Rough weekend

Phew … last weekend was pretty rough! I’m a board member of Fredrikstad Klatreklubb (local climbing club) and the last couple of weeks we have been busy planning to re-bolt Hankø, one of the biggest (and busiest) crags nearby. Although most of the routes have been climbed and bolted by people from other parts of the country the climbing community believes that our club is “responsible” for the crag. Many of the routes were in bad shape so we had to do something about it. We teamed up with NKF (The climbing association of Norway) and they arranged a “bolt-course” so they could teach us some more about how to bolt.

They started last weekend (when I was in Chicago) and did most of the drilling then. I went out to Hankø to help out last Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Friday I mostly went around removing old bolts like the one in the picture above. First you fix the rope at the top of the cliff, abseil down while removing the hangers and knocking off the remainder of the bolt with a hammer and then jumaring to the top and move the rope over to the next route. At the end of the day I also glued bolts to a couple of routes so we didn’t have to throw away the rather expensive glue. We used Fixe glue-in bolts like the one in the image below all over the crag.

On Saturday and Sunday I did mostly gluing of bolts in the holes that the guys from NKF had drilled. On Sunday I worked for about 9 hours with a short 30 minute break in the middle. When I finally got home a cold beer tested better than ever!

This was only a re-bolt of the crag and it took quite some time. Kudos to all the people that travels around opening new crags and creating new lines!

We will be going out there next Friday to finish up. Two more routes need bolts and we’ll bring a couple of angle grinders to remove some old bolts that can’t be knocked down. I think I’ll go out there on Thursday as well to fix some ropes to the guys who are going to start early on Friday… I’ll bring my camera and snap some pictures of the place as well!

Small update

Well … haven’t been writing much here lately. I’ve been too busy with other things.

I came back from a very nice climbing trip to Alicante last Sunday. It was my first trip with no rain, so I’m quite happy! :) We climbed every day and all crags we visited was superb! I’m definitely going back there some other time. We lived in a cheap (but good) apartment in Calpe with two bedrooms, kitchen, living room … luxury! :)

Tone came home last Thursday to spend Christmas at home. We’re eating loads of good food and having a relaxing vacation. :)

Going to Alicante

Me and a friend of mine are going to Alicante in Spain for some climbing a week in December (8th to 15th). I haven’t been there before but my friend has, so hopefully it won’t be too much driving around trying to figure out where to climb. One week is too short but hey, it’s better than nothing. :)

Climbing in Italy

In a couple of days I will be heading to the north of Italy with a couple of friends to do some climbing for a couple of weeks. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll miss my girlfriend a lot though but she will be waiting for me when I come home :)

Hopefully I will be able to take a lot of pictures. I’m not sure if I’ll bring my 350d because we will be climbing longer routes with 7+ pitches and it’s not that cool to carry a heavy backpack because of a camera when you’re 600+ feet above ground. I’ll probably bring it along but I’ll use Tone’s smaller ixus in the mountains I guess.

I hope to be able to finish my porch tomorrow. I’m not sure if I have enough time, but I’ll try. :)

Roger bouldering

Roger bouldering

Originally uploaded by cogocogo.

Dosage 4

Received the Dosage 4 DVD today from moonclimbing! I think I will watch it some time later tonight! Looking forward to it! :)

Vote for Fredrikstad Klatreklubb

The local climbing club in the town where I live is building an indoor climbing centre, and we have been selected along with three other organizations for the Bluzz fond. If we get the most votes we will receive 50.000,- norwegian kroners (about 6200 euro) that will be used for the centre. Please go to http://www.fes.no/bluzz.php, enter your mail address and wait for a mail to arrive containing a link. When you click on the link you can vote for Fredrikstad Klatreklubb. You can vote once every day and if you have several mail addresses, please use every one. :)

Word from Rich

Just got a mail from Rich, a guy I met in El Chorro earlier this year. It was cool to read up on what he has been doing. The guy is travelling all over Europe just doing whatever he wants. :) Sounds kinda nice if you ask me. :) Added a link to his photo gallery as well.