News from the holiday!

Luca Bana turns the pages of his diary of an exceptional vacation spent in the company of Bernardo Rivadossi, his climbing partner from Team CT.
“Today is the 27^th of August and everything is ready! After carefully weighing the bags, we loaded everything into the car. Berni is going to sleepover at my place because tomorrow morning we start at 3am!! Direction…Norway!!

August 28^th

After about 5 hours in an airplane, we arrived in Trondheim; from here, the bus took us to Sjoasen, a small village in the middle of nowhere we stock up on food. We spend the whole afternoon by the sea and finally at about 7pm an unmistakable grey van pulls up: Adam (Ondra), previously contacted by Berni, came to pick us up!! In fact, after the World Cup competition in Norway, Adam stopped off to climb at Flatanger. Thanks to this lucky coincidence, I had the opportunity to share a few moments of climbing with him. Besides Ondra I met two other strong climbers: Megos and Shubert.

The legendary grey van brings us to Strom, a little place where we find our campsite. It is good base strategically for those who want to climb in the area. It is very basic; in fact, the campsite is made up of just a lawn for the tents and a trailer with bathrooms and a kitchen that is available for everyone to use. To be truthful there are not that many people …maximum a dozen people, Berni and I sorted out the tent, our home for the next ten days. The weather for tomorrow does not bode well, heavy rain and cold wind forecast. After eating something, we went to bed tired from the trip, hoping the weather improves in the coming days.

August 29^th
This morning the weather has not improved, I think we are going to have to get used to these temperatures … but that is not a problem, seeing as you can climb in all weather conditions inside the cave. We had breakfast and we are ready to climb!! The scenery is gorgeous in this place and the sea that surrounds this wild and almost uninhabited land is not far from here.

After a short and easy 20 minute walk, we arrive at the famous cave and we are blown away by the beauty and sheer size of the crag. The quality of the rock is great, it is a weathered granite, something I have never seen before.

To go a little bit more into detail, I can tell you that there are about a hundred single pitch routes, with an inclination ranging from vertical to full on overhang with variable difficulties: starting from 5a up to 9b+ (for now)… therefore there is something for everyone! Most of the difficult routes can be found in the cave, while the easier routes can be found on the sides of the cave, where the wall is less overhanging.

In this first day of climbing, we decided to climb only onsight, on routes that aren’t too difficult; while in the following days, on top of climbing on-sight, we dedicated ourselves to some harder lines.

August 30^th – September 4^th

I can not keep the diary updated daily because we are out climbing all day! But I can conclude that the result at the end of the holiday is positive and satisfactory. I managed to close a beautiful 8b+, about 45 meters long in just a few attempts called Nordic flower… completely in the cave from start to finish! I am also very pleased to have made the first free ascent of a project, bolted according to Adam, by Jorg Verhoeven. Adam, in fact, had informed us that the project was “open”, so we were free to try it. Berni got it immediately after me, making the first repeat of the route. The name that we have given it is “Open shoulders“, because the next day we had slightly sore shoulders… I wonder why.
The grade we have proposed for this beautiful route is 8b.

In addition to this, I managed to climb Steiny L2 (8a+) and Dvergtrollet (8a +), both on my second try. Following this the other interesting routes I did were: Flaggermusmannen (8a, flash); Eventyrblanding extension (8a, onsight); Andre hoyre (7c+, onsight) and some other route onsight ranging from 7b to 7c.
Even my climbing buddy Berni concluded the holiday in the best way possible, taking home a beautiful 8c called Muy verdes!

On the two rest days, as well as having got some supplies from the nearest store (an hour’s walk from the campsite) we allowed ourselves a little bit of relaxation time by taking a refreshing dip in the fjord.

September 7^th

We returned to Italy happy and satisfied! I can truly say I had a great holiday in the company of my friend Berni, with whom I have already shared some wonderful experiences like in Ceuse (France), in Val di Mello and at some of the crags in the Val Camonica including Cimbergo and Paline (where I climbed my first 8c called Rubik’s corner) …I have hardly been at home, what could be better!

Luca Bana