Yamnuska

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Yamnuska

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.

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Kahl Wall

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

Canada

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


Kootenay National Park

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


Yamnuska

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


Yamnuska

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


Kahl Wall

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


Kahl Wall

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).


Kahl Wall

Shirley on pitch 3 (Aug. 2013).


Kahl Wall

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).


Kahl Wall

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


Kahl Wall

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).


Kahl Wall

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


Kahl Wall

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


Kahl Wall

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


Kahl Wall

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


Kahl Wall

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


Kahl Wall

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


Kahl Wall

Shirley starting up pitch 8 (Aug. 2013).


Kahl Wall

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


Kahl Wall

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


Kahl Wall

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


Yamnuska

Are we in the Dolomites?


Kahl Wall

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).


Yamnuska

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).


Ha Ling

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


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