Yamnuska - Yellow Edge (5.11b)

Yellow Edge climbs near the sunny arete on the right.

Had a great day in the sunshine up on Yamnuska this week. Eamonn and I climbed the super classic (although often feared!) Yellow Edge route. This route was originally climbed as an aid route but was first free climbed in the 80's by Peter Croft & Colin Zacharias. Today, much of the loose rock has cleaned off, and the gear is pretty good. Many of the cruxes are protected by drilled pitons that I'm guessing were placed on the first ascent, I'm not sure I'd want to take any big falls on them!

The climbing was really fun and provided lots of challenge with every pitch coming in at 5.10 or harder.

Now I'm off to Squamish for a few weeks of guiding in the Joffre Group and climbing sweet granite on the days off!

J. Mills
www.cdnalpine.com

Mt. Coleman scramble

Had a nice day out last week looking for early season ice. We didn't find any but we did scramble to the top of Mt. Coleman along the Icefields Parkway. It is mostly a hike with a tiny bit of scrambling near the end. Sweet views of Alexandria, Cline, Columbia, and lots of other big peaks.

Eamonn & Raphael near the top of Mt. Coleman.

This was my 26th summit of the summer, I think it's time to give the legs a break and start working the arms! Come on ice climbing!

J. Mills

http://www.cdnalpine.com/

Glacier Travel Course & Athabasca climb.

It felt like winter at the Columbia Icefields last weekend, complete with snow in the campground each morning and all! However, that didn't stop us from having a fun and successfull weekend.

Crossing some crevasses on Sunday.

On Saturday & Sunday, 5 climbers joined me for a glacier travel & crevasse rescue course. We practiced tons of skills including how to rescue each other from a crevasse, ascending a rope, traveling roped up, some navigation, and, most importantly, how to cross glaciers without falling into a crevasse in the first place! We also worked on some basic snow & ice climbing skills by climbing an ice slope and then later on climbing in and out of a crevasse.

Travelling roped up on the North Glacier below Mt. Athabasca.

On Monday, one of the participants, Jon, stayed for an ascent of Mt. Athabasca. There was lots of fresh snow so we climbed the AA Col route which has the least amount of avalanche hazard. The weather was pretty good and we enjoyed the ascent! It was Jon's first big peak but he has great fitness and the right attitude so the climb went smoothly & quickly.

Jon on Mt. Athabasca.

J. Mills

http://www.cdnalpine.com/

Yamnuska - 2 routes with Ryan

Ryan near the top of King's Chimneys on Mt. Yamnuska.

Had a great day of rock climbing up on Yamnuska with Ryan from Ontario. We started out with the Unnamed route (AKA the Pumpkin Route) which is one of the best 5.7 climbs on the wall. Despite it being Ryan's first multipitch climb we made it up the route super fast and were keen for more! After a quick bite to eat we ran back to the base and climbed Kings Chimneys, another fun route on the west end of the mountain. It went smoothly too and we were soon shaking hands on top. In total we climbed about 450m of rock, mostly in the 5.4-5.7 range. I think Ryan is now hooked on multipitch climbing and I hope to be able to climb with him again in the future!



J. Mills
http://www.cdnalpine.com/

Ramblings with Eamonn

Took some time off from guiding the last while to do some climbing with my good friend Eammon. Our original plan was to try the North Face of Mt. Gekie in the Tonquin Valley near Jasper. The weather however had other plans and it rained or snowed most days so we stuck a little closer to home.

After a couple days cragging at Back of the Lake & Grassi Lakes we had a fun day on Yamnuska climbing Unforgiven, a mostly bolted 5.11c route to the left of Grillmairs Chimneys. Although rock climbing is super fun, we were both keen to get up into the alpine despite the snowy conditions.

We settled on trying to traverse as many peaks as we could in 3 days, starting with Mt. Sarbach by the Saskatchewan River Crossing on the Icefields Parkway. We had a very civilized 1:00pm start, but managed to make it up and over Sarbach to a high bivi below the Kauffman Peaks well before dark. The views of Forbes, the Lyells, and the Freshfield peaks were jaw dropping!

Eamonn near the top of Sarbach looking over the peaks we would traverse the next day.

Our rad bivi site between Sarbach and North Kauffman. Mt. Forbes is the biggest peak behind.

In the morning we started up the steep North face of the North Kauffman and were pleased to find solid (although snowy!) rock and not too much difficulty. It took less than an hour to reach the top, but getting down the other side was much trickier! This turned out to be the trend for the trip, and in every case it took longer to get down the south sides than it did to get up the North.

Eamonn on top of North Kauffman looking at the N. Face of South Kauffman, which we climbed next.

Eamonn climbing snowy rock somewhere along the way.

We ended up climbing North Kauffman (10200ft), South Kauffman (10200ft), and Eppaullette (10300ft) that day before descending into the Howse valley and camping at the river. All in all, we scrambled up and down tons of snowy rock, up to about 5.4, and did a few rappels. The only climbing section we belayed was one short bit between the two Kauffmans. I would highly recommend this trip, but you need to be very solid with your downclimbing & rappelling skills.

Eamonn on another snowy rock band.

The peaks we traversed, we stayed on or near the ridgeline the entire way.

In the morning we hiked out the Howse river to the car on a trail that was hard to follow since it was mostly buried under fresh bear crap.

J. Mills

http://www.cdnalpine.com/

Eisenhower Tower with Chris & Jamie

Jamie climbing a steep section on Eisenhower Tower.

Spent a super fun day on Eisenhower Tower last week with Chris & Jamie from Stoney Plain. Chris was keen to practice his leading skills so he ended up leading almost the entire route!

The route.

We started up the trail at dawn, and it was a beautiful clear morning. The approach went quickly and we were soon scrambling up the lower tier of Castle mountain. Once we reached the Dragons back, Chris led some of the sections & I led the others. The steep 20 foot crux (that the guidebook neglects to mention) provided some extra challenge as always. Upon reaching the headwall, Chris & Jamie climbed as a team of two with Chris leading while I climbed just ahead to provide tips and keep us on route. Both Chris and Jamie climbed really well and we moved smoothly up the mountain. Chris basically led the entire way to the top and was psyched to get so much practice leading in the mountains.

Chris leading on the headwall.

The descent went smoothly and we were back at the car having a celebratory beverage in no time!

J. Mills

http://www.cdnalpine.com/

Mt. Temple East Ridge attempt.

A couple weeks ago, Kevin joined me for an attempt at the East Ridge of Mt. Temple. I knew there was a storm system moving in but I thought we might be able to beat it to the summit! Unfortunately it didn't work out that way but we did have a fun and adventurous day anyways.
We started up the route at just after 2am, and cruised up the lower slopes and into the quartzite gullies. Kevin has superhuman fitness so we moved very fast and were way up the route before sunrise.

An easier scrambling section as we moved up to the snow line.

It has been spitting on and off all morning (night?) but it changed to wet snow as we reached the Big Step. We decided to give it a shot anyways in the hopes that things would clear up. We climbed 2 steep pitches with boots & gloves on before calling it quits. Retreating off the East Ridge is a daunting prospect to most people, but there is a way to go into a large bowl to the South-East that only requires a few rappels and a bit of downclimbing. It went smoothly and we were back at the car a few hours later.

Kevin cruising up wet 5.7 quartzite with his gloves on!

Hopefully if Kevin gets a chance to try the route again in the future, he won't need to wear gloves on the crux 5.7 climbing!

J. Mills

http://www.cdnalpine.com/