Editorial

Memorable Summer of Sends and Rockfall

It was one of the best summers of sends across Canada, from hard boulders to big alpine routes. A new route was climbed on Mount Waddington by Ian Welsted and Simon Richardson over five days. Local legend Don Serl said, “It’s a beautiful, classic line that I had my eyes on for a long time.” Also on the coast, new alpine routes were climbed on Vancouver Island’s Tom Taylor and Rugged Mountain. There’s a new group of alpinists climbing those big routes that the previous generation skipped over. In Squamish, the new seven-pitch 5.11a Deep Impact was made public thanks to work by Jon Rigg, Brent Goodman, Kaylan Worsnop and Danny Guestrin on the Dog Wall. In Yukon, climbers got a new bouldering guidebook, which features dozens of five-star granite problems.

In the Rockies, hard new alpine rock routes were added to Peyto Tower to follow natural lines on run-out gear at the 5.12 grade. Lower in the valleys, the building of multi-pitch bolted climbs continued around Banff. David Smart and I established the 14-pitch Gold Rush and eight-pitch MacLab Slab and I teamed up with Grant Parkin to complete the six-pitch Sunrider 5.9 and four-pitch The Dirtbag 5.10a. Once these routes were published online, many locals excited for new safe routes lined up. In the higher grades, local Canmore climber Dexter Bateman repeated the 15-pitch The Shining 5.13+ on Mount Louis.

In Ontario, a new wave of young senders made their presence known with hard sends. Gracey Williamson sent the Big Kahuna 5.13d at only 13 years old and Ethan Salvo, 16, made the first ascent of a hard project at Niagara Glen at V12. Montreal hosted a handful of outstanding summer events, including Jackalope and Psicobloc Open Series and the east coast got new guidebooks. In Newfoundland, new boulders were established, such as Hell or Highwater V8. In New Brunswick, lots of new routes were established, including Wyoming Mustang 5.10c opened by Greg Hughes, president of the local climbing club.

Sadly, we also lost climbers. Ken Anderson, a top B.C. climber and friend to many, took an unexpected fall on an easy pitch on Parallel Passages in Squamish and suffered a horrible death in the arms of his partner. Anderson’s unexpected death rattled the many communities he was part of around the globe.

And one of the most memorable mountain happenings of the summer was all of the rockfall. Although rockfall often happens, it seems that the number of people in the backcountry is helping us to capture it on camera. South Howser Tower in the Bugaboos suffered a massive rockfall that dusted over 1,000 metres of vertical space. Joffre Peak near Pemberton lost most of its northeast face, which devastated climbing routes and ski lines. And the north face of Mount Macdonald in Rogers Pass lost a big section that changed some existing routes. Massive rockfall events are infrequent but minor rockfall is always a threat, so remember to wear your helmet.