Photos by Nicolas Favresse, Olivier Favresse, Stephane Hanssens, Sean Villanueva and Silvia Vidal / Xpedition.be - The Belgian team of Olivier and Nicolas Favresse, Stephane Hanssens, and Sean Villanueva completed a remarkable expedition to Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island, during which they established three new routes, nearly free-climbed a big-wall route on Mt. Asgard along with Silvia Vidal, and repeated another big-wall climb. Click here to read a trip report by Nicolas Favresse.
Sean practicing his best skill ;) up Mt. Asgard. Photo by Stephane Hanssens
Olive and Sean take a break from hauling on Mt. Asgard. Photo by Stephane Hanssens
The whole team on top of the south tower of Mt. Asgard. From left to right: Steph, Nico, Sean, Olive and Silvia. Photo by Stephane Hanssens
Olive crimping hard trying to redpoint pitch 6 of The Belgarian. Photo by Sean Villanueva
Favresse brothers and Sean talking about the battle plan. Photo by Stephane Hanssens
The team did about 600km of walking for about 2 weeks of climbing. Photo by Stephane Hanssens
Expert aid climber Silvia Vidal and her Babies. Photo by Sean Villanueva
The Belgarian 5.13 A1, 850m.
The Belgarian 5.13 A1, 850m.
The Belgarian 5.13 A1, 850m.
Chocolate Boomerang (700m, 5.11).
The 20-pitch Le Bic Rouge d’Odin (5.10).
Looking out the plane towards the Weasel valley. Photo by Nicolas Favresse
Our last Load to Mt. Asgard. Photo by Olivier Favresse
The team. From left to right: Steph, Olive, Nico, Sean and Silvia. Photo by Nicolas Favresse
Steph on pitch 2 of The Belgarian. Photo by Sean Villanueva
Nico going for it on the heady slab of pitch 1. The granite is incredibly featured allowing us to face climb a lot. Photo by Olivier Favresse
Silvia finding her way free on the pitch 3 of the Belgarian. Photo by Olivier Favresse
Our light big wall strategy involved sleeping in hammock. Only rock, paper, scissors could chose whose turn it was. Photo by Sean Villanueva
Olive lost this time;) Photo by Nicolas Favresse
Portaledge party up Mt. Asgard. Photo by Silvia Vidal
The wall was really sustained with a bunch of hard pitches on top of each other. Here Steph take his turn to try to redpoint pitch 5. Photo by Nicolas Favresse
On the way to the summit, Olive catches his breath in the middle of an offwidth. Photo by Nicolas Favresse
Pitch 12 goes trough a mega hand crack roof! Here Sean is just past the roof enjoying the air. Photo by Nicolas Favresse
The quality of the climbing is amazing. Here Nico making his way to the summit on perfect hand cracks. Photo by Sean Villanueva
The Belgian team. Left to right: Sean, Nico, Steph and Olive. Photo by Nicolas Favresse
Sean taking a rest in the hand jams of the incredible pitch 6 of The Belgarian. Photo by Nicolas Favresse
Nico pushing on the making of "Whisky Gonzales". Photo by Olivier Favresse
Olive on one of the many superbe thin cracks of "Whisky Gonzales". Photo by Nicolas Favresse
Midnight light. It didn't get any darker than this during our whole expedition. Photo by Nicolas Favresse
Nico on the final pitches of "Whisky Gonzales". Photo by Olivier Favresse
There are incredible boulders everywhere in the Weasel Valley. Photo by Nicolas Favresse
The lines of the Porter Route (left) and The Belgarian (right) on the north and south towers of Mt. Asgard.
Porter Route (5.12 A4, FA Charlie Porter, 1975, 40 pitches).
