A quick trip to the Avon Gorge prior to my trip to Lofoten resulted in a bit of a tussle with the excellent Hocus Pocus, a tough line that 15 years ago I breezed up, and now felt a little guilt that I had rather undersold its hard climbing to my present day partner. Still, nursing nothing more serious than very pumped forearms I packed for Norway and travelled happily northwards to a magical first nights stay under the midnight sun in a little Rorbu (small hut). The next day a swift ferry ride deposited Alan and I on Lofoten and our first sampling of the rock under the expert eye of Chris ‘The big feller’ Craggs and Colin ‘El Cap” Binks – it was magnificent and set the scene for two weeks of memorable experiences. With tales of the bad weather that can engulf the Islands we quickly picked off the classics such as Bare Blabaer, Lundeklubben and Vestpillaren and waited for the rain – it never arrived. In fact on my return I was a bit dubious about the bad weather claims and looked up the longterm June rainfall averages for Lofoten and Fort William and found that Lofoten has exactly half the rain that Fort William does!! Two weeks later we headed home having climbed far more routes than we could possibly have hoped for at the outset and I had to admit that I had been completely charmed by the area and will hopefully be able to return and explore further afield around Tromso and Stetind. Back home and a quick visit by friends Ali and Phil on their way back from Cornwall resulted in a happy day at Ansteys Cove along with some very nice people from The Southeast, Sheffield and Exeter. Just one thing to note is that the parking for Ansteys Cove etc is now only free for 2 hours and is patrolled (£75 fine). Alternative free parking is available across the road just uphill on the left.

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