Sometimes you've just got to climb whatever's available. Back home, that meant greasy wet rock or dishwater-grey ice and wet snow. Today, we had something rather better, and were probably the only people out capitalising on the Other Summer of Rockies rock climbing.
It was my first trip into Heart Creek, just 45 minutes west of Calgary. The main falls are somewhere beyond a narrow canyon, inaccesible today due to the recent 'warm temperatures'. Sadly it wasn't quite warm enough to make the creek pleasant to wade. This wasn't a problem though - there are some nice little seeps below the canyon. The larger is 45 m high, and I guess a stiff WI2 if taken direct. There's a lower-off chain up there too, but below it is a lottery of boulders, and it's best avoided for the manky tat to the left.
After a couple of laps, rounded off with green tea and a quick Twix fix, we admired the slabs, which are a prime summer climbing area. The old 'Other Summer' habits surfaced again....and in a few minutes we were trying one of the lines in big boots, armed with makeshift quickdraws. The belayer got crampons, allowing a sharp exit, but the leader got verglas and snow underfoot - on polished limestone. This didn't get us very far - Matthew took a couple of amusing unroped slides down the cliff and across the creek, but couldn't progress past the first bolt. Bring on the tape! Sticky tape saved the day and we soon had a clip stick fashioned from hiking poles. Riding on a neon cloud of coiffed peculiarity, Matthew levitated to the lower-off, clip stick hooked to his waist. With the rope up, and some finger-solidifying cleaning of holds completed, we had ourselves a nice route to play on. Passers-by found the event mystifying, but that's probably par for the course.
We don't know what we're doing half the time either.....
Sometimes you've just got to climb whatever's available. Back home, that meant greasy wet rock or dishwater-grey ice and wet snow. Today, we had something rather better, and were probably the only people out capitalising on the Other Summer of Rockies rock climbing.
It was my first trip into Heart Creek, just 45 minutes west of Calgary. The main falls are somewhere beyond a narrow canyon, inaccesible today due to the recent 'warm temperatures'. Sadly it wasn't quite warm enough to make the creek pleasant to wade. This wasn't a problem though - there are some nice little seeps below the canyon. The larger is 45 m high, and I guess a stiff WI2 if taken direct. There's a lower-off chain up there too, but below it is a lottery of boulders, and it's best avoided for the manky tat to the left.
After a couple of laps, rounded off with green tea and a quick Twix fix, we admired the slabs, which are a prime summer climbing area. The old 'Other Summer' habits surfaced again....and in a few minutes we were trying one of the lines in big boots, armed with makeshift quickdraws. The belayer got crampons, allowing a sharp exit, but the leader got verglas and snow underfoot - on polished limestone. This didn't get us very far - Matthew took a couple of amusing unroped slides down the cliff and across the creek, but couldn't progress past the first bolt. Bring on the tape! Sticky tape saved the day and we soon had a clip stick fashioned from hiking poles. Riding on a neon cloud of coiffed peculiarity, Matthew levitated to the lower-off, clip stick hooked to his waist. With the rope up, and some finger-solidifying cleaning of holds completed, we had ourselves a nice route to play on. Passers-by found the event mystifying, but that's probably par for the course.
We don't know what we're doing half the time either.....
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