Ice in Lundadalen.

Last weekend, the 7th and 8th February, I had my second internet date. Edvard had described himself as an ‘old fossil’ but had been climbing ice for around 8 years. He was 50, rotund and was wearing a pair of glasses with only one lens. His car was full of a wide ranging collection of crap. Goggles, spilled cinnamon, beer cans and spanners competed for space on a floor that hadn’t seen a Hoover. Ever. His clothing was battered and the crampon holes in his trousers were covered in swathes of gaffer tape. The heating in his car didn’t work and it was -12 deg C!

We stopped at a supermarket before leaving town to pick up supplies and I very nearly did a runner there and then. However I had nothing else to do for the weekend and Edvard had mentioned unclimbed routes to be had.

Lundadalen is a small steep sided river valley off the E6 south of Trondheim. One side of the valley holds a number of short ice routes. We climbed 3 routes on the first day, Edvard led the first and thought it was WI4, I had the second at WI3 with a turfy top-out and Edvard led the last of the day and again thought it was WI4.

The campsite for the night was a short walk away. We arrived at an overhang after 15 minutes of walking through deep snow between silent pines. A cave extended under the overhang and gave a flat spot for a bivvy. I got a fire going and dinner was reheated Bolognese and pasta flavoured by wood smoke, followed by 12 hours sleep. Marvellous

After a late start we returned to Lundadalen and climbed the last route of the weekend. This was a lovely 60m WI4 route that we climbed in 2 pitches. The start was a steep curtain that made some rather disconcerting noises. Whenever a thinner section was struck we could hear chunks of ice falling off behind it and rattling down into an unseen void. Thankfully Ed had this lead. He also led the second pitch, which looked easy enough but got steadily harder before finishing up a vertical 4 metre section of hollow sounding but solid enough ice.
The train home was crowded and noisy which helped me stay awake enough to get off at the right stop. It had snowed heavily over the weekend in Levanger and my walk home through noiseless white streets added a touch of the sublime to an awesome weekend.