The spectacular 1,200m west face of Mirror Wall (2,030m) appeared on most climbers’ radar during the first decade of the new millennium, when it was named and photographed by a British expedition. It was climbed in 2012, when a four-member Swiss team completed routes up both the left and right edges. Three years later, a primarily British team climbed the left side of the smooth central wall at 5.12c A3+ (AAJ 2016). In the summer of 2023, Ben Ditto (USA), Franco Cookson (U.K.), Nico Favresse and Seán Villanueva O’Driscoll (Belgium) went to try a new line right of center. The team sailed from Scotland, via Iceland, to Renland, then ferried loads up the 30km approach. During the initial carry, Favresse tripped and put a large gash in his leg, keeping him largely out of action.

The quartet established a camp atop a pillar toward the right edge of the wall and then broke left onto the central section. Here, Villanueva O’Driscoll took the lead. Highly run-out free climbing was interspersed with tenuous aid. He climbed with minimal bolting, often spending eight hours a day for around 40m of progress.

About halfway up the wall, having drilled a total of 18 holes, Villanueva O’Driscoll reached a corner leading to a crack system that might take them all the way to the summit. However, the corner proved to have blank, flaky rock with no protection. Twenty meters up, Villanueva O’Driscoll managed to place a bolt from a hook. He could see a cam placement four meters higher. For two days, he tried unsuccessfully to free or aid the upper corner, taking many falls. A team with strong personal ethics, the climbers had agreed that they could place bolts and then free climb or aid above them, but they would never place a bolt from another bolt, thus avoiding even a two-bolt ladder.

In the end, Villanueva O’Driscoll had to accept defeat. “In some ways, the impossible is what makes climbing worthwhile...” he wrote later. “It cannot be the summit above all.... You have to give failure a chance, too.”

—Lindsay Griffin, AAJ

Editor's Note: The quotes above are drawn from an excellent article by Villanueva O'Driscoll for Patagonia, illustrated with photos from Ben Ditto. Read it and hear an interview with Ditto here.