Yamnuska | chossclimbers.com

Go back to Canada page.

Words

The south face of Mount Yamnuska.

I think we have a decent grasp of the climbing available within a 12-hour drive radius of Portland …at least on the US side. If we haven’t tried climbing there then it’s either single pitch or we haven’t gotten around to it. Yet our knowledge of western Canada climbing is almost as shitty as Joe Sixpack’s world geography…In an effort to improve that situation, we made plans to head “north” during this 3-day Labor Day Weekend. Plan A got shot down because of forecast, as did plans B and C (all of them Canadian in flavor). We finally struck gold with Canmore – yesirreebob, eastern foothills of the Canadian Rockies were it.

.

Crux pitch of Kahl Wall.

The short of it was drive, climb, drive. After checking out Dow’s Yamnuska route recommendations on summitpost, we settled on the Kahl Wall route: a 9-pitch 5.10a. If it weren’t for the total lack of cigarette butts at belays and the presence of solid belay anchors, we would’ve thought we were climbing in the Dolomites! The route was a fun package with amazingly pristine (sharp) limestone on the money pitches. To make things even more fun, somebody forgot her rock shoes and did the route in her approach La Sportivas. Back home on day three.

Pics

Border crossing in the Idaho panhandle (Aug. 2013).

A stormy Kootenay National Park during our drive up to Canmore (Aug. 2013).

The south face of Mount Yamnuska as seen from our (shitty, shitty, shitty) campground (Aug. 2013).

Cozy car camping somewhere near Yamnuska. Some people just want to get away…

The Kahl Wall on the south face of Yam as seen from the approach hike (Aug. 2013).

Shirley on pitch 2 of Kahl Wall. View here is east – into the great Canadian prairies (i.e. no climbing till Ontario). Calgary is somewhere there near the horizon (Aug. 2013).

Shirley on pitch 3 (Aug. 2013).

Shirley nearing the end of pitch 4 of Kahl Wall. These lower pitches are a bit meandering but the rock is solid and the climbing still plenty fun (Aug. 2013).

Leading the fifth (maybe…) pitch of the Kahl Wall (Aug. 2013).

Leading the money pitch (#6) of the Kahl Wall on Yam – very fun face climbing on some surprisingly pristine (i.e. sharp) limestone (Aug. 2013).

Shirley starting up the very fun pitch 6 (crux) of Kahl Wall (Aug. 2013).

Shirley on pitch 6…the lack of rock shoes made for more intense crimping experience (Aug. 2013).

Shirley topping out on the crux pitch 6 of Kahl Wall (Aug. 2013).

Starting up pitch 7 of Kahl Wall. Very fun face climbing awaits just above (Aug 2013).

Shirley on pitch 7 – fun face climbing (in photo) preceded by a not-so-obvious (pay attention to that topo) traverse (Aug. 2013).

Leading the very aesthetic pitch 8 of the Kahl Wall (Aug. 2013).

Shirley starting up pitch 8 (Aug. 2013).

Shirley nearing the top of pitch 8 – pretty nice crack climbing esp. for limestone (Aug. 2013).

Hiking off along the summit ridge of Yamnuska (Aug. 2013).

Shirley hiking down the screen fields on the backside of Yamnuska…with a cool contrail above (Aug. 2013).

Are we in the Dolomites?

Good climbing makes Shirley happy and this photo with the pretty flowers captures the mood quite well. Hiking down after our climb through some pretty aspen forest (Aug. 2013).

The c. 1000 foot tall south face of Mount Yamnuska. The Kahl Wall is in the center of the photo. The route by the same name tops out in what appears to be the high point of the ridge (Aug. 2013).

The amazing looking Ha Ling Peak…hopefully next time (Aug. 2013).

Go back to Canada page.