Ace Team Climbs New Arctic 25-Pitch 5.13dR
The 1,000-metre route follows an imposing line up the middle of the Mirror Wall
An team of veteran big wall climbers, including Pete Whittaker, Julia Cassou, Sean Warren and Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll, made the first ascent of a new 25-pitch 1,000-metre climb on the Mirror Wall in Greenland.
Their new route, which is called Ryu-shin, in memory of Keita Kurakami, is graded 5.13dR A2+. They climbed it during a 43-day expedition which saw them sail up the east coast to the fjord of Scoresby Sund. Villanueva had attempted the route in 2023 with three other climbers.
On Planet Mountain, Whittaker said, “Keita had a Shakuhachi flute player’s name called 龍心 (Ryu-shin), which translates in English to Heart of the Dragon. This climb is in his memory… On our push to the summit we climbed the route to a standard of 7b+/R/A2+ (which is the mandatory grade for just getting up), with 16 of the 25 pitches going completely free. On the descent we spent another week on the wall and freed 6 more pitches up to 8b, with many more sections of R rated climbing. 3 pitches were left un-freed.” See photos from their climb here.
The Mirror Wall was first climbed by Basil Jacksch, Christian Ledergerber, Silvan Schüpbach and Vera Reist in 2012. In 2015, Leo Houlding, Joe Möhle, Matt Pickles, Matt Pycroft and Waldo Ehterington climbed a mega new route up the wall (story here), watch a documentary about their ascent below. Here’s what Whittaker posted before they left for Mirror Wall in July:
2023 Expedition Photos
Mirror Wall
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