Rjukan round up

As like most climbing trips, by the end of it you have everything dialed in by the end of you time there. The first couple of days you spend putting your cramps on before your harness and putting you're rack at the bottom of you're sack under your food and belay jacket. By the time our trip ended me and clif didn't even have to speak to each other once we got to belays and tot the top of routes, we just knew what each of us had to do and got to it. Untying of the rope, threading the tat or tree for the decent and coiling the rope the chuck down for the abseil were all done with little communication and almost Autonomously.

One of my many conclusions was the my crampons are insufient for there purpose, I have black diamond cyborgs and I have adapted them by by putting mono grivel Rambo points on them which are a lot better than the original points, for climbing they are great but for walking in they are horrendous. I would walk 2 steps and they were balling up with snow badly. I was like having 4kg platform heels on and dangerous on slopes to. My mate has a pair on the petzl lynx crampons and from what I saw they were amazing,they didn't ball up, they are light and the front points are long and replaceable. They are defonetly my next crampon purchase and I think they are the best on the market at the minute. 

The weather wasn't Particularly bad on this trip, the coldest day was only -4 so keeping warm wasn't an issue. My clothing choices consisted of a pair of light weight ski pants I bought from tk max for £50, my base layer was a medium weight ice breaker( merino wool ) long sleeve top, a rab polar techy top and either a rab soft shell of my rab latok hard shell, depending on wether I thought it might be a wet or cold day. I used the mountain equipment alpine guide gloves as they have a great balance of warmth and dexterity, plus they are water proof which massively helps. 

For socks I use a pair of ice breaker ski mountaineering socks which keep my feet warm enough. 

All in all the trip was a massive success and I loved every minute. We did all the climbs we wanted to do bar a couple due to poor conditions on the day and not due to nerve or skill level. 

I can't wait to see what this year has in store and I'm hoping to get upto Scotland before it melt. Fingers crossed. 

Keep cranking!!!!!!!!