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Top Climbers Find New Norway Winter Routes

Norway has long been a winter destination for ice and mixed climbers looking for remote new and hard route opportunities.

Greg Boswell and Jeff Mercier have both climbed hard routes in Canada and around the globe. They teamed up to cherry pick some still-unclimbed lines on Senja island in Norway this month.

In total, they climbed seven big new routes in just over a week and left the climbing world wondering why more climbers aren’t there finding these lines.

The routes follow ice, rock and snow up peaks Stormoa, Hatten, Snaufjellet, Breitind and Finnkona.

Some of the lines were over 400 metres and some were short and technical three-pitch mixed routes.

Canadian Will Gadd has spent a number of seasons climbing new routes in Norway. In 2005, he established Fokus with Andreas Spaak, a 500-metre WI6X and Morke Mannen with Spaak, a 500-metre M8 WI6.

There’s currently no published guidebook to climbing on Senja, but one of the locals is in the process of writing a one. He has a folder with some helpful information in his lodge in Mefjordvaer. Other than that, you just have to sift through online reports for information.

Scroll through Boswell’s photos below.

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