This late August, Pete Whittaker, the notorious crack specialist, and OG Wide Boy, achieved the first free ascent of “Eigerdosis,” a 5.14b trad climb located in Norway.
This climb had been in Pete’s mind for some time, and he finally conquered it after projecting it since April. “Eigerdosis” is a monster climb located on the Profile Wall in Jøssingfjord, Norway, known for its difficulty and challenging nature.
Whittaker is no stranger to the climbs in this area, having called Norway his home for a while now. In 2019 he climbed “The Recovery Drink” (8c+/5.14c) which at the moment, was considered one of the most difficult cracks in the world. That is the time when Eigerdosis also started to take shape in Pete’s imagination.
Eigerdosis was first climbed by Hans Jørgen Moe and Trym Atle Saeland in 1996 and has been freed in two sections. In reality, Pete himself only climbed the second harder half of Eigerdosis, the lower part which was first freed by his girlfriend, Mari Salvesen, back in 2019, and now considered “the warmup”, going at 7b.
The difficulty of this climb came from the steepness and sustained effort. As the route has good gear placement he felt relieved from the mental pressure of finding the perfect spot for protection as it usually happens in trad and could concentrate on the send.
According to Pete, the route itself represents a series of boulder problems with resting points here and there, good enough not to be a pump fest. He said that the main obstacle, as there is no specific crux point, is simply linking the problems together.
When talking about the process, Whittaker said in an interview for UK Climbing that projecting was “a bit of a pain” because of the placement of the pitch, which was steep with no ledges plus the unstable weather.
Regarding Eigerdosis, Pete’s plans don’t stop here, even if he’s already achieved one heck of a climb. Starting this month, he plans on finding a way to climb the route starting from the ground and eliminating the rest in the middle of the route, making it “the ultimate pump fest”.
With this final pitch free-climbed, Whittaker has solved all of the major routes on the Profile Wall, his project that he started working on in 2019.
Featured image: Photo by Jaime Merin/@jimmy.merin
