[TR] Banff- Cascade Falls 1/6/2006

[ckouba]

Climb: Banff-Cascade Falls

 

Date of Climb: 1/6/2006

 

Trip Report:

Goods time were had by all.

 

Cruised to the Great (not-quite-so) White North last week for a 2 day blitz with DonnV, vw4ever, and Rodney. Two days of frozen fun ensued.

 

First day was at Cascade Falls.

 

The Falls:

 

 

 

The sunrise:

 

The gang gearing up (vw4ever Chad, DonnV, Rodney):

 

Rodney leading out:

 

Chad leading out the last pitch:

 

Action shot of the last pitch:

(Photo by DonnV)

 

Me cleaning up:

(Photo by DonnV)

 

Second day at Haffner Creek was really fun as well. More pics to come as they are in Rodney's and Donn's cameras.

 

Gear Notes:

Exactly what you think you should bring... No surprises.

 

Approach Notes:

Can't beat 10m to base of Cascade! Haffner was worth finding as well, not difficult if you know where to look.

 

 

Edited to fix links to full size pics.

Edited January 10, 2006 by ckouba

[kurthicks]

These crazy hombres on route:

 

[DonnV]

A few more pics. Thanks to all these guys for a great trip, and especially to ckouba for his ironman stint behind the wheel. And thanks for the beta and suggestions, Kurt. Cascade was a kick!

 

Rodney coming up the WI3 pitch on Cascade Falls

 

Doing laps on TR at Haffner

 

More ice and mixed and DT lines at Haffner

 

ckouba on some mixed stuff at Haffner

 

 

vw4ever leading and TR'ing at Haffner

 

 

Rodney TR'ing at Haffner

[Chad_A]

Thanks, Chris! Here's some more pics. The wild animals at the Rocky Mountain Inn:

 

 

1st pitch of Cascade Falls:

 

Chris and Mt. Rundle:

 

Chris starting out the WI3 money pitch of Cascade. It got a bit spicier and thinner than this, for sure

 

To the Haffner Creek area. Donn here practice leading steep stuff. He'd already done some other proud (real)leading to the left of this:

 

Here I am TRing an overhanging section of pillar. Chris had done a great job on the mixed ground to the left; I wanted to see what it would be like to stay purely on the ice; much harder than I thought. Both tools ripped out of the chandaliered stuff a couple moves above this.

 

A couple of pics to overview the Haffner area. There was some neat looking bolted dry tool routes around that people were doing. Looked pretty hard.

 

Here's Rodney, mixing it up.

 

Awesome trip! The moderate stuff was mostly in; the harder, thinner stuff, we heard, was not in good shape. It was supposed to get cold again, though, so maybe some of it will form up again.

[Chad_A]

Thanks, Kurt!

 

I also thank all who posted on the thread, when I was asking about accomodations and moderate ice suggestions, and to Alex for his suggestions, as well. It all helped!

 

 

FYI, the Akai would've been a good deal, but they decided to raise the rate to 100 bucks for us CDN, for some reason, after quoting us 70 on the phone (they knew that there were four of us). We went down to the Rocky Mountain, and paid less than 70 CDN, with the help of an AAA card.

[dbb]

Also note: If you stay 3 days OR are a return customer to the rocky mountain ski lodge you get 10% off.

 

nice pictures!

[Cobra_Commander]

Typical Haffner madhouse it appears.

[kurthicks]

looks like both of your rope teams missed the intermediate bolt belay on cascade. there is one that splits the 75m of WI3 into 2 pitches so you don't have to simul... they are on the left and right sides of the route by the snow ledges.

[cfire]

Awesome trip! The moderate stuff was mostly in; the harder, thinner stuff, we heard, was not in good shape. It was supposed to get cold again, though, so maybe some of it will form up again.

 

Although some of the south facing climb were out of shape, there were still plenty of harder climbs good to go. I just got back from there and we climbed Cascade Kronenbourg, Carlsberg Column, Borgeaux right, and Kitty Hawk. They were all in great shape, especially the beer climbs.

 

Did we see you guys at the base of Guiness Gully when we were leaving Field Thursday evening?

 

Nice pics!

[Chad_A]

Hey! Good to hear that some stuff is hanging out there. I was advised to check out Guiness Gully, but didn't get around to it. So, no, wasn't us. Could've been Kurt, though?

[kurthicks]

um, yea, we were leaving Guiness on Thursday evening. right around dusk?

[NYC007]

sounds like a bunch of us were up there..

[ckouba]

Kurt-

 

Yeah, both Donn and I were "focused" and went right by the set of bolts. We ended up simul-ing just when it got spicy over the last step. Rather commiting... We laughed at each other when we saw them as we were rapping down.

 

Good times and thanks for the excellent tip!

 

CK

[sweatinoutliquor]

Great photos guys! Sounds like a great trip!