Lee Harrison Climbing

I missed virtually all of last winter due being totally wiped out by fatigue. Much of 2016 has been a slow recovery and for a long period I suspected moderately serious winter climbing might be a thing of the past for me. I've really improved in recent months, with rock climbing becoming a regular activity again, but a return to winter climbing would inevitably involve longer, more taxing days and generally a greater degree of suffering. It was important to me therefore to build up gradually through the season in order to check my progress and avoid any repeat issues with fatigue. In any case I was happy just to be climbing again at the start of winter and so the psych for harder stuff wasn't there. No doubt that will change as I begin to take my health and fitness more for granted. Last week had been off the cards due to a big dump of snow combined with strong winds. This weekend I was hoping that things had consolidated and that there would be favourable mixed condition...

The guidebook described the Eastern part of Skurvefjell as 'løs' (loose) with 'dårlig sikkerhet' (poor protection). Still, this didn't seem to perturb us. Particularly given that our chosen route merited four stars in the local guidebook. It was presumably loose and a little bit dangerous in a 'fun' sort of way, like Wrecker's Slab for example... At nearly 300m height, the cliff certainly looked impressive and too good to resist. The very pleasant walk-in The first pitch gave an indication of what might follow. Compact rock with little in the way of natural protection. My first runner was maybe 12m above the ground. Where cracks existed they were nearly always associated with unstable rock. Already the climbing was feeling serious but after a couple more runners in succession I begun to feel happier. The first pitch weaved up and right and then back left so naturally I reduced the left rope runners as I approached the switchback. The first real al...