Viktor gör Slartibartfast

My good friend Viktor came for a visit a few days ago and got to try some of the bouldering we have up here in Lofoten! The potential for new development is enormous and so far mainly  road side classics  has been developed. The last few week I have put a little effort in to brush up new stuff and it seams that if you are just willing to walk a little further than 100m there's so much to do! I have so far brushed up about ten boulders and put them out on 27crags.com as open projects since I don't have time to finish them of myself but they are free for all to go do if they pass by!

One of the best boulders around that I've climbed so far is definitely Slartibartfast an over hanging sandstone boulder in Skokkelvika about 30 minutes from Henningsvaer. Here's a video of Viktor doing it in between rain showers on his last day here in lofoten!

   

Skokkelvika, Slartibartfast 7B+ from Viktor Persson on Vimeo.

Minnesrisset aka Memorycrack

Since I first came to Lofoten in 2010 I've been looking at this climb dreaming of being able to do it some time.. actually.. Back then I was impressed by anyone that would even dare to go try a route at that difficulty. To me trad climbing has been a slow progression, trying something over my limit four years ago was (in my head) equal to danger and too much risk. But slowly, for me, hard trad climbs has taken more and more of my interest and now days I have more confidence in at least trying routes at my limit. 

Shortly after I arrived to Lofoten in the end of June my good friend Lars Martin had started projecting Minnesrisset and enthusiastically gave me a minor novel of the steep nature of the route, cruxes and various beta sequences he'd found out to be working. Exited we went out with Cody Scarpella that had been working the route together with Lars Martin. I got the honor to belay Cody on his send of it that day and afterwords I tried it on top rope and surprised my self by feeling strong on it. 

I went home with confidence that I would do it pretty fast. 

The following sessions got me down on earth again and I realized that this route didn't have anything to do with hard crux moves. It is just a pump fest from bottom to top with a long thougher section that involves some spectacular moves even though the jams stay good through out most of the climb.

I found it very different to work a pure crack climb compared to a sport route because on a sport route you have obvious holds that are easy to remember, but on a crack climb you more or less have one big hold (the crack) that will give you more or less friction, depending on where you place your hands or fingers.

In the end it took me about six days to complete the route and looking back on how I saw things in 2010 I'm now one of those Strong, impressive and fearless gear climbers even though I don't feel very impressive, strong or fearless.  

The climb was originally done by Robert Caspersen in 2002 and hadn't seen more than a hand full of ascents since then.. Until this season.

The send train took off this year by Cody sending the route impressively fast. A few weeks later I managed to do it and around the same time a Trondheim local did it. This year alone it has seen three ascents so far and most likely it will get at least one more soon.