Hello,
we're off to (Sweden and) Norway next month and wondered if you had any recommendations?
Mixed team: VS/HVS (so I'm guessing 6-?);
E3/E4 or F7a (so 7+?) and
E5/F7c (so 8/8+?).
Some medium length multi pitch up to about 12 pitches, some trad and some quick fix sport. Are my grade guesses about right? Any must visit areas? Any must do routes? Any tourist must sees? thanks Roger
Your grade conversions are spot on.
Regarding recommended areas, there is just to much for a month. Norway and Sweden are far to large to cover in so short time.
For longer routes western part of southern Norway is the prime destination. There’s also lots up north, like Lofoten. But you must consider logistics and the weather.
Southern Norway is like a blown-up version of Britain. Or maybe Scotland? With the weather pattern of rain coming in west from the Atlantic, it can still be good conditions on the east side. And even just behind our tall mountains it can be really different the on coast.
So you should be flexible and be able to drive in the direction with good conditions
Prime venues are Nissedal, Setesdal, Uskedal, Romsdal for longer trad routes.
Many good crags for sport climbing around the largest cities; Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger. And inland crags like Urdviki, and Stryn .
All these places are covered in different guidebooks And at online services like 27 crags, 8a.nu and ukclimbing
Here are my experiences:
Bohuslan is definitely worth visiting and has a good guidebook.
Lofoten and Stetind are fantastic, but only if you get lucky or you're happy to wait for a weather window.
Romsdal is spectacular, but the guidebook was dated (in 2015) and the climbing seemed quite committing. There are meant to be some excellent long routes on good rock, but you'll need better information than we had to find them.
Cragging round olso is ok, but it's not the reason you'll be going to Scandinavia.
6- will feel difficult for VS climbers ... I'd guess HVS to bottom end E1 depending where you go, and there's plenty of sandbagging.
If you like crack climbing, then Bohuslan is fantastic; mainly single pitch, though also some crags up to 100m. Immaculate rock, lots of world class climbing throughout all the grades. We mainly climbed on single 60m rope with double set of cams. Usually decent bolted abseil points. On a few routes, double ropes would be useful. We often visited couple different crags a day - climbed 3 or 4 world class routes, then moved to a different crag. Short gentle approaches, usually around 20 minutes or so. Guidebook is great and up to date - available from Cordee.
Another place we loved was Uskedallen, on west coast of Norway, few hours from Bergen. Sunny multi-pitch, up to 20 pitches. Often climbed routes 3-5 pitches; either abseil descents from bolts, or easy scramble down terraces. Trad climbing on great features, with the odd fully bolted pitch where the cracks run out. 40minutes-1 hour approach. Guidebook available in campsite in the town on coast at bottom of the valley; there's also wild camping around lake at the end of the road, though loses sun early evening, and looks like could be midgey.
Driving in Norway is slow; apparently very hefty on the spot fines for speeding... Speed limit is 50mph!
> 6- will feel difficult for VS climbers ... I'd guess HVS to bottom end E1 depending where you go, and there's plenty of sandbagging.
Yes I was thinking a VS climber hopping on 6- in Innerdalen or Romsdal would be in for quite the surprise. That said a VS climber hopping on 4+ in Innerdalen would probably get the same surprise.
Currently in Lofoten for two weeks.
From my exerience, conversions are not a million miles off, but if you are not familiar with that style of climbing (cracks, layback and technical feet), I would say you will appreciate having a few grades in hand. The pitches tend to be very long, sustained and with big exposure. All fine if you're happy with it, less so if you're not.
I have found grading to be a bit all over the place for quite a few routes, likely due to lack of familiarity with the style so I would ease into it until you know what's what.
thanks all for your help
Bergen klatreklubb also have online info, and if you google around 'placename klatring' you can find other info.
Yr.no for weather.
There's a new sports climbing guidebook out for romsdal last month (Romsdal - Sportsklatring) I have it on order, so I don't know what it's like, but plenty to do. And endless scrambling options too.
Further to what I said via email, I just happened to watch this youtube.com/watch?v=EP68SOW-DWY& Hazel Findlay in Bohuslän. It gives a decent feel of the area. The shots of them in the small fishing village I think are in Smögen which is really scenic and has fun cragging. But there are just granite crags everywhere around there.
Hey, does anyone have any guidebook recommendations for both Norway and Sweden?
Which bits?
Sweden alone is considerably bigger than the UK, so you need to decide where you are going.
Probably southern Norway + south Sweden
i know rockfax have a Lofoten island guidebook but are there any other guidebook recommendations for the areas outside of there?
Ok, that's an area with as much climbing as England and Wales together , but....
Online guides brattelinjer and buldreinfo.
Sorlandet rock for Southern Coast.
Setesdal - new guide, jn English!
Drammen area, some of which online..
These barely scrape the surface...
Thank you ! That’s really helpful, it’s great have somewhere to start. we have some time so hopefully we can explore some / all of these areas
have you used / can you recommend Climb Norway guidebook ?
How are you getting here?
Too many places to suggest to be honest. Uskedalen is awesome and gets shade if you're patient enough to wait til the afternoon. The trad climbing on Tellnes, West of Bergen are surprisingly good given not that well known. Hægefjell gets a lot of midges in the summer and little shade, but excellent if there are cooler days. Loads of cragging around Bergen/Rogaland. Prekestolen, Kjerag and Trolltungen are out that way to tick the tourist boxes. Think 7+ is entry level for climbing on Kjerag. Loads around Oslo/Drammen when passing through. Personally I prefer the mountains in mid-summer as it's to hot too hot low down. The face to the left of Trollveggen has seen a lot of development in recent years and has solid rock with routes in the 7s. Lastly, 6- is typically E1 in Bohus. VS is probably closer to 5.
So helpful! Thank you very much for taking the time to reply
definitely sounds like there’s so much to go at
Had a road trip there 6 years ago. Climbed on Lofoten (old rockfax guide), Stetind (south pillar, PDF download), both of these are now on rockfax, and Bohuslan (local guidebook). All of these were excellent, perhaps we were lucky with the weather. Note, the grades in Bohuslan seemed to be a full grade harder than supposedly the same grades in Lofoten.
Advice, take crack gloves!
Edit: Link to my facebook album of the trip: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10209137866141313&type=3
> have you used / can you recommend Climb Norway guidebook ?
If that's the one I flicked through in Outside last weekend it seemed like a slightly random selection of single pitch sport crags spread up and down the country. Most places in Norway seem pretty beautiful, but if you just had that book it sort of looked like you might be missing the wood (or massive granite mountains) for the trees (little sport crags).
> Lastly, 6- is typically E1 in Bohus. VS is probably closer to 5.
Have you done Bergkirstis polska (n6-)? That's 6- and seems to get HVS 5b in UK grades (don't know who gave it that). But I don't remember there being a crux, so 5b seems unlikely. It's sustained and long pitch, but super well- and easy to- protect. I'm a bit rubbish and find lots of UK HVS 5as a struggle, but cruised up BP. I would have thought HVS 5a or even HVS 4c (getting the HVS for sustainedness as obvs. it as safe as houses) might be the UK grade.
I can't remember if I've done any other 6-s in Bohuslan, but at least that one seems much easier than E1. We always said Finnish 6- was E1, and that seems right, but Finnish grades were always a touch harder than the Swedish and Norwegian routes of the same grade.
> > Lastly, 6- is typically E1 in Bohus. VS is probably closer to 5.
> Have you done Bergkirstis polska (n6-)? That's 6- and seems to get HVS 5b in UK grades (don't know who gave it that).
Yes that is definitely more like HVS. A lot of the other 6- Bohus classics would surely be E1. Prismaster, Vilskudd, Våroffer, Nixten for example.
Slight hijack but do you have any recommendations for weekend trip destinations (< 5hrs drive) from Oslo for an up to VS climber? Ideally multipitch trad and without long run outs We've moved to Oslo fairly recently and are enjoying the local stuff, with plans for some of the further stuff (Uskedal, Bergen, Lofoten) but not so sure on good options for weekend trips.
Setesdal mostly looks like very run out slabs, and Nissedal not much beyond Via Lara at our grade (though thats on the list for sure!). Hemsedal looks like it might have some stuff? Anywhere else you'd recommend?
It’s mainly single pitch, but Bohuslan is fairly close.
> Is there really that much stuff at 5 at Bohuslån? I always got the impression it was loaded towards higher grades.
I've done plenty of stuff at lower grades in Bohuslan. Check out Nordens Ark for example, tricky starts (but not that tricky) then a huge slab with cracks in it. There's nice easier stuff at Välseröd, same at Brappersberget. I've soloed a bunch of little easy stuff around Smögen and even soloed a route on Ornbacken - there are lots of easy routes listed there. The last one wasn't brilliant but it was a stroll from the campsite we were staying on. The crag Håle is literally across the road from the campsite, there's a great hand crack I think just opposite the entrance to campsite - Snabel Schreck (n5+), if you are happy hand jamming I don't remember it being too hard - just great fun!
This is an old blog post I wrote about my first trip there - I was climbing with some newish and relatively inexperienced climbers so we didn't do anything particularly hard. http://lightfromthenorth.blogspot.com/2011/06/bohuslan-climbing-trip-report...
Here's a trip report from a Sweden / Norway roadtrip featuring Bohuslan, Flattanger and Settesdal:
https://doughton.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/scandi-rock-climbing-in-norway...
And another one that takes in Lofoten, Stockholm and Hell amongst others
https://rockaroundtheworld.co.uk/2020/06/22/rockaroundtheworld-retrospectiv...
Hopefully there's some inspiration for your trip. Enjoy! Cheers, Dom
Ha! You went to Rollarit in Helsinki! I hadn't thought of the Hobby Moor comparison but it's pretty apt. There's been so much more development since when you were there, whole crags discovered and rediscovered close to Helsinki, the explosion in bouldering, and dozens more excellent cliffs across the south of the country - from right over near to Sweden to the Russian border, but it's funny to think back how different things were back then.
edit: and I totally agree with your sentiments about Brexit at the end: "the willful act of social, political, cultural and economic self-harm represented by Brexit. Happy memories but sad feelings." Absolutely.
Sounds like we need to make a return visit!
great report and loads of inspiration, thanks Dominic
> Slight hijack but do you have any recommendations for weekend trip destinations (< 5hrs drive) from Oslo for an up to VS climber? Ideally multipitch trad and without long run outs
Skurvefjell Vest and Skogshorn in Hemsedal immediately come to mind. Nice wild camping at the end of the track from where the Skurvefjell approach starts.
Eastern end of Jotunheimen another option. (approaching from Valdresflye side). Torfinnstraversen for example.
Would save Bohus until after summer. Nicer conditions in spring and autumn as most stuff is south or west facing. The few north facing crags don't have much VS and under. Watch out for ticks btw.
Might also be worth mentioning that there are some descent sport crags that stay dry in and around (often rainy) Bergen: Loddefjord has a few very good / apparently very good 7a routes that stay dry (easier suff gets wet and everything else is harder). An hours drive from the city centre is also a mainly dry crag called Hjernmassveggen with some great 6c+ routes (plus lots of harder ones) that stay dry. Missiveggen is a third dry crag very near the centre but far less good than the above.
Of course you might be keen to get on big stuff or climb in the sun but always good to have a rain proof backup in norway!
Bergen in general is a good place to visit for sport and trad. Climbing guide books and good advice from a shop called Ute.
ps. bring midge stuff
Brilliant thanks!
I don't know what the best current guide for Bergen is?
We managed to get a brattkort on our first visit to a wall, basically just like a wall test in the UK. You need a Norwegian or Swedish mobile no for the permanent card but the temporary (3 month) one you can get without it's only the online system that needs it.