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.
