Cryophobia – a goal realized

Hydrophobia on the left and Cryophobia links the ice in the middle of the photo

I have been wanting to climb Cryophobia for many years. Due to work and conditions– the stars have not aligned for me. One year, I hiked in 3 times from the North Ghost in attempt of this route. The success of finally ‘sending’ this route is made so much sweeter by the previous failures.

I first went up to Cryophobia with Jon and Magda. They were generous to climb in a team of three with me on an unexpectedly snowy day. The additional snow slowed the pace a bit as it hides all the great features for our tools and crampons and requires some extra cleaning.

Jon cruising up the first dry-tooling pitch.

Cryophobia has six pitches. The first and last pitch are mostly ice, the middle four pitches are mostly dry-tooling, with just enough ice to keep it honest (‘mixed-climbing’). ha.

what I love about Jon is that he is always smiling

The belay ledges were just large enough for our team of 3

Magda figuring out how to translate her plastic crushing to the rock with the metal bits attached.

  On this day Jon lead the crux pitches, (the odd pitches), and we both fell twice on the route in exactly the same spot. Jon did a great job of on-sighting most of the route. (Especially, since he is a dad with a full-time job and just got back from a job/climb in Patagonia!) I found the day a bit slow and cold, but I was super psyched to of made it to the top in our team of three. Also, the last pitch was a 70m rope stretcher of mostly grade 5 ice to a very windy belay. I was grateful, knowing that I wouldn’t have to lead it the next time I climbed the route

DAY 2.

A few days later, Kyle Vassilopoulos and I head into the route. I left all the ropes, etc at the base and most of the pitches equipped with draws. So we walked in with light packs and high aspirations.

A beautiful sunrise foreshadowed the success of the day. I am SO grateful for my truck. It is a ‘godsent’ in the Ghost Wilderness.

 Kyle lead the pitches I had lead previously and I lead the pitches Jon had lead a few days before.

Kyle cruising his leads in some crazy winds.

me relieved to have successfully clipped through the crux pitch

Kyle was nervous, knowing that this was his one-shot (this season) at sending this route. I had confidence in his abilities and my ‘beta-spray’.

Some ice on the top of the crux pitch

Looking across at ‘No-phobia’- a future project

Kyle starting the epic last pitch

Kyle was very psyched to send the last pitch and ‘send’ the route. So was I. So many years, I have waited for this route. One good thing about waiting is that it felt a lot easier now than it would of several years ago.

The Ghost Wilderness is a super special place, I am grateful for getting to have adventures there. In the future there maybe access issues that make this less accessible.

Adventure Climbing in Norway

A fantastic ice line that connects the valley bottom to the ridge top in the Gudvangen valley called, Kjerrskredkvelven or Monsterfossen for short

The highlight of going to Norway, was definitely teaching my women’s ice clinics, BUT i did have a couple of personal climbing adventures thanks to the German climbing team of Heike, Matthias and Tanja; as well as Swedish climber, Hanna-Kajsa.

Great road tripping vehicle

I was able to rent this great little car/van that had studded tires and enough room for a Canadian female to bivy in the back for the frigid evening temperatures of the Norwegian fjords.

I gratefully met up with Heike, Matthias and Tanja in the Laerdal valley. After a day of driving and hiking around scoping conditions of various climbs we decided on this route called, KJERRSKREDKVELVEN.

Please see the full story of Matthias’ experience here.

In hindsight, 2 teams on this route, was not a recipe for success for the second team. But I was very grateful for the opportunity to climb in the fjords of Norway with a talented female climber like Heike.

Tanja and Matthias got to be the first team up the route and they had a slow start due to having to climb the rock in the bottom of the photo, plus it was super cold first thing in the morning and hard to leave the comfort of their warm van

Heike leading the 3rd pitch which was super wet. Most of the ice screws were decorative.

I was impressed with the ‘wild’ and varying nature of the ice. We had wet ice, brittle ice, layered ice, sticky ice, hollow ice, styrofoam, fragile, etc. Just like the Inuit’s plentiful vocabulary for snow. There could be a mini-dictionary for Norwegian ice.

Me leading the 4th pitch, getting out of the wet and into some very cool steep and easy sticking cotton candy like ice

Hiking up to the ’2nd half of the route’. We waited here for over an hour, in total we had to wait over 3 hours, just the nature of not wanting to climb under another team. Nice to take it easy, but not a great strategy for summiting Such a cool place to hang out and and enjoy the fantastic scenery of the fjordlands though.

Me leading on the first crux pitch, in a 70m rope stretcher, i make it to the cave up and right. We attempt, but do not get up the next crux pitch.

Heike topping out on the ‘icing on the layer cake’ pitch

Heike trying to be brave in the dimming light

Heike attemped a couple different lines on the crux pitch in fading light. Knowing that we still had a long ways to summit and not great protection in out immediate future– thwarted our motivation and we chose to descend–happy to be building good v-threads for our friends–knowing it would help their epic descent greatly.

I am grateful to this German climbing team, especially Heike, for including me in their plans so I didn’t just see Norway’s ice climbs from the valley bottom

 

 LIPTON SANS ICE

Hanna-Kajsa scoping the cruxes on Lipton

I had a day to play after the Women’s climbing seminar with Hanna-Kajsa Fernstrom and we chose to go play on Lipton which was in dry-tooling conditions.

Lipton is the line on the left. Rjukan falls on the right. Futuristic craggin on top in the middle.
Lipton climbs to the left of the 1st yellow icicle and then gains the right side of the second yellow dagger.

An exciting part of the this climb was leaving the ground and bouldering up about 4-5m of M7?, and then again above some ledges with pro that wouldn’t keep me off the ledge. Even though we didn’t get very far up this route, I really enjoyed the challenges. They pushed me to my limit of comfort, especially after my fall a year ago on traditionally-protected mixed-climbing.

Me on the 1st belay, Hanna smiling halfway up the 1st pitch

Me approaching my high point on Lipton–thoroughly enjoying the challenge.

I got up a few more meters from this high point before deciding to retreat. I didn’t have the confidence of finding good protection for either lead falls or rappelling in the viewable future.

I wished one of my bold male friends had been there to tell me that there was good protection ahead.

I had a great day playing with Hanna-Kajsa (who is fun to be with and has a great attitude) on Lipton and the eventually Rjukan Falls (our consolation prize) before leaving “my” beloved country of Norway.