To Menn og et Foster (WI4), Rjukan
With so much ice having formed this season, I was keen to vist Rjukan to climb some routes that had evaded me during milder, drier winters. There was plenty of ice, but there was also plenty of snow to contend with, particularly after the preceeding 48 hours, and the snowfall wasn't due to ease up today. Perfect skiing conditions in fact...
To Menn og et Foster seemed a good choice of route due to the moderately short approach. I had climbed the neighbouring route Bølgen in 2008, during which there had also been a lot of snow, and I remembered no epics in reaching its base. I had seen To Menn og et Foster from the road while visiting Rjuken in mid-December, and it had looked already in condition, and so a relatively safe bet for this second visit three weeks later. Some obvious curtains high on the route form the crux, but I was fairly confident that these had suitably fattened due to the amount of snow resting on them. Both Dorian and Jamie seemed psyched, despite this possibly not being the best first multipitch route for Jamie according to the textbook.
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| The Bølgen area, as seen from the main road. To Menn og et Foster is the broadest icefall to the left |
We parked in the large cleared area a few hundred metres west of the parking location shown in the Rockfax (I think Rockfax has misplaced the correct location in the guidebook). From here it was a short walk east along the track until directly beneath route, after which it was time to plough our way in its direction. Despite the epic amounts of powder, the approach was manageable, largely because the snow was still entirely unconsolidated. I managed to also play it smart by tucking in behind my two partners, who seemed to be motoring up the hillside at a good rate of knots. The heavy-laden trees, loaded with snow, was the main thing to be wary of, just waiting to avalanche down the back of my hardshell jacket with the lightest vibration. Only once clear of the trees and directly beneath the route did the depth of snow become something a little more exceptional, and by the time we had stamped out a belay platform the surrounding snow was up to chest height.
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| Approaching the route (Photo by Jamie Oldham @jamieandrewoldham) |
Dorian led the first pitch, which was fat, although slow-going due to a rotten snowy crust covering everthing. The ice was moderately untrustworthy superficially, but good below this, and some patience was needed to find better axe placements deep down. Often the top layer needed to be hacked away in order to find good screw lurking deeper. The bloody right cheek belonging to Dorian that met us at the first belay confirmed the ice conditions to be less than dreamlike.
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| Dorian leading the first pitch, around WI4 |
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| Me leading the stedy 2nd pitch, around WI3 (photo by Dorian Maillard @maille73) |
As hoped, the crux looked in good shape from directly below, and there was an obvious weakness that followed a short, steep icy open groove. In reality the climbing proved a little harder than it appeared, primarily due to the formations, which contained a lot of air and made finding good screw placements a challenging affair. I managed to find placements that didn't strike air, however the lack of homogenity in the ice made it difficult to access their relative strength. So long as the climbing felt well in control though I was happy to continue higher, and if anything, the formations made it easier to effortlessly bridge the feet and offload the arms. I would say the pitch was probably WI4+ due to the awkward features and challenges to protect, although the milder weather in the days immediately following may have consolidated the ice a little and made it more of a benchmark 4? A great pitch, although I happily have taken another 10m of steep climbing in retrospect, given the relaxed nature of climbing.
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| Me leading up the crux curtains on what was our fourth pitch (photo by Dorian Maillard @maille73) |
Beyond the crux there was around 60m of easy climbing/wading, followed by slighter broken steeper climbing/wading in order to exit the route. It was probably about 300m of climbing all-in-all by my estimate, and a fairly big outing so close to winter solstice. We didn't bother with the optional two easy pitches, partly because it was after 5pm and dark by this point, partly because any ice would be totally buried, and finally because we were admittedly a bit knackered!
I suggested we descend via the same way I had done for Bølgen many years ago (down its true left side) as I remebered this to be free of drama and entirely off trees. The Oxford Alpine Club guide also recommended this way. We didn't fancy abseiling down our route and relying on abalakovs due to the indifferent nature of the ice and time wasted with placements. Reaching the abseil line involved a short traverse along the hillside without any technical difficulties. Once on the line, we down-climbed through the forest a little, veering onto the easy ice steps at the top of Bølgen on a couple of occasions, trying to delay the start of the abeils for as long as possible. Abseiling would no doubt be a tiresome affair with so much snow, and so it proved to be.
Throw ropes
Descend on one metre
Pick the ropes up, throw them again
Descend a few more metres
Unknot ropes
Throw ropes
Descend a few metres
Untangle ropes hidden the snow around my feet
Throw the rope in the tree in front of me
Descend one metre
Untangle the ropes from the tree
And so on...
The first abseil so was a test of patience, exacerbated by the ropes initially not budging when we tried to pull them down. The second abseil became more eventful after I reached an isolated tree surrounded by rocky slabs at full rope-stretch. This demanded the upmost attention from the last man on the ropes to avoid both ropes recoiling 5m above us once off the belay plate and leaving us stranded. Thereafter, I became a little bit more conservative with my abseil lengths to avoid similar complications, which was probably sensible since the moderately poor visibility from snowfall and darkness made it difficult at times to judge the distance to forthcoming trees.
By the time we were down and back at the car it was 8:45pm - close to 12 hours round trip. With a terrible forecast for the coming night and day, during which persistent snow turning to heavy rain, our long outing was not such a bad unplanned tactic in retrospect. These sort of epically longs outings are the ones that stick in my mind longest in any case. The name of the route translates to 'Two Men and a Foetus', which refers to the third climber of the first ascent group, who was curled up like a foetus by the end of the day due to the cold weather. My money was on Jamie being our 'Foetus of the Day', after he had suffered bad hotaches the previous weekend, but ultimately there was no winner. The only casualty of the day was my phone as a result of water damage. It died a matter of hours after finishing the route, after initially going into a fitful pattern of continuously restarting itself, before ultimately giving up the ghost, RIP.
In summary, I think this route maybe the best route that I have climbed at the grade in Rjukan, although these sort of long, less-travelled outings are definately more my thing. The route wasn't hacked to death (as can happen in Rjukan), which is always a strong plus point for me, and it's safe to say we were the first on the route this season. The crux being moderately high on the route also helped maintain the interest and tension during the day. The route was good enough in fact to reignite a desire to write something on this blog - something that has been little neglicted in recent years I might say.
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