In July I soloed a new route on the 2,000-foot east face of the South Tower of Mount Asgard on Baffin Island. My 2,600-foot route (VI 5.10 A2) consisted of mostly free climbing with an equal mixture of well-protected crack and runout face. I ascended the route in sixteen long pitches and descended via fourteen long rappels. The climb required twenty-four hours of climbing from the glacier to the true summit. No bolts were placed and no cracks were “cleaned”. The summit was reached July 27.
Editor’s Note: Due to the winding nature of the route the length of the climbing exceeds the vertical relief of the face itself.
— Jim Beyer, Durango, Colorado, USA