Gripped: The Climbing Magazine October/November 2022 Vol. 24 Issue 5

Across Canada are dozens of drytool-only areas where climbers have established routes destined to be ascended using ice tools and crampons. The metal-on-stone sport came from decades of climbers doing mixed routes where they had to transition from rock to ice and sometimes back again. To train the specific skills needed to reach hanging daggers, people began to practise on just rock using their winter gear. I’ve been drytooling for 20 years and have visited several of the crags around North America—I’ve even established a few. It’s a complicated style of climbing to adapt to, especially if you’ve never climbed ice. Trusting just the tip of a blade on the smallest edge of rock can be scary. I’ve seen leaders take unexpected whippers and accidentally throw their ice tool into…

Black Diamond Capitan Helmet $85 Full head coverage is important year-round, but especially going into ice season. Black Diamond’s Capitan has a low-profile suspension system that fits snug over a buff. With short days and cold weather, it’s great that the headlamp clips are easy to use with gloves on. Camp Backcountry Carbon Trekking Pole $120 Ultralight poles are helpful when approaching climbs in the fall when the trails start to ice over. These poles have a solid aluminum locking mechanism to adjust the length for different pitches of slope. The foam grip is easy to keep secure in your palm and the wrist straps sit without any issues. The North Face Salty Dog Beanie $35 Beanies are hot this season and the Salty Dog is one of the most…

Amity Warme has repeated some of the most difficult big walls and cutting-edge single-pitch gear climbs in the U.S. In the past few seasons, Warme has amassed an impressive Yosemite tick-list, including Golden Gate 5.13a, 36 pitches, ground-up; Freerider 5.13a, 31 pitches (twice); and Nose in a Day at 11:45. This summer, she made the first ascent of Barnacle Scars, a four-pitch 5.13 trad line in Rocky Mountain National Park with Josh Wharton. We touched base with her shortly after. When did you fall in love with hard trad? One aspect of climbing that appeals most strongly to me is the space to try hard—physically and mentally. My introduction to outdoor climbing was largely trad climbing, so it felt like a natural progression to just continually push the difficulty of…

Honour and Glory Sent In Alberta’s Bow Valley, several crags were busy this summer, such as Acephale, Echo Canyon and Back of the Lake. Mike Doyle, one of Canada’s first climbers to send 5.14 back in the 1990s, repeated Honour and Glory at the Colisseum in Echo Canyon. Originally graded 5.15a, new beta puts it at 5.14c. Doyle also climbed other hard routes in the area, including Queen Bee 5.13. Snowpatch Spire Free-Solo Will Stanhope made the first ever free-solo of the east face of Snowpatch Spire via The Beckey/Mather at 5.12a. First climbed in 1959 by Fred Beckey and Hank Mather, it was freed in 2017 by Jon Walsh and Craig McGee. It’s the easiest free climb on the very popular wall above the Bugaboos campground. The pitches check…

Since Arc’teryx started its academy 15 years ago, it’s grown to become one of the most popular summer climbing events in Canada. There are dozens of clinics, two evenings of world-class entertainment, gear booths, top climbers talking about epics and more. This was by far the most impressive, educational, and fun academy to date. Quentin Roberts taught a big wall clinic at the Smoke Bluffs where he showed climbers how to rig portaledges, while Sarah Hueniken instructed another group on how to jumar ropes. Dawn Park, the social media manager for WestJet, said that Hueniken was knowledgeable and that she learned a ton. “I really want to try mixed climbing now,” Park said after hanging out with Hueniken, one of the world’s best winter climbers. Other climbers who taught courses…

Long May You Run is a new six-pitch 5.11a sport climb that follows excellent rock on the east-facing Riverside Wall in Ontario. From Sudbury to Wawa, dozens of crags and big walls have been getting a lot more attention over the past few years. New single-pitch routes up to 5.12 and five-pitch adventures up to 5.11 have been developed. Along the road to the Eyeball next to the Little White River north of Iron Bridge is Riverside, a 150-metre wall that had no known full-length routes prior to 2020. David Smart, along with his brother Reg Smart and Ontario legend John Kaandorp, climbed Bullets Before Breakfast, the first major climb up the wall. The five-pitch 5.10a follows a few short walls to the North Channel Ledge and on to the…