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deafayden
Aug 20, 2009, 9:52 PM
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Registered: Dec 18, 2008
Posts: 4
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Hey climbers.
I am planning a trip to Canada in September to do some climbing. Can anyone make any recommendations about where the best sport climbing is? Im a solid 5.11c climber but i'll go anywhere fun and scenic.
I dont know if I should go to the rockies or squamish. Help!
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uni_jim
Aug 31, 2009, 7:46 PM
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Registered: Mar 27, 2008
Posts: 429
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hello!
I live in alberta, so the rockies are my playground!
The bow valley hosts a lifetime's worth of sport routes. The large vertical limestone cliffs around canmore have some awesome fully bolted multipitch lines (Sisyphus summits on ha ling peak is an awesome 21 pitches of 5.10, while mt rundle has three 5-8 pitch sport routes which are also in the 5.10 and 5.11a range. Grassi Lakes has more good holds on steep terrain per square inch than anywhere else. Acephale is the place to go to if you want to really push yourself and the grade.
Lake louise is BEAUTIFUL! The rock is steep, and solid pink quartzite. The back of the lake is highly developed, and has routes of every style (steep and sporty, cracks, low angle, etc.). This is an area that is over run by camera toting tourists though, and if you want to enjoy more of a wilderness/isolated experience, jasper is the place to go.
In jasper, you will see both limestone and quartzite, with a slightly more traditional ethic in some areas. The jasper area is not nearly as developed as the bow valley or lake louise because of the smaller crowd of climbers. Lost boys crag is a mixed sport/trad crag (mostly sport though) on steep (think repetitive roofs) quartzite. The watchtower is a new limestone crag which caters to the 5.11 and higher climbing crowd perfectly. A nice thing that i noticed about my visit to the watchtower was that every route was distinctly different from the last, lots of variation in movements. The rock gardens are supposed to be really good, although I have not visited yet. If the weather gets cool, head out to Juno wall, it is a south facing limestone cliff 45 minutes from the highway. I was climbing here in february with 10 degree celcius weather when everything else was colder then zero.
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uni_jim
Aug 31, 2009, 7:50 PM
Post #3 of 3
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Registered: Mar 27, 2008
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If you end up coming to the rockies and need a partner, let me know! I can climb on most days of the week, and am also in the 5.11 range.
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