Alberta

Echo Canyon - Hungry Tiger Wall

Hungry Tiger Wall.

This new crag is a great addition to the shady side of Echo Canyon. Save it for warm summer days when the other side is baking in the sun. Hungry Tiger crag is located on the same cliff band as The Notch, but is accessed from below. The routes tend to be long and offer steep climbing on beautiful, featured stone, albeit sometimes sharp. Bring a 70m rope and lots of draws. Grades range from .11b to .12b. Those looking for an easier warmup can start at Sunset Crag, which you pass on the way to the Hungry Tiger crag. If it’s a colder morning, a warmup at The Hideaway is a sunny option. All the routes dry quickly after a rain.

McGillivray Pond

From Gerry Drotar

A new sport crag with 10 routes and one gear climb. Bolted spring 2016. 8 quickdraws and a 60m rope.
Either park in the large pull out overlooking the small island with flags and picnic table in Lac des Arcs
(westbound lanes, necessitates a sprint across the highway – not recommended). Alternatively, from the
eastbound lanes pull off just before the guardrail begins. Park in the ditch or at a small clearing just
above.

Echo Canyon - Lookout Update

From Grzegorz Tos via Facebook:
Lookout Update
The Shield area (page 160,161 Bow Valley Sport)
This little gem of a spot is often overlooked but offers a great spectrum of grades of routes with five star quality. Perfect in Spring and Fall. Gets sun from 9:30 till 4:00.

Echo Canyon - Balcony

From Grzegorz Tos via Facebook:
Bit of heads up for those heading into Echo Canyon this spring. Since the last print of Bow Valley Sport guide book a lot has happened in the canyon. To avoid confusion look through all the updates on TABVAR page for walls that you are interested in. From what I can tell all guys involved have been good at posting updates here. Some sectors have more than twice as many routes as in the guide book. Example is The Balcony. Attached is a nice topo put together by Bonar McCallum.

Another New Route in Canyon Creek

Location: Right of the Moose Patch area, this route forms the 2nd pitch of an existing bolted line 15m. right of "A Moose Once Bit My Sister", or it can be combined with the 1st pitch of that route (as an alternate finish), or it can be accessed by scrambling up the the middle ledge via easy steps 40m. right.
Name: Moose Bites Can Be Nasty
Length: 40m. Grade: 5.10b/c

Cougar Canyon - Creekside updates

From Don McPhalen:

July 2016 Update - Creekside Crag Cougar Creek

The routes listed as #4, 5, 7, 14, 15 and 19 in the Bow Valley Sport book have been retrofitted with permission. Each route now has its own anchor. The bolt positions and numbers have changed to update the routes post flood. In addition a “second pitch” has been added to route #4 - this may be a good setup to practice the up and down of multipitching.

The Playground (Drytooling)

From J Brent Peters
http://www.peakstratagem.com/the-playground-drytooling

The routes at The Playground are described from left to right. It can be divided into 5 areas: Upper Cave, Playground Left, Swiss Cheese Cave, Rat’s Nest Wall, Mutt Wall, and Recess Wall.

Upper Cave: This cave is located left and above The Playground proper. There is only one route here at this time.

Just The Tip D7 This route climbs vertical terrain to the right of a large cave. FA: Michelle Kadatz, Steve Kovalenko

Looks like blood, smells like berries

From Patrick Jones via the TABVAR Facebook Page

175m - 5.7 mixed trad route
Patrick Jones, Matt Johnston, Nicole Jones, Michael Newman, Matt George - September 25, 2016

Approach: total approx. 20-30 min
Park as you would for Abraham slabs. Walk up the approach trail to the base of the slabs. From the climb "Slicktion" it is approx. 5-10 min up hill. The climb is left off “hidden crack”. The climb starts at tree line. You will see the first bolt approx 5m off the ground.

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