KristofferSzilas

This weekend Martin Ploug and I climbed the famous Vettisfossen in Utladalen, Norway. It has the highest free fall (275m) of any water fall in Scandinavia and is one of the most diffucult ice climbs here in part because it rarely forms.

Steep and funky ice.

Impressive and scary at the same time!

Hanging belay after the first overhanging pitch where the pillar is broken in half.

There is a video of a previous ascent here:

www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/163997

I’m back in Denmark now and have put together a photo gallery from ice climbing in Canada that can be found here. It was great experience and it's definitely a place I have to visit again.

I managed to climb the following routes this winter in Canada:

Sea of Vapors WI6

Whiteman Falls WI6

Nemesis WI6

Pilsner Pillar WI6

Weeping Wall central Pillar WI5+

Sorcerer WI5

Carlsberg Column WI5

Louise Falls WI5

The Boyd Mystery M8

Sleek M8

Dumerac M8

Swank M8-

Half 'N' Half M7

No Love M7-

This weekend I first did “The Sorcerer” in the Ghost with Carlos and Rafal, which was a fun and remote ice climb.

The next day I climbed “Sea of Vapors” with Erik Schnack. This route is a classic test piece of the Canadian Rockies. It was pretty thin on the first pitch, meaning that you could see the rock under the ice, and the second pitch was spicy too. The upper pitches were pretty easy but very long and straight which meant you had the full weight of the rope on your harness. "Sea of Vapors" was in WI6 conditions when we did it and it is by far the best ice route I’ve ever done!

Trophy Wall with Sea of Vapors on the right and Replicant and Terminator on the left.

Me on the first pitch of Sea of Vapors.

Erik Schnack on the second pitch of Sea of Vapors.

This weekend I did a few really good ice routes. First I climbed Nemesis with Carlos, then Whiteman Falls with Crista-Lee and then Pilsner Pillar with Rob and Ramon. It was a fun few routes, but on Nemesis I got a chunk of ice in the face, which scratched my cornea, on Whiteman Falls I broke of a huge mushroom of ice that hit me so hard in the face that I got my jaw dislocated and on Pilsner Pillar I got absolutely drench with water as I only had a soft-shell with me that day. Anyway it was a great weekend of ice climbing.

Nemesis (WI6) on the Stanley Headwall.

Me on the crux pitch of Nemesis.

Me on Whiteman Falls (WI6).

Pilsner Pillar (WI6).

Me getting a shower on Pilsner Pillar (Photo by Rob Gibson)

This weekend I did a bit of mixed climbing in the Canmore area.

On Saturday I went to Bear Spirit with Carlos Buhler and we climbed “No Love” (M7-) and Dumerac (M8). On Sunday I went to Haffner Creek with Crista-Lee Mitchell and Rafal Andronowski. They are both professional photographers, so lots of photos were taken that day. Below are a few that Rafal took of me while I redpointed a super cool mixed route called “The Boyd Mystery” (M8).

You can see more of Rafal’s work on his website: www.photographybyrafal.com