19-10-2010

3 months of madness in Greenland

Big walls and big icebergs

We are slowly adjusting back to the normal life after 3 months of madness in Greenland... This was definitely one of our wildest adventure so far. But don't worry we are already thinking of wilder things :)

The combination of sailing and climbing was perfect except for a few meals wasted overboard ! On the other hand it kept us light for the climbing;) The atmosphere of sailing through huge Icebergs was absolutely incredible and being able to climb virgin big walls right off the sailboat in such a wild place felt unreal.

We filmed the whole adventure with two small HD Camera so Yes... We are planning on making a movie about this. Just be patient because 60h of raw footage will be lots of work for people of the wild like us;) Sean is actually the main editor of our future movie. We'll keep you updated with our progress.

Here finally are the details of the routes we put up.

Generally the climbing in the Upernavick area was very adventurous with lots of grass in the cracks, thick lichen and seagulls vomiting on us, and walls that starts straight out of the water but the rock was really good quality (under the grass). It made it very challenging to climb onsight, dig the grass for pro (getting covered with dirt) fighting with the seagulls and dealing with lichen friction holds. Any pitch was always a real challenge!

In The south (Cape farewell area) it's a more alpine environment with mountains and glaciers covered with granite spires. The rock is really clean with perfect cracks. Certain routes we put up were so clean we could have never tell it was a FA or a 50th repeat. It was a nice contrast after the adventures in Upernavick area.

Upernavik area

• July 2nd : FFA Red Chili Crackers 350m 5.12- R on the Red wall (that's how we called it/probably the first ascent of the wall) - Team : Olivier and Sean
• July 2nd : FFA Seagull's garden 400m 5.11 on the Red wall - one bolt was placed on lead to protect a slab( the only bolt we placed on the expedition) - Team : Ben and Nico
• July 6 : FFA Brown balls wall 400m 5.12- (all free except for a 10 meter very wet and dirty section which would not be hard to freeclimb in good conditions) on the Brown balls wall (that's how we called it/ probably the first ascent of the wall) - Team : Olivier and Ben first 3 pitches / Nico and Sean the rest.
• July 11-22 : FFA Devil's brew 850m 5.12+ on the impossible wall( that's how we called it/ probably the first ascent of the wall) - 11 days/ 3 portaledge camps (no bolts) - Team : Olivier, Nico, Ben and Sean We topped out with everything and walked down the back side.

Cape farewell Area

• August 16 : FFA Corned beef 450m 5.11 on Shepton Spire (that's how we called the spire- not sure if it was the FA of the spire) then climbed a very scenic ridge leading to the summit of another spire on the East side of Shepton spire- Team : Ben and Sean
• August 16 : FFA condensed milk 450m 5.11 on Shepton spire then climbed a very scenic ridge leading to the summit of another spire on the East side of Shepton spire - Team : Nico and Olivier
• August 20 : FFA Never again 500m 5.10 on Angnikitsoq (not sure if it was the FA of the wall) - team Bob Shepton, Sean and Nico
• August 21 : FFA Chloe 550m 5.11+ OW(offwidth) Angegoq Tower on Quvernit Island then followed the ridge the summit of Morel Tower and then the summit of Asiaq Tower - Team : Olivier and Sean
• August 21 : FFA (one pitch was freed on toprope due to a scary fall with a rock) The Chinese Gibe 550m 5.11+ OW (offwidth) Angegoq Tower on Quvernit Island then followed the ridge the summit of Morel Tower and then the summit of Asiaq Tower - Team : Ben and Nico (we found one bolt and a couple of rap anchors on the lower part of the wall so we are not really sure of what was done before, we found no info about who placed the bolt)

Nico

Expedition blog: www.xpedition.be

Sponsors : Belgian Alpine Club, Patagonia , Five Ten, Black Diamond, Petzl, Seeonee, Yeti, Sterling rope, Careplus, Milo, Julbo, Cab Brabant, Belclimb.net, Climb.be.