Page 31 - 2020 AMA Summer

EX TIGER AMA
RJUKAN 2020
Al Topping
Climbing on Golsjuvet
You might expect this expedition, being the second iteration of one that ran under the same name in 2019 to be a duplicate of its predecessor. However, this wasn’t the case. For those of you not in the know, there were unsea- sonably high temperatures in Rjukan, Norway, at the start of January 20 and everything melted... a bit of a problem, particularly when it’s two weeks out and you’re the exped leader.
This was the case for Chris Cookson who was keen to replicate the successes of the 2019 exped for a new batch of willing participants who were all expecting great things having seen the article submitted in Army Mountaineer this time last year.
This is where Facebook stepped in and saved the day by highlighting great conditions further to the north in a town called Hemsedal. This is typically known as a ski resort but has a long history of ice climbing in Norway too. Recommen- dations were read and images scoured and Chris confirmed the exped would be moving North.
Skipping ahead two weeks, and as with most AMA expeditions, most do not originate from the same areas and so multiple APODs were on offer with two departure dates. One for instructors and then a second for participants the following day. Instructors were grateful for having the additional recce day prior to the main body arriving to see what was ‘in’. What did become clear that there was lots in the ‘in’ category but some required the addition of snow shoes which, unfor- tunately, were not an option through Bicester at such short notice. Regardless, Chris had aimed off for unexpected cir- cumstances and there was a percentage of the exped budget available to cater for this.
Conditions in Hemsedal were pretty ideal. A good amount of consolidated snow on hills with as much as a metre at the
valley floor in places. Roads were in good condition for travelling (more on this later) and this gave good access to almost all the locations in the guide book ‘Hemsedal Ice’. Temperatures were comfortably lower than zero which helped to maintain good water ice for climbing. Overnight snow was prevalent and over some nights, caused a little too much grief on the routes into the crag the following morning. Concern did change throughout the week from ‘is there enough to climb’ to ‘can we get to the ice to climb it’. Snow shoes prevailed and, if ever offered, I whole-heartedly recommend you take a set. You don’t want to be that guy struggling to get to the base of the climb waist deep in snow. Trust me, the man-test is not worth it.
Hemsedal is located in a valley on a plateaux where, in summer it’s next to a large lake. Clearly that’d had been
ARMY MOUNTAINEER / 31