Today I went on another bad weather mission with the Sahlén brothers. The weather was even worse than yesterday when we woke up, but we still wanted to go out there trying. And this time we got rewarded for our work.

Morgan enjoying our reward

Our mission for the day was to do the central couloir on the west face of Russelvfjellet – an esthetic little line close to the road. We took of late after a very relaxed morning, took the ten min drive to the end of the road at the most northern tip of Lyngen and then started climbing toward our objective – straight from the road.

We where quickly at the base of the couloir that started with a short icefall that we could have passed on the side, but we felt like we wanted to do the line in good style so we went for the climb. 

When I was almost past the vertical section I put my ski pole on the side in the snow to have both hands free, like many times before on semi-easy terrain, my pole just went through the snow and disappeared.

After the first surprise I got irritated that my pole was gone (and the skiing for the day ruined) so I started to hit on the icefall with my ice axe. After just a few hits the thin ice broke and I was looking in to a cave behind the icefall. After some work I had made a big enough hole for me to climb in to the darkness where I found a room big enough for maybe 15 people. There was also a tunnel going down five meters where I climbed down to finally find my pole. Morgan and Bjarne soon joined me and we had a really cool start of the day. Whatever would happen with the day we still had found a cave!

From above the icefall we kept the rope on to manage the kind of slabby snow and half way up the couloir we chose to go left in to a smaller couloir system to avoid exposure. Easy and spectacular climbing awaited us all the way to the top from here.

And then came the skiing. We had been climbing the whole day in a snowstorm and when we had only just started down the couloir the sun came out from the clouds, the snow was just perfect (we where charging in between safe spots) and we had a wonderful ski.

At the bottom Bjarne decided to jump the icefall, but lost a ski in the landing  (it was a good try). Morgan and me skied down on a ramp on the side.

At the car we clipped on the rope on the car and Bjarne and myself skied untracked powder all the way back to the house. We had an awesome time! It was probably one of the longest powder runs I have had in my life. And damn it’s a cool feeling skiing pow at 70 kph… 

Russelvfjellet’s west face. The couloir in the center of the photo is the one we skied

Bjarne on his way in to the cave

Bjarne on the ice

The Sahlén brothers

The finns at the parking 

Today we went out for a two-hour adventure in the snowstorm. We had a couloir as the objective for the day, but it had been snowing more than we had expected and the wind had loaded the couloir with lots of new snow. Once again we turned around, but we where out there trying. One doesn’t know how it really is before one goes out there looking for one self, right? 

Morgan and myself out there trying (photo: Bjarne Sahlén)

We started up the couloir on the lookers right and then followed the obvious ramp to the left towards the icefall just below the narrow couloir at the middle of the face. The ice climbing was awesome grade 4+ ice and was really easy to climb, but every time I looked up it was like someone threw a shovel full of snow straight in to my face. It was probably hard winds from the other side of the mountain that created the heavy snowdrift and I couldn’t really take Morgan up in to that storm. We hadn’t really expected that big of a ice climb so we only had two ice screws making me take huge run outs and I had to make an ice thread on 75 degree ice hanging from one of my axes to prepare for the rappel. It became a wonderful mountain adventure, and for it to be a real adventure the risk of failure has to be in to the equation hasn’t it? Anyways, I rather try cool things and fail than to just do things I know I will succeed on already at the breakfast table!

This is the greatest line I have tried in Scandinavia and it should be really straightforward for anyone tying it in better conditions. Anyone in the north with steep skiing ambitions and basic climbing skills, try it out, you will be amazed.

Here are Morgan Sahlén’s photos from the other day at Forholttinden…

Yesterday we went on a big mission on Forholttinden west of Lyngseidet in Lyngen. We drove semi-early from Tromsö in the morning and then approached Forholttinden from the east to be able to film it easily from the other side of the fjord. The target for the day was a beautiful couloir on the looker’s right side of the big mountain face. Morgan and myself was going for the adventure while Bjarne and Ale were filming from the road. We understood that the six kilometer approach along the water where to be though, but not that though; it took 2,5 hours on the way in and 3,5 hours on the way out and consisted of gravel with a few centimeters of snow on it. It’s the hardest approach I have had in Scandinavia and definitely the hardest I have done since South America.

At around two o’clock we arrived at the start of the couloir and from there everything was pretty straightforward. First we climbed a couple of hundred meters in the couloir, then we climbed a thirty meter grade four ice pitch, another pitch of low angle ice and then continued another maybe four hundred meters of cruising terrain before we arrived at the very steep exit couloir. The end was only about two meter wide and really steep.

At the top we took a few minutes to rest and warm up in the sun and then we started the descent. Morgan gave me rope support for the first three meters so I would get a feel for the snow and then I took of down the beautiful couloir. About forty meters further down I ended up on a slab so I quickly took of my skis, down climbed two meters and then kept on skiing to a safe spot. Then Morgan followed me down and when he was safe over the slab I continued down in big turns all the way to the icefall half way down. The snow was totally awesome, easily the best I have skied for the whole season.

We managed to get over the ice with some down climbing and only one rappel and then we skied the second part in one go. The lower part had even better light snow and coming back to our traverse track it felt like the long approach was well worth the hard work. We finally arrived at Magic Mountain Lodge in Lyngseidet at midnight totally exhausted after a great day out.

We don’t know if this couloir is skied before, but it was however a great adventure with awesome skiing, a big feel to it and a couloir of high class wherever one would be in the world.

If you haven’t been there already, visit Bjarne’s video blog at endlessflow.posterous.com

As well as wonderful Magic Mountain Lodge on Facebook at here…

(Photo: Bjarne Sahlén)

Morgan getting ready and Bjarne and Ale are enjoying the sun, knowing they don’t have to walk for hours on a rocky beach!

Morgan

Finally gaining some altitude

Happy Morgan

Morgan skiing from the top of the couloir

Morgan skiing from after the rappel

Morgan happy after a great ski, now its just the hard part left: walking back

Yesterday we went down to Nordkjosbotn to ski a favorite, Russetind, as a warm up for the trip. It has a 1000m plus east face that is a beautiful ski that I skied a couple of years ago. I have always thought it would look awesome on film and as its fairly straightforward we chose it as a good mountain to get a feeling for the conditions in the area.

We arrived in perfect weather and Morgan and myself walked up on the west side while Bjarne climbed a mountain facing the east face to get a good filming position. Everything went smooth, but unfortunately, when we got close to the top bad weather came in. We still tried to drop in on the face, but poor visibility together with lots of snow made us turn around after fifty meters. With no visibility it was really hard to judge the conditions further down and to choose a good line down. We really didn’t get much film material and we didn’t get to ski the line we wanted, but we got some really good turns and we got to test our shape. Best of all was that I got to be out with Morgan again, he’s a great guy, excellent skier and one of the persons I trust most in the mountains.

We are having a rest day today and tomorrow we are of to the Lyngen alps for some, hopefully, awesome couloir skiing. Its lots of snow in the mountain and its been snowing today as well, so I bet we will get some good turns in. The question is just if its possible to do the bigger lines at the moment. Time will tell though… 

The awesome east face of Russetind! A great ski… Unfortunately we didn’t get to ski it this time, but who knows, we might come back! 

The Sahlén brothers

Morgan walking

And climbing

The summit ridge

Morgan and myself on the top

Morgan is WILD!

Good turns in the west couloir