July 13, 2009
Dave Turner Solos Huge Baffin Route

Californian Dave Turner capped a 65-day expedition to Sam Ford Fjord on Canada's Baffin Island with a solo, 39-hour, single-push ascent of a 4,750-foot new route on Broad Peak. Turner climbed the elegant north arête and headwall of the 6,000-foot granite-walled mountain, with no bolts and no stop for a bivouac. The route went at VI 5.10 A3 60°. He descended the south ridge and gully, the only previously established route on Broad Peak.

In early 2008, Turner soloed the first complete ascent of the east face of Cerro Escudo in Patagonia, a feat that helped earn him the Robert Hicks Bates Award for outstanding young climber from the American Alpine Club. Turner's Baffin trip was supported in part by a Lyman Spitzer Cutting-Edge Award from the AAC.