Libecki Returns to Greenland
Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app.
In late summer, exploratory climber Mike Libecki returned to the extremely remote fjord in southeastern Greenland in which he soloed an enormous rock wall last year. With his old partner Shinichi Sakamoto and photographer/climber John Burcham, Libecki climbed a huge, curving ridge and arête to an unclimbed summit (Way of the Banjo, IV 5.10, 4,500 feet). Libecki’s brother Andy, a non-climber and bluegrass banjo player, acted as basecamp manager and musician.Just reaching this fjord is epic—it takes 45 hours in a small boat from the village of Tasiilaq—and Libecki said this trip was more about exploration than climbing. The team investigated four fjords and saw “walls and towers that were as big or bigger than anything I have seen before.” Libecki plans two more trips in the coming years to check out other walls he has identified from aerial photos—but this time in an unexplored area of Greenland’s northeastern coast. Next up for Libecki this year: Antarctica.