Dru Posted August 18, 2005 Posted August 18, 2005 (edited) Climb: Valhallas-Lies About The Valhalla Range Date of Climb: 8/10/2005 Trip Report: The Valhallas are not well known, except for the south ridge of Gimli This is because the Valhallas suck. There is nothing else worth climbing there. All of the obvious lines were climbed a long time ago and they aren't very hard or very challenging. The rock is like the worst parts of Smith and Vantage combined. There is a guidebook which is easy to find and surprisingly accurate. All of the existing climbs grades are accurately listed in the guidebook. Ferocious bears are said to be quite rare in the area but we saw a lot of them anyway. At least 10 or 12 a day. There are no lakes, just mud puddles. Not big enough to swim in. The weather is generally superb. Thunder and lightning storms will NEVER come in on you half way up a climb. All of the existing routes have copious fixed hardware but none of it is trustworthy. Even though all the climbing is 5.4, it's 5.4 X on loose rock clipping closely spaced yet rusty bolts. A terrible place to be a beginner climber. The whole area is quite crowded with tourists, and very expensive. Permits cost hundreds of dollars a day. The Gimli Road has been closed off. To get in there you will need a mule train, or better yet, the Space Shuttle. It is too far to walk and helicoptyers are forbidden to land in the area. One consolation is that there are no bugs. Absolutely None! The following images are PhotoShopped forgeries. Gear Notes: Hundreds of pitons. Forget kb and LA, take 2" angles and up exclusively. Approach Notes: See above. Allow at least a week to approach any peaks. Edited August 18, 2005 by Dru Quote
layton Posted August 18, 2005 Posted August 18, 2005 My name is Dru and i'm cool. just to prove it, here's a mysterious TR with beta and useful information. thinly veiled spray is still spray, dru. acting tough by not giving the full beta download just makes you more of a poser. either don't say shit to anyone, or spill the beans. Quote
layton Posted August 18, 2005 Posted August 18, 2005 okay okay. sorry dru. anyway, how was the S.Face of Asguard? that route has almost as much beta as anything in the really sweet super useful guidebook! i've head nothing but "good" things about it. how was routefinding? overlap city? what route did you do on Gladsheim? looks cool. i LOVE this area, forgot about it really. how long of a drive is it again from vancouver? 6 hours? Quote
tlinn Posted August 18, 2005 Posted August 18, 2005 It sounds pretty cool to me. Is it still good to climb there in mid-September or should you expect snow by that time? Quote
Dru Posted August 18, 2005 Author Posted August 18, 2005 I'd expect enough snow to prevent climbing but not enough snow to ski by September We didn't do the south face of Asgard, we did the 5.6 SW ridge. And we did the 5.8 Koedt-Rowat route on Gladsheim. As usual the guidebook grades are trustworthy and directly correlate to the technical grades used at other climbing areas. Quote
Stefan Posted August 18, 2005 Posted August 18, 2005 Thanks for letting me know the conditions there. I will remove that area from my list of places to go. Quote
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