In summer 2019 Jacob, Thor, Zack and myself spent six weeks on Baffin Island, in the far northeast corner of Canada and about 200 miles across the Bay from Greenland. While out there we managed to climb some big mountain faces – some new lines and some old – and accessed these mountains by paddling the ocean fjord and glacier-fed river in packrafts. How do I sum up six weeks of adventure in one story? I’ve put together a series of moments — a diary of sorts.

I had always been a bit sceptical about the inflatable canoes, but it wasn’t until we began strapping all thirteen packs and four barrels into our strange “blue banana boats” that the full reality began to set in. The van dropping us off had left in a cloud of dust, leaving only the sound of the river. Over a hundred miles of dirt road lay between us and the nearest highway. The only way out now was down-river…on the banana boats.

On November 8th 2018, I stood on the summit of El Capitan in Yosemite, California, after free climbing the route Freerider over 5 days. With Jacob supporting me, I led the crux pitches and weighted the rope only three times over the 3000ft of climbing, lowering down and sending each pitch after. It almost felt easy! But really it wasn’t easy. It was a battle, a 4-year epic battle…

"Eeet iz errrr... how you say?... F*cked." Said the French mechanic. We stood looking forlornly at the broken Landrover. We'd made it about 700km down France to just North of Lyon. Ian and my epic Verdon adventure plans were rapidly collapsing before our eyes.

Upon arriving in Greenland, Ian and I spent a week sat on the dock in Illulisat waiting for our boat, the "Cosmic Dancer" to show up. Our friends Tom, Peter and sailors Clive and Angela had sailed the boat across the Labrador sea from Canada. Due to some small, pesky things like force 9 gales, they were delayed. We invented some jokes:

“Knock Knock”

“Who’s there?”

“Not the Cosmic Dancer!”