Mirror Wall, Greenland

British climber Leo Houlding has started an attempt to make a first ascent on an enormous big wall in Arctic Greenland.  After a dramatic helicopter drop off, Houlding and crew have spent the last few days establishing a comfortable base camp and finding a safe approach through a complex glacier to the base of the Mirror Wall, a massive 1,200m high granite cliff.

In a Berghaus sponsored expedition, Houlding is leading a small team that hopes to be the first to complete a line on the wall’s north west face.  Situated in the rarely visited area of Renland, in north east Greenland, the Mirror Wall is huge, imposing and extremely remote.

Leo Houlding, 34, has assembled a team of ambitious young adventurers to join him on the trip.  He will share lead climbing duties with experienced South African climber Joe Möhle, 30, and 28 year old Matt Pickles, a talented sport climber from Todmorden, described as the “less manly cousin of well-known climber Jason Pickles”.  At 26, Sheffield’s Matt Pycroft is one of the rising stars of British adventure film making.  Pycroft, working with experienced climber and rigging expert Waldo Etherington, 27, from Dorset, will capture the expedition on camera for a series of short films.

Click here to read more on UKClimbing.com

Mirror Wall, Greenland
The Mirror Wall in all its glory. Houlding leads the charge, with Joe Mohel following close behind. Photo: Courtesy of Berghaus
Author/Photographer: Silvan Schüpbach.
Looking south across the Edward Bailey Glacier into the Alpine Bowl. Walls and summits climbed by the Swiss expedition marked. The flat-topped summit down and left from El Güpfi was climbed (via the couloir to its right) in 2008 by an Irish team. Peaks at the back of the Alpine Bowl were climbed in 2007 and ’08.

Read more about the Mirror Wall at Americanalpineclub.org

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16 Comments

  1. Go Joe! 😀

  2. Awesome, wishing the team the best luck! Its going to be eeeeeeepic!!!

  3. This is so epic!

    GO JOE!

  4. And yet you never hear the ramblings of Joe blowing his own horn. Wish some climbers would learn from this true legend, rather than carry on about being the only one with enough guts.

    • Agreed and I think this is so much more EPIC than red pointing a sport route somewhere!

    • Perhaps you should elaborate instead of just dropping hints? Both are great achievements and who cares is someone wants to tell the world about their achievements…be psyched for them man 🙂 Not everyone wants to remain a hermit under the radar 😉

      • Couldn’t agree more Cuan. There are some bitter, combative people amongst this so called community. Ebert made a little competitive jibe, and got lynched and thrown some serious hatred from the old, smelly few. Joe is a great climber, on an epic adventure. Nice going man. Good to see where you’ve got to as a climber. You had huge guts and psych from the early days even.

    • Exactly, Joe is regarded as a hard mountain man, a climber that talks less and climbs more, the other little one regarded as an immature boy with rich parents, bad attitude and a motormouth: A brannewyn-kakprater, on his way to a wakeup call. Humility comes to those who need it.

      You spew, it’s your right to free speech. Others will judge your words and actions, also their right to free speech.

  5. Man, I admit I was a bit jealous when he told me about this. Having seen these pics, man I gotta get out the office!

    Frikken awesome. Be safe buddy.

  6. Dis mos ossum! Go Joe go! I mos know that guy…. he he he.

  7. Awesome Joe

  8. Well done on summiting Joe and team. Awesome job. Would like to see more of the other guys names in the press than just the team leaders.


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