Austrians Hansjorg Auer and Much Mayr have climbed a new free route on the big wall venue of Blamannen in Northern Norway.

The two were attracted to a possible free ascent of Bongo Bar towards the left side of the wall. This 400m route was first climbed in July 1998 by Marten Blixt, Thomas Ekefalk and Erik Massih to give six pitches up to A3 and Norwegian 7 (6c+).

However, the weather remained unsettled, the route never dried properly and the Austrian pair was unable to climb the third, overhanging pitch, which remained continuously wet.

Instead, they decided to attempt a traverse into Atlantis, further left. Atlantis was one of the original routes to breach the North Face and was climbed in June 1980 by Frode Guldal, Havard Nesheim and Sjur Nesheim (400m: eight pitches: A1). It was freed in July 1990 by Per Hustad and Johan Nilsson at Norwegian 8-/8 (approximately F7b+).

Part way through the traverse Auer was forced to place a bolt when a crucial loose flake parted company from the rock. The bolt was only used for protection, but Auer admits that he could not have free climbed this section without it.

During this traverse across largely unclimbed ground, they would have crossed, and perhaps shared common ground with, the 2008 Finnish aid route Lost and Found (Jarkko-Juhani Henttonen/Johannes Kärkkäinen/Kauri Kurki: seven pitches: A3 and Norwegian 6).

The Austrian pair took five days to complete their ascent and then redpoint all the individual pitches, but the weather stopped them making a continuous one-day ascent.

Copperheads, pegs, nuts, cams and the one bolt were used for protection and Tingeling, now the fourth all-free route on the wall, goes at 7c+.

The 861m Blamannen lies on the island of Kvaloya, close to Tromso. It offers around 10 steep, big wall routes on generally compact, solid granite.

The North Face received international publicity in 2006 after the aid route, Arctandria (A2+), climbed in 1981 by Finn Daehli, Havard and Sjur Nesheim, was free climbed by Swiss Didier Berthot and Giovanni Quirici. However, they only managed to pink-point the crux pitch at 8a+ and did not make a continuous ascent of the route.

Blamannen then received considerable attention again in 2008, partly because of a new guidebook, Kvaloya, Selected Climbs, and the 2007 free ascent of Arctandria by Hansjorg Auer and Martin Held, an event that gained widespread publicity.

Auer and Held made the first, one-day, free ascent of all 10 pitches of Arctandria at 8b.

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