Kjørlifossen (WI5, 400m), Lærdal

We were in Hemsedal because Murilo had been keen to have another go at Midtlinja on Hydnefossen after a couple of failed attempts. A few days ice climbing in the area and Murilo sensed his form wasn't where it needed to be for the route, and I was also a little ambivalent after climbing the line in 2020.

With this plan scrapped, a large carrot was immediately dangled in front of my nose via social media. Kjørlifossen had just been climbed and this was apparently a massive classic, despite me never having heard of it before. Despite this icefall potentially being as hard as Midtlinja, the spirit of chasing the ephemeral got the better of us, and the following Sunday morning we were driving over Hemsedalfjellet en route for Lærdal - somewhere I had never climbed before.

We were not the only people with this plan, and on the final stretch of the approach we passed a team of three descending French climbers. They were not happy with a horizontal crack at the base of the initial pillar and had deemed it unsafe. We were keen to make our own assessment though.

The initial crux pillar from the approach

An ominous 10cm crack extended across the base of the pillar, but the right side of the pillar was supported by several shelves, which branched out like a Christmas tree. There was no sign delamination from the rock and temperatures had also been stable in the preceding days and during the morning. After careful examination we concluded that the pillar was sufficiently stable, although we had a natural motivation to stay on the right side where there were more points of attachment to the rock.

The initial pillar

The prominent crack running through the base of the pillar

Murilo attempted to lead the initial pillar, but bailed from the top of the initial ice cone where the climbing became steep. So it fell to me to lead up through the steep, big features that dominated the middle part of the pillar, which required a degree of acrobatics to negotiate through. I made a belay on the largest shelf immediately right of the pillar at roughly 3/4 height.

Murilo following up the initial pillar

The top section of the pillar was easier, but I was spooked by the amount of running water behind the ice where it joined the rock, and so chose just to run it out as a matter of precaution.

The remainder of the climb looked to be easier, although no pushover. We made a short transition up a snow slope from where several pitches of WI4/4+ climbing commenced. Murilo attempted to lead a short section, but he repeatedly kicked the ropes and showed signs of tiredness. We made the decision to push-on with me leading all the pitches. Our pace was slow, with Murilo needing the tightest of tight ropes to help aid upward progress between a lot of hanging rests. The sensible thing would have been to have bailed.

The upper pitches

Climbing the penultimate pitch at sunset

Only on the final pitch, up a chimney leading to more big features, with my headtorch lit, did Murilo call up to me from his belay stance below to suggest we go down. At this point there was no way I was going anywhere other than to the top, after so much investment and now little more than half a rope length remining. So long as Murilo was safe to belay, I was cashing in on the day's big effort. It's the only time I've refused to go down at my partner's request.

Looking up the final pitch at sunset from the belay

With the top bagged I managed to persuade Murilo to follow me up, by this point it was 9pm. By 11:30pm we were back at the base of the climb. That wrapped up one of the best ice routes that I've climbed anywhere and it was up there with Hydnefossen in terms of quality. It would have been nice if it had been more of an equal team effort, so that I could more readily share the achievement, but at the same time I was pleased with my largely solo effort to lead us up the entire route.

Top of the route

We deserved a good night's sleep, but unfortunately Murilo had a flight to catch the following morning and I was due in work. After a couple of power naps en route, we were back in Oslo for just before 6am. Two hours sleep for me, then off to work. Even less for Murilo who didn't even bother to attempt any sleep before heading to the airport. Epic. This is probably why I don't attempt many big objectives on a Sunday.