Mt. Sabine - South Face. "Funny Bunny" 5.9, 90m. "Limestone Cowboy" 5.7, 250m

Originally Laurie and I had planned a whole bunch of long rock alpine routes, including a first ascent route, but the 5 to 6 days we had arranged had the wettest weather yet in all of 2016.  Since we had work and family obligations, the dates were set and we tried to make the best of it.  First day of real climbing found us on the South Face of Mt. Sabine which is in the Rockies, but on the western edge of the Rockies in the Columbia Valley, directly above the town of Canal Flats, B.C. (50.1754, -115.7917).

South Face of Mt. Sabine

Mitch Thornton, who passed away recently (2014), developed many routes on this face and provided great route beta on his page. Hopefully this great website is maintained, RIP Mitch, thanks for the beta. UPDATE OCTOBER 2018, Mitch's old website is now down, likely forever?  I will search for the beta I have and update more here and potentially on Mountain Project in the near future. 

http://www.fivetenelectric.com/fun/climbing/rock_climbing.html

Easy access to the parking area, via the Kootenay Forest Service Road (same FSR used for approaching the ice climbing venue of Gibralter Wall). The parking area is 2.5 km from the four stop in Canal Flats, simply head west along the Kootenay FSR, up the hill, then park in a large clearing. The South Face of Mt. Sabine is easily reached with a variety of old roads and trails to the steep scree slope below the face, about one hour to the base of the sport route Funny Bunny. On this face is also an old school Pat Morrow and Bernhard Ehmann multi-pitch trad route put in 1977.  This old route and the approach sport set by Mitch Thornton and Katrin Olivaw had been on my radar for a few years.  We used the sport set multi-pitch route, “Funny Bunny” - 5.9, bolted, as the approach for Morrow/Ehmann route “Limestone Cowboy” - 5.7, trad.  Funny Bunny is recommended; a three pitch bolted route overall about 100 metres.  Mitch has a good topo with a short description for the pitches.

Funny Bunny marked in blue, Limestone Cowboy marked in red.

We split pitch1 into two pitches and combined last two pitches into one longer pitch. Our route line in red, described route in blue.

Sort of by accident, we did the described first pitch in two pitches and the last two described pitches in one long pitch.  Mitch’s description is better, I had a ton of route drag on the top of pitch three. I would suggest the ratings are a bit off, I would say pitch 1 is 5.9 and the rest of the route around 5.7 to 5.8, with short easier sections.  Laurie lead pitch 1 and I lead pitch 2 and 3. Most pitches are well protected by bolts, with the described first pitch being the longest with about 10 bolts. Overall good rock and a recommended route.

LK leading P1 of Funny Bunny. 

LK setting belay at first bolts, about 20m above base of route.

Looking up our P2 on Funny Bunny.

Looking down to our second belay station.

LK nearing top of Funny Bunny.

More LK.

I was most interested in the 1977 Morrow/Ehmann trad route.  After climbing Funny Bunny, there is a short scree traverse to the reach the single bolt station at the bottom of the broad corner start, this leads to the long obvious ramp section of the route. The long ramp is a bit tricky to see from the road, but it provides the most consistent path up the big South Face on Mt. Sabine, great route selection by Pat and Bernhard!

Short traverse to Limestone Cowboy from top of Funny Bunny.

LK on ledge between routes.

Looking up pitch 1 of Limestone Cowboy.

The route climbs about 250 metres, first on a left leaning ramp, intersected by a low angled corner. This corner is mostly good for gear and laybacks or hands where it is steep. The ramp has a few short steep sections in the lower part, then after about 50 metres gets a bit steeper, then lower angle again. The long ramp ends at a roof that is fairly big and it must be traversed to continue climbing; head left across a very exposed face, protected by a bolt, then an old piton. Once across the face, an easy gully leads to the top of the face.

The ramp has been used by local climbers to provide access up the face to create additional trad and sport routes.  Even with this traffic, the majority of Limestone Cowboy is very dirty with small pebbles and dirt and it has a lot of loose rock.  Overall I would not recommend Limestone Cowboy since it is mostly easy with short sessions of good corner climbing (5.7+), but most of the route is terribly loose. 

In order to save time, we used the bolted stations along Limestone Cowboy in the lower section where these newer routes are developed. This resulted in short pitches, but the climbing was pretty quick and the stations were in good spots that reduced rope drag and were usually in sheltered locations. If all the bolted stations are used, and one trad anchor used (our eventual station for the top of pitch 4), Limestone Cowboy would be 8 pitches.

LK leading pitch 1 on Limestone Cowboy.

First pitch had a tough 5.7 corner with poor feet to get you into the groove of the route, good trad protection; Laurie’s lead about 25 metres. I lead the second pitch, dirty, scappy 5.7 corner, about 30 metres to the bolted station. Laurie lead pitch 3, more consistent 5.7 corner, good gear and cleaner, overall a good pitch, about 30 metres.

Old piton on pitch 2 of Limestone Cowboy.

Looking down our pitch 2 of LC.

Looking up pitch 3 of Limestone Cowboy.

I lead up pitch 4 and past a bolted station since it was very close to the previous station.  Headed up for a bit of a rope stretcher and had to downclimb to get a better position for the station, about 60 metres to my first belay location.  Eventually we decided I would lead pitch 5, which leads across the crux of the route, a steep, very exposed face section. This required a lower trad built anchor station since my position wasn’t in a great location.  When I headed out for the crux we got hit by a big and very soaking thunderstorm. I retreated to the anchor which was sheltered from the rain by the large overhanging roof.  After about 2 hours of waiting, we decided the route was way too wet and the rain really didn’t stop and the temperature was too cold for the route to dry out.

LK leading up pitch 3 of Limestone Cowboy.

Long and complicated descent but we finished our last rap without the need for the headlamps, but hiked out was in the dark and rain.  Despite the poor quality of the route, we may be back one day; I left a quick draw on the top, I don’t like leaving gear behind ;-)