west face, Ice Age, and north pillar, Skywalk; Ulve
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O rvin F jella M ountains, H oltan n a (2,650m ), west fa c e , Ice Age, a n d north pillar, Skyw alk; Ulvetanna (2,960m ), northw est buttress, T he S oun d o f Silence. W hen Ivar Tollefsen “discovered” the peaks o f Queen Maud Land in 1994 and published reports and pictures, Alexander and I were clear: one day we must go to these granite towers sticking out o f the ice cap. Although we were determ ined, we didn’t have the financial means. How many people can spend 30,000 euros on a tw o-m onth clim bing trip? By late 2008 our situation had improved and with Stephen Siegrist from Switzerland and cam eram an M ax Reichel, we flew to Cape Town en route to the Ulvetanna Group. Here bad news greeted us. “Hello, nice to m eet you.” It was a French expedition to the same m ountains. I wasn’t pleased to m eet them , but after an hour I was happier; their objective was H olsttind and not the west face o f H oltanna, where we wanted to attem pt a bigwall free route. But m ost im portant, they were really nice. O u r goal was a crack system toward the left side o f the 750m west face o f H oltanna. A Spanish team had attem pted this line to half-height in 2000, and we discovered a nu m ber o f
bolts; one slab was drilled like a sport clim b. However, as a free clim bing project it was beginning to look im possible. It was Novem ber, and the tem perature was -3 0 °C . We were forced to clim b in big boots and gloves, while using a m ixture o f free and aid, fixing ropes at first, hoping D ecem ber would bring warm er tem peratures and give us a chance to free the pitches. However, after storm s lowered daytime tem peratures to -4 3 °C , we realized our dream was not on, and abandoned fixing. We hauled up a portaledge and continued in capsule style to the sum m it. T he rock was indeed poor but our new route, Ice Age, was beautiful, giving 24 pitches up to 5 .1 0 + A4. This was the third ascent o f Holtanna, which was first climbed in 2000. A week later, in warm er tem peratures and on an alm ost perfect, windless day, we made the fourth ascent o f the same peak and its first free ascent, via the stunning north pillar. O ur 450m , 10-pitch route clim bed a beautiful arête at 5.10-. We called it Skywalk. The weather deteriorated again, but toward the end o f our stay Karl Gabel o f the weather center in Innsbruck forecasted two days o f good weather: little w in d ,-2 8 °C , m inor snowfall in the afternoon. Not ideal, but som ething we could live with. O n Decem ber 11 and 12 we made the first ascent o f U lvetanna's 800m northw est buttress, a ca 20-p itch route at 5.11- A2 60° snow. We named it The Sound o f Silence. It was the third ascent o f Ulvetanna and proved to be the cherry on the cake. F ro m in fo r m a t io n su p p lie d b y T h o m a s H u b e r , G e rm a n y
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O rvin F jella M ountains, H oltan n a (2,650m ), west fa c e , Ice Age, a n d north pillar, Skyw alk; Ulvetanna (2,960m ), northw est buttress, T he S oun d o f Silence. W hen Ivar Tollefsen “discovered” the peaks o f Queen Maud Land in 1994 and published reports and pictures, Alexander and I were clear: one day we must go to these granite towers sticking out o f the ice cap. Although we were determ ined, we didn’t have the financial means. How many people can spend 30,000 euros on a tw o-m onth clim bing trip? By late 2008 our situation had improved and with Stephen Siegrist from Switzerland and cam eram an M ax Reichel, we flew to Cape Town en route to the Ulvetanna Group. Here bad news greeted us. “Hello, nice to m eet you.” It was a French expedition to the same m ountains. I wasn’t pleased to m eet them , but after an hour I was happier; their objective was H olsttind and not the west face o f H oltanna, where we wanted to attem pt a bigwall free route. But m ost im portant, they were really nice. O u r goal was a crack system toward the left side o f the 750m west face o f H oltanna. A Spanish team had attem pted this line to half-height in 2000, and we discovered a nu m ber o f
bolts; one slab was drilled like a sport clim b. However, as a free clim bing project it was beginning to look im possible. It was Novem ber, and the tem perature was -3 0 °C . We were forced to clim b in big boots and gloves, while using a m ixture o f free and aid, fixing ropes at first, hoping D ecem ber would bring warm er tem peratures and give us a chance to free the pitches. However, after storm s lowered daytime tem peratures to -4 3 °C , we realized our dream was not on, and abandoned fixing. We hauled up a portaledge and continued in capsule style to the sum m it. T he rock was indeed poor but our new route, Ice Age, was beautiful, giving 24 pitches up to 5 .1 0 + A4. This was the third ascent o f Holtanna, which was first climbed in 2000. A week later, in warm er tem peratures and on an alm ost perfect, windless day, we made the fourth ascent o f the same peak and its first free ascent, via the stunning north pillar. O ur 450m , 10-pitch route clim bed a beautiful arête at 5.10-. We called it Skywalk. The weather deteriorated again, but toward the end o f our stay Karl Gabel o f the weather center in Innsbruck forecasted two days o f good weather: little w in d ,-2 8 °C , m inor snowfall in the afternoon. Not ideal, but som ething we could live with. O n Decem ber 11 and 12 we made the first ascent o f U lvetanna's 800m northw est buttress, a ca 20-p itch route at 5.11- A2 60° snow. We named it The Sound o f Silence. It was the third ascent o f Ulvetanna and proved to be the cherry on the cake. F ro m in fo r m a t io n su p p lie d b y T h o m a s H u b e r , G e rm a n y
