Canadian Rockies Alpine Guides: The Replicant (V, WI5+, 145m)

The last bit of the approach to the Trophy Wall. The Replicant is the middle line.

Finally made the march up to the Trophy Wall above Banff on Wednesday with Dave Edgar and Mike Adolph. We met 3 Koreans in the parking lot who have been cranking hard for the last week in the Rockies, they informed us they had climbed Nightmare on Wolf Street the day before (W6+, M7) which is one of the steepest bits of ice in the Rockies. Anyways, we broke trail up to the Trophy Wall for them so we got first choice of lines and we chose the Replicant. Undaunted, the Koreans got on Sea of Vapours which currently has a long stretch of desperate looking mixed climbing, much harder than usual. They sent the route and provided a good show for us all day, it looked really really hard! The Replicant was a great climb too, the first pitch was detached 5+ and provided plenty of excitement, after that it eased off to a nice pitch of 5 and a short pitch of 4 to the top of the ice. Despite the long approach, the climb was well worth it, it's a pretty wild spot up there!