California climber leads first-known ascent of one of the tallest sea cliffs on Earth

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Danish meteorologist Steffen Olsen snapped a mesmerizing photo of his band of sled dogs walking on thin ice, across a frozen sea that has become flooded with melted glacial waters. Olsen was making the trek through northwest Greenland along the Inglefield Gulf, which is normally covered with ice and snow, but was flooded with running water from the melting Greenland ice sheet. Experts say the image is indicative of the planet’s climate crisis.

World-class climbers Alex Honnold and Hazel Findlay just completed a never-been-done-before rock climb.

Sacramento-born Honnold, along with Findlay, who is originally from the U.K., took on a massive sea cliff located in eastern Greenland’s Nordvestfjord — one of the tallest rock faces on the planet.

The climb was the first-known ascent of the 3,750-foot rock formation called Ingmikortilaq, translated to "the separate one" in Greenlandic.

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Ingmikortilaq is composed of 3-million-year-old granite and gneiss and juts upward from a remote peninsula, National Geographic told Fox News Digital.

Composed of three-million year old gneiss, Ingmikortilaq presented the climbers with numerous challenges—loose rock, holds breaking off in their hands, and slick marble-like surfaces that required extra grip strength to hang on. (Photograph by James Smith, National Geographic for Disney+)

Honnold and Findlay traveled to the base of the cliff via dinghy on Aug. 11, 2022, where they began their initial ascent.

The pair navigated an expert route up the steepest portion of the rock face reaching its nearly 4,000-foot peak — three times the height of the Empire State Building, according to a National Geographic report.

Honnold described the formation as a "horrendous, death-defying wall" to National Geographic, and the terrain proved to be more dangerous than anticipated.

Alex Honnold described the formation as a "horrendous, death-defying wall." (Photograph by J.J. Kelley, National Geographic for Disney+)

Over the five-day expedition, the pair encountered treacherous, icy weather conditions, sudden storms and loose rock.

The climbers were able to camp out throughout the trip on what is known as a "shiver bivvy" by safely clipping themselves into their sleeping bags overnight.

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Once the climbers reached the last 150 feet of the climb, they found it was safe enough to walk up the summit and finish the trek without ropes.

Honnold and Findlay discuss the route they plan to follow up the wall. "It’s so big," Honnold said, "you had to lie down to look at it. It seemed like it was going to be kind of too much." (Photograph by J.J. Kelley, National Geographic for Disney+)

Honnold and Findlay finally reached the summit of Ingmikortilaq on Aug. 16, 2022.

"It is definitely one of the biggest first ascents I’ve ever done — and one of the most stressful due to how dangerous the climbing was," Honnold said via satellite phone, according to NatGeo.

Prior to the historic climb, the team was joined by Dr. Heïdi Sevestre, a glaciologist working with the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, who trekked to the Ingmikortilaq location to perform a "health check" on the area's ice caps.

After a week on the wall, Alex Honnold and Hazel Findlay reached the summit of Ingmikortilaq. Afterward, Honnold said, "Hazel and I both thought it was the most serious thing of its kind that we’d ever done." (Photograph by Matt Pycroft, National Geographic for Disney+)

The scientist and team ascended a 1,500-foot monolith known as the Pool Wall to access the edge of the Renland Ice Cap to study ice depth and density.

Ingmikortilaq, also considered "ground zero of the climate crisis" by National Geographic, holds essential data for the scientific community to learn more about the rate of polar ice melt and other insight.

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While climate impact motivated Honnold to embark on the journey, the climb will also be featured on the upcoming original series "On the Edge with Alex Honnold" from National Geographic for Disney+.