RFW Wall - ARROW LAKES, Castlegar

The RFW Wall (Recreation, Fish & Wildlife, named after a program at Selkirk College) is another really cool little crag with a more traditional/mixed theme in the vicinity of Scotty's Marina.  It offers some really neat routes that require some tension filled liebacking and committing moves. Yet another addition to this area where all the routes are worth doing. It is located a little further and up from the road (4.5 minutes) which makes the noise of any traffic not as noticeable and the views awesome. Bring a rack to 3" with emphasis on smaller nuts and cams.

ACCESS: As you approach Castlegar from Nelson, follow signs pointing you towards Syringa Provincial Park & Robson. Turn onto Broadwater Rd. and follow this past the Pulp Mill & the Dam on Arrow Lake. Now follow the road a few more km's until you hit Scotty's Marina, keep going a little further and just past the Marina you will see a big boulder on the beach (left) and a bigger boulder on your right. Park at the pull on the left, cross the road and take the trail beside the big boulder up through the forest for about 4.5 minutes to where you will see the crag. Routes are described left to right.

RFW WALL

1 - THIMBLEBERRY - 5.9+ - GEAR to 3" - 20m **
Scramble up a ramp (5.5) to a really nice ledge where a #3 Camalot will provide you with a beautiful piece of belay protection. From the belay surmount the bulge to where you are greeted with a beautiful layback crack (5.9+), progress from here eases substantially.

2 - FLUSH CUT - 5.10d - MIXED - 4 Bolts + Gear to .75" - 21m **
Starts from the same comfy belay as 'Thimble' but take the next open corner to the right. Climb the desperate seam into some steeper terrain and a crimpy bolted finish. Bring lots of small (micro if you can) gear.

3 - HORASHIO - 5.10a - MIXED - 2 Bolts + Gear to 2" - 24m **
Start down low at a really nice open book corner. Climb the corner/ramp with great nut placements to a bit of a ledge. Take the left (steeper) crack up the corner to where you are greeted with some really sweet jams and laybacking and a final bolted face.

4 - TWO PIN CORNER - 5.10c - GEAR to 2" - 25m **
Start up the same corner/ramp as 'Horashio' but at the ledge head into the right trending corner. Finger tip laybacking & some serious stemming will see you past the two pins to where some bigger holds greet you up higher. A fun tension filled route!

5 - LA FEMME FROMAGE - 5.10c - MIXED - 4 Bolts + Gear to 2" - 25m *
Start in the small corner just to the right of 'Two Pin' where some small gear will help you reach the bolted face. Climb up through crimps and finish on 'Two Pin'.

Zebra Wall - ARROW LAKES, Castlegar

The Arrow Lakes climbing area holds yet another fine south facing crag here that really has a nice concentration of good climbs in spitting distance from your car and the lake. The whole wall is full of these basalt dykes (read: full of jugs) that run vertically down the wall mixed in with the gneiss that make for some really nice climbing. There is almost something at every grade and the easier routes are bolted really well and the climbing is quite friendly, making this a nice casual spot to run laps.

Included here is a nice little photo & topo that should see you through. Thanks again to Vince Hempsall and Climbing the Koots for providing the online updates to the West Kootenay Rock Guide! Link: Rock Guide Update

ACCESS: As you approach Castlegar from Nelson, follow signs pointing you towards Syringa Provincial Park & Robson. Turn onto Broadwater Rd. and follow this past the Pulp Mill & the Dam on Arrow Lake. After a few minutes you will reach Scotty's Marina on your left, pass this, drive a few hundred more meters down the road and you will spot a small waterfall on your right (Waterfall Wall) and a nice little pullout on your right. Park here and walk 2 minutes further down the road to where you will find the Zebra Wall directly off the road on your right. Climbs are listed left to right.

ZEbRa WALL

1 - THE TEST - 5.10d - SPORT - 26m *
From an awkward start, (needs some maintenance) climb the blocky corner into some funky moves in the basalt, pull a small roof then transition into some really nice exposed face climbing.

2 - MERCENARIES - 5.10+ - SPORT - 27m ***
Climb an easy ramp of basalt then switch gears into some tricky face climbing. The climb is sustained and gets harder the higher you go! Very well protected and my vote for the best on the cliff!

3- MISSIONARIES - 5.9 - SPORT - 25m **
A sporty start through the roof or from the left (bolt) leads into a stellar basalt jug haul! Friendly!!

4 - MANIACS - 5.9+ - SPORT - 25m **
Climb the next vertical line of basalt on amazing jugs to a surprise finish on the gneiss.

5 - THIS IS SERIOUS MAN - 5.11b - SPORT - 23m **
Climb through the awesome crescent features on fingery liebacks and reachy moves. Gets harder the higher you go, tenuous!

Cat Wall - ARROW LAKES, Castlegar

Recently there has been a ton of rock climbing development happening around the Castlegar area. As you drive out towards Robson and Syringa Provincial Park the cliffs appear and keep on appearing into view as you drive down the lake. Yes there is good climbing up there and yes there is room for tons more.

The cliffs and lines that have been developed are of very good quality and the access is very quick. They offer a very sunny aspect and good views that make for a great spring destination. Yesterday we were privileged to climb at Wapiti Wall & the Cat Wall. The Cat Wall is further from the road and offers some nice quiet, steep, exposed climbing on bolts and gear! Where as the Wapiti is 2 seconds from the car with a great mix of routes. I have done up a small topo with a good photo to the Cat Wall that hopefully will get some more people out and aware of the great climbing to be had here. There is a full topo/update to the area on http://climbing.inthekoots.com/ that has been wonderfully put together by a few locals (that put up lots of the routes) that should sort you out! Thanks to those who have spent all the time developing and documenting this great area. Have fun~

ACCESS: As you approach Castlegar from Nelson, follow signs pointing you towards Syringa Provincial Park & Robson. Turn onto Broadwater Rd. and follow this past the Pulp Mill & the Dam on Arrow Lake. About 1km past the dam you will run into a red gate and a small road/pullout on your left (lakeside). Park here cross the road and follow cairns and tape on a cut trail through the forest, passing a few really nice boulders. The first wall you encounter is the Lower Cat Wall, take the right fork up and around to access the Upper Cat Wall (3 more minutes). Careful of loose rock, this is a newer area, I recommend a helmet!

LOWER CAT WALL:
Good easier routes here with a bit of loose dirty rock that could clean up nicely. Routes are described left to right.

CAT-ER-PILLAR - 5.9 - SPORT - 3 PITCHES
OLD CAT, NEW TRICK - 5.8 - MIXED - 4 PITCHES
CAT MANDU - 5.9 - SPORT
CAT-ER-WAUL - 5.10A - SPORT
CATATONIC - 5.10A/B - SPORT
VEGGIE POWER - 5.7 - SPORT

UPPER CAT WALL:
The reason to come here! Steep exposed climbing with great views, a bit of everything. With some traffic this area will be great.

CAT BURGLAR - 5.12B - MIXED - 30M **
A steep, bouldery start pass some bolts leads you into a gear devouring crack. There are fixed draws up top and the climbing will demand your attention!

FELINE FINE - 5.10C - SPORT - 18M *
Start on the blocky corner/seam, clip bolts to your left then power through the face on tiny holds to a fun finish.

JIMMY - 5.10b - SPORT - 23m ***
A great sustained route with a nice flow. The finish is great! My vote for the best on the cliff.

DAISY - 5.10A - GEAR TO 4" - 22M 
The steep broken crack just right of the steep face. A wee dirty but could be great!

HAILEY SIMONE - 5.10B - MIXED - GEAR TO 2" - 20M **
Climb through the roof to the bolt protected face. Plug gear where you need it. Cool features.

CAT FIGHT - 5.10b - MIXED - GEAR TO 3" -  22m **
Climb through gear protected overhangs and corners to a bolt protected roof up top.

I CAN HAZ CHEESEBURGER - 5.7 - MIXED - GEAR TO 3" - 20M *
Nice intro lead on the very far right side of the wall, good stances through a cool corner with a bolt protected face to finish.

A Wildhorse Adventure

A Wildhorse Adventure - By: Allen Rollin I could call this your typical Kootenay adventure, but where would the fun be in that. Being whisked away into Ski Land for an epic 4 day hut based ski touring adventure with 3 bros and a ton of snow with more forecasted to come sounds kinda normal ( for around here), but a unique Wildhorse adventure is what ensued, full of all kinds of experiences, twists, turns and great times not soon to be forgotten.   THE ADVENTURE It all started with a scrumptious coffee at Nelson's day bar called Oso Negro, the meeting place and where the day's stoke often begins. From there a very snowy drive followed to the quaint village of Ymir just south of town. We crossed the bridge and started to drive up the snow filled Wildhorse Creek Rd. where even bigger snowflakes and coated cedars greeted our smiling faces. Tyler and Nick, our friendly escorts were busy digging out their snowmobiles and toboggans in preparation of our drive in. We piled our bags into one toboggan and jumped in the other, a combination of 2 toboggans strapped together with seats and a plastic shield to guard us from the fresh snow-wash of the snowmobile. The ride up was fantastic, 15kms of rolling forest service rd. to our first destination; the Cat. We jumped into the cat and Wildhorse Cabin was our next stop. Tyler drove the cat while Nick was free to go slash some pow with the snowmobile while he waited for Tyler's return. He zipped off with a huge smile on his face as we plodded happily up the ridge to our destination. 30 minutes later we were deposited onto Wildhorse Ridge and the Wildhorse Cabin at 2000m with a load of fresh snow and a very high dose of stoke. We shook hands with Tyler and were left to ourselves for the next four days!   We didn't spend much time unpacking and instead opted to go skiing. The first afternoon was amazing, we basically could ski right out of our cabin into 30cm's of fresh blower. We got 3 runs in and orientated ourselves with our area and the ski possibilities. The hut itself was rustic but offered everything we needed. Beds, comforters, pillows, dishes, kerosene heater, tables, propane cooking stove and even a nice lantern that illuminated our little downstairs cave. We were to have the place to ourselves for the whole trip so we made ourselves at home. A big dinner and a couple of sips of whiskey later we were in bed excited for the big day to come. Day two was the big day. We adventured into cloudy conditions where we were greeted with rhime on top of the more exposed slopes. We poked up into the Qua Peak area where we found some amazing north and east facing slopes. Our stability assessments and ski cuts produced small 10cm isloated slabs so we decided to stay out of the big alpine and instead skied some unbelievable open shots and glades. Our circuit seemed to be perfect we got 4 different runs in through cool larch forests and deep conditions. Our legs had just enough juice to make it back to the hut (we had to ski up 400m at the very end of the day back to the hut ) where our stomachs and thirst demanded quenching. After a few drinks and an amazing curry dinner some serious Jenga playing ensued. The warmth of our hut, big day and our tasty Maple Whiskey sent us to bed early with a storm brewing outside.   We were all awoken at some point during the night by powerful winds that seemed like they were threatening to blow our hut down. When we thought it was over it kept on blowing without relent. No good sleep was had so by morning we were all a bit slow getting out of our comfortable bunks. Now came going outside to use our high tech outhouse. The wind was still blowing so furiously that with our little pit toilet missing a side, using the bathroom was quite a hilarious challenge. On day three we were greeted by wind scoured slopes everywhere and it looked like all our fresh pow from the day before was all but non existent. Our first run was discouraging but once we poked around we discovered a wonderful north-east facing slope that offered up some great skiing that was helped out by the influx of another storm dropping tons of snow that afternoon. We retired to the hut early that day, rested up, had dinner and played some Yuker. A wonderful card game passed down through our eastern Canadian generations. After a great sleep that night we were greeted by clear skies and fresh, dry snow the next morning. It seemed like a ending to good to be true. We packed up, cleaned up and set out early to get as much skiing in on our last day as possible in order to meet up with Tyler and the cat that afternoon for our ride out. We skinned up a beautiful ridge right from our cabin to the summit of Wildhorse Peak where the skies broke and the sun showed its face. Stoke was high, the snow was light and fresh and I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.   Needless to say, our last day of skiing was amazing, it really topped off the whole experience. Once we were packed up we had still not communicated with anyone for a ride out so we left our big packs at the hut to be picked up by Tyler and skied down confusing cat roads and wonderful glades while it was copiously snowing to the snowmobile/cat meeting spot. On the way down we finally got a radio call from Tyler saying that he was just heading into the Qua Valley to drop off some more skiers to the Qua Hut (1 hour ski from our cabin, and it was already 3:30pm) and that we would have to wait at the cat meeting point for at least an hour. It was assuring to hear his voice and know that we were going to get picked up and not have to ski down the logging road 15km to the trucks.   We sat in the front cab of the cat trying to keep warm and in high spirits (which wasn't very hard) sipping the last of the whiskey and reminiscing of the good times we'd had the last four days. Once dark fell Tyler and the lights of his other cat glistened through the trees in the distance. We were going home. It turned out that Tyler was all by himself out in the wilderness and that he had blew a track on one of the cats (which he had to fix by himself) that afternoon, hence why we ended up departing in the dark. We rode down in the back of the cat 15km back to the trucks where we found them buried in the weeks snow. Tyler waited till we could dig them out, we shook hands, thanked him for the adventure and we all went on our way. All in all it summed up to be one of the best skiing adventures I've ever had and I cant wait till the next one!!

Backcountry Skiing In B.C - Resources

The season is off to a good start here in British Columbia. Just the end of November and there has been lots of sunny, stable days with blower snow! There are many resources out there for skiing including awesome guidebooks, websites, word of mouth and many others. I will outline a few different ideas to get you started and psyched. Have a great winter and play safe!

 A great resource for all of Canada and especially B.C, this website has it all. Great route descriptions, an online forum (with lots going on) and lots of other great information on Backcountry skiing/snowboarding. Check it out

Link: Backcountry Skiing Canada Home Page

Roger's Pass is a mecca of Backcountry Skiing in Canada. Tons of terrain, big mountains, deep snow and great skiing. The area lies in Glacier National Park and while there are regulations that you must follow, it keeps this place wild and in good shape for years to come. Making a visit to the new Discovery Center beside the hotel is a must.  They have very experienced park staff members, a great public use guidebook of ski tours in the area, a voluntary check registration book and other great resources as well. Some areas do require you to register (and obtain a free permit) as well as you must have a valid park pass to use and park in the area. Here I have included a link to get you started. There are also many guidebooks to the area that should get you an idea of the classic ski tours around. Remember this is big country and avalanches are common here so play safe and have fun!

Link: Rogers Pass - Parks Canada


GUIDEBOOKS:
 A couple of great guidebooks exist for skiing/riding in the wonderful Backcountry of B.C. Here a just a few of them that are worth purchasing and having in your collection. 

Summits & Icefields -Columbia Mountains

Roger's Pass Ski Touring Guide

Exploring the Coast Mountains on Skis

Alpine Ski Tours In The Canadian Rockies

West Kootenay Touring Guide

Whistler Ski Touring Guide

AVALANCHE FORECAST/BULLETINS/INFORMATION:

The two most important and awesome Canadian Websites:

Link: PARKS CANADA - Avalanche Information & Bulletins
Link: Canadian Avalanche Association Website/Bulletins

And one last great website with lots of good skiing/climbing info posted by mountain guides in Canada:

Link: Mountain Conditions Reports - ACMG

Ellison Provincial Park Rock Climbing - New Routes!

As I finish my time here in Vernon, I have been focusing on finishing a few climbing projects at Ellison near town. Although there isn't a whole lot of potential here, the few new lines that have been put up are really good and basically climb or combine existing routes in a more direct
(ie: fun) fashion. There is one potential new route as well (has been re-cleaned but could of been climbed back in the day). All in all a some great additions to an already awesome area. Stay tuned for an updated guidebook coming soon as well! Here they are:

SKYROCKETS IN FLIGHT
5.10B - MIXED - 4 BOLTS + GEAR TO 5" - 22M (Variation)
 Start by climbing the nice corner/crack line through a wide (8") section (Little Sister). After the wide section clip a bolt and mantle a big ledge with a huge boulder on your left (heading straight up to the right where Little Sister continues up the blocky terrain). From here continue up the face to the arete where a crux greets you surmounting the bulge on the arete (great exposure!). The climbing eases from here to the bolted anchors (fixed biners) on your right. Bring some long slings and watch for rope drag.

UNNAMED (AFTERNOON DELIGHT)
5.7 - TRAD - GEAR TO 2" - 20M
A great easier addition to the climbing here with a Squamish type feel. Climb from the base of the Basalt dyke/intrusion into some blocky/juggy stuff on your right. Fiddle in your first piece and cruise through some wonderful laybacking and awesome hand jamming (good gear) to where you surmount a bulge and finish in the main corner. Bolts to lower.

THE DARK KNIGHT 
 5.10+  - MIXED - 3 BOLTS + GEAR TO 2" 24m (Variation)

Start way down low at the base of the cliff at a awesome layback hand crack. Start by climbing the clean crack to a ledge then scramble over right to the arete. Climb the arete with increasing difficulty on crimps and layaways with a crux at the final bolt. Once under the roof, get into position and muscle through the very steep crack on finger locks and wild moves. Avoid moving way out right and finish direct for full value. Chains with fixed biners to lower.

Dance Mix Ninety-12', A fun dance mix

Dance Mix Ninety-12'

Free Soloing

Dean Potter on HEAVEN with Half Dome in the background

Free Soloing: To climb with no rope in a state of pure focus.
Alex Honnold and Dean Potter, both Americans have taken this to a new level. So inspiring (not that Im into free soloing 5.12) that these dudes have the focus and the skill to make it up this stuff with no rope.  Just some footage I would like to share about their feats these days. ENJOY!

Dean Potter on the Rostrum & Alien Roof Alien Roof at Yosemite with his Base Jumping pack! Free BASEing at it's finest!

Alex Honnold on his Triple Crown achievment: Mt.Watkins, El Cap and Half Dome in under 19 hours, climbing over 7,000 feet up to grades of 5.12+......Unreal! Makes my hands sweat :)

 

Recommended Route(s)

Lake Louise is an icon of mountain scenery and beauty, and for those who do not know, it's also an incredible climbing destination. Lake Louise boasts a huge amount scrambles, summits, icefields, ice climbs and rock climbs, basically a mecca for any type of climber. Back of the Lake is no exception. Steep exposed climbing of all kinds on bulletproof Quartzite looking over the emerald green Lake Louise. I could recommend tons of routes but recently I got on this one steep sport climb on a cool little cliff that climbs soooooo well. I didnt even know it was there after all this time. Check it out if you climb 11b, there isn't much better. And did I mention it has a wild roof to finish that will attract spectators(tourists) for a show!

THE DUCK OF DEATH - 5.11B - SPORT - 10 BOLTS - 25M

Start climbing right out of the pond in a fractured crack on pinches and cool jams past two bolts. Now the game changes, crimp out to the right and pull a small roof, then climb up into a funky corner system and work your way through the crux exiting the corner. A big flake section (jugs) leads into the big roof, take a rest, clip, reach out and do it! But what do I use?......sneaky but big jugs greet you over top! So good! Old ass anchors to descend (into the pond :). Classic.

 

New Route/Variation at Ellison's Dog Beach Wall

A great addition to this cliff that combines two previous routes, the Dark Knight varitation climbs an awesome direct line up the aesthetic pillar over Okanagan Lake to a final overhanging finger crack through the big BAT roof.

THE DARK KNIGHT (variation) 5.10+ - 23m 
MIXED - 3 BOLTS & GEAR TO 2" ***

Start way down low at the base of the cliff at a awesome layback hand crack. Start by climbing the clean crack to a ledge then scramble over right to the arete. Climb the arete with increasing difficulty on crimps and layaways with a crux at the final bolt. Once under the roof, get into position and muscle through the very steep crack on finger locks and wild moves. Avoid moving way out right and finish direct for full value. Chains (over the edge) to lower.

Lower part of the route:

 Upper section: