The
Troll Wall is part of the mountain
massifIn geology, a massif is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term is also used to refer to a group of mountains formed by such a structure...
Trolltindene (Troll Peaks) in the
RomsdalRomsdal is the name of a valley and traditional district in the Norwegian county Møre og Romsdal. It is located between Nordmøre and Sunnmøre...
valley, near
Åndalsnesis a Norwegian town in the municipality of Rauma, of which it is also the administrative center. Åndalsnes has around 3000 inhabitants, and is located on the shores of the Romsdalsfjord at the mouth of the river Rauma, one of Norway's first rivers to host English fly fishermen in the nineteenth...
and
MoldeMolde is a city and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Romsdal region.Molde is the administrative center of Møre og Romsdal county, the commercial hub of Romsdal, and the host of the bishop of Møre....
, on the
NorwegianNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.8 million. It is one of the most...
west coast. Troll Wall is the tallest vertical rock face in Europe, 1100 meters from the base to the summit at its tallest. At its steepest, the summit overhangs the base by nearly fifty meters.
The rock is
gneissGneiss is a common and widely distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks.-Etymology:...
, and its large formations are shaping a broken face of huge corners, concave roofs, and crack systems, topped with a unique series of spires and pinnacles parading the summit rim. The rock is generally loose, and rock fall is the norm in this immense north facing big wall. A series of huge rock falls swiped the wall in autumn 1998, radically changing the character of several
climbingClimbing is the activity of using one's hands and feet to ascend a steep object. It is done both for recreation and professionally, as part of activities such as maintenance of a structure, or military operations.Climbing activities include:* Bouldering: Ascending boulders or small...
routes.
The Troll Wall has been a prestigious goal for climbers and
BASE jumpersBASE jumping, also sometimes written as B.A.S.E jumping, is an activity that employs an initially packed parachute to jump from fixed objects, as with paragliding...
alike. In 1984
Carl BoenishCarl Boenish considered the father of modern BASE jumping, was a freefall cinematographer, who in 1978 filmed the first jumps from El Capitan using ram-air parachutes and freefall tracking technique. This approach defined modern BASE jumping...
, the "father" of BASE jumping, was killed on the Troll Wall shortly after setting the world record for the highest BASE jump in history. BASE jumping from Troll Wall has been illegal since 1986.
Climbing history
The Troll Wall was first climbed in 1965 by a Norwegian and a British team simultaneously. The Norwegian team, consisting of
Ole Daniel EnersenOle Daniel Enersen is a Norwegian climber, photographer, journalist, writer, and medical historian.In 1965 he made the first ascent of the Trollveggen mountain in Romsdalen, Norway, along with Leif Normann Petterson, Odd Eliassen and Jon Teigland.In 2000 he published a novel in the fantasy genre,...
, Leif Norman Patterson, Odd Eliassen and Jon Teigland, finished one day ahead of the British (John Amatt, Tony Howard, Tony Nicholls, Bill Tweedale), who on their part established the most popular
routeA climbing route is a path by which a climber reaches the top of a mountain, rock, or ice wall. Routes can vary dramatically in difficulty and, once committed to that ascent, can be difficult to stop or return. Choice of route can be critically important...
on the wall, the
Rimmon Route.
The wall saw its first winter ascent in March 1974, when a Polish team spent 13 days repeating the 1967
French Route. In 1979 the wall was
free climbedFree climbing is a type of rock climbing in which the climber uses only hands, feet and other parts of the body to ascend. No artificial aids are employed to make upwards progress; ropes and protection are used only as insurance against falls and their consequences.In contrast, aid climbing is a...
for the first time by local climbing ace
Hans Christian DosethHans Christian Doseth was a Norwegian climber. Doseth followed the standards of modern big wall climbing through many first ascents in Europe and the Himalayas. Among his achievements were several first ascents of routes on Trollveggen , Romsdal's north facing big wall, both in winter and summer...
and Ragnhild Amundsen.
Today, there are 14 routes on the wall, ranging in length and difficulty. The classics Rimmon and
Swedish routes were normally free climbed in a day or two until being heavily damaged by the 1998 rock falls. The longer and more engaging
aid routesAid climbing is a style of climbing in which standing on or pulling oneself up via devices attached to fixed or placed protection is used to make upward progress....
, such as the 1972 test piece
Arch Wall (climbed by Ed and Hugh Drummond in 20 days), or the 1986
Death to All/Pretty Blond Vikings which cuts through the steepest part of the wall, requires advanced knowledge of big wall climbing and several days on the wall.
Due to the serious character of the wall, in addition to a cold and damp climate, new routes on Troll Wall are rare. The most recent contribution to the climbs on Troll Wall is the
Krasnojarsk Route, established by a Russian team during 19 days in February 2002.
BASE Jumping
The Troll Wall has also gained notoriety as a favourite haunt of
BASE jumpersBASE jumping, also sometimes written as B.A.S.E jumping, is an activity that employs an initially packed parachute to jump from fixed objects, as with paragliding...
. It was one of the sites where BASE jumping was pioneered in the eighties, until Norwegian authorities made BASE jumping from the Troll Wall illegal on July 25th, 1986. Parachute equipment that wasn't adapted for jumping from cliffs, and the fact that the jumpers had to find exit points by a trial and error method meant many fatalities in a short period of time. However, by the use of wingsuits, jumpers can jump from Trollveggen's highest point and still make a safe landing.
It is often impossible to use helicopters to get deceased or injured jumpers down from the wall, meaning rescuers have to climb the wall at great risk. Despite the fact that BASE jumpers face heavy fines and loss of parachute equipment if caught, and that the wall still claims lives, the Troll Wall continues to be popular both with local jumpers and foreigners. Eight BASE jumpers have lost their lives in Trollveggen. Carl Boenish was the first, and the last fatality was in 2008.
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