If Carlsberg did route setting jobs – then they must have organised my most recent work!
Myself and Rob Napier were out in Norway route setting on the brand new wall in the town of Stavanger. At 850 square metres it’s pretty big, but it’s not just big, it’s impressive. In the UK there is a tendency too build walls with the emphasis on packing as many people in as possible. Surfaces are vertical and unimaginative with cost holding down the creativity. I can see why, most people climb 6b, why go for a massive overhang only 10 people can get up? Well, we should follow the example set my our Norwegian friends!
A four day job, it was gonna be tough, starting with a 3am start from Sheffield, but when we arrived the first task was lunch, a Mexican in the sun! Then we were blown away by the scale of the wall and the amazing lines. Route setting was a joy. Next day we were there early, but our boss insisted on a 5 hour lunch break to go bouldering in the beautiful area around Sirevag. After a great circuit we were again treated to a lunch barbeque made by Yan and Kaya and Bernt. Back at the wall we felt like frauds. At least the next day we managed a full 14 hours, chucking the holds on at a furious rate from the fully extended and fully wobbling cherry picker! Last day we checked the routes, and they were awesome, I’m not bigging up our work, it’s just the wall makes them good. But Bernt stopped play, or started it – ‘too nice to be indoors’ he insisted, yet another day of crystal clear blue skies. We were treated to a boat trip down the fjords to check out pulpit rock and The Shield before bouncing our way back at 35 knots to return just in time for our flight!
I’ve been to Norway before, and then I said I’d be back soon for sure. This time I said it again, but this time I mean it. The country has everything, no wonder so many people move there!
Big thanks to Bernt, the dude in charge of running the new wall, who sorted us out with the job and treated us like kings!
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