Saturday, 26 March 2011

Haglöfs trekking edit

This last summer I went up to North Sweden and Norway with filmer David Kvart and friends Emma Wahlberg, Emma Bäcklund and Sanna Boris Matsson to film a trecking film for Haglöfs.  We did the classic treck, The Yo-yo route, between Nallo and Kebnekaise as well as a few day hikes on the Lofoten islands.  We had an epic trip and on this edit you can see some of the material.

Check out more of Davids work at www.kvart.com and see more of the material from the trip on www.haglofs.com… 

La Maladière - L’arche perdue


Yesterday  I went out with friend Kevin Gourges to climb at Maladière down valley past Sallanches on the way to Cluses. It’s a 250 meter crag with about 60 long routes on it overlooking the Arve valley. To access the crag you drive up on the backside and walk through the forrest  and arriving on the top you do a few rappels and then walk to the route you have in mind. In this way you add a bit of nerve to the day as you know you have to finnish your route to get back to the car.

We chose a beautiful route called L’arche perdue and enjoyed some good quality climbing in great weather and perfect temperature for climbing rock!

Merci Kevin pour une belle journée! 

On the first rappel

The view

Its steep

Kevin on the first pitch





Kevin Gourges




Thursday, 24 March 2011

Aiguille du Chardonnet – West couloir

Today I had a little solo mission to ski one of the first routes I lay my eyes upon when I first came to Chamonix years ago – The west couloir on Aiguille du Chardonnet. Its one of those routes that one can see from Argentiere as well as the Grand Montets skiarea. But the direct version is still very rarely skied and it has a reputation of never being in good condition.

The West couloir on Aiguille du Chardonnet

As Im just back from Sweden and wanted to get a good workout and get acclimatised without to much objective dangers it felt like a good option, specially when going alone.

I was abit slow in the morning and only made it up with the third or fourth bin, but after traversing the glacier I was in front of the mornig race. I climbed the south couloir and joined the last part of the classic Forbes arête before I stood at the start of the West couloir. It was lots of snow in the south couloir and  I was swimming in the snow making the track and in the end when putting my skis on I got joined on the summit by two frensh boys. I waited for them to get ready and then we skied the first half of the decent together with them before they left me alone for the direct finnish. The snow was great and about 15-20 cm deep, but with a hard layer underneath helping you to keep the concentration level up. In the last couloir I first used the rope to get over a small rockband and then skied all the way down to the finishing goulotte in one go. There I did three short sheltered rappels on the side of the couloir and then got back again finishing with a jump over the shrund. A few hundred vertical meters of good spring skiing awaited me here before I got down to the glacier and skied back down to town.

It was a good day up on the mountain with fun skiing and a worthy workout… 

Aiguille du Chardonnet and Aiguille Argentiere seen from the Argentiere glacier

The south couloir

The south couloir seen from the top

Forbes arete

And again

And again

The summit

New friends





The famous traverse



At the start of the direct finish

A weird track


Another friend



Afrique – Rock climbing in the sun


 Yesterday I went up to Gietroz on the border to Switzerland to climb some rock in the sun. It was warm and we where all alone at the crag. Summer is back. 

Tomas Mueller showing us how it's supposed to be done

Jacky Delerce climbing in the upper left of the photo. The big flake at the top has given the crag its name... 

Wednesday, 23 March 2011

Happy days in north Sweden


I just got back from a week in the north of Sweden where we have one of the best winters in years. I spent the time in great company, training, walking, running, ski touring and ice climbing in the part of my country that feels most like home – the area in between Abisko and Riksgränsen.

Together with friends Patrik Strömsten and Andreas Bengtsson I went out on a ski touring day on the Norvegian side of the border for some easy skitouring. We had big plans skiing a mythic couloir, but the stormy weather made us change our plans to the classic Rombakkstötta. However, when we got over the tree line we just kept getting thrown of balance by the wind to the point where we all where just looking at each other nodding at the option of turning back down. It turned out beening a calm day in good company among friends.

Patrik Strömsten is a soulskiier, one of Swedens best wine experts as well as the man in charge of the n1 skilodge in Sweden – Meteorologen skilodge  in Riksgränsen. If you want to live, eat and hang out firstclass as well as enjoying mythic skiing with or without helicopter in the most northern skiresort in the world – check out www.playground.se/meteorologen/main.asp

Andreas Bengtsson is a mountainguide and in charge of the heliski operation in Riksgränsen as well as founder of mountainguide.se, check it out if you are interested in good skiing and mountain adventures!

And for info about the ski resorts in this area, check:

A walk on the lake, Lapporten in the background

The calm village of Björkliden with the skiresort in the background



Ice climbing in the gorge







Rombakkstötta, one of the most classic peaks in the area