Will Gadd and Sarah Hueniken tame The Mustang at Vail, Colorado

The spectacular 30-meter horizontal roof traverse combines three existing routes, namely Seventh Tentacle (WI5 M6, Jeff Lowe 1994) and Reptile (M10, Will Gadd 1988) before finishing up the The Flying Fortress (M13, Will Mayo 2012) and was first ascended by Will Mayo in 2014 and subsequently repeated by Korea’s Kwon Young-Hye. Graded M14-, it is considered one of the most difficult drytooling routes in the world.

In making her ascent Hueniken has become the first North American woman to climb this grade, marking another important progression in her ice climbing after having previously become the first to climb M11, then M12 and then M13. The Canadian mountain guide is one of the few women to have established ice climbs at Helmcken Falls and many will remember her for the ascent, together with Gadd, of the Niagara Falls last year.