The North Face

Jul 24 | TNF Newfoundland Expedition Dispatch #3

By Mark Synnott

Rain, rain, go away come back another day

After the beautiful day Mark and I had to climb Leviathan and James and Alex finished an incomplete route just to the left, we naively thought that the rest of the blue skies of the day might be the mark of the trip.  How wrong we were. Rain followed for several days and then several more days... Our saving grace was a big dome tent, a substanstial food supply and lots of hiking, all of which served to keep insanity at bay.

Every morning I would peel back the door of my tent, hoping for a least some semblance of clear skies and dry rock, but after the one morning, Devil's bay only greeted me with either full rain or fog so thick that I couldn't see anyone else's tent.  We managed to climb two more days in between rain but since the majority of the wall was either wet or seeping, we were quite limited with what we could do.

Impressivly James and Alex managed to climb Lucifer's Lighthouse (a 12c that Chris Weidner and Justin Sjong  put up) which they dubbed the best route on the wall.  Since Mark and I though Leviathan was amazing, we were curious to see how they compared.

After more days sitting in the rain, we realized we would be robbed of our chance to try Lucifer's Lighthouse and fulful our initial ambition of adding some new routes to the wall.  One memorable evening we were almost robbed of our tents as well.  A vicious storm boasting 70mph wings ripped through our camp.  Having been rather blasé about securing my tent to the ground I woke up in the middle of the night alarmed to find that it had detached itself from its anchoring and was by the most part held down by me alone.  With nothing else to do but venture out to try to repair it, I struggled with one hand to prevent the tent from taking flight and with the other I managed to attach the guide-lines to some bigger boulders.  I woke up to find the rest of the team bleary eyed, telling stories of similair experiences.  Well, apart from Honnold who managed to sleep like a baby throughout the whole storm.

The final few days of our stay at Devil's Bay were particulary wet and when George's boat finally appeared through the fog, we were certainly ready to leave.  All in all our mission to Devil's Bay has been a fun adventure- Blow Me Down is a cool wall with some really good routes and loads of potential for more, the people are really interesting and friendly and the area has stunning natural beauty...it's just a shame about the rain!

--Hazel Findlay 

 

Jul 18 | The North Face "Towers of the Ennedi" Film

By Mark Synnott

Just wanted to share the film festival edit from our adventure to Chad.  Thanks for watching! 

 

 

Jul 14 | TNF Newfoundland Expedition Dispatch #2

By Mark Synnott

I'm sitting in basecamp just above the rocky shoreline of Devil's Bay on the south coast of Newfoundland.  A few hundred yards to the east rises Blow Me Down, which may well be the most beautiful sea cliff in the world: 1300 feet of weathered granite rising striaght from the sea.  It's raining hard and the stream running next to our cook tent has turned into a raging torrent, drowning out all other sounds.  Past the mouth of the bay the sky is worse before it gets better.  Everything is soaked, including me, but I'm filled with a deep sense of contentment as I think back on the climb I completed yesterday with Hazel Findlay, the newest member of The North Face Climbing Team.  Unlike today, the weather was perfect: a deep blue cloudless sky, light winds, the gentle swell of the Atlantic rolling into the bay as a thousand pinpoints of light shimmered magically on the surface of the ocean.  Climbing with nothing more than t-shirts, a rack of gear and a light pack, we spent the day working our way up perfect hand and finger cracks, thin faces, stemming corners and aretes.
After ten beautiful pitches we pulled over the lip onto the summit.  "Very Nice," said Hazel, with a perfet Borat accent, as we shared a high five and took a few moments to survey the magnificent country that stretched out below us.  To the south the rock lined the fjord of Devil's Bay led straight out to the mighty Atlantic, with nothing but 2,000 miles of cold ocean between us and the coast of Europe.  To the north, miles of endless rolling granite moonscape, punctuated by rivers, lakes and lush strips of greenery, stretched into a mysterious, uninhabited no man's land.  To our east and west lay more fjords, where we could just discern the tops of other unkown cliffs, which begged for further exploration.  More adventures beckoned, but we turned our attention back toward camp, where the cold beers we'd stashed in the river awaited.

Now we sit sipping coffee, waiting for another break in the weather, content with the knowledge that eventually the sun will shine again, the rock will dry, and then we'll be off on another grand Newfie adventure. 

Mark Synnott

(sent via patchy cell service on the summit of Blow Me Down by Tim Kemple)

Jul 11 | TNF Newfoundland Expedition Underway!

By Renan Ozturk

Early this Monday morning I received a surprise update via a patch of cell service from the TNF team starting thier expedition to Newfoundland. The team includes Mark Synnott, James Pearson, Hazel Findlay and Alex Honnold. Also from Camp 4 Collective Tim Kemple, Matt Irving and Jimmy Surrette are there to document the adventure!  See below for the first fresh tidbits of thier journey.  Cheers,  ~renan

From Tim Kemple: 50mph winds today. Smashing rain last night. We are miles and miles from any people. So random to find out we get cell service on this one pointy summit.

From James Pearson:  Its 4am, light is starting to come, and I am staring out a tiny hole of my sleeping bag at the swarm of mosquitoes attacking my face-net.  I'm shattered but I can't sleep; the noise alone is too much, not to mention the pain in my arms from the crippling position required to hold my origami fortress in place and keep out the blood-thirsty hordes.  I would have been common sense to call in advance and book a hotel, especially as I knew I would be arriving very late, and have to spend the first night alone.  For some reason I didn't, and now I'm suffering the consequence of an unexpected forest bivi.  I stare hypnotised at the swirling mosquitoes and wish the time would pass.

Several hours later and I am a little further along my journey.  Two shuttle busses have brought me to Burgeo, the end of the road (literally) and the place I scheduled to meet Mark and the rest of the team to begin the next phase.  Tomorrow we have a five hour ferry to Francois- a small fishing village of 100 people on the east coast of Newfoundland, and the next will bring a ride aboard a fishing boat and the first view of our reason to be here- Blow Me Down.

Over 1,000 ft of pristine granite rising directly out of the ocean sounds almost too good to be true, but on the account of several trusted friends, that is what we will find.  I'm so very excited to see this place and get on the rock, but a little intimidated by the logistics of landing- transferring several very heavy bags from a tiny boat to a rocky shore.  There are all the ingredients in place for an EPIC, but on one level, epics are something that keeps life interesting.  

Apr 26 | TNF Athlete Films at 5point Film Festival this weekend!!

By Renan Ozturk

Are you within range of Carbondale's 5point film festival this weekend??  If you have the ability to make it, it is highly encouraged! The festival atmosphere hanging out with filmmakers, the full cinema  viewing experience and the variety of amazing adventure film subjects is not to be missed.

The North Face athlete films that will be up on the big screen are: 'Towers of the Ennedi', 'Cold' (film about Cory Richard's historic G2 ascent), 'Jimmy Chin: On Assignment' and The 'Life of Leo' (short from Cuba). 

Here is a behind the scenes adventure with the Camp 4 Collective team of Jimmy, Tim and I.  The expedition teaser is also live on TNF's youtube account. Cheers, ~renan

Nov 29 | The Arch of Ba-Chikele

By Renan Ozturk

“Expedition Time Distortion”: I think this could describe what the whole crew is experiencing at this point out here in the remote Chadian desert.  Although we have only been gone for a matter of weeks, and it probably seems like a blink of an eye to all those back home, to us it truly feels an eternity lost in the endless sea of unclimbed sandstone, micro barbed picker grass and roaming camels.

Despite the looming homesickness, today the moral is high.  We convinced Piero, our tireless guide, to go for a final hail mary quest to the most remote part of the region to check out what seems like the most inspiring formation from our research: a tower/arch that we have deemed “the delicate arch” of the Ennedi.  Piero is skeptical of the whole journey after the incident with the knife bandits (see dispatch 4) and tried to ward us off from the idea:  “You know there are vipers and cobras in camp-- definitely maybe!!”  Even though we will only have an afternoon and morning worth of water to explore the location before have to turn back we all agree it’s worth it.

More 4x4ing through the heat and we arrive at the objective.  It is even more inspiring than we could have possibly imagined: a helix of two spindly towers ~160 ft tall connected by a tiny arch that truly resembles Canyonland’s famous Delicate Arch!

With our limited time the team quickly sprung into action and headed up the talus cone in the brutal midday heat to scope the line.  Each side had distinct cruxes of chossy unprotected slabs or decomposing cracks. Eventually Mark and James decided on the slab.  The rest of the day was spent battling for protection in the decomposing sandstone. At one point Mark tried to place a bolt and it was so loose in the hole he had a double stack pitons around to make it even remotely passable as protection.  Jimmy, Kempy and I scrambled around trying to document the madness we could here James cursing after Mark relinquished the lead:  “Its like bloody Caster sugar up here, after you break the outer surface the rest just explodes,  #(*)&#@#&!!!”.

 Feeling a bit antsy at the base Alex took matters into his own hands and went for the kamikaze onsight free-solo first ascent of the crack up the other side.  At this point it was a free for all with time running out to find a way to the summit.  “Here you go dude, take this wireless mic,” I suggested and he clipped it on.  After sending half the formation I could hear his breathing elevate with is knee stuck in a wide crack unable to commit to a loose flake transfer.  Displaying good judgment and some extreme skill he carefully retreated down the lower tech face as we all watched clenching our teeth.  Darkness set in James and Mark also decided to play it safe and descend, hoping to get it done with an alpine start the next morning.

During the night as the climbing teams rested for the morning we stayed up most of the night documenting a moon-rise we will never forgot:  The nearly full moon rose directly behind the arch and tracked a perfect path slitting the formation.  For the Camp4 Crew this was a mind-blowing coincidence for us to be able to share the beauty of this place.  We ran 3 timelapses through the night, one on a motorized Kessler dolly tracks to add another layer of movement to the tracking stars and moon.  I have to say it was kinda gripping scrambing around wondering if the aforementioned snakes might be lurking under any rock.

Before sunrise the games began again.  James took the final leap of faith.  I’m sure the details of his moment with God will come out in his and Mark’s own detailed descriptions but all I have to mention is that Mark could barely force himself to belay the pitch.  If he fell he would have ripped the entire pitch including the anchor... 

After some victory screams he brought up the rest of the crew for some truly feel good moments.  Its so rare that in this day and age that such iconic first ascents are still a possibly.  Looking out over the expanse of rocks and village life below it was an unsaid realization how special this experience has been. .  (The Arch of Ba-Chikele)

Our time here is coming to a close.  By Marks’s vision of putting this adventure together, Piero’s 20 year knowledge of the landscape/people, Alex and James’ bold summit leads and the Camp4 Collective crew photo/video efforts we all hope to bring back a greater understanding of the Ennedi to share with those back home.  However haggard, diarrhea ridden, sand caked, starved and exhausted we all may be there is no doubt we are vastly grateful for the experience and the opportunity to be the first to climb in this remote region.  Stay tuned for not only a feature in Outside Magazine and Video Dispatches but a more polished film festival piece highlighting the start to finish epic! 

Thanks for following and cheers from the whole team out here in middle of nowhere!  ~reo

Nov 25 | Desert Gold

By Renan Ozturk

There are two types of thugs in this world. Those that will knife you and those that threaten to knife you. Fortunately these were the later.

Its been one of those days for me really. The harshness of the desert has begun to set in --every step calculated, as snakes, spiders, insects, and flesh eating grass seem to be lurking everywhere. Making things more stressful, we’ve broken enough camera gear to keep B&H in business for another year… its almost like our video equipment can feel the stress of the Ennedi as well. Yesterday James and Mark bagged another tower first ascent (The Wine Bottle) so we packed up the 4x4’s and headed deeper into the sand in search of more desert gold.

We have no real system for finding new routes. Just drive for hours across the desert to the next well known landmark and see if the rock is climbable. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen so much stone in my life, so at times it can be overwhelming. Its mostly loose sandstone, but there is enough good rock to be found that every turn finds everyone’s eyeballs glued to the windows wanting to be the first to spy the next gem.

That’s how we were yesterday when we ran underneath Aloba Arch, reportedly the biggest land arch in the world at close to 100m. The solid ‘Red Rock’ black faces to either side of the arch were going to be the perfect passport to the summit. We were stoked! Problem is we were also so busy looking up that we hardly noticed the 4 knife wielding teenagers approach from the bushes. At first we thought they just wanted us off their land, but soon it became clear that they wanted to mug us. 

Normally I would have been fine leaving my gear for the bandititos, but I forget North Face athletes don’t like being told what to do; so we picked up sticks and got ready to do battle… Fortunately their knives were just threats and they ran into the dusty desert afternoon.

We took off as well, the Delicate Arch of Chad awaits.

tk

Sep 03 | Welcome to the Kishtwar Shivling Expedition - 2008 (Sept. 3 - Oct. 2)

By The North Face

The North Face elite athletes Kevin Thaw, Mark Synnott, and Peter Croft tackle the unclimbed 1,300-meter (4,265 feet) East Pillar of Shivling (6,000 meters / 19,685 feet) in the Kishtwar region of Kashmir, India, just south of Zanskar.

Following the arrival to Padum, via Delhi and Kargil district, the trek to base camp should take the team two to five days. In traditional alpine style, the team will aim for a four-to-five day, three-to-four night push on the route, in one shot with no time to fix ropes.

Kishtwar Shivling saw its first and only recorded successful ascent in 1983 by the British team of Stephen Venables and Dick Renshaw. The East Pillar remains unclimbed, with two known, unsuccessful, attempts, one by an Italian team. If successful, Thaw, Synnott and Croft will be the second party to ever stand on the summit. The east route is considered one of the most difficult in the Kishtwar mountain region.

Follow the team's adventures right HERE! Make sure you keep up with the quest by adding this blog to your personal web page.