Daniel Jung has made the first repeat of Nico Favresse's 2013 crack test piece Recovery drink, a steep crack on the Profilveggen at Jøssingfjord in the southern most part of Norway.
Several crack specialists, including Pete Whittaker and Tom Randall, have worked hard for this coveted second ascent lately, and in the end Daniel got there first.
© Fred Moix
He writes on IG:
The Recovery Drink is DONE!! What a beautiful line, what a nice challenge! I'm extremely happy to have sent it finally on my very last day.
Daniel has been in Norway for a month and has been very close to succeeding for quite a while, falling several times on the final crux move or doing the route with one hang, sometimes twice a day.
Regarding the difficulty... As far as I know, Nico called it 5.14+, which I guess should imply at least 8c. It will be interesting to hear what Mr Jung says.
Photo by: Fred Moix, check out his IG for more great photos!
Watch a film about Nico's first ascent below, in which he tries the line with Daniel:
Comments
Because America (specifically Yosemite and Indian Creek) is where the vast majority of people learn to crack climb properly, and as such it is easier to speak about the difficulty of a crack in American grades. Same reason why we talk about British sport climbs in terms of French grades I guess.
Well done Daniel... well deserved from a mega friendly guy!
It seems quite commonplace here now. Not for routes in the UK as we don't have many real cracks, but certainly a lot of UK climbers are giving routes they climb in the Himalaya/ Greenland etc American grades for the rock pitches. The list of significant UK climbs on the current Piolet D'or news item is a good example
Is it not just the media coverage? Who reported it first? Possibly a climbing magazine from the US, hence the grading, that then further get's taken on in the other channels.
Climbing imperialism
The original Webster Lofoten guide gave all the routes Norwegian and YDS grades.