CENTRAL GROOVE
An Old School Rockies Trad Climb
In the mid-1970s, the Canadian Rockies were one of Canada’s climbing centres, along with Squamish, the Niagara Escarpment and Val-David. There were dozens of climbers starting to push the limits on rock, ice and in the alpine.
Until the late 1960s, any climb that was completed under three pitches was considered training, never named and rarely graded. That’s why you can find 50-year-old pitons on two and three pitch routes, but no historical information about them. That all changed in 1973, when Bugs McKeith rappelled into a line at Crag X near Exshaw in the Bow Valley to clean it for an ascent. The result was a three-pitch 5.9 that became a good training climb and opened the crag to more development.
Over the next few years, local climbers added long trad routes to the 100-metre wall, leaving pitons in place that marked the way. Hand-drilled bolts were sometimes added to belays, but they were few and far between. In 1976, Chris Perry and John Martin (two prolific route developers still establishing climbs today) made the first ascent of Central Groove, a four-pitch 5.8 up the centre of the wall. The route had a few minor variations added in the early 1980s and in 2017, Steven Kovalenko and Dave Peabody replaced the old bolts with new rap rings.
I found the rock on Sideline to be quite solid and the protection reasonable, but I’d heard the other routes at Crag X were loose and scary. I ventured out on June 9 with Alyssa Acchione to experience firsthand what the broken limestone on Crag X was like on the far-right side. We brought a single rack, no hammer or pitons and a single rope
I started up the first pitch up broken blocks to a smooth slab and bolt about 20 feet off the ground. A few tricky moves led to a
long runout up easy ground to a wet corner. Nearly 70 per cent of the rock in the corner is loose, but that’s what most old school Rockies routes are like. You test every hold, use the most solid, keep three points of contact (never on the same holds) and press upward while not pulling out. The corner didn’t take gear, but an old piton protected the crumbly ledge moves.
After moving the anchor left to a homemade 43-year-old bolt and bent piton, you climb a loose chimney to ledges. Then you make an unlikely traverse across slick slabs to a chossy corner. The slab climbing is protected by a piton and bolt, so not very runout, but the climbing is difficult for 5.8. I pulled off a number of holds, which made it feel more difficult than the
stated grade. You have to remember that in 1976, 5.9 was as hard as a climb could get, so 5.8 was nearly that hard. Many old 5.8 and 5.9 climbs in the area have been bumped up to 5.10+.
The corner after the slab was wet and crumbly. The two biggest holds were microwave-sized but shifted when touched. Narrow jams and smears were required to avoid sending them down. Alyssa came up after, finding the slab as tricky as I did. The next pitch follows 15 metres of broken 5.4 ground with no protection. I hurled off a dozen fist-sized blocks. After a short bit of trees, you come to the last corner.
I started up the final crack, a 5.7 with a small bulge. The initial few feet protect well and take you out right to a stance on loose flakes. With good cams, you make tedious moves on broken edges to regain the crack. I fiddled in a small nut in the back of a seeping crack and continued another 20 feet without protection to a fun stem corner. While the pitch was overly difficulty, there wasn’t a rest to be found and most of the holds wanted to come off. It’s a heady stretch of climbing that takes you to a tree. Alyssa took a small fall on second when a large foot broke. We added a fifth pitch up into the forest and walked off.
I’ve always appreciated the bold climbing that went down in Canada in the 1970s and 1980s, before the era of active protection and lightweight gear. Going out and experiencing the routes firsthand is something I feel every climber should do from time to time. If Central Groove was developed today, there would be 30 more bolts added and many hours spent cleaning the loose blocks. But, as it stands, Central Groove is an old-school trad climb that deserves more attention.—BP