Baffin Big Walls

Sail Peaks form a series of mostly unclimbed gigantic rock faces rising very steeply on the southern side of the Stewart Valley on Baffin Island. Access to the valley was a 9 hour trip by skidoo from Clyde River, and after setting up base camp, the team fixed 400m of rope to the base of the wall. They then spent 20 days of very difficult (mainly serious aid) climbing 1400m of rock in cold, snowy conditions to reach the summit. They have called the route Arctic Monkeys, and graded it VI, A4, V+. An early thaw prevented skidoos reaching base camp at the end of the trip, so they were forced to wade through frozen slush for 25km to make their escape.