Rjukan February 2012
Monday, February 20th, 2012The number of members booked onto the Climbers’ Club Meet had slowly
The (manufactured) ice parkway at Vemork Bridge
risen to a (nice) seventeen (including some guests and partners) by the time I’d left for Edinburgh and the Norwegian Air plane journey to Oslo Gardermoen. The full team were expected to be in place after a couple of days. We looked forward to the usual ice cube banter on this, our fourth Meet in a row.
Eventually, Sue Jeffrey and I were joined by Mike and Maddy, Richard and Matt, Chris and Angela, Phil and Haydn, Stuart and Peri, Alex and Keith, Kris, Al and Jack. We were a strong team.
The cool -26° C wasn’t too much of a concern, as we all disembarked off the planes at Gardermoen Airport, Oslo. Hired cars stuffed with holdalls, rucksacks, and copious bags of gear, we sped off once again into the Norwegian countryside, only this time, for some of the Meet attendees (including myself) , it was an early afternoon arrival, so we had our first chance to view the wonderful countryside on the three-hour trip to our hostel in Rjukan.
The new lounge
Although the hostel management had only informed us a week earlier, that the upstairs kitchen and lounge was now gutted, ready to be a conference centre, the Gjestegård was ready for us, with a new lounge and kitchen area downstairs. I had concerns that the two double hotplates and table full of plates, dishes, pots and pans would be a problem, as there was no sink or running water in the area. This was quickly solved by the hostel allowing us to use the main (very well equipped)kitchen used for dinner parties, and situated just past our breakfast room. So everything worked out very well.
The temporary kitchen
The first three or four days did keep to the cold temperatures but all the Meet members did lots of single and multi-pitch climbing, all around the valley, and some venturing further afield. It did start to warm up (a
tropical -4° eventually became the norm). Endless lists of routes would be pointless, suffice to say, the climbing was, for the fourth Meet in a row, superb, weary arms and muscles becoming the fashion with the daily climbing trips.
We did have a couple of spills, nothing too serious, plus a need to get everyone registering where they were going each day and what time they expected to be back. The newly-created form also showing all members’ mobile phone numbers,
Jack topping out on Bakveine WI4
thus enabling any concerns on members’ whereabouts to be sorted if required. After the one and only brief concern of where ‘team X’ had gone to and weren’t back to the car at well-past home time, all ran smoothly for me and the form was not needed in earnest.
The ice this year had formed everywhere, new lines and massively new shaped ones on existing guidebook routes were a real bonus. Some lines were proving harder and steeper, but all succumbed to the attack by the ‘CC Telemark’ raiders.
It was a great social scene in the evenings, in our new layout, proving we hadn’t needed to worry that we had lost the upstairs lounge which has been, up till now, part of the beauty of the meet. The duty-free alcohol flowed and each night the tales of smashing, hooking and kicking abounded.
After a great week, it was sad to slowly bid farewell and to eventually lose all the Meet members. Soon, I was alone in the hostel for my final 5 days, but fortunately, I did have company and climbing partners, having travelled in a car-share with Sue, and three climbing friends, these latter staying in a Hytteby chalet 10 mins down from the town. Two of the three lads stayed on to the end with me, and we managed to up the anti on a couple of steeper routes, like Frystikka WI5 at Kroken, which, although not pencil-shaped as in the guidebook, it was certainly very STEEP. There again, many of the team did lots of equally difficult and steep
Frystika WI5
routes as well.
After two full weeks of climbing (one rest day has to be admitted), we returned to a warm and fairly snow-free Britain. Where had all the snow gone?
I’m intending to continue the Rjukan Ice Fest Meet next year, but I will hopefully have some assistance in the Meet Leader role, and the organising, as Peri is keen to help out, with a view to taking over the Meet Leader role. What she doesn’t know is that, after she and Stuart left, we met some friendly members of the Oslo Climbing Club and they were excited about a joint Meet for 2013. Watch this space.
