What to do in 2012?
What to climb in 2012?

* Alpine! – Try the big snow dome above Chamonix called Mont Blanc. Hopefully this time together with Jonna (it’s a mess I haven’t done it yet…). Hopefully a bunch of good friends will come along as well 🙂 When being acclimatised on Mont Blanc, the plan is to head to Monte Cervino (Matterhorn) and make another attempt on Liongrat.  This time with my old childhood friend Tomas Ericsson. Next year it’s four years since I last tried Liongrat with Anders Grawin and ten years since my first visit.  Liongrat follow the right ridge on the photo. If someone else will come along, Jonna might climb here as well. We don’t want to tie ourselves togehter on any risky projects…

* Ice! – Hopefully Jonna and I can puzzle in one or two ice climbing trips this season, perhaps Trängslet and Rjukan?!

* Rock! – It’s about time I and Jonna get back in shape and try our old projects @ Träskberget @ home. If we get the oppurtunity, hopefully a quick visit to Norway and bigger walls.

* Plastic! – Indoor climbing is fun! Really fun if you compare going to the normal gym. Our goal is to train indoor at Klätterverket or K2/Klättercentret at least once a week.

Dagmar hit Norway hard! It was said to be the worst storm in 30 years…

When Dagmar reached us at the east coast of Sweden it had weakened but the strange wet and warm weather without any frozen ground made the trees break and fall. Our house lost electrical power at 3:am on monday morning, and it was not until today, 40 hours later that we were plugged in again.

On monday morning, Rasmus and I packed the Stihl chainsaw in the Honda and drowe around in the neigborhood to have a look. Trees had fallen here and there… Servral had already been removed, but when we drowe towards Dyvik we where stopped by a tree that had fallen across the road. We removed it and cleared the road… …Just to be stopped by a power cable that had fallen over the road just some hundred meters away.

Below are some photos from this little mini adventure…

Jonna and I had a great visit to London!

We had time to both meet old friends, visit a great mountaineering lecture at the Royal Geographic Society, climb and do some christmas shopping as well 🙂

On thursday evening we went to the Royal Geographic Society and listened to a lecture about the Eiger North Face. The presentators were no less than Sir Chris Bonington and Ueli Steck.

Chris proved to be the fantastic lecturer I’ve heard that he is. He told the story about his struggle with the Eiger during his early career, and how he finally became the first Brit to climb the -38 route. He continued with the story about the “race” to make the first ascent of the direct route up the face, a classic story that ended in tragedy when John Harlin fell to his death.

Ueli, one of the new generation Eiger climbers told about how he after 35 acents of the Eiger North Face following diffrent routes made his speed record. He also told about his Alp North Face Trilogy and ending with his 10,5 hour solo ascent of Shisha Pangmas south face. Nice lecture with stunning photos and filming.

On friday afternoon we met my old friend Micke Collin at the climbing gym called The Castle. It was an OK place. Micke proved in shape and climbed three 6c and one 6c+. Really nice to meet Micke again, it was a long time since we last climbed or met (think it was in 2008?). He told us that nowdays he often spends his weekends trad-climbing in the Peak District.

We’ll be back some day to listen to some other lecture at the Royal Geographic Society – a nice and classic place!

Today, I took a day off from work to visit Arsenalen, Sweden’s Defence Vehicle Museum located in Strängnäs.

Erlier I had promised my son Rasmus to take him there, then he got sick with chickenpox and time just passed by… My father, Lars-Erik followed by as well. The Strängnäs armored regiment is the place where he made his military service a long time ago, so he had some old stories to tell Rasmus and me 🙂

I’ve had too much to do lately and lacked the inspiration and energy to write anything…

…Now something positive: Jonna and I have booked a trip to London next week to listen to Chris Bonington and Ueli Steck at the Royal Geographical Society.

Unfamilar to Bonington and Steck?
– Sir Christian Bonington is a living mountineering legend with many many expeditions behind him. Still, soon at the age of 80, Bonington is climbing and traveling all over the world… http://bonington.com/bio/

– Ueli Steck. A strong and extremely fast speedclimber. For example: Eiger North Wall solo in 2h47Min,  Mattrhorn North Wall solo in 1h56Min, Grand Jorasses solo in 2h21Min, Piolet d’Or“ winner in 2009… http://pda.uelisteck.ch/de/stories.html

The lecture is about the great Eigerwand:

Of all the great challenges of the Alps, the North Wall of the Eiger stands supreme, both for the richness of its history and for the dramas, many of them all too tragic, that have taken place from the early attempts in the thirties to the present day.

Chris Bonington experienced this directly in his various attempts and final success in making the first British ascent and in his involvement in the dramatic story of extreme climbing and the extraordinary media circus that accompanied the first ascent of the Eiger Direct in the winter of 1966.

The intervening years have seen great achievements, culminating in the supreme performance of athletic excellence and technical skill that accompanied Ueli Steck¹s incredible solo ascent in 2008, when he set a new speed record on the Eiger North Face, climbing the Heckmair Route in a staggering 2 hours, 47 minutes and 33 seconds. In doing so he smashed the previous record of 3 hours and 45 minutes, set by himself in February 2007.

Eiger has followed me all along since I started with mountaineering. A dream is that I one day feel strong enough to try the classic Heckmair route…

Here’s some photos from my unsuccessful Mont Blanc climb. Extreme winds and bad weather forced me to stay in my BC at Tete Rousse for several days. When it was time to go down and travel home, hundreds of climbers arrived.

On the way up from the Tramway, I was completely alone. How rare is not that on MB! But then, the weather forecast was really bad ;-(

I had a day off from work to spend some time with my son Rasmus. We had a nice day on  Häggsta, a climbing crag outside Stockholm. The rain was hanging in the air for the whole day, but we where lucky and stayed dry.

Rasmus is getting more skilled at climbing and hopefully he can follow a real route and not just top rope next year 🙂

I finally had to break camp and head down to Chamonix. I had bad luck with the weather and strong winds. This time it was nothing I could do about it. So I’m not as disappointed as last year.

After being stuck in my BC at Tete Rousse for three days, I really had no option then that to go down. Otherwise I would perhaps have missed my plane home.

Already when going up I knew my chances where very slim. I was actually the only climber on Sunday going up with the Tramway to Nid‘d Aiguille! Later on the way, hiking towards Tete Rousse, I passed four polish climbers heading up. But that was all, except for about another 50 climbers I met that instead was giving up and headed down.

When I reached Tete Rousse at 3200m, there were only five tents present at BC, so I hand no problem finding a good protective camp for my tent.

The first night I slept very badly due to the altitude combined with the high wind twisting the tent. You could actually from time to time hear a gale high on the Gouter plateu.

I stayed here for three days. Then I had to make my decision – Go up or down. I headed down, even if the weather forecast was better, it still showed high winds, up to 60 km/h. Since I already had given myself a promise, not to risk anything and don’t go up if the forecast said more than 50 Km/h winds – I headed down…. Not nice to climb solo on exposed ridges and face the chance of being blown off ;-(

When I packed up my gears and headed down, the BC had grown to at almost 30 tents. I guess about 400 climbers where on the way up. Almost everybody had their minds set on summiting on Thursday, the day with a promising weather forecast and less wind. Sadly, Thursday was not a possibly day for me, since I’m travelling home on early Friday morning. A pity, but this time it was just bad weather. It was nothing I could do about it. The mountain is still here until another year. Perhaps I can try it together with Jonna next time.

Today I’m going down town to look for a new pair of running or light hiking shoes. Outdoor shoes are much cheaper here than back home in Stockholm.

To sum up this trip… Well, I’m happy anyway, since Jonna and I managed to climb a nice 4000m mountain together 

Today is a special day here on Mont Blanc. It’s exactly 225 years since Balmant & Paccard did their 1st ascent back in 1786!

My own climb is not looking good, high winds and much snow. It’s hailed at least 10 cm here at Tete Rousse during the past hour. I even had to bring in my boots in the tent to not have them covered in ice&snow.

Don’t know yet if my plan to go for the summit tomorrow night is possible. I have tp wait and watch…

What to do with a bad weather forecast?

Now it feels like I have two choses:
1. Wait and see how next week develops.
2. Go for Mont Blanc tomorrow morning (friday) and hope for a summit attempt on saturday, or just stay put in the tent for several days, waiting for a weather window. The diffrent forecasts is really d

I’ll pack my gears now and take the decision later.