(Disclaimer - I'm English - not American - so this website has a distinctly UK slant to it)
This is the area in the Southwest of Norway and has Stavanger as it's capital. Location map
The area has a guide book written in Norwegian published in 1996 and has just had it's second edition released in 2002. The guidebook can be ordered via the web use this Swiss shop Piz Buch und Berg, you will find the book under the Scandinavian section (available from week 34, 2002). It is written by the BRV (Bratte Rogalands venner - local climbing club) and is called Klatring I Rogaland (Climbing in Rogaland).
The rock is mainly Granite and the quality is generally good. The difficulty of the routes is medium to high with the minimum grade being around UK Severe (however you'll have a pretty thin time if you can only manage Severes) and the majority of the routes being 5a (VS - HVS) and above, follow this link for a grading comparison. Bolt protection is widespread but there's plenty of traditionally protected routes as well. Lower offs have been placed on the most popular venues.
A word of warning - the gradings are variable from crag to crag (sometimes even route to route).
There is loads of variety in the style of climbing varying from bouldering (Oltedal) to big walls (Kjerag) and everything in between.
English is widely spoken
Free climbing is pretty much standard on all shorter routes, aid sections on big walls, bolts are used on mainly low level crags although there seems to be no prejudice against their use on big mountain crags
The STATENS KARTVERK publish Norge 1:50000 maps which are sufficiently detailed to get you to the crags (note: the directions in the guide book seem pretty thin and the grid references are not particularly precise). The most useful being Høle 1212 I and Frafjord 1312 IV.
As there is the legal "Right to roam" access isn't an issue in Norway . However break-ins to cars have been reported at Dale so care should be taken to avoid leaving any valuables in parked cars.
Your own transport is by far the best solution, although there is a pretty good bus network.
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Stavanger Turistforening,
Olav V's gt 18
4000 Stavanger
Tel 00 47 51 52 75 66
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