Troll Wall
Today Kilian Jornet presents Troll Wall, a documentary that can be seen here and which tells of the first descent on skis of the Fiva route in Norway.
The Troll Wall (Trollveggen in Norwegian) is a vertical wall with a 1,100 m gradient on the north face of Trolltindan (1,788 m), situated in the Romsdalen valley in Norway. On the right-hand side of the wall the “Fiva” can be found, a mythical route in the history of Norwegian mountaineering and the first one to pass over this great wall. For years it is something which has been on the minds of many skiers and mountaineers. It is a route of 1,700 m with an average inclination of 55º to 60º, and the only one on the wall that is not vertical.
Jornet began to think about the project two years ago, when he moved to the area. Since then, he has spent hours studying the trail, examining it and waiting for the optimum conditions to attempt a first descent on skis. Last year’s snowfall provided the moment: “On 17th February 2018 I went to inspect the route. However, I realised at once that the conditions were very favourable. In steep skiing the conditions aren’t ever perfect, so I realised that I had to try it no matter what. It was a very interesting yet demanding experience. The upper section is perhaps the most complicated, as they are probably the most vertical 200 m that I have ever skied. Following that, there was quite a narrow couloir of 400 m and then 100 m of more skiable sections, but which were very icy and steep in parts. It’s a very exposed route where you have to fully concentrate, but in the end the result was very satisfactory”.
The documentary tells of this first descent, but also talks of Kilian Jornet’s progression as a steep skier. It includes testimonials from prominent skiers in the same field, such as Vivian Bruchez, Killian Jornet’s mentor, who explains: “Kilian comes from ski mountaineering but up until 2012 he hadn’t yet started steep skiing. He is a fast learner and soon he understood how to combine his ski mountaineering skills to be able to bring them to this new discipline”.