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Written by Richard Apps
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Page 4 of 4 Norway 26/05/02
 Rog on one of the easier pitches
Sunday morning was painfully hungover. We had resorted to the Hotel D'alpe hostel the night before on account of a German caravan club taking up residence in the bellvue. - No - I don't know why a caravan club would have a conference in a hotel, they just did. Hotel d'alpe had very little to offer in the way of breakfast so we piled the kit into the car and dropped into a garage to pick up some food. We decided to amble back around fjords and drove up the trollstigen road. As it was a much sunnier we stopped at the top to admire the view and eat breakast. Sitting on the rocks above the waterfall we were looking across at a beautiful mountain that the map told us was Bispen. From here a very obvious line was visible up an obvious couloir. We pulled out the guidebook and read about the routes available. The most highly reccommended route was East Ridge direct, according to the guide this route took some very steep ground and provided good situations and views though protection was difficult to arrange on some of the easier pitches.
This was irresistible and we pulled the gear out of the boot, stuffed a light rack and couple of jackets into the sac and headed off up to Bispen. THe approach was straight up out of the Trollstigen carpark up to the south ridge and then a traverse across glacial slabs to the foot of the couloir that was so obvious from the tourist centre. From the couloir we moved out right to the foot of the East ridge. Uncertain of exactly where the route started we chose a reasonable line and set off. The rock was covered with a black brittle lichen that shredded our ungloved hands, but was reasonably solid. The comment in the guide about protection being spartan on the easier ground was exactly right. The few pitches were pretty run out though the going was fine with a couple of interesting moves maintaining the interest. As we climbed the views broadened giving a real feeling of exposure.
 Enjoying the walk in
The crux came at about mid height, in the form of chimmney to the left of a blank step on the ridge. At the bottom of the chimmney was a narrow ledge system upon which rog and I spent about 15 minutes re-arranging a belay I decided I was not happy with. For the loss in time I also lead off up the crux chimmney after a few raisins and a splash of water. The chimney curved round to the right and overhung in its upper section. The guide spoke about moving back right after moving left around the blank step so I assumed that I followed the chimney despite the overhang. In contrast to the lower sections this section of rock was lichen free and as compact as any we had come accross so far. As I moved up it became apparent that although the rock looked like it would accept plenty of protection this wasn't really the case. I ran out about 30 ft before finding a couple of rusted up pitons. I clipped one of these and extended it then stepped right aiming for a some old tat I could see further up. As I made the step and short traverse I found a large detached hold which I was careful to avoid. Another couple of moves on the now overhanging face indicated that the tat I was aiming for probably marked an epic descent. As I retreated back left the rope looped itself over the bcak of the loose hold and sent it spinning down the chimeny to Rog. Forunately it span harmlessly off into space with my paniced shout following it down. I made the rusted piton and moved directly up and found the going considerably easier. After a brief radio conversation from the relative saftey of a no 1. friend I moved up to the belay point. Rog followed me up and was as enthusiastic about the pitch as I was. The pitch gave a dizzying drop down to the base of the couloir and some delicate climbing to boot.
 rog on the summit of Bispen
A few more pitches brought up out onto the final summit ridge, where we were able to move together for the short distane to the summit. The summit gave a beautiful panorama, the sea, andalsnes, the back of the troll road, trollstigen and the snowy valley above the waterfall. Rog signed the summit book letting us know that we were the first to do our route this year. According to the log the summit log Bispen had only had three ascents this year, the second one only a few minutes before we arrived.
The descent was loose and delicate but gave excellent glissading in the lower sections.
Back to the car before 10pm and back into Andalsnes for a beer but too late for dinner. Next morning we made a quick gettaway and were able to reach the airport by 6. After extensive delays were landed in Stansted early on Tuesday morning.
We'll be back next year...
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