Mount Asgard Climbed
Leo Houlding and his team have succeeded on Asgard despite horrendous conditions.
Leo Houlding
and his team have succeeded
in climbing Mount Asgard
on Baffin Island after 12 days of climbing in the shade
for 23 hours a day, enduring sub-zero temperatures and weathering
severe ice storms.
The final pitch, looks,
erm, chilly no?
Here's the final despatch from Alastair Lee who's film of the
expedition is scheduled to premiere at the Kendal Mountain Festival
this year:
Success! After 12 days of suffering in sub zero temperatures, in the
shade 23 hours a day and weathering severe ice storms we succeeding in
getting Al, Chris, Jas, Stanley and Leo to the top of the wall. The
harsh conditions and incredibly steep blank nature of the rock only
allowed us to free half the route but given the situation and time of
year (the summer is short up here it is now autumn) we are over the
moon that we made it to the top. It has been brutal thank god we all
had the right kit otherwise frost-nip and hyperthermia would have had
us by now.
Mount Asgard is named after the realm of the Norsk gods. It feels like
those gods having been toying with us the whole time. After a savage
ice storm that left 4cm of haw frost on all the ropes and brought the
first discussions of retreat we were treated to an insane display of
the northern lights and enough fine weather to finish the route. On the
summit a snowy owl swooped right by to check us out. A positive sign.
On the final stage of the rappell the gods sent us off with 10 cm of
snow. The wall is now unclimbable. Asgard allowed us to the top but by
the skin of our teeth.
Houlding (left) on the
summit.
It has been such a hard experience for all of us and we are physically
and psychologically exhausted. My hands are in pieces just unzipping my
sleeping bag is agony. Can't wait to get back to civilization. Haven't
showered for a month and we've had our fill of freeze-dried rations.
Thankfully we still have enough fresh coffee and chocolate for the 30
mile hike out of here.
Our back packs are huge, at least 30 kg each. After two days of
dragging barrells and haul bags we are now down at Summit lake shelter
and finally off the glacier that has been home for the last month. Much
nicer down here - enjoying sun and sleeping on sand instead of ice.
Though destroyed and surviving on on painkillers and anti-inflamatories
we're all in good spirits. Just another three days of hard hiking to
go. The river crossings that were waist deep ragging torrents on the
way up are now trickles we can boulder hop across without removing
boots. SO ready to get out of here! Can almost taste the fresh food and
beer.
More information at www.theasgardproject.com
Discuss this story
Unless I've misunderstood, I thought the original plan was for Leo to re-climb the route and then basejump off. Evidently, conditions have been far too unforgiving for that but I hope they don't feel any less pleased with the achievement. Even existing there sounds seriously tough to me. Looking forward to the film...
Posted: 01/09/2009 at 17:44
|
