Svaddefossen, Rjukan

Plan A had been Grøtenutbekken, however once it became clear that the temperatures would be anything between - 20 and - 27 degrees, we quickly reconsidered due to the tension that would be in the ice.

The reserve plan was Setesdal, where temperatures were expected to be in single digit minus figures, however that went southwards shortly before our departure on the Friday, when learned that ice conditions weren't great from a couple of sources. Thin ice, with water flowing freely down some of the major routes, didn't sound appealing enough to take a chance. 

Rjukan seemed the natural choice at so short notice, as the temperatures were also a little more moderate than the original plan, and conditions were a fairly known substance due to having visited two weeks earlier. The snow on the approaches sounded deep, but that would be the case everywhere.

With plans set on Rjukan, we went back and fourth with possible objectives before we finally settled on Svaddefossen. I knew it was in condition after previous visits this season. The approauin deep snow would no doubt be challenging, but it couldn't be worse than some of the others in the areas that I have done in similarly deep snow. Skuffelsen in the Jailhouse Ice area immediately jumped to mind.

Svaddefossen from the main road

I took snowshoes and Dorian, who didn't own snowshoes, took touring skis. At first, the going was easy enough as we followed a track, but once we needed to depart from this and make a beeline through the forest for the route, things got a lot tougher. It was steep enough at regular intervals to often need to frontpoint in my snowshoes, whilst simultaneously grabbing, or even hugging a tree for assistance. I couldn't imagine how Dorian was managing with skis. One moment he was a short way behind me, then a short while later he was out of sight. I felt a little guilty leaving leaving him behind, although I had been engaged in my own little battle, and there seemed no point now waiting for him to catch up in the event that he opted for a completely different way with skis, which could lead to us missing one another. The best thing seemed to be to press on the start of the route and use the head start to sort gear and flatten out a belay platform. All-in-all, the approach wasn't too bad, and navigating through the trees to the start of the route caused no unexpected complications. Dorian had a very different view on this point when he arrived maybe ten minutes later, and looked a little dejected. 

The start of the route was buried under a blanket of snow, and it was easy enough for us to solo up to where the proper climbing begun. 

The obvious line to try looked to be up the right hand side of the main ice pitch. This part was steeper, and more sustained, taking in a full rope length without any proper ledges to break the difficulties. A line that followed a series of faint open grooves looked the most attractive line.

Svaddefossen's main pitch - steeper on the right, slacker on the left

A thin layer of icy crust needed stripping as I climbed the pitch, but I quite enjoyed the systematic workman-like process. For much of the pitch I was able to find bridges with which to offload the arms and aid a patient approach. Despite the cold temperatures, the consistency of the ice beneath the outer crust was excellent, and presumably the layer of snow had helped insulate the ice from becoming too hard and brittle. Just shy of 60m I made a belay at the top of the steep ice. I'd say overall the pitch was solid WI4+. Steeper than anything on Hydalsfossen in Hemsedal for example, but equally sustained, but not steep enough to warrent WI5 I would say. Further left, the ice became slacker, around WI3+/4 at a guess, with more flat breaks, so the main ice fall was by no means a fortress for its grade. Another team had in fact started up the far left hand of the fall to our surprise. We were not the only people looking the make things harder for ourselves today it seemed.

Dorian seconding the main pitch

The difficulties easied off further dramatically on the next pitch to around WI3, with snow covering the flatter sections. The crust remained on the ice, and soon this began to rain down on me due to my belay lying directly below the line that Dorian was climbing. Ice and spindrift rained down. A block struck me on the knee, then the top of my helmet, then the forearm, but I made sure to keep face shielded throughout. Doubly so when the other shouted with some urgency regarding incoming ice on a couple of occasions. Battered and bruised a little, but no major injuries to force a retreat. 

Easy ground on the third pitch

The final pitch started with more WI3 but quickly eased off into a snow slope that concealed any ice that lay deeper. Just a few moves that involved sinking the axes into ice, with the only goal by this point to reach the official 'top' of the route, as shown in the guidebook. I've seen it written that this route is more like six pitches, but we managed it in three from the point where the difficulties started proper. Maybe we unintentionally skipped the very start of the route, although, given this was no harder than WI2, and resembled a moderate ski slope, we didn't miss any climbing here.

View from the top of the route

The guidebook described a short traverse to gain a lightly forested hillside, however this, together with the traverse back at the bottom of the route, seemed unnecessary suffering. Instead, we could abseil the route, using just one abalakov thread, in order to reach the base of the difficulties. 

Together with the team from Sweden that had climbed the left hand side, Jon and Ludvig, we set about combining forces to make the abseil go quicker. As the heaviest climber, I abseiled first, down the other pair's rope towing by own ropes as I went. At the bottom of the ropes I made an abalakov and continued down, such that we had 120m of rope running down the route to the bottom of the difficulties.

Abseiling the main pitch

The descent back to the car went more smoothly, with the trail already broken and gravity now on our side. Just the tree branches to snag the rope on my backpack to make life more complicated. We were back at the car by 18:30, making for a stroll in park compared to To Menn og et Foster during the previous visit to Rjukan two weeks earlier. 

Overall, I would say To Menn og et Foster was slightly better route, although the main pitch on Svaddefossen was probably better than anything on the former. Svaddefossen also offered great views over Rjukan town, particularly as dusk set in during our descent.