Doug McConnell, 42, completes Valhalla (9a)

Doug McConnell, who did his first 9a in March, has sent Valhalla (9a) in Flatanger, after a one hour fight. "What a route - dream line! As hard mentally as physically. Took it to the top 1st time thru the crux on the second good day after the bad weather. Cool to share the process with Gonzalo, Josh, Nils & Leo - good times!!" (c) Kerrin Gale

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
Valhalla is a monstrous route. Something like 65m of climbing out the Flatanger cave, extending Odin’s Eye to the Thor’s Hammer anchor. It breaks down to something like two stacked 8c/+ pitches.

Last year I was also in Flatanger and did Odin’s Eye after quite a bit of work. Afterwards, I watched Domen Skofic climb Valhalla and joked that it looked completely impossible to me. But it’s honestly one of the most inspiring routes I’ve ever seen and already my logical brain was telling me that it would suit me quite well - being long and without any super hard moves - so I was sufficiently intrigued to see if it was possible.

On the last few days of our trip in 2023 I checked out the first part above Odins, and found a sequence that I thought I could do from the ground with enough work and some specific preparation. So this year I was motivated to come back and commit to exclusively climbing on Valhalla and see what happened.

The trip didn’t start ideally though. I broke my toe two weeks before arriving and a host of other minor niggles plagued my first month here, but I persisted, and climbed on Valhalla exclusively in August.

It has two crux sections above Odin’s, separated by a good rest and then a final pumpy 8a ish section. All 3 of these parts involve strong left heel hooks so working on the route was a real balance of doing as much as possible to gain fitness on it but not going too far and breaking my left leg off.

It’s possible to fall in a number of places after the first crux, even right at the end. Mentally it was quite confronting to leave the ground each time, with so much hard climbing ahead and the real possibility to fail after doing so much work.

A year to the day after I watched Domen do it, I passed the first crux and kept it together to the top. I repeated Odin’s 6 times this year. It’s a nice route, but that’s enough.