Northern Twilight added to Rånkeipen in Norway by Joda Dolmans, Juho Knuuttila

The SW Face of Rånkeipen is an impressive arctic wall situated 35 kilometers outside Narvik, in northern Norway. While it’s a popular peak for hikers during the summer, the mountain sees a lot less visitors in winter. Some climbers have looked at this impressive wall, filled with potential lines, in the past. As far as we know though it had remained untouched until December 2022, when Juho Knuuttila and Alexander Nordvall put up Arctic Circus. This M6, WI6 became the first route on the face.

A few weeks later Juho returned by himself, eager to see what else was possible. He ended up climbing another new route further to the left of Arctic Circus, naming it Polar Vortex (M6, WI6). Notably, he put this up rope-solo and before work. All of a sudden the face had received two new routes in less than a month, and more seemed in store.

I’d looked at this wall for several years and always thought that seemed scary and a bit overwhelming. It would mean a big step up in my climbing. None of the lines fully connect and there are a lot of question marks. But that’s how this sort of puzzle works. Visualizing a line in an ocean of features and weaknesses, connecting dots between ice, cracks, corners, and frozen turf. Until the puzzle is solved.

On January 16th 2023, Juho and I set off to try a third line to the left of Polar Vortex. Just as for that route, we followed a marked summer trail that led up the backside of Rånkeipen and then made two rappels down from the ridge at 770m. As we rappelled into the void, the polar night slowly turned into day, revealing the valley floor down below. A mixture of excitement and nerves kicked in as we pulled the ropes at the base of the route. We were committed to climb back up as descending to the valley floor looked quite serious with snowy ledges and loaded gullies. For Juho it was the second time he committed to this section of the wall.

The first pitch offered some nice dry tooling followed by traverses, thin ice steps and a network of ice-blobs. Then the terrain steepened with technical mixed climbing and dry tooling up a corner system. I could hear Juho breathing harder as he pulled through what seemed like the crux, before getting to a small rest. Finally, there was a far reach around the hanging dagger and then up steep ice to a semi-hanging stance. The 3rd pitch was equally as good, but easier. Stemming and hand-jamming up a corner, continued by steep and solid ice. There was a special moment topping out since we both knew that it was one of the highest quality routes around. Thank you Rånkeipen once again.

Joda Dolmans, Narvik, 19/01/2023

Northern Twilight
Rånkeipen SW Face, Råndalen, Narvik, Norway
First ascent: Joda Dolmans, Juho Knuuttila 16/01/2023
Grade: M7, WI6.