The Asgard Project :: Leo Houlding is rapidly building a reputation as the world’s premier adventure climber.  Still in his 20s, he has already set the climbing scene alight with bold ascents, outrageous stunts and ambitious firsts around the globe.&... View page for full story

Leo Houlding is rapidly building a reputation as the world’s premier adventure climber.  Still in his 20s, he has already set the climbing scene alight with bold ascents, outrageous stunts and ambitious firsts around the globe.  Leo recently completed a major film shoot that saw him reach the top of Everest for the soon to be released drama documentary, The Wildest Dream.  He is now focusing on his next big adventure - the Asgard Project.

A 1400 metres high tower of granite, Mount Asgard is located in a remote glacial region of Baffin Island in Arctic Canada.  Leo’s objective – over two weeks, to plan and complete the first free ascent and flying descent of the north west face.  Achieving this feat will be right at the cutting edge of climbing and adventure.

Every aspect of the Asgard Project will be captured in high definition by award winning film maker Alastair Lee.  Collaborating as a climbing and filming team, Leo and Alastair are determined to both produce a groundbreaking film and achieve an outstanding climbing first.  To make all of this possible, they are being given substantial support by Leo’s main sponsor, Berghaus, and leading mobile communications company Nokia.  A third key member of the project team is another Berghaus sponsored climber, Carlos Suarez, from Spain.  Carlos has known Leo for several years and shares his passion for bold climbing and airborne adventures.

Preparations for Asgard are well underway and Leo has already completed three crucial training expeditions, to Riglos in Spain, Brento in Italy and the world famous Yosemite National Park in the USA.  On each trip, Leo and climbing partners have tackled major big walls and tested and refined the techniques that will make the difference between failure and success on Asgard.

As well as adapting climbing methods and improving his fitness, Leo has been testing an advanced lightweight wing-suit that he plans to use for the descent from the summit of Asgard.  He has also been supplied with some prototypes of new Berghaus products and will be putting them to the test throughout the year.  Every element of the project has to work at an optimum level if there is going to be any chance of Leo achieving his goal.  He’s pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the world of big wall climbing and, in doing so, he’s increasing the risk of failure, or worse.

Leo Houlding comments:
"For me, this is the greatest challenge I have set myself to date.  I’ve been to the top of the world, suffered career threatening injury and completed some amazing adventures, but the Asgard Project is going to test me more than anything that has gone before.  To succeed, everyone in the team will have to be at the very top of their game from start to finish and I’m under no illusions that this is going to be extra dangerous.

The style of climbing, the equipment we are using, the nature of the descent and the speed at which we will be doing everything – all of those factors add to the risk.  Not only that, but the region is polar bear territory, so we’ll have to make sure we stay off their menu, which is an added worry.  But the training has gone really well so far and I can’t wait to get started on the main objective.”

Leo, Alastair, Carlos and the team will head to Asgard during August and regular progress updates will be appearing on www.theasgardproject.com throughout the expedition.