Monday, April 26, 2010

Climbs i want to try on Yamnuska

345m - Belfry 5.8+
300m - Bottleneck 5.8
95m - C-Plus 5.7
90m - C-route 5.8
340m - Calgary Route 5.6
295m - Chockstone Corner 5.8+
325m - Direttissima 5.8+
225m - East Face Route 5.4+
260m - Gray Goose 5.7
295m - Grillmairs Chimneys
277m - King's Chimney
270m - Red Shirt 5.8+
189m - The Toe 5.8
150m - Tongue - Right Side 5.6
217m - Unnamed 5.7
210m - Western Union 5.8
260m - Windy Slabs 5.6

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

First lead on Yamnuska

So finally was able to meetup with Per to climb on Yamnuska. The night before we decided that we were either going to try Easy Street; a 5.6 climb or Grillmair's Chimney; a longer 5.7 climb.

We met at the parking lot at 10:15 am and introduced ourselves. After combining all the trad gear we had we decided to mainly stick with his gear and try Easy Street since this was the first time we were climbing together.

During the approach my legs were still very sore from the prior Saturday when I climbed Holy Cross with Shaun so I actually had to take a number of breaks along the way. Also I was only wearing old sneakers for the approach so scree kept on getting into my shoes. I could tell my bones are slightly aging because my knees were beginning to hurt when i put all my weight on one leg to push up the steep approach. We found out there was one other group that was climbing above us and crossed our fingers that they were doing Windy Slabs so we wouldn't be exposed to rockfall. Lady luck was on our side when we arrived at the base of the climb as the lady that was seconding mentioned they were indeed starting on Windy Slabs. Per lead the first 3 pitches and I lead the last 3 except for the fact that the last pitch I was supposed to traverse sideways (west) off the Bar-b-que ledge but instead proceeded upwards. The last pitch ended up being a 5.8 and because this was my first multi-pitch trad route i felt more comfortable if Per lead the route so we finished on the backside around 5 pm-ish and then continued scrambling up until we were almost at the summit. I ended up taking a few panorama shots at the top. We descended on a path that lead west through the woods and must've had several ticks on us by the time we reached the bottom trail that lead back to the gravel road.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Webcams for Minnewanka and Moose Mountain

Webcam Minnewanka
http://www.explorerockies.com/banff-webcam/

Webcam Moose Mountain
http://www.braggcreek.ca/weather/index.htm

Mountain Biking Forums for Western Canada
http://forums.mtbr.com/forumdisplay.php?s=780e21fd414add8e933cae5578c39c74&f=84