British open big wall line in Arctic

British climbers Mike 'Twid' Turner, Stuart McAleese and Mark Thomas have completed a daunting new 1400 metre line up Sails Peak, in the Arctic.

The route, called Arctic Monkeys, clocks in at VI A4 V+.

PlanetMountain reports that the highly experienced Welsh based climbers Mike 'Twid' Turner, Stuart McAleese and Mark Thomas reached the base of the mountain at the start of May and spent three weeks forging a line which Turner had spotted during a previous expedition back in 1999.

Sails peak is located in the remote Stewart Valley, circa 100km north of Clyde River on Baffin Island. Turner compared the route to ‘two Lotus Flowers staked up’.

The trio climbed ‘capsule style’, spending 18 consecutive nights in portaledges on the wall, pushing the aid envelope out to A4 in temperatures as low as -20°C. The weather was a major factor, Turner noting that, "The cold made life harsh all the time. Belaying was the hardest thing to do, often requiring you to wear two duvets."

Despite running out of food the trio persevered and topped out on 24 May in perfect conditions, before abseiling off rapidly and returning to civilisation to escape the thawing fjord. McAleese described the experience as "... the most difficult, but rewarding climb any of us have ever done, and my word, are we looking forward to a few beers!”

Mike Turner has been a leading figure in Welsh climbing for the last two decades. He had this to say about the climb and the Stewart Valley, “it is certainly one of those lines that was always in the back of my mind to climb. Amazingly very few folk have ventured into the Stewart valley which I believe is possibly the best area for huge unclimbed quality walls in the world.

Small is the way forward. Large teams are not what its about in my books. The environment gets spoilt and the experience gets destroyed."

Source: PlanetMountain.com

Images by the expedition party