Haraløkka crag is a small, dense collection of walls and boulders with mostly low to medium grades. Everything is easily accessible, right next to a football turf, with only a few minutes approach from the parking lots, or 15 minutes from the metro/bus stops. Great for families!
Just a little further east into the forest, you will get into the Bukkeberget crag, which offers even more bouldering on various grades. Haraløkka is a perfect destination for a short afternoon sessions, or as a warm up before heading deeper into the woods of Bukkeberget. The routes are mostly light overhanging to vertical, the landings are mostly good, and the walls moderately tall.
⭐ One of the centerpieces of the area is Fotballveggen, which gives you almost consistently one problem for each grade from 5 up to a 7a+ dyno. Worth a visit to try the various grades before you move on to the other nearby walls!
On the naming of problems and sectors, the following convention is worth mentioning: If a problem has both a sit start and a stand start variation, the sit start will have (Ss) added to it's name. Some exceptions to this rule applies f.ex. if both sit and stand start have their own given names. Boulder problems that include an eliminate are denoted (E). Boulders that have a defined starting position are denoted (Ds). The elimination and starting definition can be found in the description of the problem.
As for ethics and general rules of conduct you get a long way with the application of common sense. Remember that the forest is shared with many so avoid loud music where you can disturb others. Leave the place as clean when you leave as it was when you arrived (or cleaner!) and remove excessive tick marks when you are done. Keep your dog on a leash, there are still plenty of wild animals that your dog might want to chase. The use of blow torch in winter is genarally discouraged.
🌧️ There might be some seepage on the walls after longer periods of wet weather, but dries out relatively fast.
Østmarka is a nice destination all spring, summer, and autumn. If a lot of snow fell during the winter, it can take a while for the snow and ice to melt out, particularly in shaded areas, and can resulting in seepage for a long time through spring. It's also possible to climb during winter if you don't mind sub-zero temperatures, but wet snow/ice can make it impossible to clean the rocks (especially the top outs).
⛰️ Like the rest of Østmarka, Haraløkka also consists of ancient bedrock, mostly gneiss, a metamorphic type of rock. You can encounter many types of textures and patterns in the area, like quartz crystal pockets, big boulders of granite, and rocks speckled with garnets.
Some of the less popular boulders have not been maintained in the last few years, and may be overgrown. The topo images are from 2020, so keep that in mind and bring a steel brush if it looks like it needs some maintenance.
