The north face of Store Blåmannen is considered Norway's "little big wall." Extreme climber Pete Whittaker has now attempted what is believed to be the first solo ascent of the 400-meter wall in under 24 hours.
Pete Whittaker is not only known for adventurous trad climbing, but also occasionally climbs big walls alone. And he does it quite quickly: In 2018, the British climber managed a solo linkup in Yosemite from Half dome and El Capitan in under 24 hours.
Now Whittaker has paid a visit to a special peak in the far north. Store Blåmannen on the island of Kvaløya lies even further north than the Lofoten Islands, and its 400-meter-long north face is considered a "small big wall." norway». Whittaker's goal: probably the first one-day solo ascent of the wall.
I don’t know if Blåmann has ever been climbed solo – or solo in under 24 hours.
Pete Whittaker
Store Blåmannen: a mountain with climbing history
For a long time, Store Blåmannen was relatively unknown outside Scandinavia. However, insiders have known about the quality of the granite routes on the island of 1980 inhabitants since the 13.000s.
In 1981, Finn Daehli, Harvard and Sjur Nesheim climbed the direct route Arctandria (A2+) for the first time with aids, which was considered one of the hardest big walls at the time. norway More than 25 years later, Hansjörg Auer and Markus Haid freed the route, which has since been graded 8b.
Whittaker climbs 400-meter north face solo
Blåmann, with a summit elevation of 1.044 meters above sea level, is home to several other iconic multi-pitch routes that would likely have long since become classics – were they less remote. These include the route Disco 2000 (8a+), located next to Actandria, which was freed in 2015 by a team led by Dave MacLeod, or Ikaros (7c), climbed solo by Robert Caspersen in three days in 1994.
Video: Solo ascent of Blåmann in Norway
Although there have been several solo ascents of Blåmann's north face, Whittaker says no climber has ever accomplished this in a single day. Therefore, Whittaker is traveling to Kvaløya to climb the face solo and without any additional equipment in under 24 hours.
The video of Wide Boyz shows Pete Whittaker's calm and impressive solo ascent of Blåmann – and probably one of the northernmost solo tours in Europe.
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Credits cover image: Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons