Lee Harrison Climbing

So all had initially gone to plan... We had climbed the route called Manhattan (Kaboul) on Aiguilles Rouges, which was largely problem free, albeit with an awkward crux sequence. We had finished in good time so opted to continue up the 4c and 5b pitches to the summit of the Middle Bastion. This meant descending by foot rather than by abseil but we had plenty of time before the last cable car departed. We zigzagged down the scree slopes and circled beneath the cliffs towards our bags at the base of the route. And this is where it all went wrong... Some photos from the climb first: Wide bridging on the 6a crux pitch Anna leading the penultimate pitch Also some fantastic views as the clouds cleared in the afternoon Loose rocks of all sizes littered the hillside. Anna's feet slipped and triggered a couple of large boulders in her vicinity to roll in her direction. Both rolled over her ankles and feet despite her best efforts to scamper out of the way. My first impress...

I will admit that maybe I am not the best person to plan a 'gentle' day... We had climbed the two previous days with no prior acclimatisation and Anna was feeling a little exhausted. The Midi-Plan Traverse sounded a steady day in principle, given that there would be little height gain or loss once we had climbed from the Cosmiques hut to the ridge descending from the Midi Station. Technical difficulties we anticipated would be low, plus I had traversed the first part of the ridge a couple of times before so had some beta to back this up. The routes was graded III for seriousness in the Damilano guide, indicating "a long route with a difficult descent. Maybe some objective dangers" but this I attributed to the length of the ridge, with limited options for making a quick escape in poor weather. The forecast looked no cause for concern though with only cloud expected in the afternoon. By this time I anticipated we largely have completed the route. We also planned to de...

Contamine-Mazeaud was in really good condition. The extended period of poor weather through the majority of summer had brought a lot of snow to the high peaks but fortunately things had settled down prior to our trip. Now there there was an unusually large amount of snow for late August but an abundance of beautiful firm neve in wait. What's more the temperatures were holding well below freezing for the next few days. It meant harsh conditions for high rock routes but excellent conditions on moderately steep snow slopes. The Tacul triangle in excellent condition We initially moved together with 60m of rope trailing between us. Anna at the front crossed the bergschrund with ease and then continued without runners for maybe another 60 metres before the fear-o-metre tripped into the red. Herewith the snow was becoming more icy but inadequately so for ice screws so we descended down and left to some in-situ belay nearby tat. Anna leading the initial snow slope With one o...

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...

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...

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...

Plan A had been to visit Romsdal for the week but there was too much rain forecast in the North. Particularly along the coast. Staying in Southern Norway looked to be the safer option if we wanted some mileage. The new plan would be first Setesdal and then Rogaland, which would hopefully offer some contrasting variety. The former would provide some long multipitch slab climbs and when we were bored of slabs there would be some steeper single pitch climbing waiting for us in Rogaland. After my brief ice climbing trip to Setesdal in February I was curious to return in the summer months. Anna was still finding her feet on long, more committing, multi-pitch routes so a bolted friction slab looked a good medium with which to progress, as no doubt we would climb it comparatively quickly. There was the minor issue of spaced bolts (one pitch had three bolts in 60m for example) but I anticipated there would be protection where needed. Plus we were feeling tuned to the rock after some single p...