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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Dec 14, 2011 - 11:22am PT
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This is a shot of Mt. Odin, taken from Weasel Valley just a few miles from the fjord-head -- i.e. it's pretty easy to get to. Valley bottom is at sea level, summit is 7,020, and there's not a lot of elevation in the approach.
It's not one continuous vertical wall, but it's granite from base to summit, and mostly real steep. It has been climbed, but I think only by gully and ridge. I don't think anyone's tried to do it the hard way. Most people just march past, intent on the big-name objectives up-valley.
Just for reference, the smaller peak on the left, which had no name when I was there, tops out at about 4,500. Which is to say it's almost half again bigger than El Cap, and it looks pretty steep to me. Gives some idea of the foreshortening of Odin. The inukshuk in the foreground is the arctic circle marker.
And for those who think Mt. Thor is not that big, that it's only 3,000 ft or so, here's the west face, taken from the summit of Mt. Tyr, across the valley. Valley floor here is probably around 400 ft. Summit is over 5,000. You do the math.
These are just a couple of things that are easy to get to. There is close to 700 miles of stuff like this, in a range called the Penny Highlands. One valley after another, endlessly. If you dropped Yosemite Valley in there somewhere, you'd never find it again. Or think much of it if you did. (Not to dis Yosemite Valley, but just to point out that there are other places in the world with steep cliffs.)
Edit: That face on Jannu is almost unbelievable.
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Caveman
climber
Cumberland Plateau
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Dec 14, 2011 - 01:04pm PT
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"And for those who think Mt. Thor is not that big, that it's only 3,000 ft or so, here's the west face, taken from the summit of Mt. Tyr, across the valley. Valley floor here is probably around 400 ft. Summit is over 5,000. You do the math."
Thor may be 8000' tall but it took 3300' of rope to reach from top of cliff to the base of cliff/top of talus in 1982. In 2006 cavers took another long rope and rappelled from top to somewhere down the talus. They achieved a longer rap by tensioning the rope out away from the cliff to get more distance down the talus. In 1982 we were looking for pure freefall drop. We could have done this also as we had 1 mile length of rope. Our estimates were approximately 3300 ft freefall.
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Dec 14, 2011 - 04:35pm PT
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Always found this fairly amusing. The route we climbed on Great Trango is overall steeper than vertical (the lower half was overhanging, while the upper half is pure vertical), and is 1350 meters (measured by total length of rappels). The Norwegian Route is less than vertical for the first half, but is well over 1500 meters.
The east face of GT is overall steeper than Thor. Some pundit calling it "nearly vertical" is pretty laughable.
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laughingman
Mountain climber
Seattle WA
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Dec 14, 2011 - 04:48pm PT
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Aksu in the Pamirs
Bhagirathi III
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johnkelley
climber
Anchorage Alaska
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Dec 14, 2011 - 05:48pm PT
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Jim Beyer soloed new lines on both Trango Tower and Mount Thor, ask him.
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the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
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Dec 14, 2011 - 05:54pm PT
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I think you really need to define "longest" wall to get an accurate answer.
continuous vertical drop:
I think pure continuous vertical drop is perhaps the easiest objective measurement. If you drop a rope and it hangs free, where does it touch the rock below. It sounds like Thor is currently the record holder that has actually been measured by this standard.
overall vertical drop:
The East Face of Trango sounds like the largest vertical drop, but perhaps not continuous. It sounds like the top is vertical (however even if is was overall vertical I would think protuberances would touch a fee hanging rope interrupting a pure vertical drop) but then the Gollum gully is less than vertical (interrupting a continuous vertical drop?)then the lower half is overhanging, bringing the overall steepness of the wall to vertical (making up for less than vertical in Gollum Gully) but not continuous.
After this it gets subjective.
Longest big wall by 5th class climbing:
Who defines 5th class? What if Honnold solos it? :-)
Longest big wall of at least 80 or 85 degrees?
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Dec 14, 2011 - 05:55pm PT
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Did he do it in a push? Did he BASE jump from the top?
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Gene
climber
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Dec 14, 2011 - 05:56pm PT
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Jim Beyer soloed new lines on both Trango Tower and Mount Thor, ask him.
Are you sure about the Trango part of that statement? I've never heard of that.
g
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laughingman
Mountain climber
Seattle WA
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Dec 14, 2011 - 06:03pm PT
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Latok 2 as a huge big wall
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Dec 14, 2011 - 06:12pm PT
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I believe Beyer did a bold route up a imposing wall across the valley from the Trango Group (on the Dungee), but I'm not sure if he ever wrote it up--maybe in the AAC--would have been before 1992. Don't think he ever climbed GT or Nameless.
Regarding Great Trango--for those who speculate without ever having seen it--if you were on the East Face, perhaps 30 meters down from the summit rim (the summit rim is rounded and kicks back a bit), and dropped a carabiner, it would land about 30 meters out from the base after falling 1200 meters. When we began our route, there was a massive rockfall from somewhere about 3/4 up the face. We saw these blocks-each the size of a VW combi van--spin slowly above us, getting larger and larger--we could tell they were falling straight above us, as they were only getting bigger without any side motion. We figured we were cooked, and bowed to brace death. But they landed about 25 meters directly out behind us, in the Ali Baba Couloir. A huge, momentary blizzard ensued. They were directly in line with us, but luckily, the wall overhung.
That's how I know it is an overall overhanging big wall.
You can read about the rockfall here: http://bigwalls.net/climb/Grand.html
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Gene
climber
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Dec 14, 2011 - 06:18pm PT
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Beyer is bold, no doubt.
On Uli Biaho Nick Cradock's New Zealand party was successful, and in the Baltoro Cathedrals Jim Beyer (USA) claimed a solo ascent of Thunmo (5 866m). From a camp on the Dunge glacier he started with three difficult aid pitches, taking three days. These were fixed, but the face above was climbed alpine-style; he took nine days to climb 600m of 'big-wall' rock and l000m of mixed ground, in all graded VII 5. IOd A4. This sounds like the most extraordinary feat of the season. http://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1990-91_files/AJ%201990%20238-241%20Karakoram.pdf
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the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
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Dec 14, 2011 - 08:15pm PT
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John that's badass. I read the Grand story years ago. One of my favorite TRs of all Time.
You could just update the wikipedia entry if you wanted. You have first hand experience that could improve the accuracy of the article.
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Dec 15, 2011 - 12:04am PT
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you know, I think I did a few years ago, when the claim of "nearly vertical 1250 meters" appeared, but it was re-edited by some Wikipedia "expert".
After some study and having been to each region, I reckon it goes like this (tallest vertical drops):
East Face Great Trango (4200') (total vertical to summit=4400')
Polar Sun Spire (3800')
Thor (3300')
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Storflor
Mountain climber
Trondheim
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Feb 26, 2013 - 02:07pm PT
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Troll wall-Norway is over 1000m and is Europe biggest wall, think the elevation is 1.7km.
and it is vertical/overhanging
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Feb 26, 2013 - 02:23pm PT
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The South Face of Anconcogua in South America is 8000m of vertical gain from glacier to summit.
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Don Paul
Big Wall climber
Colombia, South America
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Feb 26, 2013 - 02:29pm PT
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Most of the world's biggest walls are in Pakistan, but are not named in this thread. Most are mixed snow and ice, like the Rupal face, not nice clean faces like Thor etc. Bhagirathi 3 gets my vote even if its not technically biggest.
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Myles Moser
climber
Lone Pine, Ca
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Apr 13, 2013 - 02:08am PT
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Whoops!
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Caveman
climber
Cumberland Plateau
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Apr 13, 2013 - 04:23pm PT
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"you know, I think I did a few years ago, when the claim of "nearly vertical 1250 meters" appeared, but it was re-edited by some Wikipedia "expert"."
Deuce4, I tried to correct the 1250 m claim also but wiki was quickly re-edited. I imagine certain folk access that page frequently to check on things.
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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Apr 13, 2013 - 05:18pm PT
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The biggest big wall is the one having the most meters.
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