Sandmælen is the name of the mountain rigth next to the road that everyone passes on their way to the cave and/or the campsite.
The wall, just a short stroll from the campsite, is one of the biggest crags in the region and consists of a mix of slabs and vertical routes of high quality. The difficulty level is mainly easy - moderate with a few harder exceptions like a quite unique (and unrepeated) 8c slab from Adam Ondra on the obvious orange face in the middle, just 5 meters from the road.
The left side is the most beginner friendly with a super easy approach, nice and flat areas under the wall and nice slabs from grade 4. This part of the wall is covered by trees giving some nice shade in summer, but gets less sun and takes longer to dry after rain then the rest of the crag.
The center wall is more exposed and dries faster, and has routes mainly in the 6-7 range with a few easier exceptions on the far right. To harder routes are also located in the middle of the center sector.
The right side of Sandmælen exhibits larger variance, with some very nice beginner friendly sport and trad multipitches, as well as a lot of nice technical slabs and vertical walls in the 6-7 range. Sandmælen right is exposed to the sun and consequently dries fast after rain. A via ferrata leading to the top of the mountain is located just left of route 7.
The terrain is a bit more scrambly here, so a nice big wooden ledge/ramp has been built under the routes 7-12 for easy access. For the routes further right some more scrambling is required, but it`s well worth the effort!
When Runar Carlsen and Norges Boltefond (The Norwegian bolting fund) came to Flatanger in 2011 the ambitions were many, and varied from just raising the national level of routes above its previous highpoint of 8c to potentially finding the hardest route in the world. An ultimate goal was to put Norway on the map as an international climbing destination, not just known for its big walls, but also for sport climbing. However, to achieve the goal of an overall attractive climbing destination, the region would also benefit from having high quality easy - moderate routes, not only hard climbs for the elite. To this end the walls around the campsite, particularly Sandmælen and Einvikfjellet, were bolted, and the routes opened for anyone to make first ascents during the first Flatanger festival in 2012. Most of the routes at Sandmælen were established during this event, with a few of the harder projects climbed later. Not everything has been climbed yet though, so for those seeking to make a first ascent or two there are still some nice routes up for grabs!
