September was perhaps the best weather for rock climbing that I have ever seen in the Rockies, any month of the year! Day after day of perfect weather & blue skies were almost too good to be true.
Throughout the month I had a number of guests join me for rock climbs ranging from introductory days at Wasootch to 5.10 routes on Yamnuska, and also did a few days of rock climbing on my own. Here's some pictures from a variety of climbs!
About a month ago, fellow guide Eric Dumerac put up a new route on the left-most tower in this picture of Mt. Andromache (beside Mt. Hector) and reported good quality rock. So, a couple days later I hooked up with Mike from Nordegg and did a new route on the tower marked above. The rock was mostly reasonable, and there was good climbing up to 5.9+. Most of it protected well, but one pitch was pretty crumbly and serious.
I also had a couple larger rock climbing groups in September, including a group of 10 from the Canadian Air Force, and a group of 8 people who work together at AMEC in Calgary. Both days were spent at Wasootch, and everyone did tons of climbing and kept me busy moving ropes around all day! Hopefully a few of the climbers have been motivated to get into doing more climbing in the future!
Finally, Nicole & Ren joined me for a fun weekend of rock climbing. They had never rock climbed before, so we spent Saturday at Wasootch working on various skills & techniques. They picked it up quickly so we decided to tackle a multipitch climb the next day.
Throughout the month I had a number of guests join me for rock climbs ranging from introductory days at Wasootch to 5.10 routes on Yamnuska, and also did a few days of rock climbing on my own. Here's some pictures from a variety of climbs!
Mike leading on pitch 5 or so of our Andromache route.
Dan & Tesla joined me for another climb in September, and we chose the classic route Kahl Wall (5.10a) up on Yamnuska. It is an excellent climb with lots of challenging sections and we all enjoyed the day!
Dan on one of the last pitches on Kahl Wall.
Spent a great couple days climbing with Chris & his daughter from Victoria. They had some previous climbing experience, so after a day of single pitch climbing skills we headed up to Kid Goat for a multipitch adventure. In this photo we are about half way up the classic "Grey Waves" route (5.8).
Chris finishing the last pitch of Gray Waves.
After an earlier failed attempt at doing a new route on the Windtower with Raphael Slawinski, we headed back up to try a new variation to the excellent 5.10a route. After climbing about three quarters of the existing route, we moved left and followed cracks and corners for about 150 meters of climbing up to 5.9 until joining the 5.6 ridge route. It was a fun variation with some good climbing, but not as good as the original route.
On Sunday we headed to Kid Goat and climbed the classic route Keelhaul Wall which is one of the best introductory multipitch climbs around. The height and exposure was new for them, but they did a great job and really enjoyed the climb. Afterwards we did a bit more climbing near the base of the wall.
A climbing harness is one of your top pieces of climbing gear that can not only protect you in a fall, but also help you to have a more enjoyable climb. Here are some great tips for learning how a climbing harness should fit to help you have the best climb possible.
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