Alpine Style - Canadian Rockies

Kahveology

jon walsh — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 04:47:10 +0000

KAHVEOLOGY - (The science of coffee)
160m, M8 WI5 First ascent by Jon Simms and Jon Walsh, Jan 23rd, 2015

Simms on the approach

Jonny “the Simmulator” Simms and I had a good Man Yoga practice at the Storm Creek Headwall, in Kootenay National Park. Despite much thinner that usual ice-conditions this year, the end result was Kahveology, a new 4-pitch mixed route, that’s essentially the direct start to final ice pillar of Check Your Head, another route I co-authored a couple years ago with Jason Kruk and Joshua Lavigne. Kahveology means the Science of coffee, and it’s a also a company in Portland that named one of their coffee blends Man Yoga, after the route on the Stanley Headwall that Simms and I authored, and Joshua Lavigne made an entertaining video of. We were so honoured they named the main blend served in their shop after us, we named our latest route after them, to complete the circle, as well as a thank you for sending some of their crucial beans our way! Being the serious coffee fiend that I am, I would definitely drink it all the time if it was closer to home.

Crucial coffee in necessary for Man Yoga

Anyways, while descending from Check Your Head by headlamp, straight down, rather than reversing a couple traverses we had made, I couldn’t help but notice the immaculate, featured, overhanging limestone that directly lead to a tongue of ice that slithered halfway down it, flowing from the pillar. What particularly caught my eye was the abundance of natural protection, somewhat rare for a steeper-than-vertical angle, and I immediately planned to come back someday to attempt it.

Through the crux of the first pitch

That finally came a week ago, as Michelle and I skied up there on a cold day. I did get on it, but unfortunately, couldn’t make it go bolt free, like I’d been dreaming about. The route starts with about ten meters of easy stuff to get to the back of a cave. Unsurprisingly, the back of the cave was chossy, and I had to place two bolts just to get into the steep climbing. Then two more bolts got placed as I blew my gear and tools out on body weight placements. With four bolts placed through the steepest and hardest pulls, I got to a nice crack which marked the beginning of what’s probably the best stretch of limestone I’ve ever dry tooled on. Eventually, I placed two more bolts, perhaps unnecessary ones (although I was pretty psyched to clip them on the redpoint burn a week later), before getting to a fixed-nut rappel anchor left from a couple years ago, which marked the end of the day. Many thanks to Michelle for enduring a long cold belay.

Higher on the first pitch but still 15 meters to go

Six days later, the stars aligned for us. It was much milder making for perfect conditions, the track was still good, and Simms and I made it to the base in 2 hours at a casual pace. With the route prepped, I was able to get the redpoint, and was even egged on to make it a “mega-pitch” and keep climbing all the way to a small ledge, just above the bottom of the ice. Definitely one of the best pitches I’ve done in the Rockies. After a few steep pulls out the cave, the angle eases to vertical to slightly overhanging for about 30-meters, with numerous bulges to negotiate. Perfect torquing cracks and incut holds, made for really fun sustained climbing, with enough stances to shake out from, although never a hands free position until the belay.

A raw unfiltered video of on the second pitch

And on on the fourth

The second pitch was also new and of similar quality, although it followed a fragile strip of ice that on average was an inch thick and a foot wide. By the time we were done it, the snow was falling so we had to hurry as a 2000’ couloir was above the route. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before huge sloughs started coming down at frequent intervals. We split the last 60-meters of ice into two pitches as there was a good belay spot on the right below a rock overhang and we only had a 50-meter rope. We had also brought the drill and installed bolted anchors the whole way right to the top, with hopes it will entice others to get out and try this incredibly high quality route.

starting pitch 2

Higher on pitch 2

Simms on pitch 3

me following it

pitch 4 as the storm intensifies

rappelling from the top. We had a lot of snow come down on us and around us over the course of four rappels

The Beta:
Approach: Park at the Stanley Headwall. Walk or ski for two to three hours depending on conditions. It is one of the closest to the road on the Storm creek headwall, and you can see the upper ice from the highway. I believe it’s probably climbable most years.
-2 ropes, 50-meters will suffice if you have them and want to carry less weight.
-12-14 quick draws, which should include a few long ones
-6 screws, mostly 10-13 cms
-stoppers from 4-11
-Pitons: optional….I placed one #3 Pecker and left it fixed on the second pitch
-I had a double rack of cams up to #3 camelot, and 1 #4. I didn’t need much in the really small sizes. I did place two #3’s on the fist pitch, but would probably have been ok with a single set in the hand crack sizes. Definitely double up in the .3, .4, and .5 camelot sizes, and maybe a bit more.

There is a sheltered spot below a small overhang about 20 meters down and lookers right of the route to gear up, and leave your skis and packs.

THe route as seen from the approach

Pitch 1: 45m M8 - From the highest point of snow below the ice, trend slight right up easy, scrappy, mixed snow ice and rock. A fist crack provides protection for a steep bodylength to the chossy back of the cave. Follow 4 bolts up and left requiring a few honest pulls, to get to a nice crack. Follow that up. It soon passes two more bolts and a fixed nut from the old rappel anchor. After those, trend right, then back left to a bulge below the ice which is used to gain a small ledge and a bolted anchor on the right. Be sure to put a runner on the first bolt, a medium length draw on the second bolt, and extend other cams etc. where necessary to reduce rope drag.

Pitch 2: 50m M6 R - This might be much easier on fatter years. An 80-degree ice goulotte, with occasional rock pro for 15-meters, leads to average 60-degree terrain. It was a very consistent 3 cm thick the entire way for us, and was unprotectable for 30 meters after the angle kicked back. A fall would be serious. Fortunately, the ice we had was of excellent quality making it a reasonable endeavour. The bolted anchor is about 5 meters right of the pillar.

Pitch 3: 30m WI5 - Steep ice, thin and hard to protect at the first, but it does improve. A bolted anchor is on the right below a rock roof.

Pitch 4: 25m WI4 - Straight forward ice climbing. The bolted anchor is about 3-4 meters above the top of the ice in some rock.

Gripped Cover

jon walsh — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 21:45:00 +0000

This fine image taken by Paul Bride has just appeared on the cover Gripped Magazine. I'm stoked and honored to be featured on the cover!!! It's the first pitch of the classic Nightmare on Wolf Street, on the Stanley Headwall.

The North Pillar

jon walsh — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 03:16:45 +0000

The North Pillar

There are less than a handful of people I know who have expressed interest in climbing the Twins Tower. The ones that live within a day's drive were unavailable. Not wanting to miss what I suspected were nothing less than exceptional conditions on the the North Pillar, thanks to a low snow year / hot summer, I went out on a limb and asked Josh Wharton if he had time and interest to give it a go with me. I have to admit I was surprised when he said yes and immediately bought a Denver - Calgary plane ticket. The alpine stars continued to align themselves as a perfect high pressure system settled into place as he stepped off the plane. The next morning, we headed up the Icefield Parkway, and hiked over the Woolley Shoulder with light packs, expecting to have a food / fuel cache waiting for us when we got to the Lloyd McKay hut that Josh had left there in 2011. A friend had confirmed it was looking good two weeks prior, and had even donated a few items to it.   Tragically, the latest entry in the hut logbook dated September the 1st said "thanks for the grub, Josh", and only slim pickings were left of it. As Josh's note in his bag had said he'd be back in 2012, we could hardly blame anybody but ourselves that most of the bars and freeze dried dinners were missing, and accepted the fact that light and fast just got lighter and faster!

The next morning we left the hut with 8 bars and 8 gels each, and a couple of recovery and electrolyte drink mixes as personal food. For shared food, we had 6 packs of instant oats and couple hundred grams of granola + a small bag of trail mix that would be our breakfasts. For dinners, we two Knorr soups packets (unfortunately onion flavoured), one pack of Threshold Provision Salmon jerky, and one 100g chocolate bar. We also had 8 packets of Starbucks "Via" instant coffee! It was about 5000 calories each, and we knew we'd be spending at least the next two nights out (it turned out to be 3.5 days)! Hiking back to the car for more supplies didn't make a lot of sense, so we just accepted the fact that we'd be getting pretty hungry, and enjoyed carrying the lighter packs.

On the second pitch Josh wasn't sure if he was psyched anymore, but accepted the fact that I didn't want to slog back out the way we came. A lot of the climbing was chossy, and a lot of the gear was marginal, but there was just enough of it was good enough to continue pushing upwards. We cursed the first ascentionists, both for not cleaning it better and for talking the route up so much! It was mind boggling to us, that the only three parties to have climbed the face previously had done so in 1974, 1985, and in the winter of 2004. All parties had been pushed to their mental and physical limits, including ourselves. It seemed like we were right on the edge of our risk tolerance levels the entire time, and perhaps even crossed the line. Staying on that edge for such an extended time was exhausting!

The headwall turned out to be impressively steep and we began to haul the packs more than climb with them. It was so steep in fact, that they often hauled cleanly without even touching the rock. Fortunately the rock quality improved. 1985 5.10d - which many of the pitches were rated, seemed sandbagged to say the least. Continuous crack systems, often connected by gymnastic face moves, led through vertical to overhanging terrain for 13 pitches, to a wild climax at the top. With only about 15 meters left before hitting lower angled summit ridge, a few meters of straightforward aid climbing up a knifeblade seam had to done above a ledge, to gain a series of big, run-out jugs that traversed the lip of a big overhang! It was the only aid on the entire route for us, and it would probably go free at 5.12-, however dangerous fall potential put risking the free ascent out of our reach (despite being both quite comfortable at that grade). It was no place to be taking chances as retreat would be practically impossible at that point, especially with the state our ropes were in.

The rest of the route was fairly straight forward, but worked out, despite making a couple minor route-finding decision. One was thinking we'd save time and energy taking a short cut across the north face of Twins Tower right below the summit, in order to avoid some cornices, and the second was opting for the standard descent off of Mt. Cromwell to reach the valley, rather than hike across the Columbia Icefileds.

Climbing the Twin's Tower was in hindsight, a great and satisfying experience for both of us, despite not always being fun in the moment. It would be hard to recommend it to anyone, although if you're really psyched for a huge physical and mental adventure, it could be as good a place as any!

Our conditions were absolutely perfect. I don't think we saw a single cloud for the three days on the face, and maybe only a couple small ones on the fifth day. Visibility was unlimited - On the summit we could see from Mt. Robson to the Bugaboos. Temperatures were perfect too, with reported freezing levels over 3500m the entire time, and there was virtually no natural rockfall, except in a couple of expected places like gullies below ice ledges. Even there it was quite small, and mostly on the lower part of the route.   The rock was generally very dry.

Hardest route in the Rockies??? maybe…

The itinerary we followed went like this:

Monday, Sept. 9th: Leave car at 1 pm, arrive at the Alberta hut at 6
Sept. 10: Leave hut at 5 a.m., approach N. Twin. By 10:30 we are finally belaying on the first pitch. Arrive at bivi site on "ice ledge", just below headwall at about 9 as it's getting dark.
Sept. 11: Climb 12 pitches of headwall and bivi one pitch below the top of it.
Sept. 12: Climb last pitch of headwall, and the summit ridge above it. Traverse a few meters below the double corniced summit ridge of the Twin's tower, and traverse the summit ridge of the North Twin (3731m). Stand on the summit around 4ish.   Cross the Columbia Icefield toward to the Crommell / Stutfield col, and bivi slightly below it as it got dark.
Sept.13: Rappel and down-climb cliffs / hike out to the road which takes 6 hours. Arrive at car at 3:30.

Summary: Second ascent of the Twins Tower via the North Pillar - Josh Wharton, Jon Walsh Sept 10-12, 2013 (F.A.: Barry Blanchard / David Cheesmond 1985, 5.10d A2, 1500+meters from bergshrund to summit).   2013 grade: 5.11b r/x, A1 (about 4 meters of aid climbing) on the last pitch of the headwall. I suppose the r/x grade is irrelevant, as what else would you expect getting on an alpine limestone face of this size?

Sunrise on the Twins Tower and the line of our ascent. photo Josh Wharton

JW on the headwall. photo Josh Wharton

JW getting into mixed climbing onthe upper ridge. photo Josh Wharton

On the summit of the North Twin. photo Josh Wharton

Some of my B-roll:

Josh on pitch 2

Packing after the first bivi

Looking up at the headwall

Josh's 1st block, pitch 4 of the headwall

Pitch 5

Pitch 9

the end of Pitch 10 on the Headwall

The morning after the second bivi. Coffee time! Yes we"slept" here!

Morning light on Mt. Alberta

Finally above the headwall! Only a few of hours of lower angled terrain to the top

Rockies Ice

jon walsh — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 03:41:18 +0000

This post is going to be a quick and dirty. No preaching, no spraying, no shameless advertising! I've been so busy with work, training, and life lately that blogging time has been sparse to say the least. So until the next one, I'm mainly just going to post a few pics of me for a change, thanks to Paul and Magda. I don't usually post very many photos of myself but here's a few from some of the amazing Rockies classics I've been on lately. i wish I had some skiing photos from some of the neck deep days at the Rogers Pass I've had, but it's too hard to stop and take them when you're having that much fun. The ski posts will come soon as the days get longer and more interesting adventures begin to unfold.… For now, here's some climbing b-roll, Canadian Rockies style...
Me, on the fourth pitch of Cryophobia, M8 225 meters. Easily one of the best mixed routes in range! Photo: Magda Kosior

me on the second pitch of the French Reality. Yet another multi-pitch mega classic! Photo:Paul Bride

Me on the second pitch of Nightmare on Wolf Street. Another one of my vavorites. The Stanley Headwall is in great shape shape this year! Photo: Paul Bride

The first mixed pitch of Nightmare on Wolf Street with Magda Kosior on belay duty. Photo: Paul Bride

Skate skiing is one of my favorite forms of training, and who better to do it with than my 27 month old daughter Zoe. Here she's immitating me without the skis during a break. "Faster Daddy faster" is what i mostly hear when towing her!

And here's a photo of where I'm going in a week, for a week! One of my favorite zones. Hopefully conditions will be as good as the last two times.

Check Your Head

jon walsh — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 14:52:12 +0000

A photo of me taken by Joshua Lavigne on nearing the top of the second pitch. (Yes, we goofed around with camera gear, did some filming and photo work. The beauty of climbing as a team of three!)

Check Your Head M6+R, WI 5+ 180m; FA:Jason Kruk, Joshua Lavigne, Jon Walsh November 25th, 2012

This mixed adventure is well worth the long approach. Skis are recommended. You can see the upper half of the route from highway 93, and it lies at the right end of of the first main wall at the Storm Creek Headwall. The rock is excellent and belays are mostly bolted, and at good stances. For the most part, the drytooling is very positive in good cracks, and protects well with natural gear.   The best place to park is at the Stanley Headwall parking, approximately .8 km south of the Storm Creek Headwall fire break approach slope, which has a "no stopping avalanche zone" sign on the highway right below it. The route itself lies in a big avalanche path, so stable snow conditions are needed to climb it.

Ski up the fire break, take the road to the left at the top of it to the creek. Follow the creek up the drainage to headwall. Ascend the fan to the base of the route, 2.5 - 3 hours.

Approach pitch: solo 30 meters of very thin WI2 (no pro), to an ice belay in a cave.

Pitch 1: M6, 32 meters - Start up a couple short ice flows and gain a left facing corner with good gear. A couple delicate slab moves gain a short right facing corner. Follow it for a couple body lengths to a left facing corner that leads to a snow ledge and a two bolt belay.

Pitch 2: M6+ R, 35 meters - Take the groove straight up from the left edge of the ledge. Move leftwards past two pitons (only fixed pro on route). The second is a very good lost arrow. Once it's clipped, traverse left on small edges and continue trending up and left until another crack can be reached.   Follow it straight up and eventually becomes a shallow right facing corner, that ends at a snow ledge, a two bolt belay, and the lower angle halfway "ledge". The second half of the traverse is a little bit run-out, but not the hardest part of the pitch.

Pitch 3: M5 25 meters - Head up from the belay, and then take a hard left where it's easiest. A two bolt anchor is found just before the ice.

Pitch 4: WI 5+ 40 meters - The left side of the ice was thicker and offered the most protectable line. Small rock gear was useful to protect the initial moves onto the thin curtain at the bottom. We belayed at a protected stance from ice screws on the right hand side, before the final steep pillar.

Pitch 5: WI 4+ 25 meters - Straight forward high quality ice climbing to an ice anchor at the top.

Rappel notes: It's a 57-meter rappel from the top of the ice to the highest bolted anchor.   Then a 45-50-meter rappel straight down to a 2-nut station at a hanging stance (drill battery died).   Then a 20 meter free hanging rappel to the ground.

Rack: 2 60-meter ropes; 1 set of nuts, 1 set of micro cams, 2 sets of cams from .3 camelot to #3 camelot. 8-10 ice screws. Pitons optional (we placed 2 and left them fixed).

Two different angles of the climb, showing the belays and rappel stations

Recent favorites

jon walsh — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 04:55:30 +0000

The last couple months have been one of the best high pressures I can remember in years. On stat I heard was it's been the warmest summer in Calgary since 1881! It was so nice in fact that it was impossibe for me to sit at a desk and share the photos, stories, or get much else done, as the mountains were calling....

I'm lucky and grateful to live in such an amazing part of the world. The Canadian Rockies are at my doorstep and the Bugaboos and Selkirks are a short drive away. These three ranges never cease to blow my mind! A few more reasons why I love being a canadian alpinist are (in no specific order):

-I can always find talented and inspiring people to climb with on world class objectives

-There is so much variety in the mountain sports I'm most interested in: sport, trad, ice and alpine climbing + unbelievable deep powder skiing on piste, off piste, ski mountaineering... All in a relatively small area
-The development of the sport climbing scene in the Bow Valley is going off and provides the perfect training grounds to get strong, have fun, and prepare for harder objectives in mountains
-There is an abundance of multi-pitch adventure routes of all levels, in all disciplines of climbing
-The Rockies provide the world's most consistent, extensive, easily accessible ice and mixed scene - bar none!
- First ascents -- Although the most obvious lines have mostly been done, some only once, there are still a lifetime's worth of first ascents to do, very much the opposite of Europe or the U.S.A.. I can share that because oddly enough, a little friendly international competition to get to them first would make them even more exciting!

-Getting to the incredible stone and scenery of Baffin Island only requires a handful of airports, no passport, and one day of travel

Here's a few pics from some of the climbing highlights from the last two months, starting with the Bugaboos:

Josh on the crux splitter of Hell or Highwater, Snowpatch Spire

Chris and Simon working on yet another sick new project

Josh leading the first pitch of Chris' other freshly completed new line: The East Columbia Indirect (mid 5.12), located just right of Hobo's Haven on the east end of the East face of Snowpatch. Easily the highest quality route I've done in a long time!

Me leading the overhanging thin hands to fingers second pitch - photo: Joshua Lavigne

Josh leading the third pitch

Looking down at Simon and Chris climbing the route behind us. Simon is seen here leading the second pitch.

And looking down at Chris on the third pitch.

Here's a line of the East Columbia Indirect as seen from the Crecent Glacier. The fourth pitch finishes up the last pitch of the Power of Lard. Although 4 pitches is a short route by Bugaboo standards, I'm not sure of another route that has four pitches of this quality, sustained at 5.11+ with a few 5.12 cruxes. Soooo good! Start directly or scramble around via the the start of Sunshine Crack.

The Applebee gang

Lydia leading Sheldon's Corner, Easpost Spire

Josh on a new route .12b on Eastpost Spire

And then there's the Rockies.

Magda enjoying a really fun and new 12-pitch, 5.12- route on Ha Ling Peak above Canmore, called a Particular Manner of Expression. Cudos to Jeph Relph and a variety of partners for putting this one up.

Colin Haley on the Greenwood / Jones route on the North Face of Mt. Temple.

This classic really exceded my expectations and I'd highly recomend it. Better than the other routes I've climbed on Temples nordwand. Colin pulling a small overhang near the top of the rock.

Colin on the walking the line to the summit

A raven joined us on top. Here he's sitting right at the very peak, just a little bit higher than we made it!

On thanksgiving weekend, October 6-8, Raphael Slawinski and I climbed this line on Howse Peak - a combo of the NE buttress and some mixed variations It wasn't the line we set out to do but as the Stones said "you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime you just might find, you get what you need". We got what we needed, a great adventure up an iconic peak!

Raphael looking for the way about a third of the way up

Our first bivi about halfway up

The first pitch of day two was more sideways than up, as we deked out of the mixed gully system and back onto the ridge.

Good rock climbing on the buttress

Raph following a little traverse between gully systems

Back into more mixed gully action, Chephren Lake below

Raphael sorting out the rope cluster in the sun

Fun couloir climbing in the M-16 gully

Still a bit of a cornice left from the revious winter. Fortunately it was easily passed

Raph taking in the view from the summit!

Our second bivi sight. After descending 1000m of the summit of Howse on our second day, it got dark as we arrived here. The following morning, we ascended 600m to the misty Epaulette / White Pyramid col above the tent, and then descended down to the river Icefield Parkway beyond. About 5.5 hours from the bivi to the road. All said and done, it was a very satisfying and rewarding adventure!

The following weekend, I couldn't help myself but go back to sport climbing.

Alpine climbing means a lot ot me, but it's pretty hard to beat the overhanging streaky rock at our local crags such as Bataan seen here. It's just so much fun I don't think I'll ever be full. Jen onsighting a .12a in the upper photo and Jonny cranking below on a chilly mid october day.

Mt. Robson trip report

jon walsh — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 03:15:53 +0000

A few weeks ago now, on May 12^th, I finally had the opportunity to tie in with Josh Wharton. I first met Josh in Patagonia in 2005, and over three consecutive seasons, watched him and his mates raise the bar, time after time. I observed, got inspired and tried to copy, and a string of my own successes ensued. More recently, he’s been making regular trips to my main stomping grounds - the Canadian Rockies, and getting amongst the big mixed routes they’re renowned for. We were totally psyched on the same types of adventures and frequently exchanged conditions updates and beta. We often talked about climbing together, but our schedules had never quite meshed until now.

As the weekend of May 12^th and 13^th approached, the cosmos seemed to fall into alignment. Not only did I have an ideal partner for a big alpine outing, but four days of sunshine were forecasted, with perfect temperatures, and excellent snow conditions all at the same time. I suggested we go to Robson, and we agreed on a hiring a helicopter to save us the half-day approach to its north side. This would hopefully allow us to be quick enough to climb the Emperor Face and have me back to work for 7 a.m. Monday morning, not to mention keeping our legs fresh for the excursion ahead.

So on Friday afternoon, I ducked out of work two hours early, drove directly from my job in Calgary to Canmore (all my food and gear was pre-packed), met up with Josh, and we were on the road by 3. Four hours / 400 kilometers later, we repacked in the Mt. Robson provincial park parking lot, agreeing to bring only enough food for a big day, mostly in the form of gels and bars (Vega of course in my case) and waited for Yellowhead Helicopters to show up and whisk us away to the other side. By 9 p.m., we were at Mist Lake, gawking at the Emperor face, which towered 2000 meters above us! Conditions were generally looking a bit snowy, so the route Infinite Patience seemed to be the most logical option. I had looked down it a couple of years ago while descending the Emperor Ridge, after climbing another line just to its left. Incoming weather had forced my partner Jason Kruk and I to descend the ridge instead of continuing to the summit after topping out above the face. What I had seen was a perfect strip of silver ice dropping for a long ways, and I knew at that moment that I would be back to climb it someday. Since Barry Blanchard, Eric Dumerac and Philippe Pellet had opened the route in October of 2002, it had remained unrepeated.

We made a small fire from the dry shrubbery around the lake to hang out by for a bit, and after a few hours of “sort-of” sleeping under a light tarp without sleeping bags, the alarm went off at 3. A quick bit of coffee and we were off, cramponing right from the lake on a well-frozen snowpack. A couple hours later, it got light at the first steep rock band, which is the hardest climbing on the route. I liked the look of a corner 20 meters right were the FA party had climbed, although soon I was battling up 80-degree snow, steep rock and run-out M6 for two pitches, wishing I had taken the original line. “We’ve climbed the crux” Josh said, “I guess we can go home now”. A lot of simul-climbing ensued across a snowfield, followed by some delightfully fun / moderate ice climbing, that weaved around huge snow mushrooms, to connect different couloirs and gullies. One of the more memorable moments for me was a fun overhang past frightfully detached, belay-threatening snow mushroom, that required persevering a relentless spindrift wave. I hesitated for a moment to ponder the 13cm ice-screw / ice-tool belay that Josh was hanging from 20 feet below, and the absence of any gear between us. Waiting for the spindrift to stop seemed futile so a quick wipe of gloves, and a couple of lock-offs later had me into the upper ice runnel. This continued for about six magical rope-lengths, and we began pitching it out.

Conditions were absolutely perfect. Where there was snow, there was just enough for secure bucket steps that had mercy on our calf muscles, yet not enough to cause us any concern for avalanches. Temperatures were very comfortable, and just warm / cold enough for optimal snow stability. The ice was generally soft and our ice tools bit securely into it with light one-stick swings ninety percent of the time. In other words, we were making quick and efficient work of the face, and having a good time doing it. The one drawback of the soft ice was that it didn’t protect very easily with ice screws, but between that and the lack of too much rock gear, there wasn’t much to slow us down.

After about 11 hours and 1700 meters of elevation gain, we were off the face and onto the Emperor Ridge. The wind was screaming up the 3000-meter SW face which made using our Jetboil to melt snow into drinking water an impossible task. An 800-meter sideways traverse was ahead, as well as another 500 meters of elevation to gain to reach the 3954 summit – the highest in the Canadian Rockies. The plan was to go over the summit and down the South Face route to the car. If we were lucky, we might even get to the Ralph Forster hut, which is halfway down and have a luxurious bivi. So we trudged on getting thirstier by the step. Going sideways for that far is tedious and monotonous but fortunately the snow was good and a few interesting moves around some snow, ice and rock features presented themselves from time to time. We simul-climbing all the way to the summit, switching off the trail breaking whenever the leader needed a break.

As we got closer to the top, the “gargoyles” which are the massive rime formations that tend to wildly overhang the ridges near the summit on all sides, got bigger and bigger. We climbed a dead-end gully right into the heart of them, but a straightforward way through didn’t present itself. Instead, more sideways climbing over steep Patagonian-like rime features and down their other sides repeated itself several times before we finally found passage to the top. The wind was nuking! Snow crystals stung our faces and after a quick hi-five and a couple of photos, we began the long descent. It was 8:45 and it had taken us 17 hours from the lake, making it the first one-day ascent of Mt. Robson via the Emperor Face.

The descent wasn’t easy and we were surprised at the amount of down climbing we had to do. The terrain was steep all the way to the valley, and very little of it was free of objective dangers. I don’t think I’ve ever spent so much time exposed to potential serac fall! Shortly after midnight we stopped in a sheltered spot for a short brew, as we were beyond dehydrated at this point. A little while later, we had made it to the yellow bands, but were lost in the dark and losing hope of finding the hut. It was now 2:30 and we needed daylight to find our way through the cliffs below. We laid out the packs and rope, and crawled under the tarp for a quick power nap. By 5 a.m., it was getting light and we were tired of shivering. The rest of the descent remained tedious, but went smoothly and by noon we were back in the parking lot, with 10 000 feet of descending behind us, and stoked to have had such a fine first adventure together. Although it wasn’t nearly the most technically difficult route either of us had done, it made up in pure physical burl factor, and was of extremely high quality. We would highly recommend it and I think it deserves to become a classic. Easily one of the best I’ve done in the Rockies!

Summery: the first one-day ascent of Mt. Robson via the Emperor face and the route Infinite Patience (2200m M5-6 WI4) JW / JW, May 12^th and 13^th 2012

32 hours from Berg Lake to the parking lot; 50 hours Canmore –Canmore return.

The North Face and the Emperor face of Mt. Robson from the heli. Our line is marked in red.

Josh hanging by the fire and scoping the face. There were about six hours to kill between the heli drop and wake up and go time.

Josh heading towards the some sweet ice and mixed climbing about halfway up

Josh, swapping leads and scoping. A snow covered Berg Lake below.

Josh following a pitch in the upper reaches of Infinite Patience, a little below the ridge. There were at lease 6 consecutive pitches of this nature in a row here.

Josh in cruise control mode during the six hour traverse accross the upper west face, eyes on the summit

Looking back at our track accross the west face. Can you see it?

Josh, about to head more upwards than sideways at last

Entering gargoyle country

Hopefully these crazy rime features aren't ready to succomb to gravity

Climbing through these things reminded us of Patagonia

Thumbs up on the summit! The strong winds driving rime crystals into our faces and preventing us to melt snow for water kept out summit time to about a minute. Only 10 000 feet of tedious descending to go...

Uniform Queen

jon walsh — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 04:19:41 +0000

I climbed one of the best pitches of trad mixed I think I've ever done this past weekend. The route was the Uniform Queen on the Stanley Headwall (very close to Man Yoga), and it doesn't get much better than its third pitch, which involves climbing a dead vertical hand crack and a thin smear of ice - at the same time!. The hand cracks for your right hand and foot, and the thin smear of ice is for your left tool and foot. Hand jams in the right crack seemed to be the only way at times, which is a little out of character for the Rockies. After about thirty meters of this, a small icy overhang needs to be passed before reaching easier grounded and the belay. It doesn't seem to come in that often so if you haven't done it, you should go now! The grade is M7…

Thanks Gery, for the great day and the photos.

For more photos and Gery's website: http://vertical-unlimited.smugmug.com/Ice-and-Mixed-climbing/Uniform-Queen-Stanley-Headwall/20528062_nJXLQ5#1625870348_z9H3wDS

"Uniform Queen" is marked. The third pitch starts at the top of the arrow. The fat ice in the middle is the "Suffer Machine".

Me following the second pitch.

Halfway up the third pitch.

Man Yoga

jon walsh — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:54:55 +0000

Dec.5 Update: To see Joshua Lavigne's nicely shot and edited 10 minute Man Yoga video, click here

Simms on pitch 1 - photo: Joshua Lavigne

Jon Simms and I just finsihed a new route on Stanley Headwall named "Man Yoga", that spanned three seasons. I put a total of nine days in on it and Simms put in seven. This past weekend, we spun two laps on it, friday 11/11/11, and sunday for some photos. We managed the redpoint both days and can finally call the 250 meter line done! We were supposed to go up there the weekend before but while I was at the Banff film festival, Simms bailed on me via text message. Jason Kruk was at the festival and chomping at the bit for a good climbing adventure, so we teamed up, and finished the line to the top of the cliff, but came up short of the redpoint. We did get some pretty good photos of it on Jason's camera, and they can be seen here, along with Jason's account of the day.

Definition:
Man Yoga (n): may involve scratching around, getting pumped mentally and physically above natural protection on sometimes questionable rock, while searching for passage up steep virgin terrain, often a mix of rock, ice. Man yoga involves commitment, digging deep, and on-sighting in back-country situations. It could also involve scrubbing dirt off boulders or cliffs in full conditions, and / or ducking Roman Candle shots fired by your belayer, arms locked off with poor feet, beyond protection, while engaged in the crux sequence. Etc., etc.. The term was coined by Jonny Simms several years ago while we were putting up the route Drama Queen - also on the Stanley Headwall, and has since been stuck in our vocabulary, and frequently used when making climbing plans or generally talking about climbing. It has also been applied to steep skiing situations such as billy-goating down steep, scary snow faces, or just long full value runs in no fall zones, that require skill, tenacity, and a calm confident head to shred. i.e.: "Let's go do some Man Yoga…" Man Yoga is not limited to men - women can do it too, although it's far less common to see a women engaging in advanced man yoga, although fortunately, their numbers are indeed growing.

The story of the route Man Yoga:
Man Yoga became the name we used to refer to our latest project, and obviously it stuck. In January 2009, Chris Brazeau asked me if I wanted to join him on a Stanley Headwall adventure to try and gain the obvious steep ice, whose access was blocked by a massive roof, about two hundred meters right of the Suffer Machine. Naturally I was psyched, and despite the snow covered rock, we nearly finished the second pitch on our first try, via a natural line that skirted the monstrous roof on its left. The self drive bolt, two thirds of the way up the second pitch marks our high point, and was the only bolt placed that day, after two long leads. Amazingly (or not), there were no traces of any other parties visiting this crack system up this beautifully immaculate limestone wall, despite the fact the every person who has ever walked back to Nemesis or Suffer Machine has gawked at the ice above the stunning overhang. Although we planned on returning soon, shoulder injuries from skiing prevented it from happening anytime too quickly.

Between October and December 2010, Jonny Simms was back on the scene after a couple years on the coast, and was in need of a proper man yoga session. Brazeau's recovering shoulder wasn't up to it, so Simms and I returned five times over two months to the Headwall project. We finished the second pitch, bolted the belays and added a total of 16 protection bolts to the second and fourth pitches. It was way more bolts than we hoped to add (the original dream was for a completely natural line), but the result is a safe and fun route, and it's probably at least as long and demanding as anything else on the Stanley Headwall in terms of overall effort. We hope the bolts and excellent natural protection will encourage others to repeat it, and we highly recommend it. We're definitely psyched with how it turned out, and building the route was so much fun. The rock quality is astounding, the route follows a devious natural line, the climbing is sustained and always interesting, there's lots of variety, and the two pitches of ice at the top are superb. It might be better in early winter when the thin ice is fresh and well bonded, and the rock is less snow covered, but it should be good right through until spring. However, more snow will give it more of alpine feel - perfect training for more serious routes in the range. Actually, it's steep enough that battling the snow isn't too bad as not that much seems to stick to it. This November (as well as last season's ice), was far thinner than that of the winter of 2009 / 2010, so I would expect some of the bolts on the fourth pitch may be covered in ice on fatter seasons. This will undoubtably make the crux slightly easier...

The beta:

M8, approximately 250 meters of climbing in 5 pitches + an approach pitch. FA: Jon Simms and Jon Walsh. Special appearances, inspiration, and help from Chris Brazeau, Troy Jungen, Tony Richardson, and Jason Kruk

The route is located about 200 meters right of Suffer Machine. It's a devious line that skirts the left side of the huge arch and then trends back right to reach the ice flow above it. There is more rock than ice, on this route, and the rock is of excellent quality throughout. The route is probably best in early season, but is climbable all season from November to April. In times of good stability, it's much quicker to leave the trail in the valley, just as it starts ascending the south side, by crossing the creek, cutting through the trees, and ascending the fan directly to the base.

P0 - (the approach) pitch 0 cause we've never actually roped for it, although it is about 5.4. Climb up two short chimneys with snow ledges between, until below the great roof (about 25 meters). Make a couple of moves up and left around a corner, then traverse across about 30 - 40 meters of 40-degree snow, or third class in early season. A bolted anchor can be found near the left side of this big ledge, on then left side of small cave that probably fills in with as the snowpack deepens. Heads up on the big ledge, it holds a lot of snow and could avalanche. 5.4 70+ meters
(rappel 40 meters from bolts to ground)

P1 - Juggy dry-tooling, and hand-jamming on immaculate rock with bomber gear. Climb easy terrain above the anchor with sparse protection at first, then trend right towards a shallow right facing corner at the left edge of the huge arching roof. Climb this with excellent protection in finger sized cracks. Sometimes the slab on the right gets iced up and sometimes its dry. Pull a small overhang into a slot, and work your way up the crack that widens from hands to offwidth. Pull through the roof and follow a 50-degree ramp for about 8 meters to the 2 bolt anchor. M7 45meters

JW on pitch 2; photo: Joshua Lavigne

P2 - The delicate face pitch. Pay close attention to your rope drag - it's crucial to use lots of extendable draws. Move out left from the belay and then back right towards a bolt, then up a seam past a fixed pecker. Continue up a left facing corner until below a roof (about 15 meters). Place a red camelot with a double length runner in the obvious splitter, and traverse right below the roof with good protection. After about 10 meters of traversing, a series of five bolts and some delicate face climbing up parallel seams leads to the next 2 bolt anchor. Gear to 2.5". M7 35 meters
(rappel 60 meters direct to the big snow ledge, then traverse 10 meters back to the anchor at the top of pitch 0)

P3 - Follow the cracks / groove straight up from the anchor, until it's possible to step right onto a good ledge and a 2 bolt anchor. (gear to 4 inches) M5 25 meters

P4 - The crux pitch - careful of the rope drag - use your extendable draws wisely! Climb up and right past a knifeblade to a bolt. Traverse right along the ledge past another piton. Continue up and right past 2 bolts until you can step around the corner and cross an icy slab. Keep following the bolts up and right as they traverse below the big roof the ice drips from. A right facing corner offers steep powerful moves with great pick torquing through the roof, and a pumpy move back left to a stance at the lip. This will be a bit easier on fatter ice years. Continue up mixed ground for another 8 meters, past a bolt and a knifeblade, looking for a small ledge on the left with a two bolt anchor. This pitch is all fixed (11 bolts, 4 pitons,) although small rock gear might be useful for some people, as will ice screws on fatter years. M8 32 meters

JW pulling the overhang on pitch 4; photo: Joshua Lavigne

P5 - Proper ice climbing at last, and a fine finish - It starts with some thin, lower angled ice up a right facing corner, with good rock gear for protection, followed by a short but steep pillar to a stance in a small cave. Straightforward WI 5 from here leads to the cave the ice flows from, and bolted anchor. A single rack up to #1 camelot and ice screws needed. WI 5 50 meters

Simms climbing ice with good rock protection on Pitch 5; photo:Joshua Lavigne

Two rappel options exist. Obviously rappelling the route is one, although the fourth pitch needs to be back-clipped to make it to the third anchor. pull the ropes here, then another short rappel down the third pitch. 60 meter ropes land you on the big snow ledge of pitch 0, but 10 meters of walking is required to get to the bolted station. Alternatively, from the top of the 4th pitch, make a 60 meter rappel straight down to a bolted station at a small stance, just above the lip of the big arch. This station is about 3-4 meters left of the plumb line of the rappel. This might be a bit of an intense rappel line if you're doing it for the first time in the dark. Then make another wild rappel over the big arch, 55 meters to the snow ledge of pitch 0, 10 to 15 meters of walking to the bolted station. One more 40 meter rappel to the ground.

Ropes: Two 60m ropes. Using doubles would be advantageous for reducing the rope drag, which there is a lot of on the second and fourth pitches, unless the leader does an excellent job placing extendable slings in the right places. We used a single and a tag, but knowing the pitches helped, and we used at least 10 extendable slings. The advantage is of course the ability to haul, and both climbers climb with less stuff on their backs and harnesses. If you're hauling the pack, Hauling on the first pitch is best done, by pulling the haul line all the way up, and then throwing it back down in a more direct path to the belay. It still may get caught and is best tied off as short as possible, so the seconder can help jerk it around some overhangs.

Rack:
Cams: the following sizes are in BD Camelots, which is what we used
Singles: #0 C3 (green); #2 C4 (gold); #3 (blue) #4 C4(grey)
Doubles: #1 C3 (reds); #.3 C4 (blue); #.4 C4 (grey); #.5 C4(purple); #.75 C4(green); #1 C4(red)
1 half set of nuts
Pitons are optional but the route is set up for climbing without hammers, and there are several fixed in key places.
Draws: 16 draws -- 10 extendable and 6 quick draws, one or two extra double length runners

Screws: 7 - 10 including stubbies. I guess the number depends on your comfort level leading steep ice after a relatively full day of climbing. The ice gradually gets fatter the higher you get.

Enjoy!

Rocketman

jon walsh — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 01:35:41 +0000

On the 3rd of April, I climbed Rocketman - one of the best multi-pitch mixed routes I've done yet. I had tried it a week before with Jen O, but a dropped tool on the third pitch marked the end of our attempt. Six days later, Raphael Slawinski (his report, photos, and route history here - see "twelve years later") and I teamed up for what was probably the second complete ascent of the route since Raph had done the first ascent 12 years earlier. There had been some other good attemps and a few parties made it relatively high, including one this year, but their tracks ended with three sustained pitches to go, including a very sandbagged M6+, a pitch of WI 5, and a direct WI6 pillar that sure it sure felt pumpy after 8 sustained pitches of steep ice and overhanfing rock. It was perhaps the first time ever that final pillar had been climbed. An uber strong Swiss duo had done a variation that goes by the name Rocket Baby, and were likely the only other pair to free-climb the entire wall. Their route finishes up the last three pitches of Rocket Man, and their story can be found here.

Me, skiing towards thebase of the route. Photo: Raphael Slawinski

A self portrait at the fith belay

Alpinist Volume 19: "In a Push"

admin — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 18:41:25 +0000

My feature article about climbing the north face of Mt Alberta last September with Chris Brazeau was published in The Alpinist Volume 19, a few months ago.

Zig Zag - Multi Pitch Sport-Climbing+ on Yamnuska

jon walsh — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 01:21:19 +0000

Zig Zag: 5.12-, 250m

First ascent: Sean Isaac and Jon Walsh 2006

-8 pitches: .10b, 11c, 10b, 10a, 10a, 11b, 12a, 11a **grades are not confirmed**

-Rack: 12 draws, a few medium to large stoppers, and a single set of camelots from #.3 to #2

-The start is just left of red shirt and cross it halfway up the first pitch. From here, you can more or less follow the bolts and natural features without getting lost. The climb is mostly bolted but there are about 10 - 12 gear placements in total. More beta and photos to come soon...

Rivers of Babylon - A new Route on Mt Wilson

jon walsh — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 01:11:03 +0000

Rivers of Babylon VI M6+ WI5+R 500 m

On Nov. 26 and 27, Paul McSorley and I climbed a new 9 pitch route on Mt. Wilson in the bowl between Mixed Monster and Ice Nine. "Rivers of Babylon" is the central line of three ice flows. The climbing is sustained, technical and fun the entire way. It was also quite delicate and often run-out. We climbed mostly rock that traversed left and right on natural weaknesses through the overhanging buttress, for four pitches to gain the thin flow, which provided excellent thin ice and mixed climbing for another five pitches. Good screws were rare to non existent, however tool placements came easily. No bolts were placed and the rock is generally excellent by rockies standards. We fixed three ropes on the first four pitches on day one, descended to Rampart Creek hostel for the night, and the next day ascended our ropes and climbed the rest of the route. A one day ascent would be impressive, but doable by a very strong party. This route is probably best earlier in the season and will be extremely dangerous when the avalanche hazard increases.

Drama Queen

jon walsh — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 19:27:22 +0000

Drama Queen 170m M7 WI6
FA: Chris Brazeau, Jon Simms, Jon Walsh Jan 5, 2006

Late in March 2004, Jon Simms and I went "freestyling" up this part of the headwall after failing on another route. We had soon climbed to bellow the upper daggers in four pitches of entertaining climbing. We decided to go back the following season with the drill and push the route to the top of the wall. After a day of equipping in early december, we invited Chris Brazeau to join us for the final send. The name of the route comes from the conversations and jokes that were making us laugh one day working on the route. Everybody has a drama queen in their life...

Drama Queen is located on the Stanley Headwall about halfway between French Toast and Extreme Comfort. There is a traverse bolt marking the start and the first belay. The climbing follows thinly iced ramps and corner systems to wild mushroom formations that grow below the twin daggers that the route finishes upon. The climbing itself has a bit of an "alpine" feel and is a bit scrappy at times (wide cracks, squeeze chimneys, etc.). Each pitch gets progressively harder until the final ice crux at the very top! A rack consisting of Camelots - one each from .3 to #3, a few stoppers, and 6 or 7 screws including stubbies does the trick. The cruxes are generally well protected but there are some run-out sections in between. The route finding is very straight forward and the first three belays are fixed. The top belay is in ice.

The Shadow

jon walsh — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:44:15 +0000

The Shadow - WI6+R, M6, 220 meters, Mt. Patterson, Canadian Rockies

Popes Peak - first complete ski descent

jon walsh — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:54:18 +0000

Climbing and skiing, together at last. The first complete descent of the north face of Popes Peak

The hanging basin below the north face of Popes Peak has always been an attraction to skiers for it's multitude of steep couloirs. However two pitches of ice and mixed climbing through the seracs had prevented skiers from making the complete descent of Popes' north face from the summit. It was mid April 2007 when Chris Brazeau and I set out for this coveted prize. At the top of the main couloir (which is classic on its own), Chris led a 15 meter pitch of water ice 3. With no possibilities for an anchor at the top, we simulclimbed the 55 degree hanging snow slope above until an ice anchor was available in the hanging serac. I took the next lead which involved a couple of body lengths of awkward M4. I had to turn my torso sideways so my ski tips didn't but into the severely overhanging seracs. I belayed Chris up on an ice screw anchor, we stashed the cord, and kicked steps and skinned to the summit. We enjoyed a spectacular 360 degree view in beautiful spring sunshine before shredding the cold smoke that awaited us below. On the way down, we rappeled both climbing pitches off a v-thread and a massive bollard, and made it back to the car without incident. We only carried three ice screws and wished we had more. Now i can't wait to hit the lines I on Mt. Narao, Popes' neighbour!

Mt Alberta North Face

jon walsh — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 16:16:42 +0000

Mt. Alberta North Face The climb: We soloed the shrund (which was easy), and simulclimbed to the traverse ledge where we unroped. After the bulk of the icefield, we angled right and traversed below a rib of the yellow band and found short WI 3 steps through it, that led to the base of the headwall, and a obvious natural system of grooves and corners. Here we roped up and swapped leads to the summit. The headwall pitches are described as follows: Pitch 1 - 25m: up the left facing corner (shattered rock) and slightly right to a small stance before the next corner... M6

Blaeberry Express

jon walsh — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 15:50:01 +0000

Blaeberry Express - Hepberg Creek, Blaeberry Valley B.C. GR975035 220 m M6 WI 6 - F.A. Rich Marshall, Jon Walsh - Dec 1, 2005

Mt. Alberta, crux

jon walsh — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 22:45:37 +0000

Chris Brazeau on the 5.11 crux of a new route on the North Face of Mt. Alberta.

Les Miserables

jon walsh — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 20:07:54 +0000

Guy Lacelle climbing Les Miserables, in Banff National Park.