Eric & Lucie's Bus Trip: Alpine Climbing in the Canadian Rockies, Direttissima, Yamnuska

Since arriving in Canada on July 1st (Canada Day!), we had been anxious to climb something. Phone calls to the wardens had brought grim news about the snow and ice conditions in the area: it'd been very warm and the grand North faces of the Rockies were in bad shape. It would have to be rock. We'd never climbed any rock in the Canadian Rockies but were very aware of its reputation for looseness. It's also mostly limestone... we don't have much experience on that stuff!

Yamnuska is known as THE tall traditional crag of the Canadian Rockies. The rock is supposed to be better than average for the Rockies and, most importantly, the weather is generally drier than in the higher peaks a few miles to the west. We'd been watching a lot of rain fall for the last 5 days, so a bit of dry rock sounded pretty good. As it turned out, the weather would be beautiful.

We got up early (4:45AM) that morning. We drove to the parking area we had scoped out the day before and started up the trail. The approach took us one hour to the top of the talus, then probably another half hour to traverse below the face and scramble to the start of the route.

We climbed the route in 4 ½ hours. Not too bad considering we were not used to the rock at all. The route finding got interesting in places, and the crux bulges in the chimneys were interesting (definitely closer to 5.9+ by modern standards, IMHO).

The first pitch has fairly sustained 5.8 climbing in a corner, past an intermediate rap anchor at the base of the corner. A full 50+ meters.

The second pitch goes left then up to a small ceiling (a bit harder than the 1st pitch), a groove, another small roof which is avoided via a hard move to the left (steep 5.8+ crux), then climbs easily to a fixed belay in a yellow V-groove capped by roofs (5.8, 45m).

The 3rd pitch is on easier terrain to the right but gets considerably more difficult as far as route finding is concerned. It leads to a fixed belay a short distance below a huge right facing corner capped by a roof.

The next pitch is easy and fun (5.5), straight up the corner (hand jams!!) to another fixed anchor 25 m above.

Next is a horizontal traverse on small foot holds and past at least one piton, to the other side of a rib (5.7+). Up the rib to a roof, followed by a hand-traverse with thin footholds below the roof, and into an awkward left-facing, left-leaning corner with good protection to another bolted anchor in a cave of sorts.

Pitch 6 starts with an intimidating steep move to the right then onto easier terrain that leads to the main corner near the base of a chimney, a few meters below the obvious yellow roofs. The pitch continues with a traverse to the left and to a bolted anchor near the arete (note that the piton belay mentioned in the guidebook is no longer there and is now replaced with the bolted anchor at the end of the traverse; the pitch is probably about 45 meters to that point).

The next pitch (#7) goes up and left to a ledge with a bolt, then up and right on steep but easy terrain to the base of the exit chimney. There are no obvious anchors at this point. Just belay about 45 meters out, at a piton and fixed sling just below where the chimney opens up (the guidebook shows this as 45 meter pitch from the main corner; it is 45 meters from the new anchor, i.e. a lot longer than that).

From here, the summit ridge is straight above, and the climbing straight up the chimney. We climbed it in two pitches, as indicated in the book, but breaking the pitches somewhat differently. The first of those pitches went up easy but loose rock in the chimney to a hard move past a huge chockstone: hand traverse left with extremely slippery feet, into a slot, then back right and over the chockstone (very awkward move… resist the temptation to use the cheater sling) to a belay spot just below the last jammed block (fixed cordelette).

The last pitch starts with a crank move over the chockstone, then traverses up and right out of the chimney on thin cracks (2 pitons) to join the summit ridge. There's a minimal anchor in a crack between two blocks on the slopes behind the ridge (#2 Camalot) to belay your second up.

A few raindrops greeted us when we topped out at 12:30PM. We walked up to the summit just 30 meters away. Another party arrived a couple of minutes later; they had scrambled up the East Ridge and were doing a complete traverse of the mountain.

After the obligatory summit photos, we descended the East Ridge. It's mostly easy going but long and steep. We took the "Direct" trail down from the east end of the wall… very steep and slippery… wish we had stayed on the main trail instead (that is if we had known about it).

Overall an OK climb. This being our first rock climb on the infamous Canadian Rockies limestone, we were less than impressed when we reached the summit. In retrospect though, and after experiencing a few more Rockies limestone routes (...), I'd have to say it was pretty nice...