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Vestpillaren.
A slightly earlier wake up on day 2 and a quick drive over to the start of the short (~15 minute) hike to the main goal of the trip. Apparently, we should’ve gotten up 30 minutes earlier as we found a team of two working their way up pitch 1 of the Vestpillaren, a 12 pitch N6. We waited around a bit trying to get a pitch of separation between us before starting up. The team turned out to be two, strong, and friendly Norwegian girls (a trend for our trip?). We once again enjoyed the social aspect and were happy that there were no other climbers on the route; though 2 different parties were doing another line that crisscrossed ours a couple of times. The difficulties on the route are quite sustained indeed and some of the upper 5 pitches were pretty damn hard for us (some A0) especially once the sun hit the face on what would turn out to be the hottest day of the trip. Other than the bolted belay stations on the first 5 pitches, the route is very trad, including a somewhat runout slab traverse exit. We topped out via the grass gully pitch and enjoyed the views without the usual urgency to get down (no darkness to worry about). The descent involves a long scramble along the ridge (the rope came out a couple of times) to eventually intercept a hikers’ path which is actually pretty unpleasant if there’s any wind as it’s super dusty.
Photos
Vestpillaren of Preseten in its ~500 meter glory (July 2023).
Starting up pitch 1 of Vestpillaren. The other team is at/near the first belay (July 2023).
Higher on pitch 1 (July 2023).
Shirley following pitch 1 of Vestpillaren (July 2023).
Shirley arriving at the first belay (July 2023).
Starting up pitch 2 (July 2023).
Shirley on pitch 2 (July 2023).
Shirley nearing the second belay on Vestpillaren (July 2023).
Views from the second belay (July 2023).
Shirley at the second belay (July 2023).
Leading pitch 3 (July 2023).
More pitch 3 (July 2023).
Shirley about to enjoy the finishing slab of pitch 3 (July 2023).
Arriving at the third belay (July 2023).
Leading the short pitch 4 – one of the few short and easy ones (July 2023).
Shirley on pitch 4 (July 2023).
Arriving at the fourth belay (July 2023).
Shirley at the fifth belay (July 2023).
Views (July 2023).
Starting pitch 6 (July 2023).
Shirley following pitch 6 (July 2023).
More of the ever improving views (July 2023).
Shirley on pitch 6 (July 2023).
Arriving at the sixth belay (July 2023).
More views from Vestpillaren (July 2023).
Shirley at the sixth belay (July 2023).
Starting up the difficult pitch 7 (July 2023).
Above the crux (some A0) on pitch 7 (July 2023).
Looking back at Shirley from our pitch 7.5 belay station as we had to wait for the party ahead to vacate the proper/logical belay stance above (July 2023).
Shirley starting up pitch 7 (July 2023).
Views towards Heningsvaer (July 2023).
The views (July 2023).
More of Shirley on the lower half of pitch 7 (July 2023).
Moving the belay to the top of pitch 7 proper (after our route companions vacated the semi-hanging stance; July 2023).
More of the upper half of pitch 7 (July 2023).
Shirley on the upper half of pitch 7 (July 2023).
Shirley arriving at the proper pitch 7 belay (July 2023).
Leading the pretty and cruiser pitch 8 (July 2023).
Looking back at Shirley from the lead of the pitch 8 (July 2023).
More pitch 8 (July 2023).
Shirley topping out on pitch 8 (July 2023).
At the 8th belay station. Photo courtesy of our route companions (July 2023).
The stellar but hard for us (some more A0 on upper half) pitch 9 of Vestpillaren (July 2023).
More pitch 9 (July 2023).
Shirley on pitch 9 (July 2023).
Exiting the money dihedral of pitch 9 (July 2023).
Pitch 9 finishing section (July 2023).
A bit more pitch 9 (July 2023).
Shirley arriving at the 9th belay (July 2023).
Shirley nearing the 10th belay. We did a variation on this pitch that avoided a scary/hollow-sounding blocks in favor of a sketchy slab traverser to the right (July 2023).
Shirley exiting the pitch 11 slab traverse into the Grass Gully (July 2023).
Looking up at the “Grass Gully” exit pitch (#12; July 2023).
Shirley topping out on Vestpillaren via the Grass Gully pitch (July 2023).
Henningsvær from top of Vestpillaren (July 2023).
Top of Vestpillaren with Djupfjord visible on the right (July 2023).
Studying up on the descent beta (July 2023).
Stunning summit views (July 2023).
The descent starts with a longish hike & scramble along the ridge of the Preseten (July 2023).
Starting the (exposed in places) ridge traverse scramble from the top of Vestpillaren (July 2023).
Festvagtinden summit is the high point on the right (with a hiking trail to its top). Your goal while descending from the Preseten is to get to the notch – the low point on the ridge in the photo – where you’ll pick up the hikers’ trail (July 2023).
More the descent ridge traverse (July 2023).
Shirley on the hiking trail (July 2023).
Pretty views along the hike down (July 2023).
Henningsvær – a wide angle view (July 2023).
Henningsvær (July 2023).
Henningsvær (July 2023).
Henningsvær – or a portion of it anyway; one with our apartment building partially visible (July 2023).
A one way bridge allowing access to Henningsvær. Looking forward to some beers (July 2023).
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