Issue 6

Tales Of Vertical Trails: Starstruck (Frejya Wall)

May 18, 2023

While helping Mike Adolph with his enormous project of building ‘From Nordegg With Love’ I had gotten a good look at the Massif adjacent to it. I was constantly drawn to this wall, and now conditions for an attempt were just right.
Issue 6

Tales Of Vertical Trails: Starstruck (Frejya Wall)

May 18, 2023

While helping Mike Adolph with his enormous project of building ‘From Nordegg With Love’ I had gotten a good look at the Massif adjacent to it. I was constantly drawn to this wall, and now conditions for an attempt were just right. Andrew and I were excited to try a ground up attempt.

Starstruck pitch 3

Pitch 3

The First Route Established on “Frejya” (The Norse Goddess of Love)

Our goal was to create a route that could be travelled by many teams. With bolts and batteries in our bag, we made our way to the base of the wall. We began climbing at a buttress that offered what looked like moderate travel. 

Pitch one offered moderately good rock, as I bolted and climbed I remember thinking that this was pretty good, cleaner than Solar Panel. The first station was easy to gain and we were off on an adventure. Andrew bolted pitch two with moderate difficulty and established the next anchor. I joined him with the haul pack and we were off on pitch three in a jiffy. The original pitch three climbed easy terrain out left of the anchor, later we established a more direct line up the compact grey stone above the anchor.

Pitch one offered moderately good rock, as I bolted and climbed I remember thinking that this was pretty good, cleaner than Solar Panel.

Half Way up

Pitch four was a bit more challenging and Andrew led forty metres of traversing, then technical climbing. I enjoyed the sunshine and recall tying off his belay frequently to eat snacks. Pitch 4 is often climbed as two separate pitches with an intermediate belay stance at a ledge; which was installed later.

Pitch five took us easily to a comfortable belay stance on lower angle rock in the middle of the wall. We had a few bolts left and I bolted half of pitch six before lowering back to the station and beginning our descent. This had been a great day and we were past the halfway point on the wall.

Starstruck Pitch 6

Jon Waterman on Pitch 6

More Tales of Vertical Trails:

Tales Of Vertical Trails: Better Together

Tales Of Vertical Trails: Better Together

Starstruck was the last route I developed with Andrew in the spring of 2020. He continued to add ‘Wet Like Willy’ and ‘Dumbo’ later that season. During the winter of 2021 Andrew spent a lot of time developing Mythos Crag. As the Spring of 2021 arrived it had been a...

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Tales Of Vertical Trails: Starstruck Part II

Tales Of Vertical Trails: Starstruck Part II

The next week, Andrew and I were guiding a trip up the Via Ferrata in the morning and we happened to finish up around 1pm. We looked at each other as our guests departed. No words were spoken, bolts were loaded, and we were off.Pitch 3The Pitch 7 Traverse An hour...

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Tales Of Vertical Trails: The Peoples Route (Voltswagen)

Tales Of Vertical Trails: The Peoples Route (Voltswagen)

We returned the next day with Nate Johnson, and began bolting an easier line up the prow. This was a memorable moment. I was adamant that we push through one pitch of poor rock to reach the higher quality rock above. Andrew was not so sure, but it was his lead....

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