Breaking: Dean Potter Free Solos Eiger’s North Face

ClimbingNarc is breaking some news that Dean Potter has successfully free soloed the North Face of The Eiger!  That is one huge climb and to do it with no ropes is quite insane..

Dean Potter was actually being filmed for this climb by Sender Films.  Potter’s amazing free-solo ascent will be used in an upcoming Sender Films video titled “The Sharp End“.  Sender Films had this to say on their blog post:

The climbing world has been waiting for somebody to try this. For Dean Potter, it was the next step in his progression beyond the known limits of climbing.

This week, Dean successfully free soloed the route Deep Blue Sea on the north face of The Eiger. It’s 600 feet of gently overhanging limestone with a 5.12+ crux, which posed a huge risk of falling. To overcome the risk element, Potter employed his old safety: super-light B.A.S.E. rig, which, if he fell, and stuck the right position, would save him from death.

As you read from the Sender Films post, Dean was carrying a B.A.S.E. rig during this climb just in case something might go wrong.  There is always a very high risk, especially while scaling a 600 ft wall with no ropes, that something could go wrong.  Luckily, Dean made it.

Once to the top of The Eiger, Dean casually walked to the edge and took a dive-that is right.  The crazy Dean Potter base jumped off The Eiger.  Which he also landed.

A big congrats goes to Dean for this amazingly daring feat and for showing the world why he is one of the most exciting and daring climbers active today.

From Climbing.com:

On August 6, Potter free-soloed the gently overhanging limestone route wearing a five pound BASE jumping rig on his back. He traversed into the climb along a natural ledge that comes off the northwest arête of The Eiger and soloed the final 600 foot headwall with 5.12+ crux moves at the top of the formation. Dean opted to bypass the lower pitches because they feature loose rock and, should a fall occur, there would not be time to deploy the BASE chute before encountering a 50-foot ledge that protrudes from the bottom of the climb. Below the ledge, the wall falls away for an additional 2,000 feet, leaving open the option of a 15 second flight from higher on the wall.

It is also being mention that Dean Potter’s climb will also be featured in an upcoming episode of JEEP’s World of Adventure Sports on October 11, 2008.

The route Dean climbed is known as Deep Blue Sea.

The video found with this article comes from the upcoming Sender Films release “The Sharp End”.  It looks to be another amazing film by the current leaders in sport climb filming.  I may just have to order this one.

Click Below for a Sender Flims “The Sharp End” sneak peak.