Renland Ice Cap

Renland is a peninsula in eastern Greenland within the Sermersooq region that carries an ice‑cap climate and a landscape of glaciers, fjords and sea cliffs. Its remoteness, heavy ice conditions and coastal walls make it a place for expedition‑scale approaches where polar weather, objective ice hazard and long maritime faces determine the style of climbing rather than short technical sport sequences.

The National Geographic series collected here documents a single extended expedition across Renland’s terrain. Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold: Mega Episode condenses the six‑week project into a narrative that moves from a 1,500‑foot free climb through a traverse of the Renland Ice Cap — which the team attempts after an ice‑fall incident — and finally to the big sea wall objective. The second instalment, Alex Honnold Survives Deadly Ice Falls | Arctic Ascent, focuses on the middle, transport‑and‑hazard portion of the expedition and shows what polar travel looks like when objective danger interrupts an approach. Alex Honnold Climbs a 4,000 Foot Sea Wall (Full Episode) | Arctic Ascent records the team’s attempt on Ingmikortilaq, a roughly 4,000‑foot sea wall, and explicitly pairs climbing operations with glaciologist Heidi Sevestre’s fieldwork.

Together these films are valuable both for the climbing and for the operational detail: you see hauling systems, anchor building on mixed rock and ice, routefinding across an ice cap, and how a scientific program can be integrated into a big‑wall polar expedition.