Adventures during August 13 - 20, 2006

Downloads

Pictures mypictures.zip - All the pictures from my camera - 58 meg sandypictures1.zip and sandypictures2.zip - Pictures from Sandy's camera Audio trip_intro.wma - 403 K kidgoat_intro.wma - 307 K kidgoat_climbing.wma - 1.3 meg lakelouise_intro.wma - 256 K lakelouise_climbing.wma - 927 K lakelouise_after.wma - 648 K wasootchslabs_intro.wma - 312 K wasootchslabs_climbing.wma - 1.1 meg mcgillivrayslabs_lost.wma - recorded by accident - 472 K mcgillivrayslabs_summary.wma - 941 K takakkawfalls_climbing.wma - 1.2 meg grassilakes_climbing.wma - 601 K

Sunday, August 13, 2006

4:00 PM After a long day of traveling, Sandy and I arrived at the Alpine Club of Canada Hostel in Canmore; the heart of the Canadian Rockies. The hostel is much nicer than anywhere I've ever stayed with world class views of the Three Sisters and the infamous Ha Ling Peak. 8:00 PM We ate at the Sage Bistro then prepared for tomorrow's adventures. A thread I started on rockclimbing.com provided lots of good beta for us.

Monday, August 14, 2006

8:00 AM: We choose Twilight Zone (5.6) on Kid Goat as our first climb. This 4 pitch, 490 ft climb is considered a good introduction to Goat Mountain and the Canadian Rockies because it is relatively well protected and has bolted belays. The Rockies are notorious for loose rock, long run outs, difficult route finding and thunderstorms sneaking out of nowhere so we thought it was wise to ease into the climbing. After getting kicked out of the landfill we tried to cut through and having some trouble finding the climb, we roped up for Twilight Zone. 10:30 AM:P1 was easy for a 5.5 by Gunks standards but the protection wasn't what I was use to. 20 ft run outs were the norm rather than the exception. We learned that they weren't kidding about the loose rock when Sandy got hit in the arm by a rock the size of a softball. I don't remember kicking it down but the wind was really strong so who knows where it came from. From the first belay, we had a great view of Yamnuska - "The Crown Jewel of Canadian Rockies Traditional Climbing." Unfortunately, we also had a good view of a helicopter flying by, performing what looked to be a rescue. It's likely that they were just practicing but it made us feel a little uneasy nonetheless. The climbing got a bit more interesting on P2 which climbed a well protected right facing corner. The crux was exiting the corner over an overlap to a nice clean slab with a fist/hand crack in it. A pink tricam protected the move well. A blind right hand sidepull and delicate spears brought you right into the crack that I was able to protect nicely with a #2 and #3 C4. P3 is the crux pitch but is very well protected with a bolt at about your waist. I'm not sure why the bolt is there as a descent #1 C4 can be placed a few feet below it. You enter the crux with a solid left hand on a flake and descent feet. The move is to get up and right onto steeper ground. The right hand is was very difficult to reach; you had to go way out and grab a pincher and carefully work your feet up. Just when you thought the crux was over, it stays hard for another 20 ft or so before it let's up. With the wind really picking up, we had some communication problems while Sandy climbed P3 but nothing that spoiled the day. P4 climbed easily through an unprotectable section with plenty of old (and probably worthless) pitons. At one point, I had a key smear slip off and I almost whipped onto one of the pitons. 4:00 PM: We took the recommended walk off and downclimb for the descent. The 4th class down climbing was a little sketchy but I've experienced much worse. We didn't have enough time to climb Gray Waves (5.8) so we went back to the Hostel. There we meet our other partner for the week, Euge who just returned from climbing in the Bugaboos.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

12:00 PM:We took a leisurely start and went to Lake Louise, the sport climbing Mecca of the Canadian Rockies. You could tell by the crowds that single pitch sport routes are surprisingly popular even though there's real adventure to be had on the multipitch alpine routes just next door. Lake Louise is basically Birdsboro with a million dollar view of a lake and snow covered mountains. We climbed some sport and mixed routes that weren't terribly interesting. One trad line, Rain Dogs (5.5) at the Outhouse area provided some excitement. This single pitch route started off easy and ate all of my small gear up to a .75 C4. I even placed the blue alien which I was able to pull out by hand a few times before I found a good place for it. The crux required some thought and a downclimb or two before I pulled through the right facing corner and roof. The hands were solid but the smears on slippery rock didn't help the confidence. On my first attempt I placed a yellow alien from a strenuous position then down climbed. On the next try, I pulled through the corner to reach the lovely jug above.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

12:00 PM: Since there was a good chance of rain in the afternoon, we decided to stay off the long routes and spend the day at Wasootch Slabs for some single pitch trad lines. The Canadian Army named many of the routes so we climbed routes with names such as B1 and B2. Euge and I both an interesting 5.6 called B3. The crux was a nice big, right facing flake. You could get a descent #3 C4 under the flake but it was too bumpy to be solid so I backed it up with an absolutely bomber passive tricam. So the crux protected well and pulled easy as the flake provided jugs the whole way through. Sandy then lead the more intimidating B4 (5.6). We all lead a 5.7 called Second Corner. This was a big right facing corner with a nice, positive crack where the corner meets the face. The feet were slippery smears most of the way but the hands were generally solid and so was the gear. I was more nervous about it raining on me than about the moves themselves. Just as I prepared to put myself on rappel, it started raining. Good timing! The rain actually cleared up quickly and we were able to climb several bolted slab routes to finish the day. 7:00 PM: Euge and I checked out Mt. Indefatigable to see how wet it would be for tomorrow. We wanted to climb a 10 pitch 5.4+ slab route called Joy. The bear warnings and wet conditions didn't make it too appealing. We ate dinner at the Grizzly Paw Brewery.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Because of its short approach, we spent the day at McGillivray Slabs. Armed with some descent beta, we headed for Kahl Crack (5.5), a 5 pitch trad line. We started on what I believe was too far left of it and found out exactly what it's like to climb on lose rock. The few (well really only one) pieces of protection I could find would have broke the rock right off. The hand and foot holds literally crumbled out from under us. We knew we were off route and once we were a pitch up, I had my eyes on Kahl Crack and traversed up and right. The route provided much more solid rock but the protection was still poor. An old piton and a #2 C4 with two lobes cammed and the other two just sitting there provided my only protection for P2. I was overjoyed to find the single bolt belay at the top of P2. P3 provided slightly better protection with two passive tricams and two pitons but the climbing was still uninteresting. Instead of climbing P4 and P5 of Kahl, I traversed right to the last pitch of Morningside (5.5). This provided some nice slab climbing on clean rock with bolts only 15 ft apart! We considered trying to top out but once again the rock crumbled out from under me again so we decided to rappel. We had some adventure but in retrospect we should have climbed Morningside the whole way up and it looked like an amazingly line when we rappelled down it.

Friday, August 18, 2006

6:00 AM: We got up early to tackle the 12 pith Takakkaw Falls Route (5.6). This route climbs next to the 2nd tallest waterfall in Canada. We almost didn't do it as the topo made route finding look difficult. After closer inspection, we pick it over Joy since it had bolted anchors that would make retreat much easier if we moved too slowly. 8:30 AM: After a long car ride, the approach was a short but strenuous climb up the steep scree slope. Euge lead the first 5 pitches, which were in the 5.2 to 5.4 range. He did a nice job of route finding and navigating around the wet P5. He then turned the rest of the climb over to me for the 5.6 sections though he certainly could have lead the rest himself. P6 was a race against the clock as the rock was getting wetter as we climbed. It was fairly dry when I started the lead but it was a slip and slide by the time Sandy and Euge got on it. The pitch took good gear and felt a little soft for a 6. The next pitch of interest was P8 which rivals High Exposure as one of the best 5.6 pitches in my book. P8 climbs right next (literally) to the waterfall which was loud and intimidating. 3 bolts protected the 100 ft pitch. The protection didn't seem that bad compared to the 80 ft run out on P9. P9 was only 5.2 so it didn't feel bad at all. P10 took a few pieces of gear but they were all garbage. In retrospect, I should have linked P9 and P10 together so I could use the bolted anchors to avoid a fall factor 2 for P10. Anyways, P10 lead us to this really cool cave that is over 300 ft long and a few feet high. We crawled through it to arrive above the waterfall. The cave got so tight in spots that Euge had to take off his pack and I took off the rack - and everyone I climb with knows I don't let that thing out of my site! The "summit" was way cool. I'd put it up there with Seneca. Euge smiled like a kid in a candy store. We reversed the cave and rappelled down the route. By the luck of God, our ropes didn't get stuck and we made it back to the car by 6:30pm.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

11:00 AM: After our big day on Friday, we decided to have a leisurely day sport climbing at Grassi Lakes. A short drive and short approach lead to the steep, pocketed climbs. We spent most of our time at the Gardener's Wall climbing between 5.8 and 5.10. Some of the "kiddy routes" had the bolts so close together that you could clip two bolts from one stance! We found the ratings to be a bit soft and the climbing to be basically jug hauls. The area was more crowded than my gym. The Gardener's Wall sports about 10 times and at one point, there were almost 20 people there! To finish the day, Sandy lead a very steep 11a called Meathooks. 4:00 PM: We spent the rest of the doing touristy things like checking out the Hot Springs in Banff which were actually kind of gross. Of course, we couldn't go a whole trip without sushi, so we ate at Chef's Studio Japan.