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Showing posts from July, 2014

Agent Orange, Hægefjell

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It began to rain as we were gearing up at the bottom of the route. It fell gently so it made sense to start climbing before the slabbed rock begun to lose friction. Hopefully it would pass, otherwise we we be abseiling from the first belay. Quickly I padded up the rock, clipping the spaced bolts that were painted orange in relation to the route's name Agent Orange . My foot slipped on some smooth quartz embedded in the rock, I stammered but stayed put. The forecast had looked unstable so choosing an easier route with bolt belays looked a safe bet in light of a possible quick escape. The forecast also looked to get worse as the day progressed so something uncomplicated made sense. Fortunately the rain passed and any thoughts of retreat quickly passed with it. More slab padding, bolt clipping antics followed on the second pitch before my trad rack finally needed to be utilised on the third pitch. The third pitch proved to be a beautiful one, following a curving corner crack wit

Mot Sola (n6-), Hægefjell

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An army of angry midges were waiting for us to open our tent doors in the morning. Not quite as violent as their Scottish counterparts but clearly the contents of my vascular system in hot demand. Breakfast and morning preparation involved the futile, inefficient act of pacing around in no particular direction so as to avoid the cloud of midges. We were camped beneath Hægefjell, a broad expanse of granite that consisted of smoother slabs on the right side but more featured, steeper climbing on the left side. Many of the routes on the left side were hard but the obvious weakness drew my eye. The route called Mot Sola followed a sequence of cracks and corners up the face and screamed out to be climbed. I knew the route was often wet, which made the current dry conditions an excellent time to attempt it. Hægefjell - Mot Sola is just left of centre We opted for the Original Start, which climbed two pitches of expansive, smooth slabs in order the reach a main corner system where