Trophy wall cragging

The mighty Trophy Wall high on Mt. Rundle,
zoomed in from the trail head at the end of the golf course road.

Since the Golf course road was open for the last day of the season and little snow on the approach, Sepp and I decided to check things out on the Trophy Wall. From afar it appeared that the Terminator might somewhat connect with a few bits of rock in between, but we got shut down after the first pitch due to the lack of bigger balls.
Luckily there was plenty of ice to play around for the rest of the day, Post Scriptum is fat and there are at least three independent lines on the first part of the Replicant.
The best climbing of the day was without doubt the first two pitches of the Exterminator, Raphael's masterpiece on far left side of the wall. There is way more ice on it than on the first ascent and therefore provides classic mixed climbing with lots of transitions from rock to ice and vice versa.

2 hours later and almost there

I'd like to compare the rarely formed La Goute with China's industry,
very impressive and ready to collapse anytime. 

on the approach ice below Post Scriptum

Sepp on the first pitch of the Terminator.

lot's of ice and different lines on the first 45m of the Replicant

And before I forget, a big thanks to the organizers and presenters of this years Night of Lies.
A super fun event where I almost peed my pants a few times, and all for a good cause.

Ice climbing season is upon us

Sacre Bleu always makes for a good early season outing. The climb lies high in a shady bowl on Mt. Rundle and forms without failure early season. You wanna get it before there is too much snow in the huge avalanche factory above the climb. She's right in your face when you drive on the Trans Canada Highway from Canmore to Banff, so no need to walk for hours to check on conditions.

Therefore it was somewhat a surprise that, although she is standing proud since well over a week, we were the first ones up there this year. Given the fact that every ice climber in town is super keen to touch ice, it was a real treat to get virgin ice without line ups.

the first and last sun of the day

she's a beauty!

Sepp Hochlahner's first ice climb in Canada

A virgin on virgin ice.

bolted multi pitching close to Canmore

Simon on his (and Ross Suchi's) new multi pitch in the south ghost called "Booty Loader"
7 pitches of sweet climbing up the right side of the Wild West Wall

Now that the rock climbing season is almost over I get to reflect on the perfect climbing conditions way back in May. Although it was technically spring according to the calendar, it felt more like Summer in the Rockies. After a nearly perfect Summer and Fall most climbers, including myself, almost forgot how good it was in that rather typically rainy time of the year.
This gave me a chance to hop on some of the north facing objectives close to town which are usually reserved for the Summer, where I usually roam around in the Alps.
One of the best bolted multi pitch sport routes above Canmore is certainly "The Temptress" in Echo Canyon. 3 long pitches of sustained 5.12 climbing lead to the upper 13b crux pitch, which is even longer. Excellent steep rock and quality climbing, a landmark route put up lead soloing by my friend Derek Galloway. A must do for everyone who can master the grade. I certainly did not master it at all but that gives me a reason to go back for some fine tuning. Not a bad project since I can see my house from every belay.

Simon Meis entering the crux moves of the first pitch, 12d 

higher on the 45m long first pitch, sustained 12a climbing on a steep face

the finish of the 3rd pitch, the orange rock is bomber

A few days later we found our next goal on the other side of town, the shaded north face of Ha Ling, formerly known as Chinaman's peak. Another friend and climbing partner of mine, Jeff Relph, put up a completely independed 12 pitch line between Rememberance Wall and Premature Ejaculation a few Summers back. It resulted in the hardest line on the wall and has a smart mix of bolts and gear wherever you can place it. A very worthwhile outing in the lower 5.12 grade, but not one to be underestimated due to it's length and taxing climbing on not always perfect rock.

Here a a few impressions from 

"A particular Manner of Expression"

Simon on the last pitch, a 50m 12-

lower on the wall with the big corner of Premature Ejaculation behind

the easier climbing is quite run out and not always easy to navigate

nice, steep corners that protect well, a rarity in the Rockies

While I was gone to Europe Greg Toss finished up his line to the left of "Tall Storey", sounds like a must do route with 4 long pitches up to 12-.

I'm already looking forward to next spring for another objective close to town.

Leaning Towers

Somewhere around mid May I got a last minute rare opportunity to visit a remote area in the southern Purcells, the Leaning Tower group. The area is part of the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy Provincial Park which was founded in 1974 to protect a huge area between Invermere, Kimberley and Kootenay Lake. Since it is a Provincial Park, there is no motorized access and it took us more or less 2 days with very heavy packs to establish base camp below the south face of Hall Peak, the highest mountain in the area.
This project was part of a Patagonia sponsored film/photo shoot with Steve House, Vince Anderson (athletes and models), Christian Pondella (photographer) and Bjarne Salen (camera). Big time helpers behind the scenes were Simon Meis and Brodie Smith who made it all happen.
We got blessed by great weather and stable snow conditions, which allowed us to get awesome footage and eventually accumulated in the possible first full ski descent of Hall Peak without the aid of a rope.

selfish me getting first tracks on Hall Peak
(Steve House Picture)

The biggest eye opener for me though were the endless opportunities for high quality granite rock climbing perspectives. Everywhere you look there are cracks, corners and other features that slice through the steep, mainly unclimbed walls. A perfect alternative to the already crowded Bugaboos 100km north, specially for climbers seeking out new lines.

Thanks to all the team members for their team effort which made this such a special and unforgettable trip for me. I sure hope to get a chance to return to this wonderful corner of BC in the near future.

mind blowing ski objectives, hard to choose what to tackle next

and then the rock, clean, featured and plentiful

northern lights from camp 

the silhouette of Sharks Finn and Hall Peak

Block Tower and Wall Tower to the right, the just beg to be climbed.

Unbelievable, the entire south side of Sharks Finn Tower is unclimbed, what a pity. The right hand , slightly higher  mountain is Hall Peak, which hosts a few moderate routes on the right side and we skied off the back side. 

Here are more high resolution pictures in case you want to visit the place in the future, it might help you with scoping out some new lines, will it be climbing or skiing.

The end of a great Winter

It's June 1st and I decided to put all my ski gear away, I don't think I will need them anymore this spring.

The majority of my work this Winter was spent guiding Heli Skiing in the Adamants, which is located in the northern Selkirk Range. 

It's been my second season up here and I really enjoy this area. 

The combination of having the best alpine skiing anywhere, plentiful tree skiing with small groups of 5 guests and a good crew of guides make this one of my favourite place so far in over twenty years of playing in this business. 

Here are a few images of what is was like up there,

and now let the Summer begin.

Bow Peak "Gutentight Couloir"

The name "Gutentight" stems from this fun video of a good friend of ours who stayed in his beloved mountains forever. 

RIP Robson Gmoser

you were with us all day 

face shots in the middle part of "Gutentight"

A few days off work in the middle of March and continuous good stability in the Rockies allowed Andrew, Ben and myself to ski a couple nice lines together.

After warming up on the less committing Boom Couloir with Cassey tackling the first doggy style  ascent, we decided to head for the Ice Fields Parkway a few days later to step it up a notch and check out some road side attractions, this time around dog less. 

A good write up on the first outing
is to be found on Andrew Wexler's Blog

Sitting in the left hand back seat, Andrew's keen eyes for beautiful lines 

(btw. not just limited to mountains ) spotted this thing between the Grand Daddy and Funnel of Death on Bow Peak. Unable to make out if it actually connects due to the travelling speed of a way too fast Audi, many cliff bands and obscured skies, he took a mental note of it and without stopping we cruised northward.
But something changed inside Andrew's brain and his facial features transformed into a strange look that reminded me of a hungry animal sensing a scent while hunting for prey.

None of the other potential food source we spotted on our way suited Andrews high expectations though, so half an hour later we turned around and pulled into Mosquito Creek parking lot. Andrew picked up the scent again and sniffed his way up through the trees to go hunting for his prey...

And what a beauty she was, probably one of the most aesthetic lines I skied in a while.

Snowfall all day made for major spindrift, deep trail breaking and awesome skiing.

into the wild...
the 200m high walls left and right of the choke host some outstanding quartzite rock climb potential

exciting times through the lower choke

me hanging on my ice axe after long lasting spin drift
Wexler Picture

Ben amongst spin drifts in the connecting funnels of the middle part.

deep wallowing to the exit cornice

                         more pictures from the Gutenteight here

Another video I took last year of Robson Gmoser in Sorcerer lodge shows his famous laugh very well. Let's all give it an effort to laugh more in the future, it will make the world a better place.

you only know if you go

Although as humans we always like to know what's going on and have a distinct desire to predict the future, it is the unknown which we seek when going on our little adventures outside the comfort and temptation of our plentiful coffee shops and Elevation Places in town.

The great unknown in our case was, if the line on the west summit of Mt. Whymper we spotted last spring goes or not. Also, in order to catch up with some gossip that built up during this Winter I had to find a special goal for Wex and Josh to lure them in for the much needed boot backing. 

With below's picture I set the hook.

The question mark on the X shaped couloir right of the center of the picture was the hidden parts we did not see from this angle, and how big the cornices would be threatening the entire line.

The first part of the lower left leg of the X was pretty straight forward 

and delivered boot packing at it's finest. We made quick progress, 

even with our heli ski pampered legs.

At the intersection of the X things got a bit narrower and rock steps seemed to block the passage.

Doubt started to show up on our faces and uncertainty started to slowly creep into our initial hype.

After wallowing in deep facets close to the rocks I was able to make an exposed rock traverse out into the upper right arm of the X.

wexler picture

Above the rock step, a few nervous moments in more bottomless facets, until the snow got firmer and more reassuring. This last part of the couloir is very committing since one would be swept over a 30m high cliff if going for a ride for whatever reason.

 There is also a cornice looming above, in our case it was not very threatening thanks to the fairly lame Winter we've had so far.

Should you constantly look up to see if something falls down on you or simply ignore the beast?

Nowhere to run anyways.

We found a fairly easy exit out to the right and into the light of the summit ridge.

The last steps to the summit of a very tired but seemingly content Wex.

Finally, el Cumbre!

Me stoked out of my mind, planting the Austrian flag as a proof of reaching the top,

 and Josh trying to digest Kimbi's home made date squares which he forgot to chew.

wexler picture

Josh and Wex are typical friendly Canadians and therefore offered me to drop in first, and since I am Austrian I took up on the offer. The proper Canadian way would have been to offer the offer back, something like "very kind of you, but why don't YOU go ahead".

 Spending over 20 years in this beautiful country I slowly get the concept, but offers like this I simply can't refuse, screw the proper local customs and let selfishness take over the moment.

Wexler Picture

After a few turns I started a major sluff that ran full path, so I found an island of safety and waited for my friends to ski by and took some pictures. These are all taken above the "no fuck up or you die" zone above the aforementioned cliff band.

You should know that when Wexler shows up with AT gear, there will be some serious line to be skied. No trying to be a hero and freewheeling on this one...

Luckily everything went well and we were even able to keep our skies on from the 

summit to the base, thanks to an exposed short traverse on a shallow ramp back into the lower, 

less committing half.

Joshua in his element, steep and icy...just like Galena

This line was certainly one of the finer lines I was able to ski in the Rockies, simply due to the fact that it was an ad hoc decision to go there

that it was a big ? if she goes

that she actually did go

that it surprisingly skied quite well top to bottom

that I was able to catch up with some good gossip

that it was a great day with good friends 

And now back to the heli ski world, no more boot packing for at least 2 weeks...

omg, I'm gonna miss it!

wexler picture

A big thanks goes out to the young bucks who broke trail for the old man.
Here is a link to a short video Josh put together:
 https://vimeo.com/120793315