How to climb 5.13 // Part I
Climbing 5.13 was a seemingly impossible goal. In 2019 the impossible became possible. This is the story of how I got there.
Heart Line Climb (17 pitches, 5.9)
Heart line climb is a multi-pitch route located on the north-west side of Heart Mountain near Canmore Alberta. It is a link up of a number of older routes up a fairly defined ridgeline on the mountain, mostly retrofitted with newer bolts and anchors where needed. It is roughly 17 pitches long, starting at Heart…
Squamish Climbing… Failing Not so Gracefully on Granite
Squamish Climbing. Where to begin with how it feels to take one’s ego, throw it in the dirt, and trample it with golf cleats for 213 days straight? If you want to be a bonafide alpine climber, you need to be rock solid on big granite walls. So many of the world’s greatest alpine climbing…
Gmoser Route, Mt. Louis, (16 pitches, 5.9)
Before I ever got into climbing, Mt. Louis was always one of the top mountains I wanted to someday stand on the summit of. It is a pretty famous mountain in both climbing and non-climbing circles due partially to its prominence above the valley floor, and also due to the fact that all routes require…
The Tall Storey (8 pitches, 5.11c)
It has always been a dream of mine to climb a massive, unbroken, slightly overhanging wall. It was one of the main motivations for me to improve as a climber, so that one day I could access these routes. Back in 2015, I climbed The Tall Storey, a route that offered all that I was…
Better Late than Never, Climbing Takakkaw Falls
After a long season of climbing in the Rockies, Bugaboos, and Skaha, the weather gods aligned for a weekend in early September and we made the trek out to Yoho National Park to tick off the super classic long moderate climb – the Takakaw Falls Route. Takakaw Falls route features somewhat crappy rock, and only…
River Run (9 Pitches, 5.10d), on Tunnel Mountain
With spring in the air, and a perfect May forecast, it was time to start hitting the bigger multipitch climbs. We had heard about a new 9 pitch route on Tunnel mountain in Banff that clocked in around 5.10+. A labour of love by the renowned route builder Chris Perry, we knew it would be…
Climbing the Bugaboos, 2016
I’m no stranger to the Bugaboos. I first visited in 2014 with my friend Tyler. It had been a dream to visit the Bugaboos since I first learned of their existence sometime in the early 2000’s. As I entered the rock climbing world, it was immediately clear that the Bugaboos were more than just another…
Climbing in Cochamó Valley, Chile – The Yosemite of South America
There are many amazing climbing destinations across the globe, but few remain as untouched relative to their absolute scale and potential as Cochamó Valley in Chile. This location easily rivals the much more popular El Chalten and Torre del Paine locations, however, very limited development has been done in the two most accessible valleys (El…
Bugaboos 2014
“Why isn’t Tyler answering my messages?” I was starting to wonder. Maybe he had found better partners? I had sent him a few messages with desperate sounding messages like “Lets go to the bugaboos this weekend!”. Ok, maybe it was a bit last minute, but if there’s one person I can count on for last…