The objective of the trip was for the group (Sven Heaps and me) to successfully summit Galdhøpiggen, not only the highest peak in Norway but at 8100ft the highest in Northern Europe. Galdhøpiggen is located in the Jötunheimen National Park, 700km and 9 hours from Kristiansand. Because of this a 5 day trip was planned;
– Day one would be used to travel to the national park, arriving at approximately 20:00.
– Day two would be a relatively short day used to prepare equipment and to practice winter skills such as ice axe arrests, placing ice screws and crevasse rescues. This was mainly due to a lack of experience in these techniques on my part but would also give Sven a rest after driving the day before.
– Day three was planned to be the day of the summit attempt, making the most of being in the area and also summiting Keilhaus Topp and Svellnose, two other prominent peaks in the area.
– Day four was a shorter and easier day to allow Sven to rest again before driving back to Kristiansand on the next day, however it was still planned to bag some peaks; namely Galdhøe, Veslpiggen and Kjelhøe.
– Day five was for returning to Kristiansand, Via Lillehammer for some quick sightseeing.
The trip was planned with joint ownership over destination and route choice. A route was chosen that would be within the abilities of both of us and give us greatest chance of successful summiting. We spent some time previous to the trip in the climbing wall practicing rigging pulleys and hauling each other so that we were prepared if one of us fell through a crevasse whilst crossing the glacier.
Sven and I get on well and have spent some time together, both walking in the mountains and taking part in other activities where we have a responsibility for looking after each other whilst in the UK. We have similar characteristics and mannerisms, this tends to lead to us working well together and interpreting situations in similar ways. This trip has not affected the dynamic between us and we plan to continue doing expeditions together, including another attempt on Galdhøpiggen later in the semester.
Overall the trip was unsuccessful as we failed to complete our main objective: summiting Galdhøpiggen. However we were able to scout out the general area of the mountain and overcame some of the difficulties that we encountered.
A breakdown of the trip follows.
-Left Kristiansand late.
-Road closed 100km to destination resulting in 4hr diversion.
-Road closed 8km from planned camping spot due to it being a summer road.
-Decided to sleep in car and then walk in to camping spot the next day carrying overnight kit.
-Snow coming in windows of car and melting on clothes for driving home in.
-Took 2hrs to repack bags for carrying overnight equipment, shouldn’t have even taken 1hr, tent, rope, helmet all strapped to outside and bags extremely heavy.
-Clear weather, little wind.
-No one in huts to leave route card with.
-Wax not working, massive amount of snow and ice balling up on skis, can’t even slide down.
-Large patches of ice on slope.
-Reach first bend in road, not getting good vibes and carrying too much weight for conditions, plan to head back to car, pitch tent and then summit the next day(30km day!)
-Pitch tent oriented with wind direction based on current wind, cornice formation and snow drift locations.
-Construct snow block wall around back of tent and by tent door.
-Settle in for the night.
-Snow coming in through tent and into inner tent.
-Early morning: Wind picks up, tent being pushed down almost onto me, loud crack-suspected guy line ripping.
-Woke up late due to Sven’s alarm not going off to discover weather had come in during night, strong winds, snow, limited visibility, wind from completely new direction and side on to tent, suspected guy line ripping was actually pole snapping.
-Decide to call off summit attempt and trip.
-Pack up kit and throw tent into back of car.
-Car stuck in snow.
-Spend 15mins digging car out and clearing road, once nearly finished snow plough arrives.
-Return to Kristiansand.
-General bad vibes throughout trip.
Learning Points:
-Listen to gut feelings.
-Check road closures and seasonal roads.
Route Plans