NORTH
BASE
CLIMBING AND JUMPING THE
SIX NORTH FACES OF THE ALPS
NORTH
BASE
CLIMBING AND JUMPING THE
SIX NORTH FACES OF THE ALPS
Project North BASE
Tim Howell of the Jöttnar Pro Team becomes the first person to climb and BASE jump the Six Great North Faces of the Alps.
The 1938 route on the north face of the Eiger was my first big alpine route. I could see the famous ‘mushroom’ rock feature during my ascent, which I knew was a popular BASE exit. As I was learning to wingsuit BASE at the time, I resolved there and then to return and jump from it.
As my BASE experience progressed, I knew that most of the mountains comprising the classic six north faces of the Alps had already been jumped, but I learned that no-one had ever completed all the climbs as well as the summit jumps.
This became my goal.
And so last Thursday, touching down on the moraine beneath the hulking north face of the Matterhorn, I became the first person to climb and jump all of the six north faces. Project North BASE was complete.
Project North BASE
Tim Howell of the Jöttnar Pro Team becomes the first person to climb and BASE jump the Six Great North Faces of the Alps.
The 1938 route on the north face of the Eiger was my first big alpine route. I could see the famous ‘mushroom’ rock feature during my ascent, which I knew was a popular BASE exit. As I was learning to wingsuit BASE at the time, I resolved there and then to return and jump from it.
As my BASE experience progressed, I knew that most of the mountains comprising the classic six north faces of the Alps had already been jumped, but I learned that no-one had ever completed all the climbs as well as the summit jumps.
This became my goal.
And so last Thursday, touching down on the moraine beneath the hulking north face of the Matterhorn, I became the first person to climb and jump all of the six north faces. Project North BASE was complete.
THE SIX NORTH FACES OF THE ALPS
Cold, steep, forbidding. Alpine north face climbing has long represented the ultimate in technical and psychological difficulty. Of them all, ascents of the Eiger, Matterhorn, Grandes Jorasses, Dru, Piz Badille and Cima Grande, collectively known as the Six North Faces, are alpine climbing's most coveted.
Even though first collectively climbed by a single person in 1954, an ascent of any one continues to be a rite of passage for elite mountaineers today.
THE SIX NORTH FACES OF THE ALPS
Cold, steep, forbidding. Alpine north face climbing has long represented the ultimate in technical and psychological difficulty. Of them all, ascents of the Eiger, Matterhorn, Grandes Jorasses, Dru, Piz Badille and Cima Grande, collectively known as the Six North Faces, are alpine climbing's most coveted.
Even though first collectively climbed by a single person in 1954, an ascent of any one continues to be a rite of passage for elite mountaineers today.