Obituary
1967–2019
Ken Wallator
Bold Canadian Rockies climber Ken Wallator died in December at the age of 52. He was found near Jasper, Alta. after a weeklong search by rcmp, friends and family. The death was not deemed to be suspicious in nature. Over the past 40 years, Wallator made a number of historic first ascents and hard repeats. He grew up in Japser, and explored Jasper and Banff National Park with a number of partners over the years. In 1988, Wallator and Tom Thomas made the first ascent of a serious grade-six mixed/aid route up the north face of Storm Mountain in the Rockies. That spring, he joined Tim Friesen and Charles Scott for the first ascent of an alpine route on the south face of Mcarthur Peak in Alaska. Shortly after that, Wallator and Friesen climbed the East
Ridge of Mount Logan in only six days, a fast time during the late 1980s. He established a number of big rock routes, including two difficult ones on Roche Miette: one with Harvey Struss called Task Masker V 5.8 A3, and one with Rick Costea in 1988 up the West Face 5.9 A2. In 1999, Wallator, Thomas and G. Mccormick went on a 16-day expedition to a new route up the north face of Mount Clemenceau. Wallator continued to climb over the years and in 2016, he made the first ascent of Lucky Star WI4 with Sean Elliott down the valley from Shades of Beauty. Wallator’s life was an adventurous one, and his final months were difficult. We will have a feature on Wallator’s life in the April & May 2020 issue of the magazine.—gripped