Gray Goose - 5.7, 220 metres (5 pitches)

Forecast for Feb. 26 was for 15 degrees in the Bow Valley and it has been a super dry winter, great day to climb on Yam. Super warm, sunny and basically no wind. West end of Yam has a variety of moderate routes, Gray Goose 5.7 follows a natural break from right to left on mostly beautiful gray slabs in between "King's Chimney" and "Unnamed".  

View to route from descent, first pitch out of sight, but most of the route is between the two gullies (King's Chimney on left, Unnamed on right), exiting left to BBQ Ledge just left and below the sharp high point of left skyline.

The route has bolted belay stations and trad protection in between with the odd old rusty piton. The first pitch is shared with "Windy Slabs", 5.6; my lead, tons of fun.

OSWB on first pitch. (Brad's photo).

We did the bottom six pitches in five with a rope stretch of 60 metres linking the standard pitches of 4 & 5; Brad's lead. Felt great to be on solid dry rock so early in the year. We bailed off the "BBQ ledge" to make sure we got home in time.

Brad at start of fourth pitch.

View across slabs, start of fourth pitch.

"Wasoonaskis Peak" (GR 338442) - Scramble

Listed in Andrew Nugara’s More Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies book as GR338442. The prominence of GR338442 from the ”Kananaskis Peak” col is probably only about 20 meters, maybe since the “peak” appears separate from the Kananaskis highway it is listed separately?

Wasoonaskis Peak from approach trail.

Andrew likes to combine names of nearby named peaks to create names for unnamed peaks, so I used his method to create a name for this summit using Andrew’s made up names for nearby peaks; Wasootch Peak and Kananaskis Peak = Wasoonaskis Peak. Easy, breezy day out, less than 5 hours car to car; I was also hungover. Good spot to get some fresh air while the avi conditions are high.

Raff at tree line, "Wasootch Peak" behind.

Looking up the gully towards the summit, but the summit is out of sight still.

Crazy pole on summit of "Wasoonaskis Peak"