Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Trip: Banff - Weeping Wall/Curtin Call

 

Date: 4/6/2012

 

Trip Report:

Vern and I decided to roll the dice and head up to Banff last week to see if we could find some late season ice. It was both of our first trips to this amazing area.

 

We left Wednesday 4/4 knowing that a storm was moving through the area and that too much snow would kill our chances of being able to climb. We made it to Radium Hot Spings and it was dumping snow. Several locals advised us to not cross the pass into the park until the morning. We camped in Vern's KIA and went to bed not too optomistic of our chances of getting to climb (and pissed we paid $35 for an 18pk of Kokanee).

 

The next morning the weather was great and we headed over the pass to the Icefields Parkway area. 1351.JPG

 

Our first stop was the Weeping Wall area. We climbed a WI-5 line with a cool mixed traverse. The final pitch was very soft, unprotectable ice that Verne ended up running out about 60m.

1133.JPG1018.JPG

 

That night we camped in the parking lot of near the Weeping Wall. Vern took the back seats out of his KIA Sephia, cut a hole in the trunk and istalled 3" of memory foam. I was skeptical at first but it was pretty comfortable!

1162.JPG

 

Next day we headed down the road to Curtin Call and climbed the Central Pillar WI-6. The climbing was hard, fun, and we had nice belays inside a few cool caves. Vern led these like a champ!

1514.JPG1461.JPG1382.JPG1312.JPG

 

The last day we had a mellow hike into Beauty Creek and played around on a WI-3/4 flow.

199.JPG

 

We decided the climbing we had done so far had entirely surpassed our expectations and we headed back to WA. On the ride home we saw a 70M WI-4 off the interstate and stopped and hiked to the base and climbed it to break up the drive.

206.JPG

 

Gear Notes:

Bring Vern the rope gun

 

Approach Notes:

Wait until next year

  • Replies 4
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




×
×
  • Create New...