It was two nights trip. We left on Friday evening and got back on Sunday evening. Our group of nine was spending the nights on Sail Island at Posio. Most of the people were pretty well know members, but interestingly there were two outsiders along as well. I’ve got to say that the accommodation were great, we had our own island, good cottage with sauna (for a Finn sauna is a huge plus). As I heard that the rent for the whole island were only 115€/night, I can recommend it warmly for everybody. It’s just 20-30 kilometers away from Korouoma and quality-price ration is excellent.

During the first day we split in to two groups. Couple of more experienced climbers went to Brown river fall, which is the highest in Korouoma (about 50-60 meters). Some of the routes are fairly challenging actually. Rest of the group went to Charlie fall, which is my favorite. It’s kind of too easy, but I like the atmosphere and the view from the top of the fall. Additionally it lets one to choose the route between quite different difficulties. On the right there’s easier routes, whereas on the left much steeper routes. Ice at Charlie is also more solid than it is on Brown River.

On second day we all decided to walk down to Angel Fall, which was a new one for most of us. Angel fall is fairly easy to climb (I needed four screws, whereas some of the more experienced climbers only needed three, most of the other falls in Korouoma require significantly more), but the approach took long. Got to say, it took too long for me. On the route down to Angel Fall, there’s Monk cave fall, which is really challenging thin-ice-mixed fall. After Angel, there’s still one more, a fall called wolf’s teeth. It should be pretty challenging as well. Since it was so long approach we maximized the climbing by two leaders taking two sets of double ropes up first and then four seconds going up at the time.

Got to say I enjoyed the trip. The good thing was also the fact that this was first time I gained the usual climbing confidence this year. It was fortunate, since the next trip is likely to direct in to Norway for really long falls (300m and up). Got to say I really needed the confidence. Funny, it takes at least 4-6 climbing days until one gains the confidence each year. I know, I should be climbing more.

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Few images from the trip below:

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As you probably noticed Kebnekaise mountain station (a fjällstation as they call it) is fairly well equipped. In addition to accommodation and restaurant they rent climbing and randone gear, snow safety equipment, provide snow safety and randone courses and trips as well as ice climbing trips. In short the venue is great. I mean, surroundings is great, food is great, accommodation is great (being a mountain accommodation without no road connections what so ever) and the people, both the employees and visitors, are great. I’ve really enjoyed every time I’ve been there. As an extra plus there’s several smaller cottages available for visit within half a day’s skiing distance.

Picture above: Some mountains near Kebnekaise

Though I had my climbing gear I didn’t climb, not even though the guy who’s running the place asked me to join him for a day. The main reason is the fact that my girl friend isn’t that much in to climbing and I had agreed to help her with a news article she was writing; besides I wanted to ski around with her. I kind of regret it a bit, though. I mean I saw several interesting ice routes there. Anyways during the few days there we did mostly cross-country skiing and one longer one day randonnee trip, which included some skiing (or in my case snowboarding) at the glacier there. I have to say that I enjoyed both the cross-country skiing as well as randonnee.

Though this isn’t exactly ice climbing, I thought that ice climbers might like to know the venue as well as see some of the images below.

Location details:

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Few images from the trip below:

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