Lofoten - Days 5, 6 and 7
Day 5 - After yesterday’s excesses, it was hard to get going again today. The weather gave us no let up though and the sun continued to shine brightly. A brief visit to the sport crag of Finnvika was the only climbing activity - good climbs in a beautiful location but not really what you come to Lofoten for.
Day 6 - Lofoten is good at cracks - long ones with great gear in wonderful locations. Store Festvag has them by the bucketload and we managed three, all of them great. The photo shows Skiloperen, but the best and most surprising was Cuckoo Crack which looks E5 from below but gives a magnificent pitch at about HVS (it should be called Cuckoo Flake really since that is what it is).
Back at base the rest of the team had left leaving just Mark and myself. We settled into an evening routine of beer on our terrace overlooking Vagakallen, a plate of grub and (expensive can of beer*), then settle down in the camping reception to watch the football and get a decent internet connection.
*Price of beer - first day we arrived, walking around the supermarket we spotted the beer, 25 NOK a six pack (we thought). Got outside, did the maths and realised that it was 25 NOK per can (= £15 a six pack!) Finances weren’t helped by then leaving a six pack in the fridge of the first camping we stopped at.
Day 7 - Thorbjørn didn’t want a photo of the Goat on the cover on the guide, despite the fact we had rather a good new one (see Goat chapter). I can see why - the Goat is Svolvær and associated with old-skool Lofoten, the new wave are centered on Henningsvæ, Presten and Gandalf. We still wanted to climb the thing since it is an essential route when in Lofoten. It didn’t disappoint. Mucking around the horns in particularly exciting and unique. We didn’t do the jump but even so the situation is just superb.