The Asgard Project :: Our objective is to produce a groundbreaking film about the first free ascent of Asgard’s NWface, regarded as one of the most difficult big walls in the world.

Leo and the team have taken the Asgard Project to new levels by skydiving in to the Arctic to reach Mount Asgard - special permission was given for the team to make the jump during the airdrop of their kit.  Read on in Leo’s own words how the project is progressing and what the jump meant to the team…

• 31 July

Team assemble in Ottawa. All appreciate value of 12 oz hamburger and cold beer. Going to be on expedition rations for next 5 weeks. Fly to Iqaluit. Meet pilot who will be doing to the air drop. Total dude. Cowboy boots and laid back grin. 14 seat twin otter aircraft not available. Instead we got a 26 seat DC3! Iconic and very cool plane.
Asked if we could drop in too, pilot was well up for it! He needs to check with boss.
Oh god come on give us permission! Fly to Pangnirtung. Got to round up all the gear we shipped out then organise and pack every single thing 7 people need to climb and film a big wall in the arctic over next 4 weeks into 16 parachute loads.  Has to be ready by 11am tomorrow.

Stressful.

• 1 August

Heavy low cloud! Drop maybe off! Called and postponed plane arrival until 3pm. Stanley did amazing job of rigging webbing harnesses and parachutes to the 10 barrels, 4 double rucksack, and 2 big haul bag loads! We haven't tested this system! I hope it works! Weather clears, Plane arrives - we got permission to jump! Oh my goodness - we are about to drop on to a glacier 50 miles into the Arctic wilderness with a months worth of supplies and toys. EPIC! Insane flight up in one of most spectacular terrain imaginable. Drop seemed to work perfectly right in front of W face Asgard.
Climbed to 5200 feet and Carlos, Stanley and I jumped out into the most incredible skydive of our lives. After landing safely it suddenly dawns on us where we are and how alone!

• 2 August

Perfect weather. 15 C in Sun and no wind - however cold in shade. Wasn't expecting to have to hike but one of haul bags didn't stick the drop. Need more climbing gear - have in Pang. Must get to Summit Lake shelter to radio others to bring more gear. Epic glacial run and death morraine dash. Scenery on unimaginable scale, beautiful. Radio broken! Bivi.

• 3 August

Continue down valley. Met guys at rope across river. Informed them of the news. Al and Ian up with us - Chris and Jas give your loads and back to Pang for more, sorry boys. They burn down light. We hike up heavy for 10 hours. Al and Ian did really well.

• 4 August

Cross half hour creek. Was waist deep and terrifying on way down other day but thank god today early it's half a deep and pretty easy. Long hike. Push hard and make it to Base Camp 2 am. Done a 4 day hike in last 2. Tired.

• 5 August

Rest and organise camp. Almost everything made it. Put some work into Morrain on glacier and now have awesome camp with tent platforms, huge stone kitchen and Thrown - Caribuo antlers and all. Water right there and epic view Of NW face of N tower and W face of South Tower Asgard. Looks way different to photos. Almost no snow. Lots of rock fall. Not great.

• 6 August

Good weather. Inspect wall with telescope. Huge rock fall last night right down possible approach to NW face. Shocking amount of debris everywhere. Been very warm. Hopefully cool down a bit and stablize? Running the guantlet once is scary but ferrying loads multiple times in a rockfall zone is starting to ask for it. Very cold in shade. Perhaps 20 degrees difference from sun. NW face in shade all day. Beautiful wall but gonna be freezing - hard to free climb. W face get lots of Sun and will be sweet but approach looks even worse. Nasty serac filled coulior. Cause for concern. Need to assess options.

• 7 August

Decide to blast Scott route with Carlos and Stanley. Get our bearings and check out access to summit, approach, descent options etc. Brilliant climb. Easy for 2500 feet then about a 1000 feet of HVS with a couple of tricky wide cracks right at top. 6 casual hours. Super fast descent. Another epic day. Great warm up and motivation boost. That’s the fun out of the way, now time to focus on some suffering?

• 8 August

Turner Glacier, Mount Asgard. Didn't hydrate properly yesterday. Feeling it today. Good weather. All need to rest. Chris and Jas still not here yet. They should arrive today, if not we'll go down tomorrow and meet them. Less rock fall activity but still a tough decision that needs to be made soon. Is it safe enough to attempt one of these amazing walls? Which one? Must give it some serious thought. We are online! An amazing adventure so far. Lots of success and lots of problems!
Resting today

Due to the remote location of Mt. Asgard (in the Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island) and the extreme nature of our expedition some careful forward planning is required.

During the summer months the snow and ice melts from the approach valleys which turn to soft tundra meaning each person can only carry a 25kg pack at the most (that's still pretty heavy!). With this weight limitation it's 3 or 4 days hike to reach Mt. Asgard from the drop off point (we get dropped off by chartered local fishermen at the valley inlet). However a 4 week expedition of 6 people, where up to two weeks maybe spent on the wall, is going to require a bit more than 25kg per person.

That's why we've sent 600 kgs of equipment and supplies ahead of us as it can be fired up the valley to Mt. Asgard in a day via skidoo during the winter months.

5 massive haul bags and 11 barrels were collected from the front door of Leo's cottage in rural lakeland and delivered to our Eskimo friend's Igloo in the Arctic. Next time we see this lot, Mount Asgard will be in the background, as long as the polar bears don't get it!

(That would really take the edge off the trip if we got there only to find a team of polar bears had nicked the equipment and already climbed the route).

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