Projecting in the Bow Valley

Nestled in the heart of the Canadian Rockies is a climbing area like no other. The Bow Valley features long arduous approaches with majestic views, unpredictable weather, and superb climbing on technical, varied, and difficult to read limestone.

By Evan Hau

Working on Queen Bee Direct Open Project at The Coliseum.

Climbing in the Bow Valley is often an all day adventure, down jackets are an essential summer layer, while climbing in t-shirts is possible in winter. The routes tend to be cryptic, and onsighting is notoriously difficult. 

I have been climbing in Bow Valley since 2007.

Many of the climbing areas are located high in the mountains that tower over Canmore and Banff, requiring 1 to 1.5 hour approaches with substantial elevation gain. The Bow Valley hosts thousands of established  routes. Here you can find some of North America’s hardest sport climbs: Fight Club 5.15b, Disbelief 5.15b, and Sacrifice 5.15a.

Climbing in the spring can be amazing for those willing to plow through the snow to reach the walls.

Alex Megos established Canada’s first 5.15, Fight Club, in 2016. This was a period where I was super motivated to find and establish 5.15s in my local area. I was super inspired by Alex Megos’ ascent and it confirmed my belief that The Bow Valley held routes at the 5.15 grade. 

Fight Club is located at Raven’s Crag in Banff

In 2016, Fight Club was too hard for me. I couldn’t even hang the crux holds. My attention at that time turned toward 2 routes I bolted at The Coliseum in 2017/2018 — Honour and Glory (5.14d) and Sacrifice (5.15a).

Hanging on a harness for hours at a time bolting Sacrifice. 

Bolting Sacrifice took me around 10 full days of effort. Bow Valley approaches are already arduous, bolting takes it to another level. You’re hauling large packs stuffed full of heavy gear: hammer drill, bolts, hammer, and tools for cleaning. The list goes on. Access to these routes is rarely simple — it often entails bolting  ground up or hiking higher up the mountain to access a (usually sketchy) rappel point. 

Stoneworks Vsion Cave is a newer wall I’ve spent a lot of time bolting and climbing recently.

Fight Club was always on my mind though. In 2020, as my climbing steadily improved, I started devoting serious effort to the route. I still couldn’t do all the moves that season, but it started to feel feasible and this motivated me to train hard next winter. With intermittent COVID-19 closures that winter, I had to come up with creative ways to train at home. I would pinch the kitchen counter until failure to mimic a wide pinch move on the route. When I got back on Fight Club in 2021, I felt much stronger, and later that summer I could finally do all the moves. But some moves were still at my max limit and it was hard to even do them or link sections. At the end of the season, I was able to link all the individual hard sections and make every clip. Ironing out the clipping stances took me quite a while, most are quite strenuous, making it difficult to stop and clip on redpoint. 

Fight Club climbs up a prominent prow feature at Raven’s Crag.

After another winter of training, I feel even stronger in 2022. Putting the route together is starting to feel possible. Working a route at my limit, the conditions never feel quite right. I love climbing on windy days but Fight Club has a tree beside the route which sways dangerously and even slams into the wall when the wind is really gusting. I love climbing in colder temperatures, but 2 critical holds for me are always wet in the spring and fall. The route gets dry in the summer, but temperatures remain too hot for me to climb well. It’s always worth it to make the hike — hoping for that perfect, elusive, unpredictable weather window — and either being ready if it comes, or accepting that climbing in suboptimal conditions is still worthwhile training. 

Some of my favorite gear: Volta 9.2mm rope is lightweight and perfect for longer approaches and hard projecting. The Spirit Express quickdraws and GriGri are crucial for projecting sport routes.

Projecting a route for years can test your mental toughness. But it helps to set smaller goals; it’s quite a rewarding process, seeing a climb evolve from not being able to do individual moves, to linking large difficult sections. Feeling this progress validates all of the winter training sessions, and all those summer days spent falling off the same moves over and over again. 

The approaches are long and tiresome in The Bow Valley, but the climbing is definitely worth it!

Planning a trip? Climbing is possible year round for locals, but May to September are the best times to visit. Here are my thoughts on the best times to visit: 

March/April: 
Crags tend to be difficult to access due to remaining snow and ice, but the conditions are amazing! The rock is the driest it will be all season. March/April is a colder season, the best climbing is often found in the sun, though it may be possible to climb in the shade for those who handle the cold well. 
Random cold snaps and snow storms are common. It’s generally invadvisable to visit at this time unless you have backup plans for winter activities such as ice climbing. 

May: 
There is still snow in the mountains, but trails are more accessible. Temperatures are warmer and fairly consistent; it’s good to climb in the sun or the shade. The rock is usually dry because the snow on the mountaintops will start to melt. 

June: 
June can be good, or it could rain. A lot. It rains often in June, and when it does, most crags get wet and stay wet. But, most approaches should be free of snow. 

July: 
In July, traveling climbers should ditch sunny crags and chase shade. There’s usually less rain in July, but if it rained a lot in June, steeper walls will seep for a few weeks at the beginning of July.

August: 
This is the hottest month but the rock will start to dry up from the spring rains.

September: 
This is the best time to visit. Temperatures are dropping, the rock dries up, and weather stays fairly consistent. Climbing available in the sun or shade. 

October: 
Hit or miss. There can be a lot of good climbing days in October, but winter is always lurking just around the corner, waiting to shut down the fall climbing season. 

Acephale is a top summer destination and has the highest concentration of hard climbs in Canada