The trio Silvan Schüpbach, Matteo Della Bordella and Symon Welfringer is back from the far north. They succeeded in the second ascent of the Siren Tower on the new Forum line (840m, 7c). Before that, they had paddled 170 kilometers to the granite massif Mythics Cirque - where they unexpectedly came across old friends.
By fair means - that's the brand of Silvan Schüpbachwho visited the remote fjords of Greenland once again this summer by kayak. Together with the Italian Matteo Della Bordella he had already opened the line The Great Shark Hunt (2014m, 900b +) in Greenland in 7 - "in the best possible style: by fair means, clean and completely free", as Silvan writes. The Frenchman was new this year Symon Welringer.
After some initial difficulties caused by Covid, the trio was able to translate to Tassilaq in East Greenland, where the “fair means” part began: They paddled 170 kilometers to the Kangertittivatsiaq fjord at the foot of the granite giants in Mythics Cirque. The goal was the still unclimbed Siren Tower.
"I will never forget the opening of hard pitches with sometimes very dubious protection in the middle of the Arctic Ocean."
Symon Welringer
The Belgians had already docked
But to their surprise, Schüpbach and Co. found old friends: the Belgians Nico Favresse, Sean Villanueva and Jean-Louis Wertz stayed with the Swede Aleksej Jaruta already at the foot of the virgin wall. At the beginning of July they had started from France by sailing boat and had thus also reached the Mythics Cirque by fair means.
Although both teams had the first ascent of the Siren Tower in mind, there can be no question of rivalry. "Meeting her was great," said Della Bordella. Meeting climbers with the same spirit in a remote place was a nice gift. The Belgian-Swedish team followed another line through the wall and stood on the summit a few days before the paddlers.
Della Bordella characterizes its own first ascent as "psychologically demanding due to not easy placements, with some nice vertical and overhanging pitches." The key point is a 7c crack.
Three days after the Belgian-Swedish team reached the summit, they secured the second ascent of the Siren Tower via the route they named Forum (840m, 7c). The name refers to the discussions the three of them had about strategy and route selection. They stayed on the wall for five days and covered 21 pitches. The sixth day was devoted to repetition, or liberation, of those pitches that they had previously only managed in Aid style.
The entire route was walked in the Trad style, only two bolts were left in the wall. "I will not soon forget the opening of hard pitches with sometimes very dubious securing in the middle of the Arctic Ocean", writes Symon Welfringer. After the first ascent, the trio explored another wall, which they called the paddle wall. Then they left the way they came: paddling. They covered a total of 350 kilometers by kayak.