Flatanger, Jorg Verhoeven climbs Nordic Flower in Norway

"Santa Linya is like a puppet theater against these things…" This is how Dutchman Jorg Verhoeven concludes his latest escapade, the first ascent of Nordic Flower in what is by the sounds of things is likely to become an extremely important testing ground for the very best climbers in the world.

Verhoeven is referring to Flatanger, an enormous granite cave located high up in Norway which although developed a while back, finally hit the international limelight in spring this year when home powerhouse Magnus Midtbö bolted some hard routes through the 150m high, 400m vault.

Last week Verhoeven joined forces with Midtbö and while the latter is concentrating his efforts on a mammoth multi-pitch, Verhoeven celebrated his return to form after a back injury at the start of the year by freeing Nordic Flower, a route originally bolted by Laurence Laporte. This recent success comes in the wake of repeats of Hades 9a at Nassereith and the classic boulder problem Unendliche Geschichte 8B at Magic Wood but, in truth, Nordic Flower currently stops after 55m and a 15m extension is already planned, so there may well be more in store.

Talking about things to come in the future: Flatanger isn't the only cave to be on these climbers' hit list and Spanish bolt master Dani Andrada - one fo the driving forces behind Santa Linya and other Catalonian hot spots - is scheduled to make his way to the area soon. There can be no doubt that we'll be hearing more of this gigantic gem soon.