Having the opportunity to go on a self organised trip for four days wherever we want as a part of my studies is definitely nothing to complain about. After Jonas, Mike, Adam and I had been planning where we wanted to spend these four days and which activities we would like to do, we started our trip to the climbing area „Tangowall“ on monday noon. As we arrived there, we surveyed the climbing rock and looked for a nice camping spot. We found a perfect place everyone was satisfied with, to put up our tent and bivouac. Fortunately we timed the buildup of our camp perfectly so that we finished everything a few seconds before the bad weather arrived and ruined our planst to go climbing in the evening. As the weather got a little bit better in the evening, we built a nice campfire and cooked our dinner under the huge tarp, Adam blessedly brought along. All of us were a little bit sad that we could not go climbing the first day, but due to the bad weather we had much time to sit around and talk at the campfire about our plans for the next days and lots of other stuff. Our discussions about what to do the next days were very nice and easy because it seemed like we all had the same interests. We loved our campground so much that we decided to stay there for the three nights and spent the sunny days with climbing and hiking in the surrounding area.
The first night in the tent without snow or heavy rain was so comfortable that we slept until 11. After a large breakfast we headed to the climbing rock. While two of us were climbing, the others had time to play and boulder on the huge rocks underneath the massive rock. Everyone climbed two or three routes . The rock was very nice to climb with good grip for your feet but not that good grips for your hands and if there were some they were really sharp.
Because the climbing rock went into the shadow after 1 o’clock, we went to another rock on the other sied of the valley which is exposed to south / sout east. There we made some fun stuff like abseiling and bouldering. In the evening Mike and I went for a higher abseil where we abseiled 5 meters to a platform with the short rope, form where we abseiled 15 meters to another platform with Adam’s 50 meter rope. Everything worked out very well until I tried to get up again with two prusiks and a foot sling. Somehow the safety prusiks had way too much friction on the rope. Because meanwhile it was getting dark I ended up walking back around the rock and Mike made his way up on the rope.
We spent the rest of the evening together at the campfire and talked about our experienced from the day and what we would like to do on wednesday.
On wednesday we got up earlier because we wanted to climb as long as possible with the sun shining on the rock. We picked out some short but very challanging routes none of us was able to lead climb. So we Mike and I climbed around the rock, I abseiled to the top rope hooks and threaded our long rope though it. Even for top rope climbing the two routes we chose were very challanging but also a good limit experience. We always tried to motivate each other and push us to the limit. After the two slightly overhanging routes my forearms were totally exhausted. But it felt good!
As the sun went away from the rock we went back to our camp for having lunch at the campfire. Strenghtened from the meal we took out maps and compasses and went out for a hike to some lakes in the area. We hiked on very nice trails and found some perfect observation points from where we could see the beautiful hilly landscape and even the sea. After passing a few lakes we stopped a tone and decided to jump from a small rock into the water. It took a while until I vanquished my inner bastard and jumped in the cold water. It was really recreating and it’s always a good feeling to succeed over my inner bastard.
Back at the camp we picked up some stuff for barbecue and hiked around the climbing rock on top of it for making a campfire, grilling sausages and watching the sunset. Although it was very windy and cold up there we stayed for two hours until the sunset. Liket he nights before, back in our camp we sat around the campfire for talking about our experiences and incresing our group cohesion.
On thursday morning the weather turned too bad for climbing again. So we just have had a long, relaxed breakfast before we packed all our gear together hiked back to the car and drove to Kristiansand.
Although our trip went totally different as planned, without the 15 kilometer return hike, this trip was definitaly one of the best until now. We had so much time for just enjoying the good weather on tuesday and wednesday and increasing the group cohesion. Besides relaxing, climbing and hiking we practiced our campfire skills at least twice a day and tested different gear to light the fire, which worked very well. With the flintstone I managed to light the fire with the help of birch bark and tampons and with matches I just needed some plastic or very thin wood.
Knife throwing was also one new thing i’ve learnt these days. It began just for fun but after a while I developed ambition to enhance my ability and to throw acurate.
Adam’s and Mike’s sheltern also gave me ideas of different options how to build shelters in an environment without snow. Because I have less experience in building sheltes, I am very thankful for this example in practice.