Tafeltinden as seen from Lyngenfjorden.
The red line marks the East ridge route climbed by Bjørn Arntzen and Geir Jenssen on July 28th 1987.
A brief route description: Start from Koppangen and follow Koppangsdalen up to Koppangsbreen.
Our route climbs the East ridge and partly the South-East face to the summit.
Grade I-II. Beware of deep glacier crevasses on the South-East face.
| Tafeltinden was first climbed by Elizabeth
Main (a.k.a.
Aubrey Le Blond) and the Swiss guides Emil and Josef Imboden on August 25th 1898. They climbed the easy North side of the mountain from Lenangsskardet. "We had noticed from the summits of various other peaks a fine-looking mass of rock with a snow top, rather like a table with a very skimpy cloth on it. This rose in a grand rocky wall from the lower portion of the Stortinddals glacier. We now found ourselves at the other side of this mountain, and it was obviously easy to go up it. We therefore set off at a swinging pace across the head of the Imboden glacier, and in a blinding snowstorm ascended a steep, stony slope, then over a little ice, and finally over more stones to what during a momentarily lifting of the clouds we saw was without doubt the summit. Hastily constructing a stone man, we dashed down again, crossed the glacier (passing to our left two fine little aiguilles which some day we hoped to climb) and rejoined the knapsacks, well satisfied at having accomplished a couple of first ascents in such awful weather. A hasty meal, and we were off again to cross the great snowy waste which lay between us and the Forholt pass. Our footmarks were absolutely obliterated, but the little holes made by the axes were clearly seen, and very glad we were of them as so thick a fog prevailed that we could see nothing except each other. From the pass we tumbled down the couloir with what haste we could, ending with a splendid glissade, which landed us on the level glacier beneath. Hence we made the best of our way home in drenching rain, and right welcome was the sight of the three green tents and the cosy wooden sæter, where soon we had a big fire and plenty of dry clothes for which to exchange our sodden garments." Aubrey Le Blond: Mountaineering in The Land of The Midnight Sun (1908). |
