'Once upon a time in the northwest' added to Tromma on Kvaløya in Norway

A small international team of climbers comprised of Orlando Addis, Paul Chabot and Simon Prochaska has established a new route on Tromma, the beautiful 400m wall on the NW tip of the island of Kvaløya in Norway. Called Once upon a time in the northwest, the 15-pitch trad climb is graded 6+ on the Norwegian climbing scale, which checks in at roughly French 6b.

Once upon a time in the northwest is the third route on this massive wall, after the first two were established only last year. These are En tåre for Mikaelsson, put up by Sigurd Norderval, Sofie Fjellblome Nordvik and Vetle Sevild in June 2024, and Høyt i Nord, first ascended by Helge Lægreid, Sigurd Norderval and Vetle Sevild in September 2024.

Writing on his social media handle, Prochaska explained "After bailing 3 times on ground up tries over the last 2 years, we got ourselves 400m of static rope and cleaned most of the line during the last month. Left are 14 pitches of face, flake, dihedral and crack climbing between Norwegian grade 5- and 6+. The route is going through the most prominent feature of the wall, a banana shaped dihedral with a handcrack (4 pitches in the dihedral, or two 60m pitches)." The name of the climb is a nod towards the famous Dire Straits song "Once Upon a Time in the West", as well as "wanting to celebrate this unique place in the northwest corner of Kvaløya."

According to the highly informative website Klatreforer.tromsoklatring.no, this area of Kvaløya remains relatively unexplored and "... houses adventure in its most true form. Plenty of potential for developing new trad routes and boulders in truly magnificent surroundings." It is worth noting that climbers are asked to abide to the strictly no-bolt ethic on Kvaløya.