UKC

Leo Houlding, Sean Leary (USA), Carlos Suarez (Spain) Alastair Lee, Chris Reyburn, Jason Pickles, and Ian Burton have climbed a route up the Northwest face of Mount Asgard. Their original plans were thwarted by bad weather but they did managage to partially free climb a route.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=49071

In reply to UKC News:
Sounds like a fantastic trip, is this film another guaranteed prize for Alastair Lee at kendal? Sometimes i think he must be paying off the judges.
Personally I didn't think psyche was that good but obviously plenty of others thought it was great.

In reply to UKC News:

amazing looking shots.....glad they persevered and salvaged something. the report doesn't make clear, was there no jump at all?

In reply to UKC News: I'm sure this is going to be an amazing film.

In reply to UKC News:

Fantastic! Sound like it was pretty gnarly! Looking forward to the film.

In reply to UKC News:

Good work! Glad everyone is heading home safe and sound.

In reply to Henry Iddon:
Well done all. Look forward to seeing the film at Kendal

In reply to UKC News:

Great stuff. The experience seems to have aged Leo about 10 years?!

In reply to UKC News:Well done boys sounds like a great effort in some tough conditions, I look forward to hearing the gory details on your return. The summit photo looks impressive Jason looks bemused but well and unfortunately I dont recognise the old guy with him !

In reply to UKC News: Interested by Alastair's comment on rapping off of it. As far as i know you can walk off the top. That's certainly the way most base jumpers get up there.

In reply to Frank4short: In reply to Frank4short: Don't like to shoot you down, actually I love it, just loading the gun... have you seen a picture of Mt Asgard? I'd love to know how you walk off (without dieing). There is an easyish route up the back (south side, the Swiss Route) but it still involves 8 pitches of proper climbing up to E2. The condition of the mountain during our stay (late in the season) was super dangerous and the relatively low angled approach to reach those 8 pitches was a long death run... perhaps you're thinking of Mt Thor which is more popular with BASE jumping?

In reply to Alastair Lee: Hey alastair I'll hold my hand up with naivety & say i was wrong. Saw a base jumping film several years ago with the late great shane mcconkey in it. Anyway there's a group of 4 base jumpers in the fjord with Asgard hiking up these peaks from the back side & jumping off. I think they did Asgard amongst others. Non of the party were particularly technical climbers & any of the climbing shown was mostly snow scrambling. With the odd grade 2 pitch. That is where i got the impression you could walk off the back. Could well have been Mt Thor, though in the film they did jump about 6-8 different peaks in the area.

Did Leo jump it? No mention of it in the article, i know he was talking about it.

In reply to Frank4short:

Three of them apparently.

In reply to Frank4short:

Completely endorse Alastair's reply - was going to say "have you seen a picture of it?" but he already did that! From memory {1978) getting off Asgard's summit plateau - possibly 2 or 3 football pitches in area (in contemporary references - I'm not that keen on football!), and roughly triangular, involved guessing more or less where the Swiss route came up, then scrambling/climbing down to a ledge system just below the top and looking for anchors; these were in situ, obviously, otherwise the first (and any subsequent) ascensionists would have still been up there! A couple of steep (ie nearly vertical) abseils led to the notch between Asgard's two summits, then three lower-angle abseils brought one down to the top of a slightly unstable snowfield and the start of relatively easy ground. I don't know what grade the Swiss route goes at, but I would imagine that there are pitches of four or five.

In reply to Ian Parsons:

Blimy Ian, you've led a colourful life...

Neil

In reply to Neil Foster:

Are you still up?

In reply to Neil Foster:

And it's spelt "blimey"!

In reply to Neil Foster:

Although it's slightly easier to spell "pedant"!

In reply to UKC News: Sounds like the Belgians had a very good trip to Baffin http://www.climbing.com/news/hotflashes/three_new_routes_nearly_free_wall_i...