Big Wall

NICOLAS FAVRESSE, SEAN VILLANUEVA, OLIVIER FAVRESSE, SILVIA VIDAL, AND STEPHANE HANSSENS

These days, big-wall free climbers are a dime a dozen, and it’s hardly news when new walls are freed. So, how did we sift through the dozens of “noteworthy” ascents to choose Nicolas Favresse, Sean Villanueva, Olivier Favresse, Silvia Vidal, and Stephane Hanssens as winners of this year’s Big-Wall Golden Piton? Simple: the 45-day, Belgian-Spanish trip to Baffin Island this summer was in a league of its own.

In order to have temps warm enough to free-climb on Baffin, the team approached in July, eschewing the standard pack-ice approach via snowmobile. Big deal? Uh…yeah. They ferried enormous loads for an entire month (about 375 miles), bouldering on glacial erratics along the way “to keep ourselves in shape,” said Nico. All this for just two weeks of climbing, but what a fortnight it was! The hyper-motivated team fired five new free and mostly free big-wall routes, squeezing all they could from the 24-hour daylight.

The apex was their 2,800-foot The Belgarian (VI 5.13 A1), on the south tower of Mount Aasgard (6,611 feet). With “a bunch of pitches of 5.12 and 5.13,” the route went all-free save one move on pitch seven. The Belgarian roughly follows a 1996 aid line called the Bavarian Direct (FA: Schlesener, Reichelt, Grad, Guscelli, Bruckbauer), but Favresse et al. climbed almost 50 percent new terrain, their free variations weaving in and out of the original line.

Eleven days were spent on the wall, but getting established was one crux. Master aid technician Vidal copperheaded 50 feet of virgin rock (what she called “really nice A4+”) just to reach the starting anchor, since ice at the base had melted out that far since the FA. The team later headpointed the pitch at 5.12- X.

Above, most of the pitches climbed splitter cracks linked by barely there face traverses. Adhering to their self-imposed strict ethics, the team placed no bolts, even when protection (like rivets) from the original ascent was too distant to clip. On one runout 5.13 section, Nico’s foot popped, sending him for a terrifying 50-foot slab fall. “It was one of the worst falls I’ve ever made,” he said. Miraculously uninjured, and seemingly always optimistic, Nico later redpointed the pitch. “In an instant the weight of the chain broke away from me and I felt light and happy,” he said.

Baffin is the latest in a string of successful free-climbing expeditions for the peripatetic pair Nico Favresse and Sean Villanueva, who not only take their passion seriously — they just seem to have more fun than everyone else. 

Honorable Mentions:

• Alexander and Thomas Huber for the FFA of Eternal Flame (VI 5.13a, 24 pitches), Trango Tower (circa 20,500 feet), Pakistan. About 80 percent of the 2,200-foot route had been freed during its 1989 FA (Albert, Güllich, Stiegler, Sykora), and in the following 20 years nearly all had gone free with variations. Over four days in August 2009, the team, according to Alexander Huber, was “extremely lucky” with conditions. The Hubers added several new variations to avoid bolt ladders and icy cracks for their completely free ascent of what is indisputably one of the finest rock climbs on Earth.
• Rob Pizem and Mike Brumbaugh, for two 5.13 FFAs in Zion. Gentleman’s Agreement (5.13b) climbs eight pitches of 5.11+ and 5.12-, and features a 20-foot crux of sickly tips laybacking. The pair spent eight days over two years working the route, which they sent in January 2009. A month later they were Walking on Water (5.13-) above The Narrows slot canyon. This unique climb starts in the Virgin River with a shoulder stand. Sandstone samurai Brumbaugh says of the four-pitch line, “It’s the most gymnastic desert route I’ve ever done,” with a last-pitch crux of huecos through a roof followed by delicate face climbing. The duo freed the climb in March after five days of effort.