Ever since going to Norway in 2012, I have been obsessed with the country. It’s always been hard for me to travel far from home knowing I live in one of the most amazing playgrounds in the world for ice climbing. Ben Winston told me about a place in Norway called Senja Island, having heard stories of amazing ice lines on this remote island. It didn’t take long for me to book my trip.
Before leaving town and traveling for 24hrs straight, I was able to talk Chris Guyer into a quick lap on Broken Hearts. This circuit has been a long-time favorite to do when I have very little time or no partner. This time, I had a partner so we decided to see how quickly we could climb all 6 pitches. Normally, the circuit includes only the first 4 pitches and tons of easy ice up to the base of the 5th pitch pillar. Then, you run down the mountain as fast as you can. Once at the base of the 5th pitch, Chris and I realized that we were moving incredibly fast. We kept up the pace and were able to complete all 6 pitches in 3 hours and 5 minutes, car-to-car. Perfect way to kick off the trip to Norway!
Climbing in Norway requires a ton of ice screws. Big, massive continuous ice routes eat up screws quickly.
One of the keys to traveling in Norway is to bring as much of your own food as possible. Food is not cheap is not cheap in Norway, so bringing your own keeps the cost of the trip down. For the most part, we ate freeze-dried meals for the entire trip even though we ended up having a full kitchen. Had we known of this feature before, we would have packed a little differently. Thanks to Liberty Mountain for hooking me up with all the food to support my trip!
Thankfully, I fly out of the small airport in Cody often. They didn’t weigh my bags or charge me for extra bags.
Gonna be a long day…
Many hours later, we gathered our bags for Customs and a plane switch, feeling even more psyched as we got closer to our destination. I think I need to go back to blonde again.
Flying into Tromso, we were all pretty amazed.
Getting to Norway requires multiple connecting flights over a 24hr period. We were lucky enough to fly into Oslo and then out to Tromso during the daylight, which allowed us to see the vast adventure this country had to offer.
Long ways from home.
The airports in Norway are the best! Very well organized and clean. We may have stood out as the weird Americans with the white packs.
Our balla rental car for the two week trip was pretty damn nice.
With our rental car packed and loaded, we still had another 4-5 hour drive to reach our final destination. One of the great things about Norway is that the sunsets last forever.
The rad landscape of Norway never disappoints.
A couple hours left to go, and it was gonna be a long night. At this point, we had been traveling for over 30hrs straight. Thankfully, we were all pretty psyched to see what the next day would bring.
