Kristoffer Szilas

After Christmas I spent a few days climbing in Rjukan, but unfortunately the conditions are not good at the moment. There has been very little snowfall and the strong cold has stopped the ice from forming. None of my projects at Sector Arne were climbable and the little ice that had formed elsewhere was very brittle.

I did, however, manage to climb the drytool route Fission.

I had climbed it once already (using heelspurs) about five years ago, but obviously that does not count as a free ascent. This time I did it bareback (leashless, without spurs and no leg-resting on the tools). The guide book calls it D10 (D for drytool), but compared to the stuff I've done in Kandersteg it cannot be harder than D9.

It was a pleasant surprise to run into Norwegian top climber Robert Caspersen at Krokan. We met in Patagonia recently, so it was quite a coincidence to meet him back in Norway. He was climbing well, as always, despite the extreme cold and I took the photo below of him running up an M7 wearing big mitts!