Svolværgeita or Geita ( sme, Spålla) is a tall pinnacle at the southwest face of the mountain Fløyfjellet on the island of Austvågøya in the

Lofoten Lofoten () is an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Lofoten has distinctive scenery with dramatic mountains and peaks, open sea and sheltered bays, beaches and untouched lands. There are two towns, Svolv� ...

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...

. The high Fløyfjellet is located on the edge of the town of

Svolvær Svolvær () is the administrative centre of Vågan Municipality in Nordland County, Norway. It is located on the island of Austvågøya in the Lofoten archipelago, along the Vestfjorden. The town has a population (2018) of 4,720 which gives t ...

in Vågan Municipality in

Nordland Nordland (; smj, Nordlánnda, sma, Nordlaante, sme, Nordlánda, en, Northland) is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, the least populous of all 11 counties, bordering Troms og Finnmark in the north, Trøndelag in the south, ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The first recorded time a climber reached the summit of Svolværgeita was on 1 August

1910 Events January * January 13 – The first public radio broadcast takes place; live performances of the operas ''Cavalleria rusticana'' and ''Pagliacci'' are sent out over the airwaves, from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York Ci ...

Ferdinand Schjelderup Ferdinand Schjelderup (8 March 1886 – 30 July 1955) was a Norwegian mountaineer, Supreme Court Justice and resistance member during the German occupation of Norway. Personal life He was born in Kristiania as the son of Thorleif Frederik S ...

Alf Bonnevie Bryn Alf Bonnevie Bryn (26 August 1889 – 12 September 1949) was a Norwegian patent engineer, mountaineer, golf player, novelist and non-fiction writer. Personal life Bryn was born in Kristiania, the son of Alfred Jørgen Bryn and a grandson of ...

, and

Carl Wilhelm Rubenson Carl Wilhelm Rubenson (30 July 1885 – 29 July 1960) was a Swedish-born Norwegian mountaineer and non-fiction writer. Personal life Rubenson was born in Stockholm to landowner Carl Otto Rubenson and Elise Johansen. He married Ragnhild Fougne ...

Name

The first element is

since it is located in that town. The last element is the finite form of ''geit'' which means "

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of ...

" 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 wide gap and land safely on Lillehorn, while viewing the town cemetery below.

First ascent

The ''1910 Route'' was first climbed by Bryn, Schjelderup, and Rubinson. They reached the top by 11:00 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 or is a mountain in the municipality of Narvik in Nordland county, Norway. It is located about northeast of the village of Kjøpsvik. The mountain has very smooth sides reaching all the way to the fjord. Stetind has an obelisk-shape which giv ...

, 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.

Climbing routes

In addition to ''The 1910 Route'', several other routes to the summit of The Goat have been described. The longest and classic route is ''The Front Side'' (grade 5+), first climbed by Wilhelm Høyer and Alf Krane in 1947. Another route is ''The Vegetarian'' (grade 5, A1). The route ''Highway to heaven'' (grade 6+, A2) was first ascended in August 1991. The ''Rappel Route'' (grade 5) was first top-roped by Svein Smaaskjær in the 1960s. ''The Back Side'' (also called ''The Spiral Route'') (grad 5+) was first climbed in 1928 by Bror Bommen and Bjørn Lyche. The harder ''Angelwings'' (grad 6+) was first aid climbed by Arild Meyer and Hugo Bjørnstad in 1974, and first free-climbed in 1993 by Ed Webster, Arild Meyer, and Odd-Roar Wik. Local-born mountain climber Geir Rune Holm is the first to have reached 1000 trips to the summit. This milestone was set on the 3rd of October, 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Svolvaergeita Climbing routes Vågan Mountains of Nordland