New Spanish climbs on Norway's Lofoten Islands
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Pau Gómez
Catalan climbers evidently have a penchant for the Lofoten Islands in Norway. After climbing various new routes in 2015, the Barcelona-based group of alpinists comprised of Guille Cuadrado, Gerber Cucurell, Pau Gómez, Jordi Esteve and Felix Queipo returned in both 2016 and 2017 to climb various new routes, listed below. All climbed were ascended alpine style, without using bolts, pegs, fixed ropes or portaledges. Interestingly, the remarkable Moltbaertinden wall has quite possibly remained virgin as the climbers backed off from an unprotectable slab, preferring not to place bolts and hopefully return better and stronger in the future to complete this as a clean trad climb.
Marklitinden South face
01. Right Pillar (400m 5)
First ascent: June 2016 by Jordi Esteve and Pau Gómez
This route follows a logical crack system. Gardening at the top.
02. Sjømann (450m 6)
First ascent: June 2016 by Felix Queipo and Gerber Cucurell
The route climbs some very bold slabs at the bottom and then follows a crack system until joining “Hungry Eyes” route. Grass at the top.
More information: http://escaladatradicional.com/marklitinden-south-face/
Markitinden North Face
03. North Dihedral (450m 7/A1)
First ascent: we don’t know for sure. Jordi Esteve and Guille Cuadrado climbed this route in june 2017. They thought they were making the first ascent, but they found a piton in the middle of the wall. The route is serious, wet and some pitches are loose.
More information: http://escaladatradicional.com/climbing-lofoten-marklitinden/
Storskiva
04. East Butress (848m 6-)
First ascent: June 2016 by Jordi Esteve, Pau Gómez and Gerber Cucurell
Maybe is the first ascent of the wall. The route follows a logical crack system.
More information: http://escaladatradicional.com/storskiva-east-butress/
Merraflestinden
05. Syv Veggen (480m 7+)
First ascent: June 2017 by Jordi Esteve, Guille Cuadrado and Gerber Cucurell
This route follows a fine crack system. There is a very bold off-width if you don’t carry on a BD Camalot #6 or similar. It is absolutely required master 7+ grade on the crux.
More information: http://escaladatradicional.com/climbing-lofoten-merraflestinden-syv-veggen/
Moltbaertinden
06. This wall is possibly unclimbed. We attempt it in May 2017 (Jordi Esteve, Guille Cuadrado and Gerber Cucurell). In the middle of the wall, we found a 8m slab that was not possible to protect in clean climbing. After this slab it seemed that we could follow a crack system up to the top, but we prefered to abseil rather than use one or two bolts. We prefer to improve our technical, physical and psychological conditions, and try the wall in the future in the same style: clean climbing.
More information: http://escaladatradicional.com/climbing-lofoten-moltbaertinden/
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