Svolværgeita

Historie

Svolværgeita is a 150m tall pinnacle at the southwest face of Fløyfjellet on the island of Austvågøya in the Lofoten archipelago. The 569m 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.NameThe 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.First ascentThe 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.