Klyveklippen as seen from Lyngenfjorden. Trolltinden to the right.
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| Klyveklippen is not a separate mountain,
but a pointy peak on the South ridge of Trolltinden. It was first climbed by Elizabeth Main (a.k.a. Aubrey Le Blond) and the Swiss guides Emil and Josef Imboden on August 27th 1898. "After being blessed for once with a lovely evening we hoped much for a good day, and the morning after our ascent of the Elizabethtind was an ideal one, being windless and cloudless. In high spirits we set out for the Forholt pass, bent on a serious attempt to go up the Trold from the east. But in the north the changes of weather are terribly sudden. By the time we reached the glacier clouds were chasing each other wildly across the tremendous cliff which forms the head of the Trold, and when we got to the top of the pass it was snowing. Had people ever such shocking weather for climbing as fell to our lot that August! We hoped it was a record. While we gloomily ate our lunch under the partial shelter of a large stone, we decided that the sooner we went home the better; and my ideas were not modified when I struggled with my camera to the saddle in the hope of taking a photograph of the Kjæmpes Tand. I could scarcely stand against the gale, and was glad to quickly turn and hasten towards shelter. As I did so, I saw Imboden, a grotesque figure, his hat lied on with a red handkerchief, the ends of which fluttered wildly in the storm, standing on the rock ridge and signing to me to join him. I did so, and then he said: “Look here, ma'am, it is possible to go for some way up this ridge. Let us keep on as long as we are able, and perhaps we shall see something which will save us half a day another time." We accordingly set off, being partially sheltered, and for an hour we had the very best climb I enjoyed that summer. The rocks were big and firm. We were able to thrust fingers and toes into good, honest holds, and towards the end we met with a chimney which it was bliss to go up. Laughing, and helping each other with ice-axes placed under the feet, we emerged breathless close to the top of so fine a rock, and of so distinct a personality that we forthwith gave it a name, and lo! it became a separate mountain. The Klyveklippe was too breezy a place to tarry long, so we commenced retrograde gymnastics and got safely to the pass." Aubrey Le Blond: Mountaineering in The Land of The Midnight Sun (1908). |
