Banff National Park

Ballista

Ballista 5.10C 210m
An excellent route that crosses several bands of rock on Banff's Tunnel Mtn.
 
 

Guides Rock, Turf Wars

A new multi-pitch bolted route that shares some climbing with SOD (Sea of Dreams) and Three Roofs. The crux is right off the ground, but well protected. Stick clip the second bolt to protect an awkward move. (If you don't want to carry a stick up to the crag, you can A0 on the first bolt to reach the second bolt to set up the clip). The start of this pitch may also be used to access SOD (and is much nicer climbing) by moving left at the 4th bolt . The last pitch is 40m, but you can rap on one 60m rope by using the SOD rap stations. Some of the best limestone you'll find in the Rockies.

Silver City (Castle Mt)

Another good find by Dave Thomson (especially if you like getting away from the crowds and have a high tolerence for wood ticks). Sport and gear routes spanning a range of grades on Lake Louise (Gog) quartzite.

Updated topo - 2014 by Mark Carlson. A higher quality version is in the TABVAR Facebook page's files section.

Update for 2018 is on the Sloper Climbing App, available on the App Store and Google Play. (Free app, but the Silver City area likely requires a subscription)

Update for 2019 is here, see below.

Spectacular Megafauna (Mt Edith)

Another multi-pitch sport route recently revealed by Dave Thomson. The climbing is "technical" so don't expect to find the grades soft. Wait for warm weather (next year?) Dave was one bolt short somewhere on the last (?) pitch, so be prepared to run it out a little more there or carry a telescopic stick to clip the next bolt until someone installs the bolt (the hole is drilled).

Mothers Day Buttress

The left side of this buttress forms an attractive prow which is very prominent from the highway and is the line of the classic, moderate route Mothers Day. Currently, there are only four routes on the buttress despite it having some of the best rock on the entire band of cliffs. One particular area of interest is the steep, gray rock in the lower part of the buttress to the right of Mothers Day and each side of Ant Tease Day. A few bolts and some effort may produce some good one or two pitch sport routes in this area.

Niagra on the Bow 5.9+, 245m

Niagra on the Bow 5.9+ 245m

FA: Brandon Pullan, Urs Kallen Sept. 09

Approach: As for Cory’s Groove on Mt. Cory.

The route climbs the face right of the large black slab, up a series of corner. All anchors are rigged with ring bolts.

P1: (55m, 5.8) Start as for Cory’s Groove, after the first bolt traverse up to a blocky yellow corner past 2 bolts.

P2: (45m,5.9+) Aim for the large corner, stem up this awesome pitch passing a few bolts to a ledge.

Bankhead Buttress (Valley View, Dan's Delight and others)

This section of cliff is the most extensive of all the buttresses in the long line of cliffs that
runs along the base of Cascade Mountain. It stretches eastward (northward) from the deep gully that separates it from Mothers Day Buttress to
the long, southeast ridge of Cascade Mountain (Minnewanka Buttress) where the cliffs
curve around to the north and drop down into C-Level Cirque. Most of the climbs were
established during the 70’s by Chic Scott, Lloyd MacKay and Ken Baker, all of whom
were prominent Banff pioneers at that time. They generally follow the more obvious

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