Sean Villanueva, Pete Whittaker, Sean Warren and Julia Cassou have opened a new route on the Mirror Wall that is probably one of the most difficult in Greenland: Ryu-shin (1000m, 8b, R, A2+). They dedicate their route to the late Keita Kurakami, who was also supposed to be part of the expedition.
Pete Whittaker, Sean Villanueva, Sean Warren and Julia Cassou have returned from a 43-day expedition to Greenland and have a great route in their luggage: Ryu Shin (1000m, 8b, R, A2+) on the impressive Mirror Wal.
The strong quartet managed to complete the tough line that Sean Villanueva started on his expedition last year together with Nico Favresse, Ben Ditto and Franco Cookson. After 19 days on the wall, they reached the summit.
Wild route with lots of runouts
Ryu-shin on the Mirror Wall is undoubtedly one of the hardest routes ever climbed in Greenland. "During our summit push we climbed the route at grade 7b+,R,A2+, which is the necessary difficulty to even get to the top," Pete Whittaker told Planetmountain. They were able to free climb 16 of the 25 pitches.
On the way down, they would have spent another week on the wall and could have freed six more rope lengths up to difficulty level 8b. The team was only unable to free climb three rope lengths of the entire big wall.
Pete Whittaker's following post illustrates quite clearly what the R rating of the route means:
With this visit, Sean Villanueva and Pete Whittaker are deepening a partnership that began in February of last year. achieved spectacular success in Patagoniawhen they were able to free climb Anda pa'alla (500m, 8a) on the Aguja Guillaumet and Yacaré (550m, 7a+) on the Aguja Rafael Juárez for the first time.
Ryu-shin: In memory of Keita Kurakami
Although Pete Whittaker, Sean Villanueva, Sean Warren and Julia Cassou returned successfully from Greenland, their adventure began in the worst way imaginable.
One of the team's climbers, Keita Kurakami, died a few weeks before the planned departure. His friend Takemi Suzuki, also Japanese, dropped out, while the rest of the team decided to continue the joint project as a tribute to their deceased friend.
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Credits: Cover picture Julia Cassou