Looking aside from some bouldering in Petter Bjørstad's backyard, this would be my first rock climb, as I think of rock climbing in general. I have scrambled some on the way to a few mountains, but this was quite different. A friend of mine, Bjørn Eirik Hanssen, had invited me to join in for a climbing session on Øygarden ("Møtteveggen"). In addition to Bjørn, his friends Eirik, Ståle and Ragnar came along. I met Bjørn on the awesome Meneseggen ski-trip last year, and we've kept in touch since.
These guys were good climbers, and I wondered what the heck I was doing there. There was no way I could climb these routes. Bjørn was kind enough to belay me on two routes that was not in the climbing guide. Obviously because they were too easy. Technically, I would say the two routes I did were class 4 (YDS), which means something like class 3 in the Norwegian scale.
After playing around with these routes for a while, I watched the others climb the real routes. The toughest of these routes was a 7- (Norwegian scale) route. I didn't even bother trying, but found the climbing fun. I'll probably return to the area, find myself a good route and practice on my own on a fixed rope. This was obviously a popular area, because all the other routes were occupied (by Germans) by the time we left.
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