Build My Own FeedBD athlete Nico Favresse and team make 5.13 A1 ascent in Baffin Island
Nico Favresse has been sending us sporadic reports from his two-month expedition to Baffin Island (read updates #1, #2, #3, #4 and #5) and has now just returned with great news of a near all-free 5.13 A1 ascent of the 850-meter west face of Mount Asgard. Favresse, teamed with his brother Olivier, Sean Villanueva and Stephane Hansens, spent two months hiking and climbing in Baffin Island's remote Weasel Valley and the team in-total made four new first ascents up to 1200 meters in length, all in single-push style and all but one meter free. Below is Nico's report he sent us as well as some amazing photographs.
Sean Villanueva, Stephane Hanssens, Olivier Favresse and I just came back from an expedition in Baffin Island. We had an awesome trip! Free climbing in Baffin is amazing and the potential for free climbing and first ascents seems endless. Our main target was to climb around Mount Asgard, which is one of the craziest looking mountains I have ever seen—two cylindrical towers with super steep and long walls all around.
Besides the climbing, one of the main difficulties out there is the remoteness of the place. Over the course of 45 days, we hiked a full month (about 600km) ferrying loads (three weeks up /one week down) for only two weeks of climbing! It seems ridiculous, but the climbing and the place is so unique that in the end it felt well worth it. At least all along the way up to Mount Asgard there was tons of incredible boulder fields with perfect soft tundra landing to keep ourselves in shape. Bouldering out there is definitely something to consider.
Expert aid climber soloist Silvia Vidal from Cataluña came on the trip to make her logistic as a soloist easier. After a few days of carrying loads to the base of Tirokwa Wall (her original objective), she felt not enough connection with the wall to spend all the effort of putting up a new route solo. Instead she decided to do some trekking.
We decided to invite her to come along climbing Mount Asgard. For us, as free climbers, we found it would be interesting and that we could learn from having an aid climber along. Plus she had a portaledge, which was a nice thing since originally we decided to go with one portaledge and two hammocks to be lighter. Now only one of us would have to sleep in a hammock. 
Right as we started hiking up the Weasel Valley, many walls appeared. After a few days of hard hiking we couldn’t handle it anymore and had to climb something. We split in two teams and between the hard choices of all the walls around we picked two and went for it.
Sean and Steph made most likely the first ascent of the Northwest Buttress of Tirokwa Wall by putting up Chocolate Boomerang (700m, 5.11), reaching the main summit in a 24-hour push camp-to-camp. Chocolate Boomerang follows a line previously attempted by Australians. The rock is meant to be excellent and the climbing thin with some run out sections.
Meanwhile, my brother Olivier and I went for a virgin tower detached from Mount Odin. We climbed the most obvious feature of the spire, which is the prow and put up Le Bic Rouge de Odin in 20 pitches of 5.10 and making what is likely to be the first ascent of the spire.
With a bit of climbing in, we felt better ferrying loads all the way (60km) to the base of our main target: Mount Asgard. After a reconnaissance on two already established aid routes, Inukshuk on the north tower and the Bavarian Route on the south tower, we chose to attempt to free climb the Bavarian Route.
We found the climbing to be of excellent quality and very sustained with a bunch of pitches in the 5.12/5.13 range. And after an 11-day stay on the wall, splitting the lead of the hard pitches between all of us, we almost succeeded in freeing the line.
Because the ice melted since the first ascent in 1996, we found the starting anchor of the route hanging 15 meters above the ground. So now the route has a new pitch in a blank section of rock. After a failed attempt to free climb it ground up, we sent Silvia (our aid expert) with her babies (copperheads, hooks and other funky tools) to solve what turned out to be “a really nice A4+” in her own words. For us the potential ground-fall hanging on copperhead #1 seemed pretty nasty! We had to headpoint that pitch but it went free at 5.12-X or E8. Most of the harder pitches had to be redpointed and a few headpointed in order to not add any bolts. We found the quality of the rock and the climbing to be outstanding on that wall. Most of the pitches were splitter cracks combined with hard face climbing traversing from one crack to another.
In order to free climb we did a bunch of variation from the original line so almost half of the route is new terrain. We called our variation The Belgarian to underline the joint effort of the Bavarians with the Belgians. Although we have to say that the first ascent wasn’t done in best style: many bat hook holes, rivet ladders and a few bolts next to perfect cracks.
On pitch 7, a short section of one meter I wasn't able to link with the beginning of the pitch. I did all the moves so there is no doubt that the route goes free. It was just a bit too hard for us, especially after all the hiking. That crux pitch would go probably at a minimum of 5.13+. So instead of freeing everything we had to use a move of aid. (We should also mention that some of the other pitches were redpointed after we reached the summit.)
After a few days of recovery and jamming with accordion, mandolin, tin whistle, harmonica and drums back in basecamp we set off for the north tower in alpine style. Sean and Stephane repeated the Porter Route in 24 hours of non-stop climbing. They onsighted every pitch except for three, which they say would go free with a bit of work.
Olivier and I climbed the northeast face of the north tower with we believe a new line following Serenity Crack (a classic Yosemite crack) like splitters. We think the upper part of the climb might share some pitches with a line put up this season by Canadian climbers Jon Walsh and Chris Brazeau. The quality of the climb was amazing. Both of us climbed it free with no falls and onsight in about 24 hours. The climb is very sustain in the 5.10/5.11 range and the climbing is at times delicate with runouts on faces between cracks.
Overall we had an awesome time climbing in Baffin. The weather was extremely good with comfortable temperatures and almost no precipitations. In the summer, there are no nights in Baffin so it’s great for long alpine pushes. We didn’t have to use any headlamp the whole time we were there! We will definitely have to go back. The future of big wall free climbing is out there.
— Nico 
List of routes climbed :
- First ascent of Le Bic Rouge d’Odin (5.10, 800m), unclimbed tower climbed onsight in a push
- First ascent of Chocolate Boomerang (5.11, 700m), Tirokwa Wall climbed onsight in a push
- The Belgarian (5.13 A1, 850m) west face of Mount Asgard’s south tower climbed in 11 days, big-wall style. One aid move.
- First ascent Whisky Gonzales (5.11, 1200m) northeast buttress of Mount Asgard’s north tower, climbed onsight in a push
- Porter Route (5.12 A4), north face of Mount Asgard’s north tower, climbed in a push. Three pitches were not freed.
United States / English 
19 Jan 2010, 9:19AM
Absolutely amazing stuff! Just one question though! What size cam is that in pic 15?
10 Nov 2009, 9:53PM
Amazing place, amazing route, what a good life style, hanging hundreds of meters high with your friends....
6 Oct 2009, 5:23AM
Really inspiring these guys...I wonder if there is a nice topo of the region. Did you put up some topos of your routes?
Thanks for the input!