Heroes

A hero called illusion need no rest. A hero called illusion, that started her path towards becoming a hero before her fifth year in life and were aware of where she were heading before seven, do not need time off. The rumor of a hero that does her exercises with laser precision six days a week all year around and every time shrugs her shoulders in a “well, thats another super hardcore, BUT, to me casual training session” manner. When people ask her -how do you coop with the ups and downs of motivation? she doesn't understand the question.

For our hero theres no limitations, no boundaries, no doubt.. and If there were, we'd quickly replace her for a new one.

The new hero called illusion would then be stronger, braver, harder, tougher and more motivated. He would be doing all our lifetime-projects in a blink and he would be fed with awe for it. The energy we give him enhances him, makes him even stronger, even braver, even harder, even tougher and even more motivated, it's his weapon and his most important secret, kept well hidden from us. The secret can not under any circumstances be found, because it would mean the end of our hero called illusion...

Our hero called illusion is our partner. We love him, he is dependent on us. we need the dream he gives us, he needs the attention we give him. Our hero called illusion is slave under our reasons for loving him, we are slaves under our reasons. an imbalance is probable to grow and if not kept in check we might lose the reason and true love for what we are doing.

Life, love and dreams

The fall has consisted of rain, grey skies and during november Stockholm barley got three hallelujah hours of sunlight. That grey period between mid october and the end of december has been, as so many years before, sprinkled with a feeling of ambivalence. Ambivalence over the dark months to come, restricted to a bit outdoor climbing on ice but mainly indoor activities. To endure the winter period it's been crucial to have a structured plan leading to a goal, a dream in the end of the tunnel. If those factors exist then winter training becomes fun and even something to look forward to. However when the goals are set high that also means that theres not much margin for other things to come in the way. Feelings of  depression,  sun deprivation (if your from the northern countries), injuries and work is all a potent growing ground for doubt, doubt that can make for a lot of friction along the way towards reaching your goal. Some of these frictions we can learn to prevent, others aren't even within our power to predict so we can only try to train our minds and souls and hope that our armour will stand when the wall falls.
 
Another year has come to an end and summing up the year comes with it. The last five years I've had a steady progress in my over all climbing, I've climbed a little better in all disciplines every year. I'm closing in on the level of climbing that has been my big goal since a few years back, and I feel that I'm getting ready to tackle the bigger routes that is the dream of my goals.

A goal only becomes a failure if it's fulfilled as a failure, modify your goal to your current life state until it becomes reality. Your dreams can never be touched if they haven't been fulfilled, until then they remain your dreams.

Do we need a term for something in between bouldering and free soloing?

I have seen this beautiful peace of rock since I first came to Lofoten. It is one of the many roadside boulders that are littered through out  the island.  This summer I finally went over there and took a closer look and realized it was possible though the grade was highly uncertain. It was clear that it needed some cleaning hanging from a rope and possibly even a ladder. Some days later Me and Jonas went back with all equipment needed for our mission. After cleaning it and roughly starting to see the way it climbs I let go of the initial idea of giving it a flash attempt - it's very high with a bad landing.

I worked out the moves on top rope and sent it soon after...

Do we need a term for something in between bouldering and free soloing? I've climbed a bunch of high balls, the first few that comes to mind are Linds långa linje - Kjugekull, A Thrilla in Manilla - Jumkil, Liquid explosion - Lofoten and obviously the one above. All of those lines are high enough that a fall from the top would mean a trip to the hospital with a probable life changing injury. In my world I have a hard time seeing the difference between high balling and free soloing - the term high ball feels contrived.
I've started to think that maybe we use it to get an excuse to go free soloing both mentally (to ourselves) and ethically towards our friends. Most of us climbers have very strong ethics against free soloing but high balling is usually ok - even though the difference in consequence of a fall is irrelevant. Before Fear of Temptation I didn't see my self as a climber that was into free soloing but after I did it I started to question if I HONESTLY could count my self to that group anymore.
I enjoyed climbing it very much and the intense experience that comes with such climbs is really unique,  every decision made and move executed is the most important thing of your life at that moment.


I really respect the thought that you shouldn't go free soloing at crags where it is crowded and least of all were there are children around, but maybe we should loosen up a little when it comes to our harsh ethics against free soloing and especially not judge anyone practicing the discipline.

Maybe we should stop disguise the act of free soloing in terms like high balling, and just see it for what it is.

*Movie made by Jonas Paulsson

First ascent of Loki

The approach up to Holländaren follows a faint path, it is beautiful but fairly steep and long. The landscape is littered with rocks that makes the walk strenuous, but occasionally life becomes easier when low angled granite slabs break up the monotonous rock hopping. On our way, we are passing several pretty streams that here and there dissolves over the slabs and spray the rock with water, the scenery is hypnotizing. During the hour and a half that it takes to the hut there is room for reflection and thought, the sensation of being here and now is overwhelming when I'm on a mission in the mountains; the surroundings are too intense to let anything else in. What I have in front of me and the experience that will come with it, is everything.

When looking at the walls that surrounds the hut, I wonder why I haven't heard people talking about this place. The walls are sprayed with perfect lines that are hard to resist, but Cody and I, we have our aim elsewhere. We got a tip from a friend living in Tromsö that the Masta sector apparently had a clean forty meter finger crack that no one had climbed before.

We planned this first day at Kvaloya to be a warm up for the big mission on Blåmann, this turned out not to be the case in the end..

When walking up to Masta we saw the obvious line and were surprised that it hadn't been climbed before. It's an alternative pitch in between Ikaros and Sentralruta which starts with a vertical crack section that eventually becomes steeper, while the crack becomes thinner. The crux section is thin and strenuous to protect, but the gear is perfect...

On one of my attempts, while still trying to figure out how to best protect the crux I had decided to go for a micro stopper. Were it was placed it was bomber, however I knew there was a chance that the upward force generated by the rope could pull it out. 

I had climbed all the way up to the last bad rest before I had to commit and pull through the crux. A bit nervous and tired I tried to psych myself up and started climbing methodically. First a mono finger lock, then a shallow two finger lock, then into strenuous lay backing on small side pulls. From here I placed the stopper strenuously. Now I had to be quick.  Right hand out on side pull, left hand strenuously up on another bad side pull, pulling up my feet on bad smears. About one meter above my last piece and maybe three above my second last piece at this point. I was about to go for the last hard move when I saw the stopper spinning downwards around the rope… Fuck…one meter had become three.. a two meter fall had become a six meter fall.. shit.. ok keep it together, I looked up again and tried to focus on the last move. Common.. I won't fall.. Looking down again.. It's going to be a long fall. I tried to down climb but before I had time to react I was in the air.. I hope the last micro stopper will catch my fall... and then I stopped, the piece had held. Relieved I started to laugh.

The next attempt, both me and Cody did it. We solved the protection issue by simply skipping the last piece and instead ran it out. What we thought would be a quick mission turned out to be a four day fight so our Blåmann mission had to wait for our next visit.

We dubbed the route Loki and the grade is a bit uncertain but I don't feel ashamed grading it 7c+ :)! 

Bouldering in Lofoten

My friend Jonas Paulsson and I went searching for new boulder potential in Lofoten this summer and as the great photographer Jonas is he managed to capture some of the climbing on his beautiful pictures here 

http://jonaspaulsson.se/gallery/climbing/

A movie From the bouldering in Bale mountains!

Tomas Rydval has made this beautiful edit from their trip to Bale mountains, the area that we discovered a few years back!

Working for NNKS

During the summers of 2013-2014 I've been working for Nord Norsk Klatre Skole with their summer courses. It is a company with a long history, they have been teaching clients how to move safely in the mountains since 1972. The plan is to go back there in February and help them with their four month course. It has been a pleasure working with them and and it as given me a lot of valuable experience.

The beautiful archipelago around Kalle a.k.a. Paradiset

Working on the rappel technique

My colleague and strong climber Håvard 

Having a group of twenty plus clients means a lot of gear

Happy clients

Building anchors

The clients did a fantastic job leading the mellow climbing up the Rock'n Roll Ridge