clmbrlifr

Paul Gagner

rock and alpine climber

Blue collar climbing. Adventure. Freedom. Passion. Expeditions from Cerro Torre to Denali and Baffin Island and the Himalayas. Big walls, boulders, rock and ice. Forty+ years of experience and a lifetime’s worth of stories. Follow along!

Baffin Island 1995: Big walls are what I call “blue collar” climbing. They are a ton of work - manual labor. We fixed ropes almost 1,000’ of rope to a big ledge we called Mastadon Terrace (after Mammoth Terrace on El Cap). At that

Baffin Island 1995: we carried gear and fixed ropes on the lower 1,000 feet of Walker Citadel for a week or so, which meant we would cross the ice daily to and from our camp. Remember, this is the ocean, and therefore subject to tidal action. These

Baffin Island 1995: So off to work it was. After arriving at where we set-up our Basecamp we spent a few days getting familiar with the area and using binoculars to piece together a route. Since we were some of the first non-native people to visit t

Baffin Island 1995: Walking on water. @conrad_anker recommended we bring rubber boots with us, and they were money. After Joshua left we were on our own, hundreds of miles away from any form of civilization. We were broke and unable to afford a sat

Baffin Island 1995: For some reason my caption from yesterday didn’t post - weird. Anyway, after 10 frigid hours traveling into Sam Ford Fjord we finally got to see what we came for - huge 4,000 big walls. First ascents everywhere. However our

Baffin Island 1995: After flying into the small Inuit settlement, Clyde River, we immediately packed our gear so we could leave the next day. We had well over a hundred miles to go to get up to Sam Ford Fjord and we were packing camping gear, big wa

A few weeks back I asked if you would like to hear more about the exploratory trip Rick Lovelace and I took to the east coast of Baffin Island in 1995. I got a resounding yes, so here goes. Back then, 25 years ago, Sam Ford Fjord was an unknown locat

Getting out. Having fun. Staying safe. As we roll into summer, have fun, but stay alert at ALL times. 📸 @sstroeer #climbing #bigwall #elcapitan #staysafe @metoliusclimbing @fiveten_official @guenergylabs