The rural climbing myth....

I first read about this route long before I ever laid hands on a climbing rope. Sid Marty a long time national park warden published a book of cowboy poetry and his adventures in the warden service. This book “men for the mountains” opened up a fresh new world for me. One of these adventures was when he and his partner wandered up the cliff face beside Takkakow Falls. They eventually got cliffed out as the climbing had gotten harder then the standards for the day allowed. Only a spectacular land feature saved their bacon.

    The next time that I had heard about this amazing route is when Nicky Code took a whipped and decked on a guides exam. Nicky woke up and was fine in fact she finished the course no problem. The problem was in the early days you only had pitons to protect the crux moves and the placements were anything but obvious. It also seemed that every time I went back the pitons had been removed making for a dicy adventure.

    Then around 1990 guides Greg Golovach and Peter Harvey while on a Yamnuska training week went and fitted the route with chain stations making the route friendly for a 2 rope rappel. This eliminated the walk off which is a 4 hour bush-wack down the NW shoulder. Once the bolts were in place Joe McKay considered the place open range and placed intermediate bolt stations making it possible to rap off with just one rope. He also placed protection bolts on the crux sections of three pitchs. Things pretty much stayed the way they were for about 10 years then Gord Irwin places three bolts on the rock 5-10 meters left of the pillar. This added a variation which goes at 5.7. You can get a Topo at this site