Vertical-Life
The story of Flatanger's pioneers
"The first routes in the cave were established in 1996 by a group from Trondheim with Thomas Vekve and Pål Reiten as driving forces in the development. From the beginning and until early 2000 there was a steady development of routes on both sides of the cave and around the valley. Someone psyched and visionary had bolted what would later become Nordic Flower L1 (8b+). The original start was further down in the cave and I'm not sure if anyone has done it yet. Otherwise, there was nothing inside the cave itself. At this time there was an annual gathering in Flatanger organized by the climbing club at the university of Trondheim. The information about routes and bouldering in the valley was lost during a storm which swept away the one lone book with the drawings of the routes.
I came to the cave for the first time myself around the year 2001 and immediately saw that it would be possible to climb in the cave and not only on the sidewalls. Several of the lines were completely obvious. I didn't want to ruin possible lines by putting bolts in the wrong places. I tried to persuade others with better bolting skills than I had at the time to come and help with the bolting. I tried for several years to get other Norwegian climbers to join me in developing the cave, but no one had any faith that it was possible to do something in the cave. They said it was too hard, too far away from other people, too much of this too little of that…. I also tried to get the Petzl Rock trip, but was refused by them as well!
In 2010 I convinced Runar Carlsen to sponsor someone to start bolting in the cave. We applied for money from surrounding municipalities and got enough to get started. Magnus Midtbø and Laurent Laporte bolted the first lines with this money.
In 2011 I received an email from Petr Pavlicek in which he wanted information about hard routes and projects for Adam Ondra on the occasion of a film he was working on. Petr got some pictures and showed them to Adam alongside information on the recent bolting. It was these images that convinced Adam to come to Norway (as Adam himself says in the first film from Flatanger). I helped Adam and Petr with everything from places and accommodation, to cheap flights, and bolts and tried to get them more money from the surrounding municipalities (without success). I actually ordered 150 or so bolts from a supplier without having the money to pay for them, but figured that if Adam needs more bolts he should have more bolts… The bill luckily got paid by the Norwegian climbing federation. After this, the rest of the story became history!"
Jernej Kruder sends Martin Krpan (9a) sans knee pads
Jernej Kruder, who won the Boulder World Cup in 2018, has done Martin Krpan (9a) in Mišja Peč. “I would like to expose something here: I spent many tries on t…
Welcome to Vertical-Life Web
Six years after partnering with 8a.nu, we’re excited to announce the unification of the 8a.nu website and the Vertical-Life app into a single platform: Vertical…
Will Bosi repeats Return of the Sleepwalker (9A)
William Bosi has made the second ascent of Daniel Woods’ Return of the Sleepwalker (9A) in Black Velvet Canyon, after projecting it for 12 sessions. This was th…
First 8c by Gudmund Grønhaug (43)
Gudmund Grønhaug has done the FA of Blodspor 8c in Ekne, which he bolted eleven years ago. Ekne is located two hours south of Flatanger and there are some 130 r…
Belastningsskador i klatring
Gudmund Grønhaug, som har klättrat på hög nivå i 20+ år och har en Masters i Science in Sports, har publicerat boken Belastningsskador i klatring. Den norska bo…
Gudmund Grønhaug, project leader at Østfold hospital trust and Flatanger pioneer, has recently published a study showing no associations of performance, chronic injuries and BMI. The study, which includes a web-based questionnaire with 667 climber, is one of the largest epidemiological studies on cl…
First 8c by Gudmund Grønhaug (43)
Gudmund Grønhaug has done the FA of Blodspor 8c in Ekne, which he bolted eleven years ago. Ekne is located two hours south of Flatanger and there are some 130 r…
Belastningsskador i klatring
Gudmund Grønhaug, som har klättrat på hög nivå i 20+ år och har en Masters i Science in Sports, har publicerat boken Belastningsskador i klatring. Den norska bo…
Gudmund Grønhaug, project leader at Østfold hospital trust and Flatanger pioneer, has recently published a study showing no associations of performance, chronic injuries and BMI. The study, which includes a web-based questionnaire with 667 climber, is one of the largest epidemiological studies on cl…
Katie Lamb makes history
Katie Lamb has become the first woman to climb 8C+ by completing Box Therapy (8C) in RMNP. Daniel Woods made the FA back in 2018, and only Drew Ruana and Sean B…
Schubert sends Project Big during his 6th Live attempt
"It was dramatic to the very end." On the 8a finish of Project Big in Flatanger, Jakob Schubert explains that a horn broke and he was close to falling. The last three minutes of the video show just how much this climb means to him."This horn could have ended my career... This was the biggest mental …
Will Bosi repeats Return of the Sleepwalker (9A)
William Bosi has made the second ascent of Daniel Woods’ Return of the Sleepwalker (9A) in Black Velvet Canyon, after projecting it for 12 sessions. This was th…