Miška Izakovičová, Callum Johnson, Tim Miller and Simon Smith have returned from a successful expedition to Greenland. The team visited the Cape Farewell region in the south of Greenland and climbed around the Torsukattak Fjord for three and a half weeks. The team achieved first ascents such as "Mussels for Tea, Packrafts in the Sea" (E6 6b (7b), 1350m) and "Texture like Sun" (E3 5c (6b+), 800m). All topos are attached after the report.
The Scottish-Slovakian expedition team, consisting of Miška Izakovičová, Callum Johnson, Tim Miller and Simon Smith, opened numerous new routes in the area of the Tosukattak Fjord in Greenland. The focus of the expedition was the first ascent of a new route through the east face of Maujit Qorqarssasia East, often called The Thumbnail. On this face, the team managed the first ascent of the route «Mussels for Tea, Packrafts in the Sea» (E6 6b (7b).
The east face of Maujit Qorqarssasia East is 1350 meters high and is considered one of the highest sea cliffs in the world. The team also climbed a new route on the 800 meter south face of Maujit Qarqarssasia East, "Texture like Sun", E3 5c (6b+), in a single push, the first known ascent of this face. In addition to these routes, the team climbed eight new routes (in the E2-E5 range) on Pamiagdluk Island, including the first ascent of "Spire of the Northern Fire", all within walking distance of their base camp.
A report by Miška Izakovičová, Tim Miller and Callum Johson
The Torsukattak Fjord area has been explored by a few climbing expeditions but is not very frequently visited - the potential here is accordingly endless. Thanks to reports from previous expeditions, we knew to expect high quality rock and plenty of opportunities for first ascents. The main goal of our expedition was to climb a new route on the east face of Maujit Qorqarssasia East, also known as The Thumbnail. Based on the information available, we knew that a few routes already existed on the face, but all were on the left or middle side, so we focused more on the right side where the face had remained untouched.
When we arrived at base camp, we were greeted by blue skies, which prompted us to head straight for the wall. We approached the rock in kayaks, with the idea of climbing the wall in four days capsule style. With four people on the wall, we had two portaledges, almost 70 liters of water, sleeping and cooking gear, and lots of ropes. This meant we had to lug some exceptionally heavy haul bags up the wall.
We were keen to use natural anchors, which meant constructing some extremely elaborate anchors, sometimes with 12 belay points on one belay! The climbing turned out to be high quality but much easier and with less incline than we expected. After the first day, which tested our big wall skills on some 50m traverses over ledges, we realised that climbing would be the least of our worries.Hauling the gear was a huge challenge as someone had to be at the haul bags all the time to release them. Instructions like "haul bag is stuck" and "pull" became the mantra for the next few days.
We started to find a good rhythm and enjoyed the "work". We climbed until late in the evening on the best rock and then set up the portaledges. At first we were exceptionally slow. Four days later we were only slightly faster, but 800 meters of climbing brought us to a huge ledge halfway up that split the wall. Bad weather forced us to descend. We traversed the edge and descended the south gully.
After a week of unstable weather, during which we did fingerboard training, fished and collected mussels, mushrooms and algae, the skies finally cleared up again. We paddled across and reached the highest point of the gully halfway. This time we decided on a different tactic: we climbed the rock face in the "single push style", i.e. without lugging any equipment.
We set off early in the morning in two teams and climbed two parallel lines. Tim and Simon climbed a flawless ledge on the left side of a pillar, while Callum and I climbed a system of cracks and ledges on the other side to meet up again at the summit where the lines converged for a pitch. At this point we had reached the steepest part of the wall where I climbed a tricky and airy crack. Callum followed with brilliant pitch after pitch. Meanwhile Tim had climbed up a steep chimney where Simon exited with a tricky and bold move to reach easier climbing. These pitches proved to be the crux of the route and ranged from British E4 – E6 (6c-7b).
The climbing above these pitches remained exposed and on high quality rock until we reached the summit late in the evening. We hugged each other and began the descent, knowing that the descent would be a complex and time-consuming adventure that was not without its challenges. In the fading light we descended a rocky ledge to a point where it became so steep that we had to abseil.
A blood red moon appeared on the horizon and time slowed down as we worked as a team in the darkness to set up rappels, pull ropes and find the next rappel. A distinct glow lit up the sky as the Northern Lights made a faint appearance and a constant display of shooting stars accompanied us on the way back to our bivouac.
This is how «Mussels for Tea, Packrafts in the Sea» was born. 1350 meters of climbing spread over 33 pitches with a difficulty level of E6 6b (7b).
We spent a quiet morning on our ledge, listening to music and recovering from the previous day. Eventually the sun disappeared from our ledge and we were forced to move our camp to the spectacular south face, which, as far as we knew, had not yet been climbed. During the cumbersome carrying of the load, Simon pulled a strain in his back and unfortunately had to drop out.
In the morning, Tim, Callum and I made quick progress over easy slabs until we were below difficult sections. We took turns leading and moved efficiently around the edges and cracks we had seen with the binoculars. The climbing was constantly challenging and sustained. Each of us had a smile on our faces after climbing another pitch, because it was clear that we had climbed something special.
The rest of the wall dropped steeply below us and we could even see Simon sunning himself on the ledge below. We expected the difficulty to ease with altitude, but this was not the case. The route remained sustained until we climbed a final pitch up a tower, from where we went straight to the summit. We gathered at the summit just as the sun was setting behind a jagged horizon of rock towers. It was a very special moment and we would have stayed longer had it not been for a bitterly cold wind.
We knew that this time we would have an even longer descent with tricky route finding. We spent another starry night slowly finding our way back to our bivouac. And so "Texture like Sun" (E3 5c (6b+), 800m) was born.
After this adventure, we had enough of packrafting and decided to climb the walls within walking distance of our base camp. The great weather forecast for the rest of our stay only allowed us one rest day. During this time, we split into two teams and set out to climb different peaks.
Eager for an adventure in untouched terrain, Tim and I headed to an unclimbed orange peak on the main ridge of Pamiagdluk Island. Getting there took all day and involved some steep hiking, scrambling and simple climbing over exposed ridges. We set up a bivouac with a great view of the peak and only then realized how many great lines the wall had to offer. It was hard to decide which line to climb first. The approach from the bivouac proved to be more difficult and time consuming than we expected, but we were rewarded with high quality orange granite and amazing chip cracks. Over the next two days we climbed three new routes, all following the obvious lines, each one better than the last:
- “Come with me if you want to climb” (E2 5b (6b), 150m)
- “Aurora Arena” (E4 5c (6c), 110m)
- “Peaches and Bumcakes” (E5 6c (7b), 220m)
On the second night in the bivouac, while melting snow, we witnessed perhaps the most amazing natural phenomenon we have ever seen: the Northern Lights directly above the top of the tower. And so we gave it the name: "The Spire of the Northern Fire".
During the good weather period at the end of the trip, Callum and Simon joined forces.
Simon reports:
We first went up Baroness Valley to explore the potential for new climbing. The left side of the west face of "Mark" consisted of attractive orange granite, characterized by twisted edges and splinter cracks.
We climbed 400 metres of sustained and consistently interesting climbing. Two pitches of E4/5 6a (6c+) were the crux of the route and included cracks of all sizes, from laybacks to hand-fist stacks. The north ridge was climbed down to the north col by abseiling and a rappel. The late start meant a sunset finish, a small bonus, but also a hike back to base camp in the dark with only one headlamp for two people. «Warmonger» (E4/5 6a (6c+), 400m) was born.
The Baron is an inspiring mountain, compared to Les Drus by the French first climbers. We knew of previous activities by other teams in the area, but still hoped to climb new lines. As we approached the SSW face, we couldn't take our eyes off a crack line that was visible from a kilometer away on the orange rim. From our vague notes, this was obviously The Red Dihedral (E3 6a, FA Cowie and Marsh 2005). Another line in the middle of the lower face inspired us and we suspected it was Amphibian (E5 6a, FA Bremner and O'Sullivan 2005). We decided to try to connect these two features and added two pitches.
We quickly realized that this mega linkup at Barron was a very ambitious plan and that time was passing faster than we would have liked. So we decided to retreat safely.
The next morning we climbed the first two pitches of the “Supercrack of Greenland” (E3 5c) before descending to base camp.
Miska reports:
After four days of adventure, we all met at base camp to find that the weather was going to continue to be great for the remaining days, so over dinner we shared all our stories, prepared meals and decided to head to Baroness Valley together.
On a tip from Simon and Callum, Tim and I decided to climb a new line to the right of Warmonger, the route they had set up a few days earlier. We were hoping for an easier and shorter day, but as we wasted several hours on the second pitch trying to climb an unprotected corner where Callum and Simon had also struggled before us, the day's climbing ended with a nighttime descent. Running out of abseiling gear, we were forced to climb the easiest line on the left side of the wall. Brilliant crack and edge climbing with a pitch of slab climbing leading to a new route:
«Slow off the Mark» (E4 5c (6b+, 300 meters) on the west face of Mark.
While climbing the «Mark», our attention was drawn to a prominent and as yet unclimbed orange wall on the other side of the valley. Suddenly the plan for our final day was clear. We still had no clear idea of which line we would climb, but it was clear that we would have about 300 meters of climbing on inclined slabs ahead of us before reaching the upper steep headwall. We began climbing up the highest part of the wall by moving together over the entry slabs. At the top, in the middle of the wall, I spotted a spot that I immediately dubbed «Dream Corner». Each pitch followed beautiful crack edges, the climbing was very high quality, incredibly consistent and interesting all the way to the top. As far as we knew, the wall had never been climbed before, so we aptly named it «Orange Wall» and the route «Dream Corner».
«Dream Corner» (E3 5c (6b+), 600m). 300m VS (4c) to the base of the headwall and 300m climbing on the headwall.
Back to Callum:
While Miška and Tim were on Mark's west face, Simon and I climbed the line we had seen on Campsite Hill Crag (Baroness Valley). We were able to climb up to E2 5c (6b) to the summit of this secondary peak in seven pitches on the south face. The descent to the east gully was done by abseiling and two free-hanging 60m abseils. We called the route «Lord of the Kamikaze Eye Flies», a reference to the black flies that kept trying to fly into our eyes and the time we spent on this island.
We hiked to the saddle north of Mark and bivouacked there for the night before taking a closer look at the east face to check out the possibilities. The face was unclimbed and the only photo we had seen was from Tim of The Spire of the Northern Fire showing the face in profile. We deposited our gear below the most likely possible line.
We woke up in our bivouac again, the first light of day tickling the sharp peaks of the skyline. We were walking below the east face of Mark, the lowest quarter of which had been smoothed by the glacier. The easiest option seemed to be a technical, sustained steep ridge line.
The rock quality was once again impeccable. The flake crack line ran out in the third pitch, so we traversed diagonally to reach a narrow ledge on the right. Further up we climbed a thin flake in the wall to the left of the ledge, which meant we had mastered the key passage. We descended back to our bivouac site via the north ridge as before.
«Inversions» (E4 6a (6c), 280m).
We all celebrated with a swim in a glacial lake, a refreshing way to celebrate our achievements of the day and the trip.
topos of all routes
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Credits: picture and text Miška Izakovičová