Page 26 - 2007/08 AMA Winter

Craghoppers
By Mike Smith
"Climb if you will, but remember courage and strength are nought without prudence and a moments negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime. D o nothing in haste, look well to every step and from the beginning think what may be the end."
Edward Whimper. Scrawled on the wall of the Climbers Café, Henningsvser
As a flash mob of RMAS tered our hand luggage. The officer cadets descend­ best way to get through secu­ ed on Heathrow from all rity at Heathrow, it seems, is sides of the country, our mathinrough confusion - bread worry was the airline’s bagn­d butter to an officer cadet! gage allowance: the con­
straint that hampers Tarlalvelling to the Lofoten climbers and our first obstacIslelands of North Norway on a inreachingtheArcticCirctlwe.enty-seater plane to Redistribution of kit saw cuSsv­olvaer, the lack of trees, the toms overcome with awe acnrdystal clarity of the ocean misunderstanding as to whaantd the vast mountain vistas the mass of rope and stranmgeade it clear that this was a metal objects were that rleit­mote region. We chose a
campsite at the foot of the Gandalfveggen crag, and in the red glow of the lowering sun, ten content climbers squeezed into sleeping room for eight and remember it won’t get dark this far North.
Our first morning brings glori­ ous weather, and we were soon making the short walk up to Gandalfveggen. A small party hitchhiked to Svolvaer, the largest local town, to hire
a car (using the grant provid­ ed by the AMA), while others tackle Gandalf (VS 4c), Gollum (VS 4c) and Lost Gandalf (HS 4b), a variation on Old Fox (E1 5b), not in recent guidebooks but locally climbed if not a new route. Later in the day, Guns’n’Roses (HVS 4c) was climbed, led by Mike Smith.
The climbing in the Lofoten Islands is excellent - long