Windtower; North-East Face 5.10a

Left car at 0600h

Returned to car at 2015h

Started climbing at 0830h

Finished climbing at 1900h

Total pitches: 11 + 400m of 4^th and low 5^th class climbing

 Pat and I are back a week later for a second attempt. We left at the same time as last week but didn’t lose nearly as much time searching around for the start of the climb. Earlier this week Pat spoke with Cian, our climbing buddy, who did the climb last year. With the added information, we knew to look for two pitons that would mark the top of the first pitch. When we found them we were happy to be on track! We started upwards around 0830h. We negotiated some loose rock on the first two pitches but afterwards the climbing became very enjoyable. We agreed that the crux for both of us was the 10m off-width crack on the 7^th pitch.






 Even though it wasn’t rated the most difficult at 5.9 it was the most awkward technically. As we arrived at the last two technical pitches dark clouds started rolling above us from each side of the Windtower. When we heard lightning in the distance that’s when we really started to press on. Heading back down the climb wasn’t much of an option anymore since we were already quite high. Pat led and linked up the last two pitches. It was a nice long pitch of almost only layback moves. Unfortunately I didn’t get to enjoy it much since all I was concentrating on was to get to the top. The only thing on our mind was to head down and off the peak as fast as possible. Once past the 11^th and last pitch we simul-climbed about 400m of 4^th and low 5^th class climbing.

Once on the summit we quickly packed our climbing gear and started running down the long scree slope towards tree line. On the way down we could see the town of Canmore a few kilometres N-W covered by dark clouds and getting pounded by rain which was coming our way. We only stopped once bellow tree line for a quick drink of what was left in our water bottles and carried on to the van. We took a few minutes before leaving to watch the incoming dark clouds, lightning and the veil of rain that followed. Glad we were down in time!

Windtower; North-East Ridge 5.4

I’ve been mostly sport climbing lately and just came back from visiting Ontario for 2 weeks. It feels like it’s been a while since I’ve been out on a bigger climb. Probably because it has been a while! The N-E ridge wasn’t our intended climb. We had bigger plans to climb the N-E face (5.10a, 570m) but had difficulties along the way. Pat was house-sitting in Canmore for the month so I came over and slept there to get a little head start closer to the climb and a few more minutes of shut eye. We left at 0530h and parked bellow the approach to the West Wind Pass. We cruised up to the top of the pass making good time (30 min). Unfortunately this was the only part of the day where we made good time. From there we fumbled around looking for the correct way down past cliff bands to reach a faint trail bellow. Before that we even stared to head towards the wrong peak West of the Windtower... Note: Study the approach information thoroughly before heading out!

With about two hours wasted from scrambling around we made it to the base of the N-E face. The guidebook does mention that a lot of parties lose a lot of time trying to find the start of the route. I found out why! The face is quite wide and there aren’t any big distinguishing features to indicate where to start. We studied it from further down and thought we had figured it out. Once up and against the face we kept walking back and forth. We tried to locate ourselves with where we were in relation to the information about the climb which we had written down. It took us another hour or so before finally thinking we had things figured out. We traversed all the way across the scree ledges and found a section of rock above which seemed close to the description of the climb. Still it wasn’t exactly the same. By now it was later than we would have liked since the climb is quite long. We decided to at least climb the corner of rock above to see if we could at least find evidence that this was the correct way. I climbed the 5.8 pitch to a ledge which seemed like the route. Although I still wasn’t totally sure this was the way. By now we had agreed that it was too late to attempt the climb. I down-climbed the pitch and we decided to climb the N-E ridge as our consolation prize.

We figured that simul-climbing most of the ridge wouldn’t be a problem and that if we needed to we could belay any more difficult sections. We didn’t need to belay any of it and reached the summit after 2hrs from the base of the ridge. That included me being lowered down a pitch to retrieve Pat’s chalk bag which he dropped onto a ledge half-way up. The walk down from the top was easy and straight forward with a good trail the whole way.

Photo's will be posted soon!