Svolværgeita

Svolværgeita
Highest point
Coordinates	68°14′46″N 14°35′18″E / 68.24611°N 14.58833°ECoordinates: 68°14′46″N 14°35′18″E / 68.24611°N 14.58833°E
Geography
Svolværgeita Location in Nordland
Location	Svolvær, Nordland, Norway
Topo map
Climbing
First ascent	1 August 1910: Ferdinand Schjelderup, Alf Bonnevie Bryn and Carl Wilhelm Rubenson.[1][2]

Svolværgeita (Northern Sami: Spålla) is a 150-metre (490 ft) tall pinnacle at the southwest face of Fløyfjellet on the island of Austvågøya in the Lofoten archipelago. The 569-metre (1,867 ft) high Fløyfjellet is located on the edge of the town of Svolvær in the municipality of Vågan in Nordland county, Norway. The first recorded time a climber reached the summit of Svolværgeita was on 1 August 1910 by Ferdinand Schjelderup, Alf Bonnevie Bryn and Carl Wilhelm Rubenson.^[2][3][4]

Name

The first element is Svolvær, since it is located in that town. The last element is the finite form of geit which means "goat", since the mountain has two "horns". The two horns are called Storhorn and Lillehorn. By descending from Storhorn it is common to jump over a 1.5 metre wide gap and land safely on Lillehorn, while viewing the town cemetery 300 metre below.^[2]

First ascent

The 1910 Route was first climbed by Bryn, Schjelderup and Rubinson. They reached the top by 11 pm on 1 August 1910. Their route includes a diagonal traverse across the north wall of the mountain, led by Rubinson. Before the climb, the three had bet a local hotel owner a bottle of wine that they would reach the Goat summit. The group of Bryn, Schjelderup and Rubinson had shortly before finished the first successful ascent of Stetind, on 30 July. Two days later, on 3 August, the same group made the first ascent of Trakta, one of the most difficult summits to reach in Norway.^[2]

Climbing routes

In addition to The 1910 Route, several other routes to the summit of The Goat have been described. The longest and classic route is The Front Side (grade 5+), first climbed by Wilhelm Høyer and Alf Krane in 1947. Another route is The Vegetarian (grade 5, A1). The route Highway to heaven (grade 6+, A2) was first ascended in August 1991. The Rappel Route (grade 5) was first top-roped by Svein Smaaskjær in the 1960s. The Back Side (also called The Spiral Route) (grad 5+) was first climbed in 1928 by Bror Bommen and Bjørn Lyche. The harder Angelwings (grad 6+) was first aid climbed by Arild Meyer and Hugo Bjørnstad in 1974, and first free-climbed in 1993 by Ed Webster, Arild Meyer and Odd-Roar Wik.^[2]

References

1. Index of the book Norsk Fjeldsport 1914 - Norsk Tindeklub
2. Webster, Ed (1994). Climbing in the Magic Islands. A climbing and hiking guidebook to the Lofoten Islands of Norway. Henningsvær: Nord Norsk Klatreskole. pp. 195–211.
3. Store norske leksikon. "Svolværgeita" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2012-07-17.
4. Evensen, Knut Harald, ed. (2010). NAF Veibok 2010–2012 (in Norwegian) (29 ed.). Oslo: Norwegian Automobile Federation. p. 669.