Nicolas Favresse made the first ascent of The Recovery Drink

Stéphane Hanssens and Nicolas Favresse are just coming back from Norway. After three weeks of climbing and fighting against poor weather conditions, the trip finally turned out to be very sucessful for Nicolas since he managed to make the first free ascent of his super trad crack project: The Recovery Drink. Nicolas began working the route last summer when he discovered the amazing crag of Profile Wall in Jossingfjord, in the souther most part of Norway, during a climbing trip with his brother, Olivier, and the German climber Daniel Jung. Nicolas: "When we got there, right away in the middle of the overhang a very impressive line made of a serie of splitter cracks caught our attention. Even though it looked way futuristic we were so motivated we decided to wait no time to check it out and got right away on it. In fact it's the very first line we got on in Norway and there already we found what we were looking for : A perfect crack project that would keep us busy for a while" After a few weeks trying the route, the team had to leave Norway.

Back in Norway one year later, Nicolas spent two weeks again to finally make the first free ascent of his project. He told Belclimb: "I send the pitch placing gear on lead except for a few in the easier sections which I had left in place to make it easier to clean the pitch after each try because its very overhanging so still a slightly purer ascent could be done. The pitch is about 35 m long and has no bolts on the climb and at the belays. It consist of three distinct sections divided by rests. The middle one is the hardest and the last one is very pumpy with a heartbreaking move right at the end. I was glad not to ever fall there on the linkage. . I chose to call the pitch "the recovery drink" which fortunately we had imported plenty enough (…). Just next to this route, There are still some really good looking overhanging splitter crack waiting to be freed."

Concerning the grade of the route, Nicolas said this crack was the hardest he has ever climbed... Ever harder than Cobra Crack in Squamish so.

Bernardo Gimenez realized a nice video during the previous trip in Norway showing Nicolas, his brother Olivier and Daniel Jung working the route.

Nicolas Favresse's website

Picture: Jean-Louis Wertz

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