Climber beats icy arctic peak
A ROCK climber has reached the summit of one of the most challenging "big walls" in the world in an attempt to be one of the first to free climb the Arctic steep rock face.
Jason Pickles, a former pupil of Todmorden High School, was one member of a seven-strong team, that tackled Mount Asgard on Baffin Island, Northern Canada.
As well as climbing, Jason also filmed the expedition for a DVD to be released later this year as the team attempted the climb without the use of artificial aids.
Weather conditions proved too difficult for the climbers to complete the entire route without aids but half of the route was free climbed.
Five members of the team, led by Leo Houlding, reached the flat-summit of the 2,015 metre high blank wall, which is regarded as one of the most difficult big wall climbs in the world.
The ascent up the north side took twelve days and the climbers lived on the wall in hanging port-a-ledge camps.
Each year a short window of opportunity allows climbers to scale Asgard, which was named after the realm of the Norse gods, where in the summer the frozen sea ice retreats and the sun never sets.
If the team had left their attempt any later they would have failed, as a snow fall landed as they returned to earth and rendered the wall unclimbable.
It was a difficult climb and success was not guaranteed as the climbers scaled the steep blank wall in the shade. For 23 hours out of every 24 they were forced to endure severe ice storms but five members made it.
Once at the summit some of the climbers base-jumped in a manner similar to the stunt performed by Rick Sylvester in 1976 for the opening sequence of the Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me.
Jason's parents, Linda and Neil, said they were all very proud of him but they were glad to hear he had returned safely.
"He's fine; his feet are quite bad with frostbite, but he loved it.
"He's been climbing for so long that you have to switch off from the danger. When he's away you have to think that no news is good news. He loves doing it so we're happy for him," said Linda, who lives in Hebden Bridge and works at Todmorden Group Practice.
"He's always been sporty. He played football for Hebden Bridge Saints, Walsden Cricket Club and Todmorden Golf Club; all as a junior but he discovered climbing when he was about 15 and hasn't looked back since."
Ever since his adventure holidays with his uncles Steven Harlow and Trevor Dewhurst, who introduced him to the sport, Jason has made climbing his life and when he's not scaling the heights of Asgard, in the Arctic; El Capitan, in Yosemite National Park; or the peaks of the Lake District, he is building climbing walls or setting competition routes. He has also been on expeditions to the Himalayas, Madagascar and the Alps.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Halifax
Wednesday 30 May 2012
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 11 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: West
