Posted: Sep 22, 2009 03:52 am EDT
(MountEverest.net/Madrid) Far from Himalaya, a bunch of European top climbers have been indulging in local delicacies.

Robert Jasper and Roger Schäli free-climbed the Super-Diretissima on the mythical Eigernordwand; while the Pou brothers declared Picos de Europa home to the “toughest big wall route on Earth.”

Pou Brothers send the "toughest big wall route"

It took Basque Eneko and Iker Pou all summer to work out a 500 meters-long route up Pico Urriellu (also known as Naranjo de Bulnes), the most impressive limestone face in Northern Spain’s Picos de Europa range.

The resulting line ’Orbayu’ includes difficulties up to 8c+/9 a (5.14d). According to the Pou brothers, such difficulty has never been reported on a multi-pitch route.

After working on the crux pitches, the Pous redpointed the route in 8 hectic hours, free-climbing each of the 16 pitches in the first week of September.

“We’ve taken sports-climbing high-difficulty criteria, and transferred them to Naranjo de Bulnes’ West face,” Iker stated. “The protections on the wall are really precarious (copperheads, pitons stucked with wood, micro friends... most of them placed years ago by aid-climbers) so potential falls might get to 20 or 25 meters.”

“We didn’t want to repeat a tough route – we wanted to create something new,” Eneko said. “We also hope this route will bring Naranjo de Bulnes into the spotlight as an international climbing Mecca. To us, the place levels the big walls in US and Patagonia.”

Orbayu is the Pou brothers' fifth high-difficulty route opened on Urriellu; most of their previous lines are yet to be repeated.

(Ed. Note: Uriellu or Naranjo de Bulnes is legendary among Spanish climbers due to its prominence, impressive vertical faces and top-quality limestone. It offers dozens of 150/500 meters-long routes of varied difficulty.)

Go to the Pou brothers' website for more info, topos and a cool videoclip.

Eiger’s North face: Jasper strikes again

While few international climbers are familiar with Naranjo de Bulnes, Robert Jasper's favorite playground is far better known: The 1,800 meters-tall north face of Eiger; The Eigernordwand.

Teaming up with Swiss Roger Schäli this time, Robert Jasper finally managed to free-climb the Japanese Route. Also known as the ’Super-Diretissima’, the 5.13b/8a line is considered one of the face's most demanding.

“Redpointing this route has kept me obsessed for over six years," said Jasper. "Finally Roger and I did it, precisely 40 years after the route was opened by an iron-willed Japanese team."

Back in 1969, the Japanese needed 250 drilled bolts, hooks and step ladders to push up what they described as the "straight line of the falling water drops".

The crux was the so-called ‘Rote Fluh’, a 200 meters-long section, mostly overhanging, unsteady and highly exposed. Robert and Roger climbed it in poor conditions, with melting water pouring down the route and extremely loose rock on the headwall.

“About half of the holds of the 'Rote Fluh' were wet,” Robert recalls. “Two of the most difficult pitches were also partly wet and we needed several tries to free-climb them. With wet and icy fingers I caught tiny hold after tiny hold, my tight climbing shoes constantly slipping off because of numb toes. Blindly I moved through the studied moves, having hardly any feeling in my limbs.”

On August 29th, the two went for a complete, free-climb ascent of the entire route. Constant rockfall and a “fist-size” rock striking Robert’s helmet provided tense moments.

Details on the route, topo, an image gallery and a video trailer are to be published on Jasper’s website.

Eneko and Iker Pou were born in Alava, Basque Country, Spain. They are remarkable rock climbers and extreme skiers. Iker achieved the second ascent of 'Action Directe' in 2000, a sport climbing route which was considered the first 9a in the world. Eneko also climbed Baghirati and attempted Annapurna. Together they have climbed a large number of big walls all over the world.

In 2003, Iker and Eneko Pou launched their "7 Walls, 7 Continents" project: their own, hard-core version of the Seven Summits. They aimed to free climb a significant big wall on each continent. The tour started in Yosemite, where the brothers free climbed El Niño on El Capitan. Next came the exposed and technical ‘Zumbelzt’ route on Naranjo de Bulnes, the huge limestone big wall in Northern Spain. Then the Totem Pole in Tasmania, a 70 m pillar rising from the sea, surrounded by water. And ‘Bravo les Filles’ (600m up to 8b), on the island of Madagascar.

In the Asian stage of their project the brothers wanted to free climb ‘Eternal Flame’ on Nameless Tower (Trango group –Karakoram). The brothers used aid climbing on two pitches but free-climbed a variation of the line.

On January 6, 2008 the brothers summited Fitz Roy via the Supercanaleta route in an express ascent, thus completing the South American stage of their project. The proyect final's stage was achieved on last year's Christmas Eve, by opening the Azken Paradisua new route at Antarctica.

Robert Jasper is a professional mountain guide and an excellent climber. Specialized in mixed and dry-tooling extreme routes, he has opened some of the hardest mixed routes on earth.

Together with his wife Daniela, the couple are some of the better known Mountain guides in Switzerland. In 1999, the couple opened the most difficult route (up to that time) on Eiger: Simphonie de liberté, 10 UIAA graduation.

In November, 2005 Robert, along with Stefan Glowacz, completed the team's second route on El Murallón (meaning literally ‘The Big Wall’), a massive granite outcrop rising from the Southern Patagonain Ice Field. The climb has made them candidates to the International Piolet d'Or.

 EMAIL   PRINT   SHARE   TEXT