I have a friend, let’s call him Chris, who gets credit for getting me into climbing years ago. Where many people would look at my 200lb frame and think I’d make a better Rugby player (or couch potato) than a climber he sees boundless enthusiasm and a lot of heart so he encouraged me to try bouldering, then indoor climbing, then sport climbing, then trad climbing and eventually ice – and here we are today. So when he says “it’s going to be a few days of nice weather, let’s go climb some rock!” Who am I to say no?
With this statement followed by some text messages and instant messages we had a plan. Routes on Yamnuska should be clear so we planned to do Grillmair’s Chimney. The final decision could only be made once we saw the route up close so we decided to take ice gear in case we had to go to plan B which involved climbing ice.
As we pulled off the Trans Canada Highway we could see that Yam was indeed in fine shape but it was a little too late to start on any of those routes so we went to plan B. I should note that during the drive up plan B changed to more rock and plan C become ice. We looked at Doorjamb Mountain and Loder Peak and a series of cliffs with short multi-pitch rock routes. We settled on Kid Goat and a route called Twilight Zone; four pitches, 5.6. As we scanned the cliffs we kept getting teased by the blue ice on Coire Dubh Integrale (500m WI3 (M5) 5.4-5.6) leading up to Loder Peak. The fact that we contemplated it is a little insane so that’s all I have to say about that.
Kid Goat it is. Chris is currently reading Exterme Alpinism so he proceeded to talk me out of taking my gaiters and even thought about leaving behind our headlamps. We have to travel light he said and besides the route is dry. I basically won’t go to the bathroom in my house without a headlamp so there’s no way I’m leaving it behind but I left my gaiters behind. Please note this for what I’m about to describe.
We head toward the dump (yes a waste dump in the Rockies) and the trail taking us to the base of the route. There’s nothing like walking next to a large heap of garbage in the foreground of one of the most beautiful vistas in the front ranges to make you hate all humanity. We note the gusting winds, I would estimate 40-60 km/h but otherwise the the skies are clear and the guidebook has clear instructions to reach the route … in the summer. As we leave the dump behind we lose the trail and none of the landmarks are obvious under the snowy winter conditions. We end up heading into the trees and just bee lining for the cliffs of Kid Goat. I wish I could complain about the bushwacking but the snow drifts and post holing would make any bushwalking seem like a walk on a city path. At points we were wading through thigh high snow and the rest of the time we were post holing up past our knees. There’s no greater tease in the world than an unsupportive crust. Just when you think it’s going to hold your weight, the damn thing gives away and your cursing with a hard crust layer digging into your shins or thighs. These are the perfect conditions for gaiters, the ones I left behind in my car. These are also perfect conditions for proper winter boots. The ones I decided to wear but that Chris left behind because he thought approach shoes would be more appropriate. We kept bee lining because this was only supposed to be a 30 minute approach.
Finally we get to a clearing and we’re at the base of the final slope heading up to the routes. We left the car 1.5 hours ago. So much for the 30 minute approach. Ahead of us is a heavily treed 30 degree slope with thigh deep snow. Why am I all of a sudden considering avalanche hazard on a day which we thought we would be tip toeing through the meadow to climb warm, dry rock? We decide to forge ahead and this was the crux of the approach. The slope made the deep snow almost impassable but just over 2 hours after we left the car we had rock in front of us. But was it the correct route? We had no idea and because the base of the route was under a lot of snow we couldn’t look for the tell-tale cave which marked the bottom of Twilight Zone. We thought it was over to the climbers left but the slope we had to traverse looked pretty sketchy so we decided the best route is the one in front of you so let’s climb from here. We stomped out a 4 feet long by 1 foot deep snow ledge so we could gear up and got comfy in our new home. Making the transition from snow to rock was going to be tricky so we decided to climb the first pitch in our boots. Well my boots and Chris in his approach shoes. Sure enough just leaving the snow ledge to get feet on rock took several careful attempts but then Chris was off on lead.
About 10m up, having placed gear and clipped into a bolt he announces over the hallowing wind that he knows where we are. “It’s 5.8″ is all I heard after that. Did I mention the wind had picked up a little? From our home on the snow ledge we were getting pounded by huge updrafts and gusts along the face of the cliff that would constantly force me to brace against the rock face as I belayed Chris. But he kept climbing and just below the crux decided he had to switch to rock shoes. He moved very confidently through the crux but it was slow going and at that point I realized we weren’t going to finish this route but the fun wasn’t over. I’ll skip over the boring rock climbing parts, this day was all about the approach and the conditions on what we thought would be an easy day on dry rock.
Chris eventually decided to bail. He said the moment he realized he had to bail was when an updraught was so strong that he was momentarily lifted off the rock as he was making a friction move. These were the worst wind gusts he’d ever led in and it wasn’t going to go today. But before deciding to bail he setup a top rope so I could climb the crux. I did all my climbing in boots which was an awesome feeling. I don’t know why I feel so badass climbing in mountaineering boots. Sadly I had to hang on the crux, but I lowered to the bottom of the crux move and got it on my second try. I can’t believe how much fun it was. All my moves were confident and I felt strong despite all the ill feeling I had developed toward rock climbing this winter as my love for ice climbing blossomed. It was obvious that all the time at the indoor gym and all the ice climbing had helped. My arms were mostly in the right position, I had confidence in my feet placements, even with boots and I was constantly looking at my feet. My arms never got pumped and at one point I was so excited I was whopping and hollering into the insane wind. I knew nobody could hear me but it felt so good. Once I got to the bail anchor I got lowered and we packed up and made short work of the steep snow slope by plunge stepping all the way back to the the flatter trails. Of course on the way out we found all the right trails and realized we missed the correct turn off by about 100m which means we could have avoided some serious snow/bushwhacking.
It turns out we climbed the bottom of Grey Waves, a route to the climbers right of our objective and rated 5.8. We were nowhere near our goal for the day but it was a lot of fun. We were upbeat and the day reinforced my philosophy that outdoor pursuits are less about the achievements and more about two things above all else. Be safe so you can return home to your family and have fun so you can enjoy the pursuit and the people who choose to pursue with.
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Maybe you could try a route on Castle Mt like Eisenhower tower? That’s a pretty good classic