Finding the Limit on Greenland’s Mirror Wall & Another Send by Katie Lamb
In an attempt to make space for the newsworthy ascents that occur with ever-increasing regularity, our weekly news roundup tries to celebrate a few outstanding climbs (or interesting events) that for one reason or another caught our attention. We hope you enjoy it. —The editors
A very bold attempt of Greenland’s Mirror Wall
One of the coolest bits of climbing news I read last week was an attempt on Greenland’s massive—and thoroughly remote—Mirror Wall.
The face is nearly 4,000 feet tall and as sheer as El Cap. It is similarly granitic, but largely defined by a lack of continuous crack systems, as illustrated by Leo Houlding’s 2015 expedition, where his team established Reflections (5.12c A3+; 3,900ft), the sole route up the main face.
Nico Favresse, Franco Cookson, Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll, and Benjamin Ditto had similarly ambitious plans, and began their adventure by boat—in June. Forty days at sea gave way to an 18-mile approach, during which Favresse took an unfortunate tumble and lacerated his tibia. He joined the team a few days later and was thoroughly impressed by their objective. “I only needed a quick glance to realize we were up for the most ambitious line we have ever attempted,” he wrote in a trip report on Planetmountain.com.
Favresse described the first 2,600 feet of their proposed line as “a steep, crack-less shield of granite with just flakes and occasional edges to progress,” with the final third of the wall presenting some merciful crack systems. “I have always said ‘in order to find a good challenge, you have to try what looks impossible,’” Favresse wrote. “So here, for sure, it did look like we were up for a great challenge.”
Favresse described climbing on the near-featureless granite as “an extremely intense mix of aid climbing with really run out free climbing” and frequent eight-hour leads. Villanueva O’Driscoll accepted a lion’s share worth of leading day after day, climbing as high above his gear as he dared before wiggling in a thin piece of protection—or hammering away for an hour-plus to drill a bolt.
Favresse estimated that they were roughly 100 feet from easier terrain—2,300 feet off the deck—when Villanueva O’Driscoll took multiple long falls down a steep and “disintegrating” dihedral. The climbing was too challenging for him to stop and place a bolt for protection, so in order to keep going up he would have to drill a bolt ladder.
“[A bolt ladder is] something we have always seen as unacceptable by the rules of our own personal climbing game,” Favresse said, and, although Villanueva O’Driscoll was understandably disappointed, they unanimously agreed to bail. “Sean’s efforts were something else,” Cookson wrote on Instagram. “Onsight new routing at its most extreme. Tenuous aid and then hard free sections, sometimes with 15-meter [50-foot] runouts.”
Favresse’s concluding thoughts were characteristically philosophic. “In some ways, [failing] is what gives climbing its value; the fact that you won’t be able to climb all the walls out there. Some will keep you dreaming by remaining impossible. … Although we come home this time with no summit in our pockets, I can assure you it wasn’t in any way a less-powerful adventure!”
—Anthony Walsh
Alessandro Zeni Does 5.14d multipitch FA in Italy
It’s not every day that you see a new 5.14d multipitch go down. Last month, Italian slab master Alessandro Zeni established Wu Wei on the Southwest Face of Picco delle Aquile (Eagle Peak), a subpeak of Monte Coppolo, in Northern Italy. The line packs a daunting amount of hard climbing onto a smooth 600-foot panel of scarcely featured gray limestone, with the proposed pitch breakdown of 5.12d, 5.13c, 5.13a, 5.14d, 5.12d, and 5.13d. Concerning Wu Wui’s 5.14d crux pitch, Zeni wrote on Instagram that it was “the most technical and complex pitch I have ever climbed,” which is saying something, because Zeni is no stranger to funky low-angle climbing. In 2020, he made the first ascent of Cryptography, a 5.15b slab linkup between Fred Nicole’s Bain de Sang (5.14d) and Francois Nicole’s Bimbaluna 5.14d/5.15a. (You can watch Zeni on Cryptography here.) If the grade holds, which seems a reasonable supposition, it makes Wu Wui one of the hardest multi-pitch routes in the world, alongside Valhalla, a 5.15a FA’d by Edu Marín in Getu, China, and The Dawn Wall (5.14d) by Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson. Zeni’s process on Wu Wei began in 2016, when he teamed up with the renowned Italian climber Riccardo Scarian to equip and project the line. After freeing all the pitches except for the 5.13d in early August, Zeni returned on August 16 and led the whole route in a single 3.5 hour push from bottom to top. Scarian, age 55, is close on the crux pitch and aims to return.
—Steven Potter
Domen Škofic does 5.14d without kneepad… which may be 5.15a or even 5.15b.
I know, I know, 5.14d isn’t really news anymore. Adam Ondra has done 125 of the damn things—four of them first try—and the more mortal(ish) American pro Jonathan Siegrist has put down nearly 50 climbs of the grade. But I think there’s something pretty cool about Domen Škofic’s decision to do Valhalla, a popular 5.14d in Flatanger cave, without knee pads—especially since Adam Ondra and others in the know speculate that, without the pads, the climb is at least 5.15a, if not harder.
Škofic, a Slovenian crusher who won the overall Lead World Cup in 2016, has made this decision before; in 2021 he sent Ali Hulk Sit-Start Extension Total (5.15b) without pads. Other knee-padded ascentionists like Dave Graham are able to camp out in multiple no-hands rests (watch it here), which some say lowers the grade.
Asked why he eschews kneepads, Škofic told 8a.nu that he simply hasn’t “got used” to climbing them. “At the same time,” he added, “I find it a nice challenge to send stuff with the least equipment possible… I feel more free [on] the wall without knee pads.”
While there’s nothing wrong with knee pads, I find it pretty cool to see someone quietly walking the anti-kneepad walk without criticizing those climbers who choose to use them.
The other impressive thing? Škofic took most of the summer off from climbing to work on his house, climbing for just an hour or two twice a month “to move my body a little to not get too rusty.” Before coming to Norway, he did just two weeks of more intense climbing training. “The important thing is just to be excited I guess,” he told 8a.nu.
—Steven Potter
Katie Lamb does ANOTHER V14
Continuing her tear through North America’s hardest boulders, Katie Lamb, who recently became the first woman to climb V16, has made the first female ascent of Deadlift (V14) in Squamish. Located on the Octagon Boulder, in Squamish’s Grand Wall Boulders, Deadlift is a tense and crimpy roof climb followed by a serious slab finish, and it was a longstanding open project before falling to Tim Doyle in 2020. It was originally graded V13—or at least it appears that way in the guidebook—but subsequent ascentionists like Lucas Uchida, Ethan Salvo, Jun Shibanuma, and Ben Herndon have all said that V14 feels more accurate.
Sending Deadlift came as something of a surprise for Lamb. “I tried Deadlift for a few sessions last fall, when I was in Squamish for a month,” she told Climbing by email. “It’s surprisingly powerful and steep for granite, and I didn’t have the fitness to get it done last year. I came up to Squamish last week for a social trip with friends and thought I’d reacquaint with Deadlift and sample some potential projects for a longer trip later on. I made some minor beta tweaks and was pleasantly surprised to finish it—it felt hard on the go!” —Steven Potter
Watch Connor Herson tick Air Swedin (5.13 R)
Connor Herson, many of you will be unsurprised to learn, has made yet another impressive all-gear ascent, this time of Air Swedin (5.13 R) in Indian Creek.
After a mind-boggling Squamish season—he ticked Cobra Crack and Crack of Destiny (both 5.14b trad), Spirit Quest (5.14d), Tainted Love (5.13d R, trad), and flashed the bolted stem corner Stélmexw (5.13c)—he ripped down to Northern California’s Redwood Coast and made a fast second ascent of Ethan Pringle’s Blackbeard’s Tears (5.14c, trad). (Watch Carlo Traversi take a hold-ripping upside-down whipper on that route here.)
But what is surprising is that Herson had never visited Indian Creek before his trip last winter. He was understandably motivated to sample the area’s best hard cracks, and settled on Air Swedin for its fitting guidebook warning: “You’ll catch more air than Michael Jordan.” Watch his send below. —AW
Was This the Most Complicated Rescue of 2022?
Each year the American Alpine Club teams up with Rocky Talkie to tell stories about incredible backcountry rescues performed by SAR teams in the United States—and to give monetary awards to these SAR teams. In this video, Chelan County Mountain Rescue, one of the 2023 SAR Award winners, rescued a mountain runner who’s legs and arm were pinned under a large boulder in the Enchantments, in Washington’s Cascade Range. The video, made by Jon Glassberg and the Louder Than Eleven crew, is a gripping (and at times grisly) reminder of why it’s important to appreciate (and fund) our wilderness rescue teams.
Need another reminder? Read this harrowing story about a recent rescue in the Black Canyon last week.
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