In May, Toshiyuki Yamada and I climbed a new route on the northeast face of Storm Mountain (3,191m) after first repeating the Wild Thing on Mt. Chephren and Greenwood-Locke on Mt. Temple, earlier that month. Storm Mountain is located on the continental divide in the Bow River Valley, across from Castle Mountain. George Dawson named the peak in 1884 after witnessing a number of storm clouds on its summit.

On May 17, at 4 a.m., Yamada and I left our camp at Lower Twin Lake and hiked for five hours with snowshoes up to the base of the northeast face. An obvious ice line on the right side drew our eyes and hearts into longing and excitement for a new route. Yamada took the first pitch, climbing a short and somewhat rotten ice step (WI3) to a snow slope that we simul-climbed for about 100m. On my lead I moved onto a gully of ice and rock steps (5.6). Yamada tackled the next ice step (WI4)—great ice for the alpine! On the final lead I encountered steep cornicing that required delicate climbing. I broke through the cornice to get to the summit ridge and finally the summit. We descended the north ridge (climber’s right of our route) to our camp with happiness.

The climbing took six hours from the base to the summit. It wasn’t too hard, and it appears to be the easiest and most natural line on the northeast face. We named it Kogarashi, which means “little storm” in Japanese (350m, D WI4 5.6).

– Takeshi Tani, Japan