Tag: grassi lakes

Categories
canada climbing general moosling

Cragbaby in training

We headed up to Grassi Lakes yesterday, with a 10 minute drive and 5 minute hike in, woe is us with our inconveniently far away climbing. It was my first time on rock in over two years, and it’s been closer to three years since I’ve climbed regularly outdoors. I remembered how to put my harness on though, and we just stuck to the easy wall. I almost wonder if I would have been better off jumping on something harder, so I could be so distracted by the fiendishly difficult climbing and forget how scary it is re-adjusting to lead climbing again. That plan probably wouldn’t work though, I’d just be exhausted AND terrified.

It was a nice day, apart from the rain. It can’t seem to stop itself from turning up at least once a day to taunt us. And we had to hike through a pile of snow to get down to the crag. There were hoards of chipmunks and golden-mantled ground squirrels though. And it was warm enough on the rock.

Finn ate his first rock, and had fun crawling around in the dirt and playing with my Nalgene bottle. He’ll be a fully qualified cragbaby in no time at this rate.

Categories
canada climbing general

summer again!

While the snow continued its attempts to sneak down into town, the sun won out today. The cloud was burnt off by mid-morning, and most of the overnight sprinkling of snow on the surrounding mountains had disappeared by afternoon. Perfect climbing weather. In this case, being lazy and going to the nearest crag to town – surely no-one else will have had the same idea.

 

Warm weekend at Grassi Lakes – climbers, blue skies and snow on the backdrop mountains

 

The top section of the Grassi Lakes climbing area has been opened again for a couple of weeks now, so there are a lot of people coming out to climb on the climbs that have been off limits for the last year or two.

 

Weird temperature differentials developing at Grassi Lakes – James belays Doug on Dark Design (5.10b)

 

Categories
canada climbing general

after-work cragging at grassi lakes

Grassi Lakes – it lurks on the edge of town, with its soft grades and its buckety holds and its tendency to always be ok to climb at even if it’s threatening to rain. The outdoor gym crag of Canmore, with shiny ring bolts on sport climbing routes as easy as 5.5 (and up to 5.12a, but I may have had to check the guidebook for that number), nicely set up stairs and flat areas to stand on, and a lovely view. There’s even the kiddy wall section of Gardener’s Wall, where precocious children can learn to lead climb on bolts 1 metre apart. Realistically this is more commonly used by scared fully-grown lead climbers who have to struggle to avoid Z-clipping at every clip.

 

Wet from the rain shower, Ha Ling Peak glistens in the setting sun (as seen from the Graceland area of Grassi Peaks)
 

And there’s a good view.