In June and July, the British team of Indie Fallowfield, Ben Kent, and Chris Moore established a flurry of new climbs on and around a previously unclimbed 400m formation named Innaarsuit (approx. 65°33’49.7”N, 53°10’57.0”W) on Kekertarmiut Island. The nine routes ranged in length from 27m to 417m, and from E1 5b to E5 6b, with the two standouts being the west-face climbs Twist of Fate (417m climbing distance, E5 6a)—their first up the formation—and the neighboring Gas Mark Five (404m, E5 6b).

The trio had intended to visit the Upernavik archipelago, about 800km farther north, having sailed to Greenland’s west coast from the U.K. in a 49’ sailboat. However, unusually heavy sea ice and wintery conditions on land prompted them to hop off in the fishing village of Maniitsoq. (They’d heard about the climbing potential nearby from British captain Bob Shepton, who led a sail-and-climb expedition that explored this area in 2015; see AAJ 2016.) On July 3, having learned about the Innaarsuit cliff from a local friend, Jørgen, who had seen the wall near his fishing grounds, the climbers and 100kg of food and equipment were dropped off on Kekertarmiut Island, where they headed 500m inland to establish base camp below the wall.

For their first route, Twist of Fate, they selected a central line up faint cracks and grooves, starting the climb the same day as their drop-off. All went well until they hit a blank section guarding a midheight ledge on day three; eventually they placed removable bolts to supplement hooks on the technical E5 6a/b face, taking a “British ethics” approach of minimal fixed gear. After a storm forced retreat, the trio returned to finish the upper six pitches in a single push on July 11–12, including completing the route’s money pitch, “a 50m questing E4 from Chris [Moore].”

The trio returned on July 15 to free Twist of Fate in a day, swinging leads over 14 hours. With more than a week remaining and the weather holding, they established eight more climbs—four on Innaarsuit proper—all done ground-up (see photo above). On July 23, a boat picked them up for the return to Maniitsoq.

            —Matt Samet, AAJ, with information from Ben Kent/UKClimbing.com and Chris Moore, U.K.