The climbing world has been stunned by the news of Sindre Saether's free ascent of Arch Wall, a rarely repeated, legendary line up the centre of Romsdal's iconic Troll Wall.
Climbing the highest part of Norway's Trollveggen, the huge, largely north-facing wall between Trollryggen and Store Trolltind in the Romsdal Valley, the 1,200m-high Arch Wall is often wet, loose and considered possibly the hardest route of its type in the country.
A free ascent has been hailed as perhaps the most impressive in the history of summer climbing in Norway.
When Arch Wall was climbed by Ed and Hugh Drummond in 1972 it was arguably one of the most demanding big wall routes in the World.
Ed and Hugh were completely unrelated but, coincidentally, met and climbed together while students at Bristol University.
Together in the UK they put up a number of classic routes at the Avon Gorge and made notable repeats, such as the second ascent of The Boldest on Cloggy.
But while in 1972 Ed was in his prime, Hugh had spent some time away from hard climbing, teaching English in Mexico City.
Once committed to the wall - in the days before portaledges - the two were plagued by typical Norwegian harsh summer storms. Although they conserved supplies during delays on the route, they still had to climb the last three days without food or water.
The pair eventually topped out after 21 days, dangerously hypothermic and with Hugh's feet frostbitten. The ordeal required inspired leading by Ed, and involved bold and extensive skyhooking. Completing the route in 41 pitches, they assessed the technical difficulties at A5 with some free climbing to British 5b.
The route was not repeated until 1989 when it was climbed by Norwegian Aslak Aastrop and American Thomas Cosgriff (resident in Norway), both highly experienced big wall climbers.
They confirmed the grade at 5.11a and A4+, and completed the route after nine days on the wall.
The third ascent was an impressive 'tour de force' by the strong Polish trio of Jacek Fluder, Janusz Golab and Stanislaw Piecuch. These three made the first winter ascent over 12 days in February-March 1994.
They found numerous difficult sections of blank rock and overhanging grooves that could only be climbed on RURPs and skyhooks. The highly accomplished and experienced Poles found the climb incomparable with any other big wall route in Europe.
The visionary Cosgriff is reported to have said that a free ascent might be possible but would require a lot of cleaning and an extremely bold climber.
Enter Sindre Saether, not only an extremely bold climber with a good head for big walls, but also one of the best sport climbers in Norway, having redpointed 8c+ and on-sighted 8b.
Although he prefers to climb hard in the mountains with close friends, Norwegians feel that if Saether competed in national bouldering championships, he would finish in the top three.
In 2008, partnered as usual on big climbs by his father Ole Johan, Saether made the first free ascent of the Norwegian Route (originally VI and A2/3) further left on the face.
He followed this in 2009 with a then astonishing first free ascent of the French Direct route, which has seen few repeats since its ascent in 1967 by the all-star team of Yves Boussard, Jerome Brunet, Patrick Cordier, Claude Deck and Jean Frehel.
A topo in the year 2000 rated this 37-pitch route at 5.10c and A4, but the Saethers climbed it in two days on their second attempt at 5.12b.
Currently, Saether has not commented publicly on his assessment of the free grade of Arch Wall, but it is believed it involved making runouts of 15m above poor protection from Birdbeaks.
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