Thu 10 May 2007
Since spring is clearly here, and summer is on the way, it was time for the years first outdoor climbing trip (not counting early January in Joshua Tree…that’s cheating!). It was a very last minute affair, plans to go in Canmore broke down on the Saturday…and it was around 11.20pm when I had just finished filming a wedding all day that I got hold 
of a friend on the phone who said he was leaving for Nordegg, right then, and would be passing my housein 10mins if I wanted to come. Yikes. I said ‘yes’ of course, and packed in a crazy rush. My food for the day being an apple and a loaf of bread and a lump of cheese, all I had knocking around.
We made it into Nordegg around 3.30am, and crashed by the road side (not literally..bad choice of words!). I set up a tent, Matt and Luc just slept outside in their bags.
The next morning, we set off for Abraham Slabs, on the side of (who’d have thought?) Mount Abraham…located 5 mins drive east of the David Thompson Resort, around 3km or so West of Windy Point. Park by the roadside, and you can find an unmarked trail that leads up to the base of the limestone slabs. There are tonnes of routes to do here….s
ome top-roping, around 6-10 bolted sport routes, and trad climbing too. We decided on a 4 pitch 5.8 called ‘Pacemaker’. It was my first ‘real’ time climbing outdoors, having only started in January. Not counting the twice I went in Joshua Tree which was before I had started climbing at all.
Matt lead all 4 pitches, with no real difficulty apart from a fall on pitch 3. Cheese grater. That slab is SHARP! Luckily it was pretty cold, so he had a bunch of clothes on and it was only his hands that got cut up. He also dropped his camera…hence the lack of actual climbing pics for this post. Needless to say, 3 pitches of fall didn’t do the camera much good, and we couldn’t even find the memory card.
From the top, it was an easy rappel down in two stage. Easy-ish. Easy if you weren’t the one going first who had the problem of one rope getting stuck and hanging in the air, ultimately just rappelling on one half of the double rope, trusting the end snagged on the rock would hold. Matt.
It was an awesome day out, and a great place to climb. Loads of fun, interesting routes on good rock (but loose, bring a helmet). The views were great and the access is an easy 10-15min walk from the road. It was windy (it always will be there). I will definitely be going back to check out some other routes.
On the way home we stopped for a play on the big boulder on the outside of Rocky Mountain house, on the edge of town heading towards Nordegg, right by the main road and a church.
This is a fantastic summer hike, especially if you include the ’scramble’ up to the of Cirque Peak, which sits just under the 3000m mark. It is one of the most easily attainable peaks of this height in the Canadian Rockies, with absolutely spectacular views.
The trail starts off through some fairly open pine forest, giving you some nice views of the Icefields Parkway valley (is this still called Bow Valley this far up?) as you climb steadily. After 45mins or so the trail steepens as you start to climb out of the trees, and you soon break into the Helen Lake valley. This area is beautiful if you catch the alpine flowers in june/july. From here the trail heads easily onwards to Helen Lake. Awesome views of the Dolomite Range and Cirque Peak surround you. Watch for bears…this is prime grizzly country. The trail is sometimes closed if a bear is known to be in the area.
For Cirque Peak, follow the obvious trail anti-clockwise round the lake, and begin to ascend the high ridge over looking the lake. This is still all on a fairly easy trail, so even if you don’t fancy ascending Cirque Peak, it is worth to top out on this ridge for a view Eastwards over Katherine Lake to Dolomite Pass.
But there is no exposure at all to worry about. When you reach the top (the first obvious top)…you can be amazed by the tinyness of the summit you just ascended with ease. It’s extremely precipitous on the backside, but you can keep well away from that if you want. If you want to obtain the true summit, there is a little bit more exposed (but still very easy) scrambling to do as you head right. If you don’t have a head for heights, don’t worry. The view is much the same from the both summits.
Looking out across the Icefields Parkway, you can see Bow Glacier, and the gorgeous looking hanging lake right above Bow Falls which I now HAVE to visit one day. If you like spotting peaks, I’m sure you could name about 20 of the tops you can see from this vantage point.
I have not done this particular descent, sounds nice though!
Initially the ride is all up hill. At first it’s quite gentle with nice relaxing scenery. After the first 3km things get steep (see video on right…the slope doesn’t really do it justice!), very steep and towards the end you will need to push some parts. It’s just too steep and rocky. But once you reach the top, you know that’s the hardest bit of the ride over with and you have a long, fun 100% rideable descent down a rocky/muddy tree-lined trail. But first take a while to enjoy the nice view, and maybe ride/hike up to the nearby summit.
