Thursday, September 15, 2011

Yam, Sport Course, Louis, and Louis!

This year I cut my season a bit short since I had a few details to take care of in September, like getting married last weekend! The last few trips were lots of fun though, and we were spoiled with perfect blue skies every day.

A couple weeks ago, Aaron joined me again for an ascent of Chockstone Corner (5.8+) on Yamnuska. It was a really good route, with sustained 5.8 climbing and a wide variety of rock. Aaron led one of the pitches and did great!

Aaron leading on Chockstone Corner on Yamnuska.

Next I had 6 guests join me for a weekend Sport Climbing Course. Everyone had a great time as we practiced lead climbing, cleaning anchors, taking falls, lead belaying, and much more. We spent the first day at Wasootch, and the second day at Louise. At Louise a few of the participants even did a bit of gear climbing on the sweet quartzite cracks.

Sport course at Wasootch.

A few days later, Luke joined me for 3 awesome days on the rock. We spent the first day gear climbing at Louise and he picked it up really quickly, getting lots of leads in up to 5.8. The next day we tackled the incredible limestone corners of Homage to the Spider (5.10a) on Mt. Louis. I'd never climbed the route before, but it is probably the best alpine limestone I have ever seen and we had an excellent day. On our final day we went to Kid Goat where Luke got to practice more leading on the multipitch limestone gear routes. It went well but it was scorching hot in the sun!

Luke climbing at Back of the Lake in Lake Louise.

Luke on one of the excellent 5.9 pitches on Homage to the Spider.

For my final peak of the year (summit #22 for the summer I believe), Chris & Mark joined me for an ascent of the mega-classic Gmoser Route (5.8) on Louis. It's a big route for a team of 3 but we moved quickly and had a great time rock climbing in the sunshine! Both the crux of the Gmoser and the upper Perren Cracks provided lots of challenge and good climbing.

Chris & Mark on pitch 6 of the Gmoser Route on Mt. Louis.

J. Mills
www.cdnalpine.com

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