Lyngen Alps – Roadside adventures

Here we go again. After 2 years break (due to obvious reasons), we are back climbing Ice.

This time around the adventure took us to the northern parts of Norway – The Lyngen Alps.

Wiki:

The Lyngen Alps (Norwegian: Lyngsalpene) are a mountain range in northeastern Troms og Finnmark county in Norway, east of the city of Tromsø. The mountain range runs through the municipalities of Lyngen, Balsfjord, and Storfjord. The mountains follow the western shore of the Lyngen fjord in a north-south direction. The length of the range is at least 90 kilometres (56 mi) (depending on definition—there are mountains all the way south to the border with Sweden) and the width is 15–20 kilometres (9.3–12.4 mi). The mountains dominate the Lyngen Peninsula, which is bordered by the Lyngen fjord to the east, and the Ullsfjorden to the west. 

Unfortunately for one of the guys the trip finished even before it started – he got sick last week and had to cancel last minute. It is really hard to stomach, as he was the one who did most reserch in organizing things (finding flights, researching area etc etc). Luckily he’s recovering well and we are all sure he’ll be back to full strenght soon.

This way or another, the remaining 5 of us, took a flight to Tromso (via Oslo). The flights from Oslo was surprisingly busy – Full plane.

I asked one of the passengers why everyone is going to this middle of nowhere – “It’s prime Northern Lights season”. Ah yes. I did not disappoint – we were welcomed by it at the airport’s car park!

The journey took around 12h (Dub-Oslo-Tromso +2h drive) and at late evening we ended up in our hut near a village called Lyngspollen.

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Day 1 of climbing was today – we got up to heavy winds and snowfall – the mountains we can see from the hut were out of the question – we had to find an alternative.

The remote nature of the place means there isn’t much in terms of guidebooks, trip reports, or route descriptions – making it somewhat unique and adventurous – I did read however that the area offers some very good road-side climbing along the E6 road (which happen to be exactly on the opposite side of the Lyngen Fjord – 1h drive).

We packed up and drove up. Studded tyres of our small 4×4 hybrid cars worked wonders on the icy roads, and we were climbing in no time.

We found 3 suitable lines around Stølandet Beach that were a safe distance from the road (some of the lines were directly above the road – belaying or climbing there would be unsafe). I climbed with Paul, while Con, Niall and Aidan went together as 3.

This is my 7th year of ice climbing, and I have never climbed ice directly above a beach. Unreal experience.

Obviously, we have no idea the names of the lines we climbed, and while you will not meet many other climbers here (as opposed to some other well-known places, such as Rjukan or Hemestal in southern parts of Norway) – these were definitely not the first ascents 🙂

First-line we did was around WI3, 30m and gave solid first feel for the local ice.

While the air temperature wasn’t too bad, around -2C, the morning and early afternoon felt very cold and snowy, mostly due to strong wind. For that part of the day we had all our layers on.

2nd and 3rd lines of the day were few hundred meters down the road, and both slightly harder than the first one. Both provided around WI4 experience.

When we got to the base of the 2nd line, the guys were abseiling it already, which was perfect timing, as they could move to the directly adjacent (on the right) line no 3, as we went up the 2nd one.

Now, looking at those lines from the road, we knew there is some special magic waiting up above it (since we checked the map beforehand), but I didnt expect the view to be this incredible: more rock and ice – definitely of the more adventurous type:

Turn back and there it is – Lyngen Fjord in all its glory: at the base of that mountain is our hut – a mere 1h drive around the fjord:

Line 3 had few lines to choose from, and Paul being badass he is picked the steepest, blankest and hardest one on the right-hand side – for practice.

As we were climbing Line3 the boys drove up to check out Line1 we climbed earlier. Perfect finish for perfect day.

We met back at the hut later, where Masterchef Con served Meal-of-the-day. Can’t complain about that service!

Tomorrow, if the forecast will allow, we’ll explore the area around the hut – Plenty of lines around here (we can see them from the hut!), but the approach or their conditions aren’t clear. Just have to walk up and see. Adventure time!