20/02/07

Our final climbing day.  The plan as discussed was to walk up to the Lower Gorge, do route to gain the old railway track then walk up towards Vemork PowerStation to find a route called Jungle Bokken for Candy to lead.  It was a cold day and as we stepped back into the lobby with the packs we decided that the hill would be a bit ambitious so we modified the plan to involved vertical ascent via Taxi. This was a good plan. The taxi took us up to Vemork which we’d not yet seen in a matter on minutes saving a good hour plus slog uphill. As we headed for the train tracks we spotted Susse Foss only a minute up from the PowerStation. As there was nobody on it and it looked fantastic the plan again morphed and we headed up to this new objective. It looked to be a long pitch and Candy volunteered to lead. As upward progress was made it became clear very quickly that we’d need to do it in two pitches. Candy led the first pitch and opted for a belay on the right of the route below a lone tree. The tree was unfortunately just out of arms reach which thus required some delicate axe work to lasso the trunk. I soon joined her at the belay and collected the gear. The Ice was solid and thick to I decided to take the most direct route I could taking all the difficulties head on rather than skirt around them. It was an excellent pitch.  My wrist was still playing up but I reckoned I’d be able to manage a few more pitches so we located the old railway and headed off downhill.
When we found the approach path for Jungle Bokken neither of us liked the look of it. Lots of snow and a real bash uphill through the jungle to reach it. We opted to continue down to the lower gorge and try something down there. By now my wrist was really hurting again and I had decided that I just didn’t have enough power in it to lead much. Luckily after a few minutes we came across a small buttress which was steep enough to provide some sport. We rigged a top rope and Candy ran up and down it a couple of times. I was too sore to get back on the ice so contented myself with belay duty and operating the dv cam.