New Winter Route on Greenland’s Big Walls

Twenty-six days had passed without news from Marcin Tomaszewski and Pawel Haldas on their winter Greenland expedition. Finally, we received a text from them yesterday with a photo showing the line of a climbing route straight up a huge rock wall. Clearly, the guys had found the winter El Dorado they sought.

a topo on a picture of a huge vertical wall under blue sky.

The new route opened Tomaszewski and Haldas.

 

Moving by snowmobile over the frozen ocean from the town of Ummaannaq to the nearby islands, they pick a huge vertical wall they described as Greenland’s El Capitan, and prepared to climb in -36ºC temperatures. Since then, there had been no further reports — just climbing.

Other than the new route map, there are no details yet. Tomaszewski only said that they were both okay and back in a warm place, presumably Ummaannaq. On social media, they promised to send a report soon. They included some amazing photos that tell a story of their own. Below, some examples.

Two lonely yellow tents on the ice, among sastrugi, as seen from the wall above.

Base Camp. The ‘wiggles’ in the snow are sastrugi — hard snow waves created by the wind. Photo: M. Tomaszewski

 

The tents at the base of the wall.

Base Camp from sea level. Photo: M. Tomaszewski

 

Climbing in a blizard, on a vertical rock wall.

Rough weather. Photo: M. Tomaszewski

 

The frozen sea under a stunning ski in the low winter sunlight.

The views from the wall, showing dozens of icebergs frozen into the sea ice. Photo: M. Tomaszewski

Angela Benavides

Angela Benavides graduated university in journalism and specializes in high-altitude mountaineering and expedition news. She has been writing about climbing and mountaineering, adventure and outdoor sports for 20+ years.

Prior to that, Angela Benavides spent time at/worked at a number of local and international media. She is also experienced in outdoor-sport consultancy for sponsoring corporations, press manager and communication executive, and a published author.