Northern Alpine Guides is currently in the middle of running a First Ascent (clothing company) trip here on the West Coast of Norway. We are facilitating the logistics and searching out/rigging lines for Caroline and Adam George, Chad Peele followed by photographer Celin Serbo. The objective is to climb big Ice Climbs and possible First Ascets here in Eidfjord, Norway. We have climbed some great climbs and have a nice F.A. in the bag and now we are working on climbing a Huge 500m FA above the fjords to the west of Eidfjord. Stay tuned and read the blog updates on the First Ascent Blog as well as here! Stay Tuned!
http://blog.firstascent.com
First Ascent writes:
Scandinavian Ice Lures First Ascent Guides Peele and George to Norway
First Ascent guides Chad Peele and Caroline George, along with fellow ice climbers Adam George, Seth Hobby and photographer Celin Serbo, have traveled to Norway to explore the vast expanses of Scandinavian ice and attempt a series of first ascents.
Over the past year I’ve been researching new and exciting ice climbing locations around the world, Norway being the ideal choice. Several friends have climbed here in the past and each has talked about the natural beauty, ultra-long ice lines, unexplored fjords, and the possibility of unclimbed ice lines that exist off the beaten path.
Joined by fellow First Ascent guide Caroline George, a newcomer to the FA team and my climbing partner for the trip; her husband, climber and mountain guide Adam George, and photographer Celin Serbo, we made the trans-Atlantic flight from Newark to Oslo, Norway, to meet up with local guide Seth Hobby. Seth, a longtime friend and mountain guide from the Pacific Northwest who relocated to Norway, operates Northern Alpine Guides. Seth is our “local” man, having spent several years climbing, guiding and exploring many of the areas here in Norway.
As we staggered out of the airport feeling our jet lag, we were greeted by sunshine and cold temperatures in the mid-teens. Although this might sound a little “twisted” for most folks, these are perfect ice-forming conditions. Seth was thrilled with the current weather and excitedly detailed many of our climbing opportunities as we loaded our duffle bags into his 4×4 Mitsubishi van, aka “The White Thunder.”
In the evening Seth showed us possible climbing destinations on a map, as well as photos that he has taken of areas with little to no documented climbing. The natural beauty of these extreme frozen waterfalls and length of the climbs is unimaginable! Already I’m wishing we had more time and, frankly, more rest days in between routes. But we have plenty of time to climb and explore numerous valleys and ascend some world-class ice lines!
Today, we finalized our logistics, went grocery shopping (Norway is extremely expensive – two pizzas and a couple pitchers of beer cost $200), and set out for our first climbing destination: Rjukan (pronounced Roo-Con), located a little over three hours west of Oslo. This is the ideal “warm up” area, where we will climb some established ice routes and prepare for several weeks of exploratory ice climbing!
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