Marek Raganowicz of Poland has soloed a new route on the North Face of Polar Sun Arm in Sam Ford Fiord on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. He was 35 days alone on the wall. Raganowicz named the route MikroKozmik Variations (A4+, M5).
Solo means alone. Photo: Marek Raganowicz
Raganowicz’s route on Polar Sun Arm. He then continued to the top of Polar Sun Spire, following a line that he and a partner opened in 2012. Photo: Jerry Kobalenko
Biggest cliffs in the world?
Polar Sun Arm is a wall separated from the better-known Polar Sun Spire, on the mountainous east coast of Baffin Island. The cliffs in Sam Ford Fiord rise 1600-1700m directly from the frozen ocean. Depending on your definition of “cliff”, they may be the biggest cliffs in the world. Their only possible competitors are the Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat and Gyala Peri.
Raganowicz opened 15 new pitches with a difficulty of A4+. He continued for another 11 pitches on the Superbalance line that he and Marcin Tomaszewski opened on Polar Sun Spire in 2012. In all, he did a 26-pitch variation route, totally alone.
Alone on the frozen wall. Photo: Marek Raganowicz
Photo: Marek Raganowicz
Among his difficult solos, in 2016, Raganowicz made the first repetition of the dangerous Plastic Surgery Disaster (A5) route on El Capitan, again alone. One year later, Raganowicz made the first solitary winter ascent of Troll Wall in Norway, during a climb that took 16 days.
Plastic Surgery Disaster on El Capitan in 2016. Photo: Marek Raganowicz
Raganowicz during his solo climb on the Troll Wall in Norway. Photo: Marek Raganowicz
Reportedly very thin but happy with his success, he recently caught a lift back to the town of Clyde River on a snowmobile driven by an Inuit guide.
Raganowicz on Polar Sun Arm. Photo: Marek Raganowicz
During those lonely weeks on the wall, he says he learned much about the limits of his abilities. Raganowicz would agree with the famous Japanese soloist Buntaro Kato, who wrote in his Manifesto of a Solo Mountaineer: “If mountaineering is about gaining knowledge and therefore comfort from Nature, then surely the greatest knowledge and the greatest degree of comfort is gained from solo mountaineering.”
Sunrise at 2 am, from Polar Sun Arm. Photo: Marek Raganowicz
