Älvnäs

Vertical / slightly overhanging 15 meters high crag with about 15 sports routes of which two or three with excellent sustained and technical face climbing of the highest class. This crag is definitely worth a visit just because of those two or three routes. The other routes are quite ok with a bit of varying character and quality. Here are also a couple of easier routes that can work for some, but you should probably be able to climb at least 7a to have any greater joy of a visit.

The area is access sensitive! All routes to the right of Snövitt are on private land, the kindly landowner has however announced that it is ok to climb when they are not down on the plot/grass, so stick to the routes at the left if they are around.

The rock is quite compact and with a slightly unusually fine quartz-rich quality, which can also feel a bit slippery. Pretty smooth for the skin.

The following routes are newly renovated (2021-10-17): Åskbollen, Black Widow, Ft Molly nu fetare, Kalles kaviar, Bender, Speed, Trippad direkt. On the right part of this crag a couple of meters of soil was dug out, which meant that the first bolt ended up a little high. However, some of those routes are complemented with extra bolts at the start.

The crag stays mostly clean from moss, but some lava can be found on top of some routes. A brush could come in handy. Shrubs and branches in front of the wall have been removed and the entire rock wall is accessible.

Environment:
South facing. Half the wall is partly in the shade of deciduous trees, the other half completely open. Very warm in spring as it faces south and is a bit sheltered from the wind.

In 1992 a non climbing former girlfriend to Anders Blomqvist (a climbing partner to Mikael Widerberg), told Anders about a crag nearby where she grew up in Älvnäs on Ekerö. Anders and Mikael visited the crag shortly afterwards to check it out. Of Course both of them were pretty surprised that there could be such an excellent piece of crag hidden behind the trees.

Kalles Kaviar was the first route made. The climb was made as a mixed route with four bolts and a pair of nuts/cams. Today however, It's fully bolted. The somewhat inexperienced Mikael also bolted up Snövitt and generously let Thomas Hansson test it when he was there and bolted his own route. Thomas "Helium" Hansson was considered the number one climber in Sweden (or maybe the whole scandinavia) at that time. He onsighted it.

After a while Johan Luhr joined in, aiming for the hardest route on the crag. Quite suitable for Johan who invited a swedish action magazine resulting in some muscular full page pictures in that magazine.

The crag became quite popular in the nineties as there were not that many good bolted sport routes in Stockholm at that time. Today half of the crag is exploited by the new landowners who laid out a lawn where previously there was only forest in front of the wall. Luckily the landowner still accept climbing with some restrictions though.