Alpine Style - Alpine climbing

Two new routes in a weekend!

jon walsh — Wed, 24 Aug 2016 03:52:24 +0000

A lot can be done in with some motivation and a good partner. Colin Moorhead and I rolled out of golden at 6pm on friday August 19th, bound for the Bugaboos. 51 hours later, we were back having completed two new multi-pitch routes routes! The stories and beta for “Minotaur Direct” and “Sick and Twisted” are below.

Minotaur Direct was a multi year project whose first ascent story goes something like this: In 2011 Moorhead and I started on Labyrinth and but ventured into new terrain aka Minotaur, on what’s now it’s 6th pitch. We rejoined Labyrinth for it’s last three pitches but did 7 new ones, of which a couple included free variations of the aid route Les Bruixes Es Pentinen. Although it was a great day out and a memorable adventure, the King line with a direct start and finish awaited to be done.

In 2014, Michelle Kadatz and I started the direct route, cleaning many loose hanging blocks left precariously in place from the great flake that fell off the mountain in the late nineties. We soon had a five pitch direct start established to the ledge system that Colin and I had traversed from Labyrinth on. Over several sessions from the July 2015 to July 2016, we continued to work on Minotaur ground-up, cleaning the cracks, bolting the stations, and pushing the direct finish until only 60m below the summit ridge. In 2015 when Michelle’s schedule was too busy, Alik Berg joined me up the first 5 pitches until we could branch out left and establish Welcome to the Machine over two days. When Michelle’s schedule was busy in 2016, she told me to find another partner to finish the route with. On a whim, I reached out to Colin, fully expecting his busy guiding schedule to get in the way. Luckily he was psyched and cleared his schedule and made the 9 hour drive from Squamish. We stumbled into Applebee camp by moonlight on the night of the 19th. By 7 am, the next morning, we were crossing the moat on the edge of Cresent Glacier and climbing into the sunshine. It took us about 14 hours up and down, which included us bolting a the last two belays and brushing the final 60 meters on rappel.

Our day went well as we settled into a nice rhythm, swapping leads up the 500-meter face. It was fun watching Colin react to the route’s challenges and quality as he climbed it on-sight. Top quality climbing every pitch with lots of variety is perhaps the best way to describe the route, with an emphasis on hand jams in upper pitches. We expect this route will become a classic, as Welcome to the Machine seems to be already.

The next day, despite feeling quite sore and completely full with satisfaction, we decided we might as well attempt climbing a shorter route before hiking out. It so happened that Chris Brazeau and I had an un-sent project on Eastpost Spire, just ten minutes walk from camp. Chris, who was at Applebee at the time, even suggested we go for it without him, as it made sense to get it done before the short Bugaboo season ended. Chris and I had done two-and-a-half laps on it in September 2015 and June 2016, putting the route up ground-up, on gear which was definitey sparse or minimal at times, and then adding a few bolts to it after. Despite having both followed the second / crux pitch clean, we had both fallen off it on lead.

So after multiple coffees and meals and camp, we headed up to give it a go, with no expectations given the fatigued state we were in. This timehowever, as I felt my fingers wanting to slip off the crux holds, I found it in me to double the power and move through it, finally redpointing the pitch properly, as well as the rest of the route. After Colin arrived at the belay at the end of the fourth pitch he said to me “This is sick and twisted”. I agreed, and so the route name was born… I think this route was a good find and it was somewhat surprising to discover something like this right beside the main climbers campground. For me, it sure provided a fun few days of climbing.

Minotaur is in red; Welcome to the Machine is in yellow; green dots are bolted belays, purple dots are gear belays.

Minotaur Direct, 5.11+ 16 pitches, East face of Snowpatch Spire

beta: bring two 60 ropes; a double rack of cams to #3 camelot, one #4; and triples of .3, .4, and .75. One set of stoppers from #3 to #11. 12-14 draws half of which should be extendable. All belays are bolted.

p1 - 30 meters 5.10-: step across the moat which gets harder as the season goes on. Climb double cracks / opposing flakes for about 10 meters until you’re able trend right, and easily up the big scoop. Make a gear anchor before it steepens where you can find some good foot ledges.

p2 - 30 meters 5.10+: continue up the scoop via a thin corner crack, to a belay station at a good stance. (Earlier in the season it’s possible to link pitches 1 and 2 with a 60m rope, but later in the season a 70m rope is needed for the link).

p3 - 30 meters 5.10+: climb the corner above and pull through a small overhang to a stance. Step left and up a shallow left facing corner, until an easy ramp leads back right. Follow this, hand traversing flakes until a belay station below a long left facing corner.

p4 - 45 meters 5.11+: This pitch has 3 cruxes separated by good rests. A thin tips corner gains a section of cool stemming. When you get to a bolt clip it and face climb left to a stance on the arete. Do not move up to the bolted station up and right, or you’ll have to down-climb 3 meters to continue sending! From the stance on the arete, move up and right back into the left facing corner, and follow it up past one more crux to the bolted station on a good ledge. (Rappel note: the station skipped on this pitch is good to use while rappelling, but requires a directional piece to swing into it. From here, rappel directly to the top of the big scoop in 55m)

p5 - 50 meters 5.10: After a couple body lengths of fist crack, pull a small overhang to a stance. Rather than continue up the obvious corner, look up and you’ll see a bolt that can be reached via face holds. Climb up to it, and move left into the next corner system left, which is much better due to the hand crack. It leads to a fourth class ledge, which needs to be traversed up and left. A belay station with ring hangers below a groove is for Minotaur, or, continue past it for five more meters to a belay station bellow a nice looking flake which is Welcome to the Machine. If you miss the first protection bolt, the mountaineers version of this pitch exists and will get you to the same place but less directly, with sandy sections, loose rocks, rope drag, etc.

p6- 30 meters 5.10+: Follow the groove up and right past two knifeblades to belay on a good ledge.

P7- 35 meters 5.11+: Follow the obvious finger crack in left leaning corner, through the roof to a belay station. This pitch could probably be called 5.10+ with one point of aid for those that find free-climbing the roof too difficult.

p8- 30 meters 5.11a: Clip a bolt and traverse right on the slab to a shallow left facing, right leaning corner with a thin crack that takes excellent micro cams. At it’s top, step left past two knifeblades into the main corner which is followed until a belay station is reached.

P9- 5.10 55m: This pitch is mostly 5.7ish with one little 5.10 bit. Follow the corner up and slightly left. After a short 5.10 sequence it will soon be possible to start trending back right to a belay a big ledge, a belay station, and an excellent bivi spot should one be needed.

p10- 25m 5.9: Climb the best looking crack above the belay station towards a steeper wall above split by several cracks. There is a belay station on the left. (The original Minotaur route goes hard right from here)

p11 - 30m 5.11a: Hand jams up the right hand crack give way to a thin finish in alcove, and a belay station. (P10 and P11 can be linked)

p12 35m 5.10+: climb the left crack out of the belay. After about 5 meters, transfer back into the right one, which parallels the arete, and follow it to a belay at a nice perch.

p13 25m 5.9: An easy chimney leads up and right to another nice belay perch on top of a pinnacle.

p14 30m 5.11c: A left leaning crack. Bouldery moves past three bolts soon give way to easier crack climbing that leads to a big ledge and a station.

p15 28m 5.11c: a short corner with a fist crack leads to a ledge. A beautiful thin hand splitter continues up the headwall above to a belay station on a ledge. This pitch is why you need the third .75 camelot on the rack.

p16 35m 5.10+: Keep going up the same crack which has now kicked back slightly in angle and become more positive. A 60m rappel gets you back down to the last two pitches.

The North summit is about 150 meters of 4th class scrambling away. Stay on east side of the ridge if you go for it.
Rappel the route

All grades for both routes are suggested. Any feedback on grades is welcome!

Sick and Twisted, 5.12a, 5 pitches, Eastpost Spire

A good option for a short day, bad weather, or just something to play around on.

Rack: double rack of camelots from #.3 to #2, one #3, one of each size below .3; 6-8 stoppers. If rappelling, a 70m rope is needed although two ropes is nicer, especially if you want to haul a pack. All belays are bolted.

P1 25m 5.11d: Climb up and trend right to a corner. follow it out below a roof until it’s possible to pull the roof, then up the groove to a belay. This pitch has four protection bolts. The in the first half of this pitch is unfortunately a bit crumbly but the rest of the route is a lot better.

P2 30m 5.12a: Climb up a few meters, then traverse below the big roof to the left for about 15m until it’s possible to climb up a left facing corner to a belay on a good ledge. The 12a grade is a combination of the sustained 11+ climbing and the intimidation of the traversing style. (35m to the ground from here)

p3 30m 5.11a: Start up a left facing corner to a ledge, move left to the next left facing corner and climb it past some funky features. Move right to another big ledge but make steep moves upwards at it’s left edge, and belay at a good stance at the right end of the big hanging slab. There may be a bit of suspect rock on this pitch, but much better than the first one.

P4 25m 5.10d: Cross then hanging slab past four bolts, then up and across to belay below some short steep crack lines.

P5 20m 10d: start up the corner then head up the middle of three cracks. (the left one is The Flaming Hack Arete)

You can either walk off (down the trail on the other side of the ridge), or rappel. From the top, a 55m rappel makes it to a bolt station on the slab below, rightness the edge and about 10 meters away from Sheldons Corner. Another 50m rappel hits the ground.

A few action shots of the two route:

Michelle Kadatz on P11 of Minotaur direct, 5.11a

Colin on pitch 15, of Minotaur Direct 5.11c thin hands!

Chris Brazeau on the first pitch of Sick and Twisted. There are now a couple more bolts in this section.

Me on P4 of Sick and Twisted, the hanging slab pitch. Photo: Chris Brazeau

Chris on the last pitch of Sick and Twisted. A fun finish!

Scotland Trip Report 2016

jon walsh — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 14:28:28 +0000

Since participating in the BMC winter meet two years ago, I’ve been dreaming of returning to the Scotland. Although it has some of the most persistently appalling weather imaginable, it’s stunningly beautiful, and is home to one of the most interesting styles of winter climbing I know of. A strict code of ethics prevents any bolting in the mountains. The rock is typically granitic and well featured, and the wild north atlantic weather plasters the cliffs in ice, rime, snow and verglas, thus creating conditions where you’ll often be dealing with 4 or 5 different mediums at time. Mix that with some frozen turf and neve, it’s about as mixed as it gets. Although all the climbing I did seemed quite sustained and technically in the M6 to M8 range, placing the protection was often the crux as most of it needed to be pounded in. Camming devices were almost completely useless!

During the last week of January and first week of February 2016, a small group of Canadians including myself, Michelle Kadatz, Paul McSorley, Marc Andre Leclerc, Ian Welsted, and Paul Bride, settled into a little rental cottage in the village of Glen Coe, a little village situated in Scottish highlands. Over 12 days, the milder than average weather we experienced only permitted about 6 days of climbing, which I suppose isn’t too bad for a trip of this nature. A couple of days were spent taking the gear for a walk, also known as hill walking, only to find the cliffs “black” and out of condition due to rainy weather with higher than mountain top feeling levels. It needs to be frozen / look white in order to preserve the turf, but fortunately, as soon as the temps drop, many routes are instantly good to go.

Down time involved a good mixture of cruising around the country side sampling the local flavours, checking out castles, lochs, pubs, towns, and couple of trips to the worlds biggest indoor climbing gym in Ratho to keep the form. All said and done it was a great trip, the locals were really helpful and I look forward to honing my mixed climbing skills in highlands many more times.

Much of climbing we did was on Ben Nevis, and I also visited Stob Coire Nan Lochan at Glen Coe, and Coire An Lochan in the Cairngorms. My favourite route of trip, and also the hardest one I climbed was definitely Knuckelduster on Ben Nevis. It was so plastered in rime and verglas that route finding was really difficult as there are many small precarious holds and very in obvious gear through the crux, although I've never climbed anything with such a truly mixed feel to it. It was definitely a battle to put it together and was of very high intensity at much of the time. A really cool line that I’m stoked to have on-sighted, especially considering difficult conditions.

Scottish grades don't make a lot of sense to me, but I've never really felt that grades mean very much in this style of climbing.

The following photos are some highlights and maore interesting photos of what we got up to:

Michelle climbing the Gargoyle cracks during a link-up of Hobgoblin (VII,7) into Babylon (VII,8) - Number 3 gully buttress of Ben Nevis - a fun warm up day

Michelle and Marc enjoying some blustery conditions on the rim after Michelle and I finished Hobgoblein / Baylon, and Marc had just finished his 8th route of the day!

The coveted Stob Coire Nan Lochan. A nice venue to have in our backyard, stacked with classic routes up to 200 meters high

Me starting up the first pitch of what I called Impulsive Inclination (VIII,8). It starts at the base of the Unicorn (summer start to this route?), and heads up and left. After 20 meters, it joins Inclination for its second pitch which I linked all the way to a big terrace after 40 meters of climbing. It may or may not be a couple of new variations to the routes around it, but either way it was top quality climbing and a lot of fun! photo: Michelle Kadatz

Looking right from the end of the of the first pitch, Ian Welsted seen here, and Paul McSorley were trying to find the way on Scanzor (IX,9) - Stob Coire Nan Lochan

Looking up p2 of Impulsive Inclination. It climbs an unprotectable series of edges up and left for about 7 meters towards the obvious hand crack, up that for a bit, and then moved right into a groove. After about 20 meters, it joined Tilt which was followed to the top.

Here is Paul Bride's view of me, leading the second pitch.

Upon reaching the summit, we met up with Marc Andre who had just soloed 5 routes! Here's a link to a raw video clip of what he had to say about his day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0nr9pa5To4

The next route we did and the highlight of the trip for me was Knuckleduster, a burly VIII,9 on Ben Nevis. Here's Michelle following the first, and a link to Greg Boswell's take on the route http://www.scottishwinter.com/?p=2264 with a cool photo of him entering the crux, although for me is was completely plastered white with rime and looked a bit different.

Rocio Siemens snapped this shot of me (center of photo) making the final traverse left to the belay stance at the end of the crux second pitch. It was the third traversing bit of this wild pitch that involved a nice mix of corner, face and arete climbing, and is a cool overview of one of Scotland's finest crags.

Michelle making precarious moves around the arete to the belay back in main corner of the summer route, at the end of pitch 2 on Knuckleduster. It's about the same spot I'm in in the previous photo. This was definitely the hardest pitch of the trip as it plastered white with rime, and coated in verglas, which made for very tricky route finding and gear placements. It also felt a little on the bold side as I was never quite sure whether or not I could trust my gear, although judging by how hard it was to clean for Michelle, it must've of been adequate!

Michelle happy to be off the traverse and at the anchor. A week later and she still seems traumatized by this pitch!

Me climbing pitch 3 of Knuckleduster with burning forearms. I think this is the direct finish or the summer route. A nice crack in the right wall of the corner provides sustained climbing up a slightly overhanging for about 15 meters, followed by a short ledge traverse and another 15+ meters of slightly easier terrain to the top. As usual, the crux was hammering nuts into the iced up crack. Photo: Michelle Kadatz

Marc Andre Leclerc trying to find the Coire an Lochan in the Cairgorms, in sustained 60 mph winds (at least that what was forecasted and i don't doubt they were at least that!) and zero visibility.

Marc Andre Leclerc on sighting the first pitch of Happy Tyroleans (X, 10) in howling winds and constant snow. Fortunately the overhanging nature of the pitch kept too much snow piling up on the ledges.

Marc Andre Leclerc following the second pitch of Happy Tyrolean. Vertical climbing soon kicked back a bit, and storm snow was piling up fast! Also a great pitch, and about two grades easier than the first one.

Scotland is famous for its pubs and this was our local watering hole. From L to R: Marc Andre Leclerc, Ian Welsted, Will Woodhead, Paul McSorley, Paul Bride, Jon Walsh. Photo: Michelle Kadatz

The East face of Snowpatch, the gift that keeps on giving

jon walsh — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 01:39:39 +0000

Over the last decade or so, the 500-meter high East face of Snowpatch Spire has been transforming into one of the finest alpine rock faces in North America. What used to be a face known primarily as an aid climbing venue, is now covered in free-climbing lines, although mostly difficult ones, usually reqiuring at least a couple pitches of 5.12. But perhaps the most amazing thing about it is that almost every pitch is good! I don't think there's another mountain in western Canada that can boast that! Like a big crag offering pure rock climbing in the alpine, it offers an easy approach from the nearby campground, belays on most routes are mostly bolted, there are no "approach" pitches, and there's no tedious summit ridge. The climbing is almost entirely traditionally protected, although most routes have a few protection bolts where cracks need to be conected by face moves, and face holds are plentiful. It has been one of my favorite zones for over ten years now.

Last season, Michelle Kadatz and I investigated the sector in the Bugaboo guidebook where the great flake fell off the lower middle section of Snowpatch Spire, taking the first three pitches of several routes including Les Bruines Es Pentinen, Deus Ex Machina, and the original Sunshine Wall with it. The obvious scoop at the bottom went ok, but the next 80 meters required extreme care to remove the left over debris from the major rockfall. Once it was gone, it didn't take much to buff it into a nice free climb and a fairly moderate one by East face of Bugaboo standards. After five pitches, we had established Minotaur Direct, which seemed like a better start than the original version that climbed the lower pitches of Labyrinth and traversed over. We returned this year, adding stations and continuing up the amazing middle section of Minotaur, a route I put up several years ago with Colin Moorhead. We gave this a good clean up too as this section of the wall is becoming a popular option amongst both Bugaboo regulars and visiting climbers. People seem psyched to have good pitches within a close proxitimity to Applebee and often set out to climb only half the face.

Alik Berg and I teamed up in mid July to venture out left from Minotaur into the obvious corner system that splits the big roof in the middle of the face where the Deus Ex Machina goes. We were blown away by the quality of the climbing and the softest pitch gradewise out of all the routes to go through this continuous roof system that runs the width of the face. Above it we ventured into new terrain but a couple of mossy cracks slowed progress about ten pitches up. We cleaned them out and rappeled. Two weeks later we were back with plans to finish the line. On the first day we climbed the first four pitches and fixed our two ropes. This allowed a bit of head start for a bigger day the next day. It was nice to sleep in the evening after hiking up, and fun to have Taran Ortlieb join us for this. The next day, we ascended the two lines, then made the continuous free ascent to the summit, adding four more pitches above our previous high point and sending every pitch first try! A very satisfying day, on a fun route with a lot of varied climmbing.

The East face of Snowpatch Spire with the line of ascent.

Taran Ortlieb joined us as we fixed two ropes on the first four pitches. Here he is crossing the moat between edge of the glacier and the face. Exactly four weeks earlier, it was easy to step across the gap and be standing on the ledge his left hand is at. As the summer goes on, and the snow melts back from the rock, the first pitch can get 5-10 meters longer and a grade or two harder!

Taran a few meters higher on the first pitch, now enjowing perfect hand jams on perfect granite.

Alik leading off on the second pitch of 5.10 tips.

Having Taran join us to climb the first four pitches and fix our ropes, allowed me to lead the fourth pitch, and then take photos of Alik leading it. It's got four 5.11 sections to it over 45 meters and is delightful to climb!

Another from the fourth pitch - Some face moves protected by a bolt connect two corner systems.

Alik hiking last crux of the fourth pitch with a combination of chimneying, steming, and edge pulling.

Alik climbing the splitter flake at the start of the 6th pitch.

JW in the first of four cruxy sections on the 7th pitch - the roof pitch of Deus Ex Machina, previously A3. It's the only one that we think shared any terrain with any of the old aid routes.

Alik nearing the top of the 55-meter 9th pitch.

Alik starting up the 10th pitch.

Some fine heel work high on Snowpach, with magical jugs in the all the right places; Alik getting starting on pitch 12.

Alik on pitch 12

Another from pitch 12

On the North Summit of Snowpatch with the summit ornament, and views of the Howsers.

Welcome to the Machine
5.11+, 13 pitches
First ascent: Pitches 1-5 - Michelle Kadatz and Jon Walsh; Pitches 6-13: Alik Berg and Jon Walsh
August 2nd, 2015

p1 - 30 meters 5.10-; step across the moat which gets harder as the season goes on. Climb double cracks / flake for about 10 meters until you’re able trend right, and easily up the big scoop. Make a gear anchor before it steepens where you can find some good foot ledges.

p2 - 30 meters 5.10+; continue up the scoop via a thin corner crack, to a belay bolted belay a good stance.

p3 - 30 meters 5.10+; climb the corner above and pull through a small overhang to a stance. Step left and head up a shallow left facing corner, until an easy ramp leads back right. Follow this, hand traversing flakes until a bolted station below a long left facing corner.

p4 - 45 meters 5.11+; A thin tips corner gains a section of cool stemming. When you get to a bolt clip it and face climb left to the arete. Don’t move it up to the bolted station up and right or you’ll have to down-climb 3 meters to continue sending! from the stance on the arete, move up and right back into the left facing corner, and follow past one more tips crux to the bolted station on a good ledge.

p5 - 50 meters 5.10 ; After a couple body lengths of fist crack, pull a small overhang. A #5 camelot is useful here for the crux move. Rather than continue up the obvious corner, look up and you’ll see a bolt. Climb up to it, and move left into the next corner system which is much better. It leads to a fourth class ledge, which needs to traversed up and left. A bolt below a groove is the start of Minotaur. Continue past it for five more meters to a two bolt station bellow a nice looking flake.

p6 - 35 meters 5.10; Climb the flake up, then hand traverse it left. It turns into a walkable ledge. At it’s end, move up and left though small overlaps, then face climb left, and then back right to a bolted station.

p7 - 45 meters 5.11+; This is the roof pitch of Deus Ex Machina. Move left off the belay, and then climb up a small right facing corner on face holds. Move left into the main left corner and follow it though a series of small roofs to a bolted anchor.

p8 - 60 meters 5.10; Climb the right hand crack for five meters to a ledge, Move left into a corner which is wide but easy. Follow this to a good ledge. Continue up another short right facing corner with couple of tricky moves and make a gear belay another good ledge, with some very nice looking corners up to the left. This pitch might be better to split into two as rope drag is a factor. Either way, a gear station needs to be made.

p9 - 55 meters 5.11; An amazing pitch! Start by climbing double cracks, with a mix of gear and bolts for protection (3 protection bolts total). At a small stance there’s a fixed wire and a bolt for an optional belay, however the FA team linked the next 30 meters of sustained 5.10 to a great ledge and bolted belay.

p10 - 40m meters 5.11-; climb the nice finger crack up and right. After a section of fist crack, two bolts on your left traverse to a ledge system, and a two bolt anchor at the far left of it.

p11 - 50 meters 5.10-; A clean corner above goes from hands to fists to off-width. After it gets too wide for a # 5 camelot, two body lengths of easy lay-backing passes it and gets you to easier terrain with small gear options. Continue up the groove above to a two bolt station below some black overhangs.

p.12 - 25 meters 5.11+; The last two pitches were nearly linked on the first ascent with 68m rope, but this is not recommended. Start by climbing through some overhangs with some great and unlikely moves. Belay at a good ledge.

p.13 - 45 meters 5.11 ; Follow the crack up and left, until a big ledge is reached. This pitch is a bit dirty but will clean up with a more ascents.

A scramble for a couple of ropelengths up and left gets you to the North Summit. You will pass the top station of Sendero Norte on the way which is probably the cleanest descent option. Of course if you don't know it, it might be more difficult.

The other decent option is as follows:

At the big ledge at the top of the last pitch, a sling around a pinch between boulders was used for the first rappel, to get back to the top of pitch 11. From here, rappel to a nut station about 10 meters climbers right of the station at the top of pitch ten. Careful of the rope eating crack below. Best to just rappel to the top of pitch 9 from here to keep the rope out of the crack. Then rappel to the obvious bivy ledge, on skiers left. On the far side of this ledge, rappel down Minataur on bolted stations. The first one is 55m. The second one is 30 m and it’s best to clip a bolt on the way down as a directional. Another 55m steep rappel gets you back to the big ledge at the top of pitch 5. Continue down the pitches you’ve already climbed. From the top of pitch 4, it's about a 65 meter rappel to the top of pitch 2, so if you have 60 meter ropes, it's best to place a directional or two to get into the optional station on pitch 4, and then rap to the top of pitch 2 from there. One more 50-55 rappel puts you on the glacier.

Recommended rack:
2 x 60m ropes
Double set of cams from tips to #3 camelot.
Triple set from tight fingers to loose fingers (#.3, #.4, #.5 camelots)
1 #4 camelot, 1 #5 camelot
One set of nuts
12-15 quick draws (half of them should be extendable)

East Creek

jon walsh — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 04:55:10 +0000

Michelle Kadatz, Paul Bride and I flew in a heli into East Creek (the West side of the Bugaboos) for a few days last week. Paul was psyched to shoot landscape photos while Michelle and I checked out some of the incredible rock in the Pigeon feathers. Although there are quite a few routes here described in the guidebook, the Pigeon Feathers remain a slightly more obscure corner of the Bugs, despite their amazing quality, and proximity to a great camp. Upon landing, we hiked around until we found something that was really inspiring - some unclimbed splitters on Wide Awake Tower, slightly right of the original Wide Awake route.

Wide Awake Tower. Our route starts part way up the snow gully. photo: Paul Bride

On our first climbing day under stormy skies, we made it nearly three quarters of the way up before the skies started unleashing thunder and lightning. Going down was the only option. While pulling the ropes after the first rappel, a toaster sized block popped off and landed right in the pile of rope that was stacking itself in front of us as it fell. The result was both lead and tag lines were chopped in the middle! The storm intensified and we had no choice but to hunker down in a chimney, while rain, hail, and a lot of very close thunder and lightning came down all around us. Backs against the wall and all the metal off the harnesses, we slowly got colder and wetter. Multiple rounds of this continued until finally it passed and we made it down to the glacier safely. By the time we were walking back to camp, it was nice and sunny so we lapped the first three pitches of the classic Solitary Confinement. It was great to get back on this one again as it had been 8 or 9 years since I had climbed it, and it was one Michelle wanted to do too. Our thirty-five meter rope was exactly what it took to get to the first anchor of this amazing 5.11 continuous crack that gradually expanded from tips to off-width over three pitches. With only two #4 camelots, the even wider 4th pitch wasn’t really an option, which was fine by me. Three 4's, and three 5's would be considerated adequate for it...

Michelle on Pitch 3 of Solitary Confinement.

The following day we hiked to Applebee where it was possible to get two more ropes, which took the better part of the day via the Bugaboo Glacier. On day 3 we got back to work on what we were now calling Electric Funeral, obviously a reference to a Black Sabbath song, and our experience on it the first day. Paul and I are both huge Black Sabbath fans and when we get together, Sabbath becomes our theme. Michelle didn’t know the song, but liked the name! The climbing went well, although seventh pitch took getting dead-ended on two other option before I finally figured out what to do. Not comfortable with the run-out traverse to a grassy crack, I pendulummed across the face to the seam, then went into aid / cleaning mode with a nut tool and wire brush. By the time I got to the next ledge, I was so psyched to come back to send the pitch, as well as the amazing looking splitter above that bee-lined for the summit. It was cold, windy and getting late so we decided to save it for the next day.

Playing with fire at camp. Wide awake is the rightmost tower in the background photo: Paul Bride

On Day 4 the weather was looking pretty bad, and confidence of being able to complete the project was low. However, we were back, and for the first time we brought the power drill and enough bolts to set up some stations. We were psyched to have gone through the process a couple of times without bolts, and felt like the route was worthy of setting up to attract more climber to enjoy its quality. Fortunately the weather held and even got pretty nice, although quite windy in the afternoon. On pitch 7, I led out to a small foot ledge and placed the only protection bolt as high above my head as I could, then lowered the drill back to the belay and continured sending the pitch, which was delightfully sustained and interesting to climb. It was more like face climbing with a thin crack for protection, than the typical crack climbing that’s far more common in the area. The crux came right off the belay on the pitch 8 while laybacking off amazing chicken heads to pull a small roof! Trending right, beautiful cracks and transfer moves continued, and the rope was nearly used up before finally reaching a good stance.

Michelle following the 7th pitch photo Paul Bride

JW on pich 8, gunning for the top photo Paul Bride

Sweet views from the summit and a smooth rappel had us celebrating back in camp before long. Our time was up and we had the heavy, half-day slog / half-day drive home to look forward to the next day. It had been a fun process exploring this obscure conner of the Bugs and I know I’ll be back again. The crack system immediately left - aka Wide Awake, looked amazing!

Almost at the belay at the top of pitch 5. It's the triangular ledge a body length to my right. Photo Paul Bride

Michelle bringing me accross the traverse of Pitch 4. Photo Paul Bride

Michelle on pitch 6.

Michelle leading pitch 3

Michelle following pitch 7

JW starting up pitch 8, photo Michelle Kadatz

JW passing some perched flakes and the chimney on the way to the summit. Photo Michelle Kadatz

Electric Funeral, 300m, 5.11+, FA: Michelle Kadatz and Jon Walsh, August 7th 2014

A fun route on great rock, highly recommended, and it’s easily scoped from nearby snow slopes. Pitches 7 and 8 are nothing short of spectacular! The route is straightforward to rappel, or to walk off.

Rack: 1 full set of stoppers. 10 - 12 draws. Double set of cams from purple C3 or red X4 to #3 camelot. One #4 camelot and one #5 camelot are nice for the short wide sections of pitches 2 and 3. If the plan is to rappel, the #4 and 5 came lots can be left at the top of pitch 3.

Approach: Start up a the snowgully to the right of the tower's "nose" and ascend snow for about 80 meters. Look for a distint left facing corner that leads to a righ faceing corner that make up pitches 2 nd 3. We climbed a body length of 5.7 and then a 5 meter traverse left of easy 5th class to get a good belay ledge where you can dump your packs and get organised. This is directly below the changing corners of pitches 2 and 3. We left a cairn here...

P1: 5.10-, 30 meters; climb through bulge from belay and trend left to a left facing corner. A couple of balance moves to gets you to a crack that leads back right to a left facing corner with two wide cracks in it, and a two bolt belay station.

P2: 5.10, 20 meters; Climb the obvious wide cracks above up the left facing corner to a good ledge, and a gear belay (takes camelots .5, .75, 1)

P3: 5.10, 20 meters; A few off-width moves give way to nice hand-jamming. Belay at a good ledge with a huge, easily slung horn for the belay.

P4: 5.9, 50 meters; climb a short bulge above the belay and make a rising traverse to the right, until a short down climb becomes necessary. Climb down a few meters, then back up to a good belay ledge.

P5: 5.10+, 50 meters; Great hand and finger cracks head up and slightly left. Belay at a small but comfortable ledge below an overlap. A very nice pitch.

P6: 5.10+, 15 meters. Pull through the overlap and up a short groove. Rather than continue up the dirt right facing corner, make face moves out left onto the exposed / featured / golden face and up to a two bolt belay at a small ledge.

P7: 5.11-, 30 meters; Face climb up and left past a bolt, to gain a thin crack that leads straight up towards a roof. Two bolt belay below roof at small ledge.

P8: 5.11+ 50 meters; A crux roof sequence leads to spectacular crack climbing that trends rightwards towards the summit, sometimes transferring from crack-to-crack, one of such transfers providing a second, slightly easier crux! A two bolt belay at a good stance comes after 50 meters

P9: 5.9, 20 meters; A short straightforward pitch passes a chimney, and gets you to the summit.

Rappel notes: easy down-climbing about 5-meters off the summit to a slung block is required to get back to the last belay. A 25-meter rappel straight down from there (the last bolted station) gets you to another bolted station on a ledge that wasn’t part of the route. It would be possible to climb over to this on pitch 8, although this wasn’t done on the first ascent. A 50-meter rappel from here gets you to the bolted belay between pitch 6 and 7. Then 50-meters to a slung horn you passed near the start of P5. Two single rope rappels on slung horns throughout the owed angle traverse section, get you to the top of pitch 3. Then a double rope rappel easily makes the top of P1…

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

Spirits of Asgard

jon walsh — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 23:10:00 +0000

It's been a busy summer as always and I'm getting behind on updating this blog. About six weeks ago, the video Spirits of Asgard was released, and has been very well received. It's been posted to Outside Television, as well as received a Vimeo Staff pick, so it's recieved a lot of views, which is pretty cool! A huge congratulations to Joshua Lavigne for producing it. Check his website for more photos of the trip as well as the July / August 2013 issue of Gripped which features some pics and a 2500 word story I wrote about it. Josh's words and images are also shared in the 2013 Canadian Alpine Journal. Although the video covers the "darker" aspects of our trip, such as a couple of close calls we had, it was very a fun and successful trip. Some photos and stories have been shared here on a blog post from last August, but I thought I'd take a few a minutes to share a few more images as I link the the video here, as an attempt to share a greater visual tour of the amazing landscape Baffin has to offer.

Spirits of Ásgarðr from ARC'TERYX on Vimeo.

The north side of Mt. Asgard and the reason for going here.

Ines and Josh enjoying perfect weather and spectacular views on the 60km approach.

One of the many stream crossings

Sunrise at Summit Lake

We were always hungry!

A cariboo skull and atlers on the Turner Glacier, and the first views of the 1200m high North Face of Mt. Asgard

Getting up the Turner Gl. required a lot of stream hopping, which sometimes required following them for a long ways before finding the easiest spot to jump.

Base camp on the turner. Asgard peaking through the clouds.

Our kitchen and living room for about a week

Ines getting started up the incredible south Buttress of Mt. Loki

Smiles on the summit of Loki

Getting high on Asgard. Mt. Loki is the highest rock peak accross the glacier and our base camp is on the strip of rock, directly below its summit. Photo by Joshua Lavigne

Josh and Ines folllow yet another pitch of perfect splitters

Josh getting western, a couple ofpitches below the summit

Ines at base camp below Asgard.

Patagonia

jon walsh — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:38:11 +0000

Patagonia

Cerro Torre, Torre Egger and Cerro Stanharhardt, as seen from the approah on the Torre Glacier. The Ragni route on Cerro Torre approximately follows the left skyline.

It's been a great 4th trip to Patagonia, and once again I got lucky with the weather. Since I arrived on the afternoon of December the 10th, to the 2nd of January, Colin and I managed to get in 5 big days of alpine climbing (a couple of updates in the last blog post), which by Patagonian standards is quite good. It was only on "Venas Azules", the hardest route we tried, that we got thwarted by a storm and were forced to descend a mere 80 meters from Torre Egger's summit. Despite it being the only 'failure", it was definitely the highlight of the trip for me, as for me, the journey is far more important than the often overrated summit.

The last two weather windows fell exactly on christmas and new years. On Christmas morning, about ten parties of climbers climbed the infamous Ragni route on Cerro Torre's west face. I've never seen an alpine route so crowded and so many ropes intertwining like macramé, so high above tree-line. But everybody was good with it, the mood was festive, and everybody made it to the cumbre of Patagonia's most aesthetic Torre. The climbing although only moderate in difficulty thanks to a well blazed trail to follow, was incredibly fun!   Weaving around so many wild fluffy rime mushrooms on a path of perfect blue ice. To top it off, a natural tunnel right through the summit shroom led to the top. It was exquisite!

Because it was looking like big window, Colin and I hauled a light-weight tent, and extra food / fuel, with intentions of rappelling the north side of the mountain to the Col of Conquest, where we'd camp and attempt Venas Azules on the south face of Torre Egger the next day. This all went smoothly, and the following morning we started up Venas with no expectations. We didn't even get a glimpse of the third pitch until we were right below it, despite being so close to it on the rappel. It was natural tube facing just west enough that it was impossible to see until right below it, and otherwise the cross-chasm view revealed only a giant overhanging white mushroom with no possible climbing features.   A couple of easier thin ice and mixed pitches wrapped around to it. Then a few rock moves led up to some steep rime, which I climbed onto. Eventually the steep rime would gain an overhanging tube of perfect blue ice, but with no protection available, I'd needed to find another way. After down-climbing, I was able to traverse left a few meters to a splitter fingercrack up the face that offered great drytooling and protection. After 15-20 meters of pure crack, it became possible to traverse into the tube. The stemming and chimneying inside the tube got steeper and steeper until I was forced to exit onto vertical+ ice, which eventually led to a sheltered belay before the next overhanging corner pitch. My biceps were barely recovered by the time Colin arrived at the belay. I started up the next pitch as soon as possible with the first 15-meters of 85-degee ice going quickly.   The pace slowed as the overhanging corner, above took a fair bit of work to clean snow and ice out of the crack and find adequate protection. With crampons skating off the smooth walls, it didn't take long before I pumped out and had to resort to some A1. Colin got a nice combo of mixed ground, and tube climbing on the fifth pitch, and I got 20-meters up another tube on the sixth. When the blue turned to white, I hacked a my way through a fin of rime on left, getting ready to get fully pumped on a few bodylengths of 90 to 95-degress ahead. But the wind was suddenly howling and a storm was upon us. Both us and our gear were instantly growing rime ice! It was time to bail. I clipped my last screw and lowered back to the belay. The ropes were blowing sideways as we tried to rappel below and they had to be kept in coils hanging from the harness. After a few airy and scary rappels, we were back at the col. We climbed a 50-meter to get to the rappel line of the American Torre Egger route, and began down by headlamp. The spindrift began to pound us as the storm intensified, and I missed the exit ramp that led to the fixed rappel line down the East face of Cerro Torre. Now we were committed to making our own anchors all the way down into no mans land. One particular rappel was very memorable. Even with 3 directional pieces of gear in the rock, it was 62 meter's of completely freehanging rappelling. Finally I was able to snag the rock with an icetool, and make anchor with only 2-meters of rope left. It would have been the prussik of a lifetime had it not worked out! Eventually we made it down safely, minus all our nuts, pitons, cordelletes, a few biners / slings, and a climbing rope that got stuck on a pitch impossible to re-ascend. On the Torre Glacier we brewed as the eastern sky slowly became light, and by 7 am, we were back in our tent at Niponinos. The window had slammed shut a day early and had made our escape slightly more intense that we had hoped for!

After three days of rest in town, we were hiking back up. Plan A was to give Venas Azules another go, but temperatures seemed a little high, and the window was looking on small side for it. Plan B was go rock climbing on "Festerville", a route up the north ridge of Cerro Stanhardt that came highly recommended by friends.   On the 1st of January, the alarm went off at 1:30 am, while many in Chalten were still ringing in the new year.    We were at the Stanhardt Col by sunrise, and climbing in rock shoes shortly after. By the time the sun rolled around it was hot enough to climb in t-shirts! The positions and the quality of Festerville were superb and it was so nice to have the pointy stuff inside the pack for a change. A true choose your own adventure up a smorgasbord of splitters, Festerville delivered the goods. Some 15 pitches later, we were climbing around mushrooms on the summit ridge, and soon standing on the top of the highest one, enjoying calm winds and evening sunlight shining across the icecap. By the time we rappelled Exocet and hiked back to camp, it had been a 27-hour round trip, and was once again the light of day was upon us! Sure enough by the time we awoke in the afternoon, it was starting to rain. Once again, the window was closed. Time to hike out and go home!

Summary of the trip:
Dec 12th - Guillot Gully, M5 5.9,Aguja Guillaumet
Dec 18th- Tobbagan, M6, Cerro Stanhardt
Dec 25th Ragni Route, AI 5+, Cerro Torre
Dec 26th Venas Azulas attempt, AI 6+, on Torre Egger (high point was approx 80 meters from summit)
Jan 1st Festerville, 5.11b AI 3, Cerro Torre

Some b roll:

Paul, Tony and Chris on the Torre Glacier - a force to be reckonned with

On the West side of the Torre's at around midnight, while approaching the Ragni route under a full moon.. The Ragni route is the right skyline of Cerro Torre (rimed up peak on the left), and Venas Azules is the right skyline of Torre Egger - the rimed up peak in the center

The top of Torre Egger at Sunrise

If you look really closely, there are about ten climbers in this photo, xmas day on Cerro Torre

Colin, Sean, and Stephanne enjoy the first rays of the day on Cerro Torre

Bottleneck on the headwall looking up

Bottleneck on the Headwall looking down. It just didn't seem to matter.

Amazing views to the north from high on the Ragni route. The southern Patagonia Icecap on the left and a sea of clouds hids the valley bottoms on the right.

Sig-Bjorn leads the last pitch of steep ice and tunneling

The Belay at the last pitch

Colin and I at the summit

Argentino climbers about three pitches below the top. We passed them on our way down.

Our tent site at the Col of Conquest wasn't quuite big enough for the entire footprint of our Firstlight.

The North Face of Cerro Torre looms above. It was about ten long rappels from the mushrooms at the top to here.

Colin in the finger crack of the third pitch of Venas Azules

Colin emerging from the overhanging tube on the third pitch

Colin starting up the fourth pitch of Venas Azules. The north face of Cerro Torre on the right, and the south face of Torre Egger on the left

From left to right: Cerro Torre, Torre Egger, and Cerro Stanhardt. Festerville follows the left skyline of Stanhardt

Colin on the first pitch of Festerville from the Stanhardt Col.

A little higher up

Colin on the steepest pitch of the route, a sweet 5.11b finger and hand corner

Nothing but good times on Festerville

Choose your own adventure country

Getting near the top of the rock climbing

Colin Leading the summit mushroom

The nice view of Cerro Torre, Torre Egger, and the Southern Patagonia Icecap from the summit

A summit fist pump!

Guy Lacelle

jon walsh — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 11:34:00 +0000

As many have heard, I've been presented with this years Guy Lacelle award. Guy was a friend, climbing partner, and mentor to me. Guy's psyche, modesty, and blissful approach had a strongly influenced me, and I found his achievements were incredibly inspiring. I'm deeply humbled and honoured that the award committee feels I share a similar attitude and values. The news came as a surprise email, completely out of the blue, and I'm overwhelmed it's been given to me. Apparently, I'm to receive some gear form his sponsors Petzl, Arcteryx, and La Sportiva.

Guy leading the second pitch of Les Miserables WI6+

I certainly carried his spirit as I attempted various new mixed lines in the Canadian Rockies this fall, with varying successes. There were some sweet sends, and as usual, some projects have been put on hold until next year, with high hopes of having more attemps to complete them.

R. Slawinski avoiding unprotectable thin ice via mixed corner in the Canadian Rockies, during the anual fall time new routing binge

As I write, I'm between missions amongst the imfamous Torres of Argentine Patagonia. Guys spirit, amongst others are definitely present. Colin Haley and I are partnered up and have climbed two alpine routes in the last week or so, and we're now packing for the next one. The first adventure we had was up the Guillot gully on the east face of Aguja Guillaumet. It was generally an easy climb, with about 8 belayed pitches, but it felt pretty intense in high winds and cold conditions. It's amazing how subtle changes in conditions or weather can make an easy route suddenly feel very real! It was especially cool for me to reach a summit I had never been to, on a day that we were likely the only climbers to even bother leaving the valley that day, and within 48 hours of being here. 2300 meters of steep up and down, in 18 hours round trip from town had the legs screaming for days! I suppose it was good training... Some more pics can be found here on Colin's blog.

Our second alpine climb was Toboggan, a 700-meter mixed route that ends at the Col de Suenos between Cerro Stanhardt and Punta Herron. We had hoped to make the first integral ascent of this by taking it to either of the above mentioned summits, but the super rimed-up pitches above the col looked uninviting, out of condition, and at 8 pm, the night wasn't far off. Had we had slightly better conditions, I think we might have gone for it through the night but prudently we opted otherwise. As it turns out, we did what was likely the second ascent of the route and the first free ascent. Most of the route being thin ice climbing up slabs, chimneys, and corners, with rock gear for protection. Upon returning to town, we found out from Rolo, that we likely had considerably more ice than him and SIlvo on the first ascent in 1999. All and all, it was a fun and worthwhile outing and took nearly 25 hours round-trip from our camp at Niponinos.

Colin approaching the Torres! Cerro Torre on the left, Torre Egger and Punta Herron in the middle, and Cerro Stanhardt on the right.Tobogan follows the gully / chimney system just right of the hanging glacier part way up Torre Egger.

Colin coming up a slab of neve about halfway up the route.

Colin heading entering cruise control up another chimney laced with good ice

Some sport climbing and bouldering has been keeping our blood flowing and fingers strong in the days spent in town between weather windows. It seems like all the climbers in Chalten are getting a better than average Xmas window, so hopefully there'll be more cumbres to write home about soon!

Tony Richardson sending Chimango, a fun 7a amongst the Madsen Boulders, Chalten

As good as it is here, I can hardly wait to start shredding the super deep pow at home in three weeks time!

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...

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.

Devil's Thumb

jon walsh — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 09:38:32 +0000

Four years ago on an expedition to make the first ascent of the nearby Oasis Peak, Dieter Klose planted a seed: the complete traverse of the Witches Tits, Cats Ears and Devils Thumb. This seed grew into a dream that blossomed into reality in July, when Andre Ike and I were deposited below the east ridge of the Thumb by helicopter. A week of mostly bad weather followed, with just enough sun to advance a camp and scope the logistics of our mission. Finally the skies cleared, and we set off with three days of food and high hopes for the splitter, white granite we had seen from the heli.

Coiling Rope

jon walsh — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 08:09:44 +0000

Jia Condon coiling rope on the summit ridge of Mt. Tiedeman, Waddington Range B.C., after making the first free ascent of the Direct South Buttress at 5.11-. It took us 39 hours camp to camp and we only stopped for a 4 hour break to brew water, and wait for an iso-thermic snowfield to re-freeze before crossing it.

Patagonia 2005: New routes on Fitz Roy, Descmochada, and Rafael

jon walsh — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:21:30 +0000

Argentine Patagonia summary from January and February 2005 Fitz Roy and Aguja Rafael, New Routes. Paul McSorley and I rolled in to Patagonia at the end of January, just in time for the start of three weeks of mostly excellent climbing weather. We immediately hiked to Paso Superior with the intentions of finding an unclimbed line on the south or east face of Fitz Roy. After seven sweet early-morning pitches up La Brecha, we saw an obvious line of beautiful clean corners splitting the south face, just left of the Boris Simoncic Route (ED-: 5.9 A2 55°, 650m,

Cuatro Dedos and Domo Blanco, Torre Glacier, Patagonia

jon walsh — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 19:43:36 +0000

Jan 13th - Cuatro Dedos(Four Fingers): The window was only supposed to be a small one so we set our goal on a smaller tower by Torre Glacier standards, called Cuatro Dedos. To get there required walking past about ten or more other beautiful towers, which was probably one of the main reasons why it had only ever seen one or two ascents. A prominent northeasterly buttress that led directly to its summit had been on my list of things to do for a couple years, and it was finally time to attempt it.

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

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.

Mt. Tiedeman summit ridge

jon walsh — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 18:50:22 +0000

Jia Condon is still charging after 28 hours on the go, on the first "in a push" ascent of The Direct South Buttress of Mt. Tiedeman. The round trip camp-to-camp would take 39 hours in total, and would require over 2200 m of climbing.

The Casarotto Pillar, Cerro Fitz Roy

jon walsh — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 17:50:06 +0000

Josh Wharton and his partner Bean Bowers (just barely visible) are making the first free ascent of the Casarotto Pillar, Cerro Fitz Roy, Patagonia. Crystal Davis-Robbins and I also made a successful ascent of this sought after, but rarely completed Patagonian classic. A better alpine rock route would be hard to imagine!

The north face of Mt. Alberta

jon walsh — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 16:58:05 +0000

Chris Brazeau reaching the second belay stance on the headwall of a new route on the North Face of Mt. Alberta. It was also the first free and first one day ascent of this 1000 meter face.