Five New Routes on Mount Rundle
Five Big New Routes with My Boss, David Smart
Over a number of seasons, Dave Smart and I climbed five big new routes, with four being fully bolted, on the west end of Mount Rundle in Banff National Park. Rundle is a long range that stands between Canmore and Banff. There’s a kilometreslong ridge that people hike/run/climb called the Rundle Traverse. It has dozens of world-class rock and ice climbs. There’s a tiresome hike to the summit from Banff. There’s a trail that winds around it, with the southern side called Goat Creek Trail and the north being the Riverside Trail.
In 2018 and 2019, Smart and I pieced together two long slabs to the south of Rundlehorn, a classic old 5. 6 11 -pitch mostly bolted route above the Banff golf course. The approach takes only a few minutes and the climbing is always modest. The position above the Bow River and Sleeping Buffalo (Tunnel Mountain) are fantastic. We named the first seven-pitch 5.7 Maclab Slab after the Maclab Bistro at the Banff Centre where climbers would gather during the Banff mountain festival every fall. We named the second climb we finished Gold Rush after the long history of mining in the area. It follws 14 pitches of mostly 5.4 and 5.5 slabs to a small summit above Rundlehorn. In summer 2020, mountain guides installed a long descent, which includes climbing an additional few hundred metres. While it’s advised to use on busy days, we suggest taking the rappel back to the ground to save time.
Smart made his annual trip from his home in Toronto to the Rockies in August this year. With his wife, Katrina Kilroy, the two would climb an established route one day and Dave and I would work on new routes on the others. Last year, we found a number of long slabs on the north side of the west end of Rundle that looked like good rock. Upon closer investigation this year, Dave and I found a lot
of great potential, so we packed the bags with over 200 bolts and went to work.
There were three sections of nice slabs separated by around
100 metres from side to side. We started on the one farthest west and worked left. On our first day, we climbed seven pitches up a funky, three-dimensional water-worn slab chimney system. We took it to the trees above and completed bolting it on the first day.
The mountain was named for Methodist missionary Robert Rundle in 1858 by John Palliser. Rundle was invited by the Hudson’s Bay Company to do missionary work in the area. He introduced syllabics, a written language for the Cree and only visited the Banff area twice. The Cree name for Rundle is Waskahigan Watchi or House Mountain (not to be confused with Howse Peak on the Icefields Parkway). We named our new seven-pitch 5.9 all-bolted route “House Mountain” as a nod to the original name.
The second route we climbed followed the middle of the three slabs. On our first day, we climbed 10 pitches from the ground up and fully equipped them. It starts on solid limestone for two pitches below a small roof with two cracks. We climbed the right crack and continued past two pitches’ worth of fourth-class scree to the upper headwall. The following day, we returned and finished the route to the top. In total, it’s 14 pitches up to 5.8 and fully bolted. You can rappel it with one 60-metre rope.
We named it Yonge Street in honour of the late Chas Yonge, who was one of the Rockies’ most prominent route developers and cavers. He died of cancer earlier this year. He established local classics like Heart Line, a 19-pitch 5.9 on Heart Mountain, and wrote a guidebook to Kid Goat. Back when Yonge was living and studying at university in the Greater Toronto Area, he worked on establishing many climbs on the Niagara Escarpment. One was Baby Face, a 5.9 at Buffalo Crag. He protected it using tent pegs on the first ascent. After we finished Yonge Street, we added a third-pitch variation that follows a fun 5.8 crack/slab which we called the Tent Peg Variation.
The final slab took Smart and me two days. It’s the biggest and most intimidating. At first, we didn’t think we could climb it ground-up, but in the end, it turned out to be the easiest overall. We called it Georgetown, after the pub in Canmore where photos of legendary climbers and their gear hang on walls, and it goes at 5.8 over 12 pitches. Competent climbers can simul-climb the first six pitches that are mostly easy fifthclass with some 5.5. It’s the first route we established where you need to bring a rack of cams. There are so many splitter cracks in corners that we bolted the slabs and anchors every 30 metres, but left the cracks for gear. It’s one of my favourite routes in the Bow Valley at the style.
Smart is the co-founder and editorial director of Gripped, but we leave it all in the office when roping up together. His
40 years of climbing experience, sharp eye for a new route and willingness to fund such massive projects is rare. “Some guys like fancy cars,” he said, “but I like to make these fun routes for people to enjoy.” Our five new routes on Rundle were made for climbers to learn on and progress through. Smart and I have other big projects in the mountains, but for now we’re moving on from House Mountain.