MIDGARD PEAK (Hemisphere) 2790m
Midgard represented, to the Norsemen, that realm between the heavens and the underworld, that is, the Earth. It is the westernmost of the Mulvey peaks.
1. FRA 1959, route unknown
2. Southeast Ridge. There are some rappel stations on this route, and it is more difficult than previously rated. Route 3 has some details (second paragraph). (I,3-4).
FRA Bob Dean, 1966.
3. East Face. Ascend the east face up an obvious gully-shaped weakness in the middle of the face above
FRA Bert Port, Howie Ridge, Peter Wood, 7/1972.
From the Nisleheim-Midgard col, follow the southeast ridge a bit before skirting around on a cairned ledge on the south side that goes to the scramble section of the southeast ridge.
Then traverse north across moderate snow to under the middle right of the east face.
Pitch 1. Start at a large ledge a little above the highest snow that is reached by ascending a tricky left-facing corner (A1 with ice ax). Climb beautifully clean slabs to the base of the obvious left-facing corner in the center-right of the face. Climb the corner to just below a large roof, to a small ledge. (50m, 5.5)
Pitch 2 (kaleidoscope pitch; pyrite). Ascend the corner to the roof, traverse left to pass it, and continue up another left-facing corner (tricky protection). Where the corner starts to change into a gully-like feature, move right for protection. Continue up a rib right of the gully to a large ledge. (50m,5.5; tri-cam at the start)
Pitch 3. Ascend ledgy terrain directly to the top. (40m, 5.2) (I,5.5,s). From the parking lot, it rates a III.
4. North Ridge. Attain the north ridge from the bowl between it and Asgard. Neither Route 2 nor 4 presents much technical (I,3).
FRA Rosemary Coupe, Peter and Wendy van den Porten, 26/6/1973.
5. West. Begin at the pass between the east summit of Mount Prestley and Midgard, and scramble 150 meters in the center of the west face until stopped by a blank wall. Turn left (north) and ascend a diagonal ramp (Class 5.2) until the ramp ends on the northwest ridge. Scramble up the ridge to the summit, for about 2 hours. (II,5.2).
FRA Steven Horvath, Kim Kratky, 4/10/1980.
6. Southeast (Winter ascent.) The route is in the prominent southeast gully (probably facing northeast) which was mixed hard snow and ice, and was soloed in crampons. The party exited from the gully to the summit ridge at the first possible cleft beside the prominent overhang above the south face. Three roped, belayed, pitches were required.
Ice (II, 5.0,s).
FRA Stephen Fuller, Blair and Mark Griffiths, Jan. 6, 1981.
EAST FACE of MIDGARD, July 15 by Doug Brown
On a beautiful and sunny Saturday, July 15, 2006, René LeBel and I climbed the East Face of Midgard Peak 34 years after Bert, Howie, and Peter first climbed it. For me, the day started with a couple of hours of wind sprints trying, in vain, to keep up with Monsieur LeBel. We reached the Gimli bivi site at 1:20 with me coughing up bits of lung as we stopped for a wee break, as I think René feared I was about to have a coronary.
We continued around to the Gimli-Nisleheim col and descended a short distance down on the north side, from where we traversed to the Nisleheim-Midgard col. From the col we followed Midgard’s SE ridge up for a bit before skirting around on a cairned ledge on the south side that delivered us to the base of the scramble section of the SE ridge. Here we traversed north across moderate snow to under the middleright of the east face.
The route was easy to find – the highest snow ended directly below a very obvious light-coloured left-facing corner in the middle right of the face. We scrambled up a short corner that proved harder than it looked – René educated me in the fine art of dry-tooling – to a big ledge where we had some more food before roping up. Seeing as René had the hardest leads of our last two climbs, I gave him the first lead this time as it looked easy. Beautifully clean slabs of wonderfully textured and decorated Valhalla gneiss led to the base of the aforementioned corner, which René climbed for 20 m to a belay stance under a big roof – the pitch was fun, but harder than I thought it had looked. I took over the rack as I looked up at the roof overhead that had suddenly grown to an enormous size – and I seriously questioned my sense of fair play. René, the joker he is, told me to get a piece soon as he wasn’t totally happy with his anchor. I suspect he just wanted to see me whimper (which usually takes far less than such a remark). Luckily for both of us, I did manage to quickly place a tri-cam on this hard-to-protect pitch. A few moves up to the base of the roof, and I was able to traverse left and pick up another left-facing corner. I climbed the enjoyable corner with rock that alternated between solid and compact, and a bit on the loose side, neither of which was conducive to good gear placements. It is amazing how a bit of a run-out can make 5.5 feel considerably harder. I called this the kaleidoscope pitch, as there was an amazing range of colours in the rock; this was probably the first time I’ve climbed on pyrite. When the corner tilted to the right and began to fade into a gully-like feature, I moved right in the hope of finding some pro and maybe eventually a belay stance. With a little effort, I was able to find both and brought René up. The final pitch was enjoyable easy climbing on ledgy terrain, that surprised us both by ending right at the summit cairn.
It was 2:20, so the trip from the truck had taken us 6:20. I felt a modern rating would probably bump the FA rating of 5.3 up a couple of grades. But I’ve been called a weenie more than once in the past. We enjoyed an hour on top, studying Asgard trying to psyche ourselves up for another Howie route: the SW ridge.
We started down the “3rd class” south ridge of Midgard, and as we began to scramble past several rappel stations, we started to wonder if it had been premature to switch back to our mountain boots on the summit. We left the boots on, but did eventually rap a short exposed section using some tat that René had harvested higher up. Pretty stiff class 3, I think. The rest of the journey back to the truck passed quickly and without incident. Another very fine day in the Valhallas.
The blow-by-blow of the technical pitches:
P1: Start at a large ledge a little above the highest snow that is reached by ascending a tricky left-facing corner (1 point of aid with the ice axe). Climb beautifully clean slabs to the base of the obvious left-facing corner in the centre-right of the face. Climb the corner to a reasonable station on a small ledge just below a large roof. 50m, 5.5.
P2: Ascend the corner to the roof, traverse left to pass the roof, and continue up the corner. Where the corner starts to fade into a gully-like feature, move a bit right for pro. Continue up a rib right of the gully to a large ledge and good station. 50 m, 5.5. Tricky pro.
P3: Ascend ledgy terrain directly to the summit cairn. 40 m, 5.2.
Doug Brown
