climbing ice and those sunny full visibility days ski touring the peaks.

Location details

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A few images from the trip below:

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While the east ridge is famous for its views we decided to stick with less technical King’s Trench route. Majority of our group just felt more comfortable doing the accent by skis, which is not possible using the east ridge. The expedition will take roughly 20 days. It is part of the Mammut‘s 150 project, the other four sponsors are Untraced, Adventure Partners, Flagmore and my own company Tribevine (sort of obvious). Obviously we’re looking for couple of sponsors more. If you know any potential ones just let me know.

For those of you who don’t know Mt. Logan is not just the highest mountain of Canada, it’s also the second highest in North America. It’s has the largest base circumference of any non-volcanic mountains and the massif has eleven peaks over 5000 meters. Furthermore, the height differences between the base and the peaks are truly magnificent, over 3000 meters. The Kluane National park, where Mount Logan is located, is also one of the UNESCO world heritage sites with huge glaciers. Mt. Logan is said to be the coldest place in the northern hemisphere and it holds the “unofficial” record of cold; -75.5 degrees in Celsius. Indeed, we’re expecting temperatures well below -30 degrees in Celsius. Overall Mt. Logan is simply an extraordinary place on earth.

While the ice climbing season starts to be over the winter seems to be expanding for me a couple of months longer. In short these are exciting times. Stay tuned, I will be posting some mountain gear posts as well as other stuff related to Logan expedition later on.

Our current sponsors:

More information:

• Mt. Logan at Wikipedia
• Mammut Peaks Project Mt. Logan expedition page

Location details:

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Supposedly lead falls on ice are serious events that one should be scared of and avoided at all cost. Still, instead of fright my immediate reaction was an anger to myself; “Fuck, how the hell did I get my self here?!? I’ll get my self up there!”. Yes, I agree, they can be serious, but not necessarily. Having said this, taking lead falls on ice are still definitely off from my agenda. Based on my own three experiences however, it all depends on many variables. This article tries to go through some of that stuff.

Why did I fall

First of all, the falls were not because the climbs were overly difficult nor above my usual limits. So why did I fall then? They were, as usual, mixture of several things. Here’s a recap.

Fifi hook – On first of the two falls, I really screwed it up. I got pumped and clipped my self to my other axe (I’ll get to point why I got pumped a little later). However I didn’t unclip before I started to move my axe. As a result I couldn’t (obviously) hit far enough and strong enough to get a good placement. The obvious question is why? I don’t know for sure. It perhaps felt somewhat difficult or I just forgot. As a result, I smacked my axe next to my other axe and both of them broke loose.

Cracking ice – The reason why both of my axes broke loose on my first fall ever was ice that due to very low temperatures (and rapid changes) cracked easily. Easily cracking ice (due to temperature changes) was a contributing factor that realized my error with the fifi hook into a fall as well on my second fall. It also was the main reason on my third fall. Though instead of “just cracking”, ice was more of a dinnerplating type. This is not just an obvious explanation (of course it cracked), but a fact that I remember of thinking of several times before the falls, i.e. that the ice is cracking unusually easily.

So in each of the three cases ice has been unusually easily cracking. While it’s a bit speculation, I think that each time ice cracked a bit differently and for a bit different reason. In first, it was because of very low temperatures (-30 degrees in Celsius or so), which resulted long cracks and fairly large blocks of ice. On second time, it wasn’t that cold, but there was a history of temperature changes behind. As a result, there were some tension between layers of ice – formation however was fairly uniform and there wasn’t very recent flow of water there. Again, it resulted fairly large blocks of cracking ice. On a third time, the ice was formed more of clearly distinguishable layers due the more continuous water flow on different temperatures. This ice dinnerplated very easily.

Low energy balance – During both of those recent falls I had kind of low energy balance. On first of them, it was our fourth pitch and I hadn’t eaten anything during the climb; even worse, I had left the heavily sugared tea that I always carry while climbing, untouched. In fact, the climb included pretty tedious approach and I didn’t eat anything energetic between the approach and the climb. Just a one cup of tea. Now wonder I wasn’t at my best. On second of them, the situation wasn’t as bad. I had a cup of tea and handful of nuts before we started the climb. However I had really bad breakfast; just a cup of tea and single slice of bread.

I presume that due to the low energy balance I ended getting pumped more easily than usually. I also presume that it kind of lowered my mental state, i.e. awareness and decision making. Not dramatically, but just enough to do the trick.

Non optimal route – Last one of my falls was also partly caused (though much lesser degree) because of poor route reading. Well, not really route reading, I were exactly were I wanted to be, but it just happened to be a poor position. Funny enough, I knew it before I got there. There were some crust and soft snow underneath steep pillar I was planning to climb. On right hand side there was a route that had first short steep section and then a good good rest between two pillars and some icicles. As I wasn’t feeling super energetic, I decided to use the “rest-route” instead of directly tackling the pillar. But due to shape of the pillar and the icicles above it was very difficult to move on from my rest position, especially it was difficult to get good placements for my feet.

I’m certain that it would had worked much better, if I would have negotiated the pillar directly from the front. All unnecessary complications, especially the ones that one takes to move some difficult part further ahead, make it even more difficult. I’ve been in such “between pillars – under icicles” spot before. Getting off from there were equally difficult.

Why I didn’t hurt my self

While there certainly was a bit of luck involved, it wasn’t just luck. So what were the “not just luck” factors then? As usual there were several.

Protection – In each of the falls I have been relatively little above the last piece of protection. At first time it was about four meters I guess. On these later ones I fell just, perhaps a meter or so, above the protection. Furthermore there has always been several pieces of protection between me and the belayer. As a result each of them have been low fall factor falls. Also all of the screws I fallen into have been well placed on very solid ice.

No ledges below – I have newer fallen on a ledge. On the first fall it was nearly vertical ice wall, and on two others nearly vertical wall transitioning fairly softly into a slope covered with thick soft snow. On first fall I got some minor bruises due to hitting the ice, but rope stretch covered most of the impact force. On those two others the landing was even softer; partly because of the snow and partly because of very elastic half ropes (Beal Ice Line).

Other observations

While falling I had a interesting chance to observe some of the safety features of gear. As I had placed my e-climb dissip screamer (not because I needed one, but because it was at hand) on top most protection while taking first of these recent falls, I now have some first hand experience of them as well. First of all, the screamer didn’t open a bit. It is not surprising as I had two or three screws below me. While the snowy slope below me, as well as short distance to the screw had something to do with it I now take it more or less proven that you only need to place screamers on your first or second piece of protection – after all I had enough meters (20 or so) to go down and the rope stretched so smoothly and so long that it’s pretty obvious that rope did the work here.

What else? Spring leashes didn’t cause damage. On second fall I didn’t even loos my grab of the axes, on first one my axes spiked me a little, but not seriously. I think that due to inertia that’s taking the climber and his axes into same direction they’re unlikely to hit badly. Obviously getting axe between you and a ledge would be serious, but again I consider it pretty unlikely event (it would somehow need to get stuck spiking upwards just before you’ll hit it – newer heard of such fall). I also noticed that clippers are kind of weak point. One of mine got clipped into one of the ropes while I was falling. As a result it partly ripped of the clipper slot on my harness and I lost three screws.

Update 14.4.2011: Well, it seems that there’s a mental penalty that struck me with a delay. During the next climbing trip after the fall which we did to Korouoma, I noticed that it was a lot more difficult to take a lead on steep ice and keep my head together while leading. It took enormous hassle and good push – stuck series -type of climbing to lead the brown river. Actually, now when I think about it, it happened also after my first fall – I’ve hated cracking ice ever since.

About the topic elsewhere

• Ice Climbing is not Rock Climbing – An article that talks about lead falls on ice and how it’s different there than on rock by Will Gadd
• Fall – A HD video that describes one lead fall on ice on Vimeo. Well made one.
• Jen Olson’s fall – A video that shows Jen Olson’s recent fall onto a ledge on youtube. Looks very painful and is a good reminder about the ledges. Take a look at her blog as well, where she talks about it more. Fortunately Jen is recovering well.

Picture above: That’s Lipton – WI7

Overview to the area

It seems that quite a few of the grades in Rjukan are “softish” compared to what I’ve seen in some other places (there are exceptions and conditions change quite a bit). Despite this Rjukan offers a great variety of climbs. There’s practically everything you can imagine from super long super easy WI2 / WI3 routes to super hard overhanging multi-pitch WI 7 and mixed routes. The climbing areas are:

• Krokan
• Upper Gorge
• Vermork Bridge
• Lower Gorge
• Rjukan Center
• Svadde
• Gausta
• Ozzimosis
• Bølgen
• Mael
• Jailhouse
• Kong Vinter
• Persenol
• Hovinøle

The most popular climbing areas are located a bit up from the town center near old Powerplant next to Vemork Bridge. In addition to ice park there’s literally dozens and dozens of falls around area. For instance areas of Krokan, Upper Gorge, Vemork Bridge and Lower Gorge are located practically within walking distance from there. Also some of the most prominent climber accommodations are located in that area. Typically the falls in these climbing areas are 2-4 pitches long, and graded between WI4 and WI7. There are also plenty of mixed routes in there.

In addition to shops, services (guide + gear shop) and accommodation Rjukan center also offers a great variety of climbs. The longer ones tend to be on the side of Gaustatoppen. You don’t have to stay on one side of the valley though, the other side is equally well equipped from this perspective. City center area is followed by Svadde. Some of the longest routes in Rjukan area, such as Gausta Marathon and Gausta Halv Marathon are there just across the river. Gausta area is located higher up above these two areas and has a series of short one pitch falls along with couple of longer ones. Before Gausta there’s a area called Ozzimosis, that hosts several one pitch WI2 – WI4 routes. Gausta and Ozzimosis areas are accessed through the road that goes up just before Rjukan Center, the road is well visible from the main road. Further down the river there’s Bølgen that hosts a horde of falls varying from 5 pitches long WI 7 to 2 pitches of WI3. Higher up in the area there are couple of short hard ice routes as well (M7 to WI5). Further on the lake side there’s two more areas Mael and Jailhouse. Mael is a barrel-type of wally that has one of the most shocking looking WI6 pillars I’ve seen (there’s water flowing inside it). Finally there’s the “outskirts”, i.e. Kong Vinter, Presenil and Hovinøle areas. While I don’t know too much about the last two, Kong Winter offers within reasonable approach good variety of short 1 to 2 pitches long climbs graded between WI4 and WI5. I could imagine though, that one could come up with harder variations with some mixed stuff there as well.

Getting there

We traveled Rjukan by car; First an over night boat from Helsinki to Stockholm, then straight forward 9h drive to Rjukan. Return in similar fashion, but a day boat from Stockholm to Turku. There are several other options as well. Most people fly to Oslo and hire a car from there. Most major airlines fly to Oslo, as well as several cheap ones, such as Norwegian (they btw. have a free WiFi in most of their air planes). From Oslo it’s about 3 hours drive to Rjukan. The travel is also pretty straight forward process by public transportation. You can do it either by train-buss combination or exclusively by buss. Buses run several times a day.

Accommodation

We stayed in Climb Inn. Climb Inn is excellent place for an ice climber and offers very good price quality ratio. In my opinion one of the best price quality rations in Nordics. The owner is friendly, cooks good food and is an ice climber as well. As a result the place has all the things ice climber could wish for; a drying room (which actually works), a bar, good food (three course dinners), fellow climbers, climbing books, Petzl / E-climb ice axe test center (where you get a test axe for a day for FREE) and a reasonably priced hot tub. Besides, all of the good stuff described above, is in recently renovated very sympathetic old Norwegian two story building that’s located next to gorge with dozens of ice falls. If you’re getting there, you should probably consider Climb Inn if there’s room.

Picture above: The paradice down stairs of Climb Inn.

In addition to Climb Inn, there are several other options too; handful full of inns, hostels, cottages, even couple of hotels. There are a few DNT (Den Norske Turistförening) mountain stations and cabins in the area as well as several camping areas. So you have plenty of options. Additionally, as in all the nordic countries there’s a thing called “every mans’ right”, camping in the woods is an option. Generally speaking you’re allowed to erect a tent for short periods of time practically anywhere you wish, provided that you do behave, do not litter and it’s not someones backyard or a public park within city limits. Btw. also Climb Inn provides camping option.

Our climbs

The first day we spent at Mael, which offers four easier falls varying from 4 to 2 pitches and a really striking looking Haugsfossen; a free hanging pillar with water flowing inside of it. There are two possibilities for approach. Either using the road that gradually goes up from the lake side to the gorge (the official approach route) or direct route. While on good snow conditions the direct route might be faster with snowshoes or skis, the official one is perhaps more “secure”. We climbed Isroser Vest route. That’s a pretty straightforward WI 4 climb, though perhaps on easier side of WI4s. First pitch was easy ice as the first few parts of second pitch. The third pitch started with some steeper stuff. We probably could have done it in three pitches, but as there was a bit uncertainty of how long the rope would reach we did it in four.

Picture above: Haugfossen, amazing (and dangerous) free hanging pillar water flowing inside of it – WI6

The second day was dedicated to Bölgen Area. We chose 4 pitches long WI 4 climb called To Menn og et Foster. It was pretty straightforward climb. Firs,t one pitch of steeper ice, followed by easier pitch and another steep one. The final pitch consisted of shorter deep section, long snow section followed by another steeper section. As it was a very long pitch, we did part of the snow and later steep section in running belay configuration. While the climb was straight forward, rappel down was not. While the rappelling spot was easy to spot, it was just in the middle of woods. Real pain in the ass to get the ropes through that. We reverted back to nearby fall called Bölgen, and used the trees and slab on the side of it. Unfortunately our ropes got stuck on our final rappel and I had to solo it half way up, while it wasn’t too difficult nor dangerous it took plenty of time. Thinking it it would probably been faster to do it using abalakovs.

On the third and fourth day we spent at the upper gorge. Among other things Upper Gorge hosts one of the Rjukan classics, Lipton; a 4 pitches long WI7 climb… and it’s not just one pitch that’s WI7, there are no easy pitches in Lipton. As Lipton was a bit too much for us we climbed four others. Sabotörfossen, Trappfoss Verdens Ende and Juledagsfossen. First one was the Verdens Ende, a 3 pitch long WI 5 climb opposite side of the Lipton. There’s one steep section, followed by some snow and low angled ice. The fall ends to really nice steep section that goes on the side of a large stone. Second one was Juledagsfossen, a 3 pitches WI 4 climb. The initial section is steep, followed by some fairly thin ice (we had slight problems putting in protection there). Second pitch is easy ice with one steeper section in the end. The final pitch starts with low angled ice, but ends up to steep pillar. We chose the large pilar in middle as the ice got pretty thin on left. Next day it was Trappfoss’s turn. We did the first two pitches snow and easy ice on running belay. The final pitch was steeper. During the day it snowed a lot and Trappfoss seems to be pretty prone to small avalanches (one of those caused a minor hand injury on Jaakko. There are also couple of sections on the gorge below that seem to enjoy avalanches more than other. The final climb in Upper Gorge was truly splendid and varied 3 pitch WI5 climb called Sabotörfossen. First an easy pitch (Tuomo soloed it), then varied but steeper pitch and the final pilar on top of that. Truly a great climb, recommended. For approach there’s two options. If you’re going to Lipton or Verdens Ende choose the parking next to the Tunnel. It is easy to spot on the right side straight after the tunnel as is the rappel line down next to a large sign near tunnel. While we rappelled one could have probably walked it down as well. Second option is to walk using the path that starts from Climb Inn / Ice Park parking down to the gorge and follow it up the river. For instance Juvsöyla, Sabotörfossen and Trappfoss are easier to approach using this route.

Picture above: King Kong, WI5, One of those that did not go as planned

The final day we head out to Kong Vinter, which is a climbing area a bit further up to the lake and river departing from there. Drive was straightforward as was spotting the parking as well as the approach to the gorge (there’s first a bridge, then old house from where you just go down to the gorge). For some reason, I don’t know if we were tired or what, sending did not go as planned for any of us. The first one was Dronninga, a 2 pitches long WI4 climb (though from our stand it was just 1 pitch). It took three trials to get up. The second one was a huge WI5 pillar called King Kong, that was almost the entire pitch long and really steep pillar. I had to back off from it when I had done about 2/3 of it. So it took two trials as well. Despite the drawbacks it was good day and at least I enjoyed the climbs. While we already had climbed quite a bit, thus a bit tired, I feel that grades are a bit harder in Kong Vinter area than on other areas we climbed in.

The verdict

So, is it really as good as they say? Simply put yes, it is an excellent place. You have climbs with all possible grades, fairly easy access to the spots, good topos, plenty of fellow climbers as well as infrastructure supporting ice climbing. I’ve heard that Rjukan gets pretty crowded during the peak season, late February – March, during the early season however that’s not a problem. On the other hand there are plenty of other places with equally good climbs, less crowds and large concentration of ice falls, but as said the “combo” of Rjukan is pretty unique, compared to what I’ve seen previously at least. As I tend to avoid crowds while climbing, Rjukan perhaps won’t become my number 1 destination, but I’m sure that I’ll visit Rjukan again quite frequently.

Resources

General info & topos

• VisitNorway.com / Rjukan
• Rjukan in 27crags.com
• Heavy Water – Rockfax topo to the Rjukan
• Bus schedules – timetables for buss, go all the way from Oslo directly or change to bus from train in Notodden
• Train schedules – You can’t get directly to Rjukan by train anymore, but you can change to the buss at Notodden

Accommodation

• Climb Inn – Comfortable inn next to Vemork Bridge area and Rjukan ice park
• Rjukan.co.uk – Apartments near Vemork Bridge area and Rjukan ice park
• Old School Hostel Rjukan – Climber focused hostel in Bølgen area
• Rjukan Hytteby – Cabins near city center
• Rjukan Gjestgård – Hostel near city center
• Rjukan Hytte-og Caravanpark – A kind of camping near Bølgen area
• Gaustatoppen Booking – site with plenty of cabins and apartments for hire in Gaustatoppen area
• Park Hotell Rjukan – A hotel in center of Rjukan
• Kvitaavtn – Hostel near Gaustatoppen
• Gaustablikk – A hotel further up near Gaustatoppen
• Tuddal Høyfjellshotel – An old hotel higher up in Tuddal

Gear & guiding

• Intersport Rjukan – Gear and screw sharpening machine
• Rjukan Adventure – Gear rentals and guiding

Location details:

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A few images from the trip below:

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Picture above: Greven and Grevinnan.

First of all I have to say that Stora Sjöfallet is a good place for both ice climbing as well as ski touring. For ice climbing there are several fairly easily accessible ice falls, up to 300-350 meters high and difficulties to fit all the tastes. In addition to these frequently visited falls there are several others less frequently climbed ones, as well as certain sweet spots with very high concentrations of high quality ice. In regards one of these sweet spots a fellow climber, Tapio Alhonsuo, has even claimed that the “barrel valley” is perhaps the best place he has climbed. As Tapio was kind enough to share the location details we went there as well. Furthermore a mountain that has the highest height difference in Sweden, Akka, is also located there. In addition to Akka there are several other great mountains for ski touring.

During the first day we climbed on Grevinnan, which is about 250m high grade WI IV fall. In the beginning, it was pretty easy, with a few snow sections in between. The actual steep part starts fairly high, almost at the end of the fall. The second day was dedicated for ski touring and naturally we went to wrong side of the mountain. While within treeline there was decent amount of snow (+trees and stones) the wind had blown away every bit of snow above it. Newer the less, it was good to be on skis.

Picture above: The barrel valley, lots to climb.

The third day was dedicated to “barrel valley” mentioned above. As Tapio told, it’s magnificent place. The hike took about an hour, perhaps hour and half on skis. In the valley there are 6-7 ice falls within radius of 500 meters or so. On the left side they’re mostly low 1-1.5 pitches, whereas on right side high, perhaps up to 250 meters. While it might be a bit difficult to cross the valley through bottom, it can be done using the snow around the valley perimeter. The amount of snow in the valley is also one of its dangers. It really looks like worst kind of terrain trap and an avalanche magnet. So check the snow conditions before approaching and take avalanche gear with you.

Picture above: A view from the sun valley ski touring trip.

Our final day was again dedicated for ski touring. We did a trip through famous “Sun Valley”, which truly is one. It wasn’t just the fact that this was our only sunny day, but also the direction and location of the valley. It opens to south and is a bit higher up and while mid winter sun isn’t very frequent guest that high up north, we actually had several hours of sun set type of sun shine. In short the location was spot on, furthermore the snow was great as was the skiing. Sun Valley route is easily accessible from the road and one can also ski almost all the way down back to road too. Recommended.

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Picture above: The ropes I’m currently using.

Basic principles

Ideally you would like to select a rope that’s light, long, has low impact force, as well as excellent handling and is durable. Unfortunately these characteristics are, mildly put, somewhat opposing. So lets put these in order.

1. Weight is an issue, approaches are usually long and heavier ropes also adds up while climbing. The weight difference between light and heavy ropes might be several kilos. So in my opinion that’s the number one.
2. Low impact force makes the climbing safer and anchors less likely to fail. Again something that’s really, really important, that’s my number two criteria.
3. Handling is again something that makes a difference. However on ice it’s not that much about the friction or ease of paying out the rope in simple sense. Most ice climbers are already experienced and confident belayers. Dry treatment has lot bigger impact here, as icy ropes are really, really difficult to handle – you should get the best dry treatment available. In trips that last multiple days, you can’t dry the ropes and the ice adds up. It also adds up in terms of weight. In short dry treatment is well worth all the money put into it.
4. Far after these three criteria comes the durability. Yes, it’s important, but not nearly as much as in rock climbing. In winter conditions ropes tend to wear a lot less than on rock because there’s less dirt and mud as well as friction. In ice climbing lead falls are also very, very rare, at least they should be. They’re such a dangerous affair that people should avoid them at all cost; if you fall, the rope that needs to be discarded is least of your worries. I’ve taken one lead fall and I’m not planning to take another one. Furthermore if ice axe or crampon nicks the rope, even thicker sheath is unlikely to protect the rope. Besides you can always cut the meter or two (the area where ice axe / crampon is likely ti nick) off from the rope without serious losses. So the durability is the least important factor, at least for me.

So after these rope characteristics you’re down to two choices; The length and type, i.e. single vs. half ropes. While type question is somewhat complicated issue and I’ll dive into the topic shortly, the length is much more straight forward. For multi-pitch ice climbs that typically have several snow sections, 60 or 70 meters is in my opinion a good length. Longer rope makes the rappelling faster.

Single vs. half ropes

Generally speaking half ropes offer several advantages over single ropes. While climbing they allow lower rope drag because one can alternate clipping according to route so that ropes go straighter line. Half ropes also offer “naturally” longer rappelling distances due to two strands. In single rope system one needs to compensate that with a tag line. Further more half ropes offer redundancy in case of a fall or when rope gets damaged for some reason. Yet despite the two strands these two rope systems, i.e. half ropes vs. single with tag line, weigh about the same (single + tag = 75-100g/m vs. 2*half = 76-84g/m). In terms of weigh the only positive side with the single ropes is the fact that leader doesn’t have to carry the tag line. However in my opinion this advantage is diminished by higher rope drag, even on steep ice where you usually get to climb relatively straight lines. So based on above the only matter left to discuss is the impact force.

There’s been plenty of discussion about the impact forces. While on the surface half ropes seem to have lover impact forces, they’re actually measured with different standards. Tests with singles are being done by using 80kg weight, whereas half ropes are measured only with 55kg. For this reason some people claim that half ropes actually generate higher impact forces to the protection than single ropes. As there’s no comprehensive data on how half ropes perform as single ropes, one way to look into topic is to take a look at the ropes that conform both standards and then compare the results to ones that conform just one standard. Lets take a look at the specifications of multiple standards ropes first (the data is from www.tribevine.com, a climbing gear database that among other things has the specifications of several hundred ropes).

Table above: Multipe standards ropes that conform both UIAA single and half specifications

So while this is manufacturer’s advertized specifications and definitely involve some creative rounding etc. there’s at least a one conclusion that can be made. Lower single impact force leads to lower half impact force and other way around. Based on above one could expect that a half rope that has lower impact force than the ones above, would also have lower impact force when measured as a single. Also the impact force ratio of single to half seems to be somewhere between 0.7-0.8. So lets take a look at some light half ropes, low impact force single ropes and compare them to the above multiple standards ropes then. For half ropes, I’ve calculated the single impact force values using the ratio above and shown in parenthesis.

Table above: Light half ropes, low impact force single ropes and ropes that conform the both UIAA standard compared against each other.

So following the line of reasoning of the first table, it would seem that at least quite a few half ropes should offer comparable impact forces when tested as a single. Furthermore while most of the multiple standards ropes are light, their impact forces are left behind most light half ropes.

The final thing to consider is how the lead fall differs from each other between the two systems. While a fall with a single rope is rather straight forward process, i.e. you always fall to the single strand, the issue is at least in theory somewhat complicated with the half ropes. With half ropes the number of strands that actively work while stopping the fall depends on distance to last piece of protection and rope stretch. In most cases half ropes act just like single ropes, i.e. one strand takes the wast majority of the force. In case of half ropes the rope stretch typically falls between 25% and 40%. If the average screw distance is about 6 meters, this means that you have to have at least two screws and 15 meters of rope out until second strand can even theoretically come into play. In other words you’re already well above the UIAA test case fall factors, i.e. the impact forces are a lot smaller. For this reason the way two strands interact doesn’t have relevance in normal climbing. However when leaving from the stance, where both strands are actually clipped through the anchor the issue is a bit different. There both strands work together and impact forces are a lot higher, worse still the fall factor is the worst possible. It seems that half ropes demonstrate impact forces in the range of 8-10kN in twin configuration.

Based on this, together with the other half ropes related benefits, at least my opinion is clear, half ropes is the way to go. However with half ropes it’s even more important to make sure you don’t fall against your stance. There’s a serious worst case scenario involved. This leaves also a difficult choice, weather to go with the lowest impact force half (Beal Ice Line) or the lightest one (Tendon Master 7.8 / Metolius Monster Ropes 7.8, basically a same rope manufactured by Lanex)? While 1kN difference in impact forces doesn’t feel dramatic it is probably larger in worst case twin configuration. On the other hand 500g / 10% difference (two strands, 70m long, 38g/m vs. 42g/m) doesn’t feel huge, but still considerable. Also the Tendon’s nano dry treatment is said to be great (though I don’t have much first hand experience, climbed just once with such rope)… …Right now Beal Ice Line feels a better bet. Funny enough I’ve been contemplating between these two ropes for some time now.

Oh, one final note; famous Will Gadd has an interesting article about the impact forces and comparing single ropes against halfs. They also actually did some real world tests, so a bit more scientific than my approximation approach. I have noted the ropes in the table that Will talked about with asterisk (*), with one exception for which I couldn’t find the specifications. From Will’s article it comes loud and clear that there’s plenty of variation as some difference compared to published figures. Despite these uncertainties, I’m still for half ropes for multi-pitch waterfall ice climbing.

My current ropes

Finally a few words of my current ropes and their uses.

Picture above: Rope endings with markings, I had to cut Joker due some nicks.

1. Edelweiss Sharp 8.5 – They’ve served me well for quite a few years. They’re still the ones I use when climbing multiple pitches. They’re a bit heavy and bulky, but the quality, especially from the durability perspective has been great. They provide fairly good handling characteristics, and dry treatment worked well; There’s still some left.
2. Beal Joker – It was originally my “soft landing” plan to half ropes. I haven’t used Joker too much, mostly while top roping either indoors or while ice climbing on short falls. Still Joker is a good quality rope and even though some people consider it slipery, especially when new, I like the “slippery feeling” of it – it’s easy to feed and rappel with. Also the dry treatment is good.
3. Beal Rando – My short and light twin rope for glacier travels and mountaineering routes that do not require serious climbing with belay. It again a good quality, but most importantly in a very light, only 36g/m package.

The web-stores that sell these things:

1. Metolius Monster Ropes 9.2 - Backcountry, Moosejaw
2. Beal Ice Line - Backcountry, Barrabes, Telemark-Pyrenees
3. Tendon Master 9.4 – Justropes.com
4. DMM Climbing Prodigy -  ?
5. DMM Climbing Statement – Needle Sports
6. Petzl Dragonfly - Backcountry, Moosejaw
7. Tendon Ambition 10.0 – Justropes.com
8. Petzl Zephyr - US Outdoor Store
9. Beal Booster III - Backcountry, Barrabes, Telemark-Pyrenees, Varuste.net, Moosejaw
10. Beal Tiger - Barrabes, Telemark-Pyrenees, Moosejaw
11. Roca Migú 8 – ?
12. Edelweiss Oxygen - Backcountry
13. C.A.M.P. Plekton -  ?
14. Tendon Ambition 7.9 – Justropes.com
15. Sterling Rope Fusion Photon – Moosejaw
16. Tendon Master 7.8 – Justropes.com
17. Metolius Monster Ropes 7.8 - Moosejaw
18. Singing Rock Gemini – Barrabes
19. Millet Alpin Lite - Backcountry, Telemark-Pyrenees
20. Millet Absolute Pro- Backcountry, Telemark-Pyrenees
21. Mammut Phoenix – Backcountry, Needle Sports, Varuste.net, Moosejaw
22. Beal Joker – Backcountry, Telemark-Pyrenees, Varuste.net, Moosejaw
23. Edelweiss Performance – Varuste.net
24. Bluewater Ropes Dominator – Justropes.com
25. Bluewater Ropes Hyalite - ?
26. Edelrid Ropes Apus - Shelby
27. Edelrid Ropes Swift - Barrabes, Telemark-Pyrenees
28. Mammut Serenity – REI, Needle Sports, Telemark-Pyrenees, Varuste.net, US Outdoor Store
29. Beal Rando - Backcountry, Barrabes, Telemark-Pyrenees, Varuste.net, Shelby

A few more images of my ropes:

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6.7

Picture above: A view from the route to Weissmies.

Overall the accent was pretty straight forward. It was an easy PD-rated route and took about 7h from Allmagellerhütte to Weissmiess hütte. A bit of snow, one steeper scramble and then the glacier. Out of these the most interesting parts were the scramble, glacier and perhaps the ridge just before the top. I started a lot later than about 40 other groups that were heading up. Thise, despite the weather concerns, proved to be a good choice. Good mainly because weather stayed OK (weather worried me the most) and I was able to do the whole route in solitude. Throughout the trip there was visible trail established by the earlier parties. However as there were some signs of fairly recent avalanches and spots where I had to jump over crevasses, the glacier part was still pretty exciting for a solo climber.

Overall it’s really pleasant to climb in Switzerland. The huts are well equipped and good quality, you don’t have to carry all the food and there’s plenty of options. If you’re looking for first solo accent Weissmies seems also be pretty good choice. While being exciting enough, it’s fairly visited and the route is fairly straight forward. I’m sure though that there are plenty of other good options as well, but Weissmies worked for me just fine.

Location details:

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Few images from the trip below:

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