Trip report by Per Burström.

In true alpinist style, the alarm goes off at 0330. Markus, Fredrik and I leave Boden within the hour and arrive at Stora Sjöfallet’s tourist compound in Vietas just before 0800. We meet up with Eva and Anders who have already climbed for two days. They report perfect ice conditions in the zero degree temperatures and the pep talk get us all psyched to go out and chop away! Unfortunately, Eva has a headache today and wants to rest. Anders and I team up and decide to climb Grevinnan (“The Countess”), a five-pitch WI4, which we had to retreat from last year due to frostbite in the -30 degrees temperature. Today should be a different story. After parking, the approach, wearing snowshoes, takes us about an hour. Markus and Fredrik struggle in boots alone, but arrive at about the same time at Greven (“The Count”), a WI3+ route to the immediate left of Grevinnan.

Anders and I decide to bring only a 400 g backpack containing one thermos, two energy bars each and one shared synthetic belay jacket, plus climbing gear. We climb the three first easy pitches in about an hour and a half and stop below the headwall for some energy bars and hot water. The ice headwall is the signature feature of the route and stands out as one of the larger ice formations in this part of the mountains. When viewed from below, one looses all sense of scale and reason, making this wall appear as one billowing sea of ice, crowned by overhanging bulges! From the side, one sees that the easiest route choice translates to about 60 meters of 80 degree ice before the angle eases off some at the very top of the feature. Not surprisingly, the wall is quite wet. Only on the large arête in the middle of the face is there still frost on the bulges, where as to the sides, water showers down in shining streaks.

Anders starts off via a steep, shallow groove taking good screws, and then climbs via a hairy traverse left on to the arête, where he makes his belay.

We swing leads and I get to take on the remaining 35 meters of perfect 80-degree ice. The good quality ice lends itself well to schoolbook tracking technique and feels just brilliant to climb. The remaining 20 meters of WI3 after the angle eases off go very smoothly and soon, Anders and I stand at the top of Grevinnan.

The time is about 1600. We are in no rush and take our time enjoying the view and the finished climb. We choose to use the long descent route to the east of Adeln har kastat vatten (“The Nobility have taken a leak”), but this turns out to be a whacking exercise completely free of appeal. When reaching the great ledge it is obvious we really should have descended the “fast way”, westwards from the Nobility route top-out, down climbed a small step on Grevinnan and saved at least half an hour... On the rappels off the great ledge, Fredrik and Markus join us and we are all back in Vietas by 7. Dinner is digested over the mandatory gear, route and climbing discussions and the testing of other peoples’ stuff. Fredrik’s new Spantik boots look to be a neat solution to those dead cold climbs we got on last year …

Jonas Åkerlund, who organizes the meet from Gällivare Friluftsfrämjandekrets, points us to the route Snövit (“Snow White”) and how it has consolidated all the way down to the original route start, something he has not seen before.

This route was on my hit list while preparing for the trip as it’s a magnificent all-day route, and when Rick McGregor arrives from Kiruna, we quickly decide to team up and give Snövit a go. Rick, an orienteer, immigrated New Zeelander, and climber of decades back has also not climbed this route despite numerous visits to Stora Sjöfallet, making us wonder if it has ever been repeated despite its stunning position on the southern precipices of Karnjelpakte.

I get up at 0630 and the body aches with yesterday’s climb fresh in memory. Müsli, coffee and 400 mg of Ibuprofen helps with morale and body response. The note-to-self is to train for longer days before next trip. It feels as though a long day of ice climbing is not like running or lifting weights for a few hours each week, a shocking fact that I like to re-discover on all my trips.

We start the approach from the meeting space paved in the road about one kilometer before the hut at Vakkotavare. It’s 0845 before we strap our snowshoes on and start walking. Rick, being over fifty and then some, sets up a harrowing speed. The snow seems to whirl off the man’s snowshoes as he leads the way through the birches. I was looking forward to going slow today but find myself sweating like a madman as I reach the base of the route, where Rick is waiting. Of course, inappropriate snowshoes and other gear related made up excuses take the blame… “Orienteer – Computer Geek: 1 – 0”

We change clothes, eat and drink while pondering the route. It seems like a good idea to stretch out pitches as we have reason to question the guide book’s description. Jan Esensjö and Per Hallander did the first ascent of the route in 1992, and our guide’s information is copied right off of an old issue of Bergsport. Right as it starts to snow, Rick leads off. The crux of the route comes after only 20 meters or so, and consists of a vertical dihedral with sun eaten snow-ice on the left and thin rotten icicles on the right. With careful tapping of his tools, Rick efficiently climbs this first and also a second, smaller vertical step before making a belay.

I take the second pitch which crosses a small snow field. It feels good to get heel support from the snow but the protection is lousy and consists of a 13 cm TurboExpress, inserted halfway, ten meters below. However, the snowfield is stable and after a passage under an overhanging rock formation I build our second belay at the bottom of the great ledge. This has us somewhat confused as the guide book states that “Pitch 5 crosses the snowfield (N.B. The snowfield may avalanche)”. Could we really have climbed four pitches in two? What is called pitch 6 in the guidebook appears to be a beautiful, sustained stretch of shiny blue ice, visible in full now that we are on the ledge. We simul-climb the large snow field on its right-hand side, where highland grass reaches up through a thin layer of hard snow. While having some chocolate and sandwiches at the bottom of the sustained ice wall, we reflect upon the quality of the rock, which seems surprisingly good. It is certainly better than the gravel piles typically called mountains in the Swedish mountain range. Maybe the Karnjelpakte south face is a suitable summer endeavor…

1330. The snowing stops, and the sun starts seeping through parting clouds. It’s Rick’s lead again. Steep and homogeneous, the blue ice wall offers few, if any, formations to rest on. Rick has to hang from a screw to re-tie his shoelaces after about 40 meters because of the induced calf strain from uninterrupted front pointing. After what seems like an hour, he makes a hanging belay fully stretching the 60 meter ropes. I start climbing and reach it huffing and puffing, feeling strangely tired. (I don’t realize it at this time, but what I feel as exhaustion is this season’s fourth case of tonsillitis kicking in.) We don’t fancy spending too much time hanging on the wall as debris rain from the melting ice above. I take the sharp end and climb the remaining 15 meters of steep ice and about as much more of lower angled terrain before a third, small snowfield lies before me. Some ten meters above the snowfield, the route narrows into its thinnest passage. I climb the short step and make a belay under a ledge, acting as shelter from the raining debris, at the very spot this route is at its narrowest. I fiddle for a minute, shout “Rick! On belay!”. While leaning back in my harness, it strikes me that the views are absolutely stunning! To the south, Sarek stands out with its jagged peaks, to the west, Akka, called “the queen of Lapland”, and in what looks like a long way down, the hut in Vakkotavare.

Rick reaches the belay and the time is now 1545. As we gaze towards the upper, sun-eaten stretches, we realize that we now have the business parts of the route behind us. Even though it would have been nice to reach the top of Karnjelpakte to see the sun setting behind the peaks, we take the decision to turn back. We want to reach the large snowfield before it gets dark as we are uncertain about the whacky descent to the west of the first two pitches. Also we have the traditional Ice Meet dinner in mind, scheduled at 1900 in Vietas… Said and done. Having abseiled off ice threads we stand on the great snowfield at 1700, coil the ropes and start walking.

At first, I regret having left my gaiters in the hut but it’s not long before I have stop noticing the snow filling up my boots… all I see is taking a sauna and eating warm dinner.

In retrospect, Snövit stands out as my best ice climb to date (not that I have done that many). The route is not very difficult yet beautifully exposed and has some varied formations along the way. I hope we get the chance to make a complete ascent next year.

Anders, Eva and Rick leave early for an ice session in the Harsprånget river bed. Markus, Fredrik and I don’t feel in the mood for climbing anything that means even a trace of an approach so after a late start, we find ourselves below Småfallen, a road-side venue (“The Small Falls”).

True to the slacker spirit, we start off by feasting on coffee, candy and sandwiches while thawing our limbs in the sun, before getting on Lätta fötter, tungt hjärta (“Light feet, heavy hart”). This basically constitutes everything to the right of “The Pillar” route in the photo above. A ten meter almost vertical finish makes us think it is somewhat sandbagged at a guide book grade of WI3+. Maybe it’s just we who are weak and dumb? We finish off our climb with wonderfully steep, snowy bushwhacking before rappelling back to terra firma. More coffee, candy and sandwiches ensue as we try to adhere to Markus’s motto of being “the best coffee break climber in Sweden”…