Jughaul Wall - 5.7, 105m, 3 pitches

 

Had a glorious day of rock climbing October 16 on the trad route Jughaul Wall. Pretty sure this will be the last multi pitch rock route of the season. Jughaul is way up on Grotto Mountain, sharing a small face with a few other routes, mainly the serious looking Grotto Crack route. Jughaul Wall is 110m, 5.7 in three pitches. Grotto Crack is 70m, 5.8+; both routes established in the 1970’s so the grade is definitely old school. We had a great time on Jughaul Wall. 

View of the Grotto Corner wall on the approach.
Jughaul Wall is straight up the middle

Laurie led pitch 1 and 3, both super steep with excellent rock quality and the grade a stiff 5.5. I led pitch 2, 5.7; definitely the money pitch. Long and really steep for the first half, solid rock, super great holds and lots of opportunity for solid gear placements, so much fun. 

Laurie on pitch 1. 

 Laurie at the first station (piton/bolt) at the top of pitch 1.

Approaching the belay, Grotto Crack to left, looks so cool. 

OSWB heading up pitch 2, Laurie’s photos. 

OSWB heading up pitch 2, Laurie’s photos. 

Looking down pitch 2. 

Laurie heading up the last pitch. 

Looking up third pitch, awesome rock and great gear, so fun.

OSWB topping out, Laurie’s photo. 

Great weather for our day out. The rock quality on Jughaul Wall is fantastic, but all the belay stances suck, especially the tree belay on the top of pitch 2, super awkward. Still highly recommend this trad protected route. 

Couple of images from the amazing guidebook by the exceptional climber Chris Perry, Banff Rock. The edition I have is getting dated, so I wanted to highlight a couple of fixed gear bolts in place not mentioned in the guidebook. 

Pitch 1, maybe about 10 metres up from where we belayed (nice wide flat ledge with trees) there is a single bolt (only fixed gear not at a station). 30 metres up from the bottom of pitch 1 is a double bolt anchor. These 3 bolts are not shown on the topo or mentioned in the write up.

We used the single piton/single bolt station 45 metres up for our first station (top of pitch 1), then used the tree 50 metres up for the second station and a tree on the top of the route for the third station. 

Copy of the topo map from guidebook.
Banff Rock. Chris Perry.

Guidebook write up.
Banff Rock, Chris Perry.

Approximate location of single bolt on pitch 1 and
double bolt anchor 30m up pitch 1.

Double bolts 30 metres up pitch 1.

Karnak Mountain - South Face, East Ridge, 5.2

Saturday August 26 had a great day out with Columbia valley crusher Steve Tersmette. We climbed the South Slopes and East summit ridge of Karnak Mountain. Karnak is a remote 3411m summit in the Purcell Range, neighbouring Jumbo Mountain. The route was mostly difficult scrambling with the occasional 5 th class step. We brought a rope, rock pro and some glacier gear, but didn’t need to use it. Stunning weather and incredible views to the Purcell Range. Awesome day in the hills.

Low down on the South Slopes of Karnak.

Small glacier below the Karnak/Jumbo col.

Start of the hands on scramble.

Variety of loose scree and steep rock bands.

Big smiles from Steve at the Karnak/Jumbo col.
Summit block of Karnak in the background.

Approaching the summit ridge of Mt. Karnak.
We avoided the steeper ice staying on rock to to
climber's left.

Lots of fun difficult scrambling on the East Ridge towards
the summit. 

Steps away from the summit.

Summit selfie.

OSWB on the highest point of the summit.

A Firm Specimen - 5.9, 375m, 7 pitches

The beautiful wall on Mt. Aeneas.

Sunday August 6 had a great day of alpine rock climbing with Curt. We climbed a cool route “A Firm Specimen” near Pedley Pass on a beautiful outlier of Mount Aeneas. This alpine area is amazing and this face on Aeneas is a distinct feature in the valley. The route is 7 pitches, trad protection with bolted belay stations, except the 5.9 crux pitch has some  bolts were gear is tough to get. This 5.9 pitch is the money pitch, so much fun. Great beta on Gripped. Thanks to Steve for setting up this route. We topped out as a thunderstorm threatened to dump on us and we were looking for quickest descent option, struggled to find the easy way off, but the thunderstorm moved on and we slogged to the summit of Mount Aeneas. Amazing day out.

View to our wall on the hike in.

Curt at the base on the route.

OSWB leading up pitch 1 (5.7)

OSWB leading up pitch 3 (crux 5.9 pitch)

Curt leading pitch 5 (5.6)

View up the final pitch (5.5).

OSWB topping out on the route.

After scrambling off the top of the ridge, we gained the large meadow below the main summit.

On the summit of Mt. Aeneas.

View back to summit of Mt. Aeneas as we headed out.

Nearing the standard Pedley Pass trail.

“Unnamed 2866m” - Scramble

Three summits east of Elbow Lake.

After determining the weather forecast didn’t allow a long enough window for another attempt at the long and complicated Opal Range summits we were hoping for, we turned out attention to a group of summits near Elbow Lake. The recent David Jones guidebook (2020) "Rockies South. The Climber's Guide to the Rocky Mountains of Canada: Volume 1" provides a route description for the three summits immediately east of Elbow Lake. This guide provides routes for these three peaks, identified by the elevation of the summits; 2835, 2866 and 2847.  Our plan for Saturday July 29 was to reach all three summits. First up, tackle route 3 on peak 2847, then back track to Elbow Lake, then up route 2 on peak 2866, then hopefully directly link on the ridge line to summit 2835, and probably return to the valley by route 1. 

Overall route photo for 2835, 2866 and 2847.
From the David Jones guidebook.

Page from the David Jones guidebook for these three peaks.

Map of the Elbow Lake area, including the 3 summits.
Red line, David Jones descriptions, green lines, our approach.
Blue lines, our scramble on 2866 and 2847.

Blue lines approximate route on 2866 and 2847.

Standard plod up to Elbow Lake, early start so the trail was quiet and the sky was clear, enjoyed the beauty of the day and impressive scenery. 

The always impressive Elpoca Tower.

Elpoca Mountain behind the tower.
Main summit is right most point along summit ridge.

Cat's Ears (south summit) above Piper Pass 
(right of the tower). 
Mount Jerram visible left of Cat's Ears.

Hiked to tight cirque north of the summit of Mt. Rae, south and south west of the summit of 2847, tried to find the described route, no luck. We tried to ascend several sections that would lead to easier ground, but couldn’t find an easy line. We did 3 serious attempts to climb the south or south west aspect of 2847, but our lines ended in sections of loose and dangerous 5^th class climbing, and we didn’t bring a rope. After a few hours of attempting different lines on this peak, we bailed back to Elbow Lake.

Typical terrain, we couldn't find an easy line.

We tried to scramble up this, but it was too loose and steep.

Once back at Elbow Lake, we hiked about a kilometre north from the lake, on the big old Elbow River trail, until directly below the West Ridge of 2866. Picked a line through the trees to the big open slopes west of 2866. We slogged up easy scree to the low point on the ridge immediately north of the summit block of 2866. Once on the ridge, we took the North West Ridge directly to the summit, will a few minor diversions on the right to avoid some steep blank sections, overall moderate to difficult scramble. 

Hiking up west slopes.

More slogging up to the North West Ridge low point.

Great views.

Scott happy to be at the ridge low point.

View up North West Ridge.

View down final section of ridge. 

Scott at the summit cairn. 

OSWB at the summit, got to leave a new summit register. 

Cool summit views. Big cairn on the top, but no register. I happened to have a couple of books, pencils and ABS tubing containers. Had the honour of leaving a new register. Looking to the south east, there was a nearby highpoint that could have been higher, so we hiked over there as well. Seemed to be the same height as the cairned peak we were first on. Headed back down the same way we came up, back to the low point on the North West Ridge.  

OSWB on the summit of 2866.
Photo by Scott B.

Hiking to the SE highpoint.

From the summit of 2866 looking north to the summit of 2835. 
Tombstone Mountain beyond. 

Back at the low point, looking up to the summit of 2866.

From the low point on the North West Ridge we headed north on the ridge direct. Easy travel for a bit, then some fun moderate scrambling over the first ridge bump, then easy travel to the final difficulties. I did a difficult scramble, on mostly excellent rock, to the summit of a pointy highpoint just south of 2835m. Scott was too tired to follow and we retreated back to the valley and hiked out with some beautiful views. Fantastic day with impeccable company. 

Some easy hiking northward. 

View as near the summit of 2835.
I made the top of the pointed highpoint left of the main summit.

View to the point I reached.
Cat's Ear (South) and Mt. Jerram behind. 

The closest I got to 2835. Summit not visible here.

2866 getting some cloud build up.