Erik Massih

Christer on one of the attempts. The crack takes mainly green and purple Camalots. My favorite sizes…

Ronny Medelsvensson, Profilveggen, Jøssingfjord
In July Crister Jansson and I added a new free climb to the majestic Profilveggen (the Profile Wall in Jøssingfjord, Rogaland, Norway) by climbing the route Heksenatt without aid. I first spotted and tried the line together with Oskar Alexandersson back in 2011 when we were on an exploratory trip in the region, looking for good lines and inspiration. At the time Profilveggen hosted a dozen of aid routes in addition to Leo Houlding’s and Neil Gresham’s free route Fire Fox, Scandinavian 8/8+ (7c). A huge overhanging crag, 120 m at it’s highest, riddled with cracks just waiting to be free climbed. Oskar and I immediately set our eyes on a clean splitter up on the left side of the wall, mainly because it looked so feasible. The route had, just as most of the lines on the wall, been climbed as an aid route in the 90ies. We played stone, scissors and paper about the on-sight. Oskar won and I watched with disappointment as he taped up and racked on. I was convinced he would send first go. Oskar probably came no more than three or four moves up the crack before he grabbed the Camalot and yelled for me to take. The flaring crack maybe wasn’t so easy after all. After pretty much aiding up the route and lowering off we realized how steep the wall actually is. This fired up my inspiration, what a route! What a wall! Why weren’t people climbing here? The wall was not kept secret or anything. We gave the route a few tries but were just barely able to link a few sections here and there and so we left Jøssingfjord filled with motivation. I was convinced the wall would earn it’s reputation in the years to come.

Profilveggen

Sometime later I showed Nico Favresse a couple of pictures of the wall. He swallowed the bait and to make a long story short, he showed us that the future is now. Nico was visionary enough to choose an amazing line to attempt, Polakkruta, up the middle of the face, first climbed with aid by Trym Atle Saeland and Olav Båsen, linking several cracks together. Nico’s efforts will be remembered in the history books as The Recovery Drink. Daniel Jung also made a contribution to the wall. By a sideways dyno he solved the problem of connecting the two cracks in the first pitch of Rockin’ in the free world up to the beginning of a beautiful dihedral. Linking these stunning pitches will likely result in a future classic.

Hedda, not quite as syked as us…

CJ perfecting the tape job!

I also showed the wall to my good friend Christer Jansson, a long time climbing partner. Christer knows a good line when he sees it and was hooked immediately. The two of us spent a few days spread out over a long period of time but we soon realized that to be able to send we would need to follow Nico’s approach and focus a bit more. So after a season being wasted on recovering from a biking accident and the subsequent surgery we returned to Jøssingfjord in June. This time we avoided being distracted by the other possibilities in the region but instead focused our efforts on our project. After a week of working the route, mixed up with fishing and woodcarving we were close to success but not quite close enough and had to go home for work and family obligations. When my wife suggested that we could change our plans for our summer road trip so we could spend some time in Jøssingfjord. Immediately, before she had time to change her mind, I called Christer to see if we could synchronize a couple of days in the area.

Our vansion, The White Whale, with Helleren and the Profilveggen in the back.

After spending some time in Flatanger we finally were back under the profile wall, this time with our families. And this time we sent. Seeing Christer pass the crux was a great relief and filled me with happiness and I knew that the project was in the bag. During this process our efforts had grown together and we experienced a unity that I’ve previously only experienced on bigger routes in the mountains. Our progressions had followed hand in hand all the way and where fueled by our friendship. Christer passed the anchor and linked in to a second pitch getting the most out of his run. An hour later I tied in again and started climbing, this time with no pressure or anxiety. Just feeling nothing but the moves I as well redpointed the splitter cracks. We dubbed the free route Ronny Medelsvensson, a name we feel is suitable for two middle aged fathers. Grading routes and specially cracks is tough business but suggesting Scandinavian 9 feels fair to us and our efforts. Time of course will tell. Nevertheless, the route will challenge you with uncompromised steep crack climbing at it’s best, and the wall hosts many more routes to be freed, some will likely have to wait for the next generation. We’ll be back for sure and hope to see you there.

CJ on one of the attempts last year. Photo: Jonas Paulsson, www.jonaspaulsson.se

Residual

The fjord and the North Atlantic.

Jøssingfjord is situated by the coast in southern Rogaland and has for long been a destination for climbers. In the 80s a group of Brits, among them Pat Littlejohn, visited the area establishing free routes in good style. In the British climbing magazine Mountain it was stated: “In the area around Egersund and Jøssingfjord visiting climbers from Oslo have climbed several aesthetic and excellent crack lines comparable to Yosemite. To date, routes have been mainly from 6+ to 7+, and in such a vast area, it’s only the beginning. …and can be compared to Joshua Tree and Tuolomne Meddows, with thousands of dome shaped rocks of various shapes and sizes, with excellent potential. When the sun shine that is”
In the 90ies it was the steep Helleren (the Helleren wall) that attracted the elite of the Scandinavian climbers. Prolific climbers of the time such as Haakon Hansen established routes like Flåklypa scand9 (8b) and the overhanging chimney Ludvig 8/8+ and today the wall nests ca 20 routes between scand7 and 9/9+ along with some projects waiting to be redpointed (or on-sighted for that matter). Unfortunately the Heller wall is closed for climbing between June15th and August 15th due to being part of a popular tourist attraction. Two small ancient houses sit well protected by the giant overhang and are part of the remainings from an old fishing settlement.

Helleren and an old fishing settlement.

The fishing along the coast is amazing. Here one pollack, one searun brown trout and one irresistible rasta coloured lure.