On August 28, an experienced party set out to climb Homage to the Spider (5.10a) on Mt. Louis, near Banff. The route is an alpine rock climb with a three-hour approach. It starts with a few hundred meters of third-and fourth-class scrambling to re...
A party of two climbers spent August 13 on Super Brewer, a long alpine rock climb that links the Ultra Brewer and Brewer Buttress routes on Castle Mountain. Ultra Brewer (330m, III 5.9) climbs to the Goat Plateau, a large ledge system at mid-heigh...
On July 28, two climbers were attempting a new route on the quartzite cliff known as the Saddleback Wall, near Lake Louise. They were one or two pitches up the four-pitch wall when the leader pulled off a loose block and took a fall. The gear held...
On July 22, three climbers were on The Search, a 5.10 sport route at the Back of the Lake crag. This pitch starts off a large ledge about 20 meters above the ground. At around 3 p.m., the leader fell while climbing above the fourth bolt and impact...
Our party of three arrived at the Moraine Lake parking lot around 7:30 a.m. on Decem- ber 28. The focus of the day was to ski the Pinnacle-Eiffel Couloir in Paradise Valley. We expected to cover the roughly 12-kilometer approach in three to four h...
On August 1, a party of two was ascending the east ridge of Mt. Temple and navigating a section of the route that involved traversing steep ice and snow for several hundred meters before the final vertical step through a rock band called the Black...
September 12 started out on the wrong foot for a pair of experienced climbers and outdoor recreationalists. They had not climbed on this part of Mt. Temple and were “off route” nearly as soon as they shut the car door at 3 a.m. Unfamiliar with th...
A 32-year-old male and a 25-year-old female attempted Mt. Edith Cavell via the third-class west ridge during the weekend of September 19 and 20. It is not known if they reached the summit, but there is evidence they got high on the ridge. During t...
On August 16, an experienced climber fell 250 meters to his death while moving unroped on the northwest ridge of Mt. Sir Donald. Reports suggested the 25-year-old man fell after pulling off a large block or boulder. Parks Canada was notified about...
Seven mountaineering club members had planned a climb of Chimai Mountain (2,306 meters), northwest of Squamish, in July. Although the mountain is glaciated, online research had suggested there was a route to the top that did not involve glacier tr...
On February 8, I took a long leader fall on the third pitch of Broken Hearts, a long ice route in the South Fork Valley. I was climbing in a group of three ahead of five friends doing the same route in two rope teams. At around 11 a.m., I was near...
On August 2, Junghyun “Jiji” Nam fell at the base of the Feather Buttress route (5.10+) on the north side of War Bonnet Peak, above the Cirque of the Towers. Nam and her climbing partner were gearing up to start the climb when she slipped and tumb...
Four climbers summited Pingora Peak in the Cirque of the Towers on September 5 and started down the south buttress. They chose to rappel a line to the left of the main south buttress route, using two ropes tied together. Two of them had used this ...
At approximately 6:45 p.m. on September 10, the SAR coordinator on duty was connected with a caller who said he and his partner were at the “Boulder Problem in the Sky,” near the top of the Exum Ridge and the summit of the Grand Teton. The partner...
After descending from Mt. Owen via rappels in the Koven Couloir, a two-person climbing party (Kia M., Ryan S.) came upon a distressed climber (Josh A.) in the flats of Teton Glacier at about 9:20 p.m. on August 8. Josh explained that his partner, ...
On July 4, a party of two male climbers climbed the South Teton from their camp in the Meadows of Garnet Canyon. They were using ice axes and crampons and wearing helmets. During the late afternoon and early evening, several thunderstorms passed o...
In the afternoon of June 21, a party of four was top-roping Gill’s Nose, a 5.11 route at Gill’s Buttress. The top-rope had been set up by Person 2. Three of the climbers had climbed on the route, falling and lowering safely without any issues. Cli...
It was November 21, and our day started by warming up on Riding the Crest of the Wave (5.9 trad) at Idol Point. We then walked to Party Buttress to attempt Harbinger Scarab (5.12c), a 100-foot, mostly bolted route that requires a couple of traditi...
On October 4, I (Mike Paugh, 38) and Sarah Smith were searching for areas at Cooper’s Rock to bring clients with my new guide service, Ascension Climbing Guides. We were also climbing routes in the area. At about 2 p.m., I racked up to attempt Upc...