New M9 WI6 in Quebec Looks Wild
Stas Beskin has opened another difficult mixed route in a remote part of the province
Quebec is home to some of North America’s biggest mixed routes, with the newest being a 120-metre M9 WI6 called Yggdrasil at Rivière-Ste-Marguerite in Côte Nord.
It was freed by Stas Beskin, who said, “What a journey, it wouldn’t happen without infinite patience and help of Caroline Ouellet and Stephan St Laurent.” Beskin said the first pitch is a 30-metre M8+ WI6 that pulls through an ice roof. The second pitch continues up a steep WI6 section. And the third pitch climbs steep rock to another ice roof.
In 2023, Beskin and Ouellet spent 11 days living in a prospector tent at Côte Nord. During the trip, they made the first ascent of Never Ending Story, a 175-metre M7 WI6R. They also climbed several other routes, such as Speedy Gonzales, a 180-metre WI6. About Speedy Gonzales, Beskin said, “I don’t understand how is it possible such a line doesn’t see more attention. It’s definitely on pair with Nightmare on wolf Street and Real Big Drip in the Rockies. It’s just out of this world.”
Beskin first tried Never Ending Story in 2018 with Daniel Martian during a trip where they established another huge mixed route on the same wall called Route des Baleines, a 180-metre M9 WI7. “A line of a lifetime,” Beskin said in 2018. “We’ve never climbed anything like this before. It’s 180 metres of challenging and in-your-face climbing from bottom to the top. It has verglas, daggers, blobs, mushrooms, jellyfish, overhangs, a chimney and an offwidth, just name a few features.”
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