Getting Our Brush On in Norway

When visiting establish areas I like to thoroughly explore before I decide what to climb on and if you've ever been out with me you know I can disappear for hours in my attempt to see everything.  In all my running around I quite often find some undone lines that catch my attention and sometimes they are so good they "need" to be climbed.  In Rogaland I was pretty much guaranteed to find something good as even the popular areas have an abundance of untouched rock.  For some it might seem strange to visit an area and spend half your time bushing new problems but it's normal for me.  When I stand under a striking line I want to do it regardless of where I am or if it's brushed.

In general the problems I choose to brush are not rejects of low quality but good (and sometimes stunning) lines that haven't been seen or were overlooked for one reason or another.  In Rogaland there is no reason to climb on shitty problems as there is so much rock you can just wander around finding gems.  I could easily take a trip to Rogaland and not climb on a single established problem as world-class boulders are everywhere just waiting for someone to clean them up (and don't worry,  there are plenty of world class problems already done).  Maybe it's just my way of helping out the locals as they will need an army of developers to scratch the surface.

Here are pictures of just a couple things we brushed in Rogaland.

The first area we visited didn't have any established problems.  We stopped just to check it out and quickly realized we could spend days at this one place.  The best problems where stunning highballs that we didn't have the time to brush and we settled for a couple more reasonable problems.  Here Pyssel contemplates an awesome rail problem (bad lighting in the photo).  The last move crux was too much for us and it still waits for an ascent.  One of the highball aretes we wished we had time for is in the background.

This prow is also in the fist area and the best problem we managed to do.  The rock in this area does require a bit of brushing but it cleans up nice.  

 Pyssel climbing the right arete of the prow.  There is another obvious start under the roof to the left that Pyssel got painfully close to doing.  We will have to go back for that one.

Pyssel trying one of Tore's projects at Lilandsdalen.  

I cleaned up this line at Lilandsdalen but the landing needed a little work before I could commit.  Would love to go back to this one.

Tore took up to this amazing looking boulder and while the lines are worthy it wasn't as good as Tore remembered.  We tried the left a arete but in the end opted to save our skin.  Anywhere else we'd be chomping at the bit to climb on this boulder but in Rogaland it is nothing special.

Pyssel fondling the grips of another new problem. 

This impressive prow got 3 ascents the day we brushed it up and Tore would later return to add the obvious sitstart.

One of the best lines we saw in Rogaland was a project in Hunnedalen that a visiting Swed had brushed up in the Spring.  We worked the moves on rope and in the end Tumle was the only one to get up this technical masterpiece.  This problem should be on your list when visiting Rogaland.