BURSTIn the fall of 2007, the Canadian Rockies became a proving ground for two of the world’s best mixed climbers, Ueli Steck and Simon Anthamatten. Their brief and intense visit still resonates years later.
Steck and Anthamatten arrived from Switzerland in mid-October with flexible objectives and one guiding principle: “Not sitting around!” Their timing coincided with a bold new line on Snow Dome. On Oct. 14, Ian Welsted, Dana Ruddy and Cory Richards established The Real Ice Porn aka Polarity (V WI5+, 800m). Five days later, Steck and Anthamatten committed for the repeat. “[The Canadian team] shared some pictures about the route and about the last pitch,” Steck told Alpinist after their trip.
“Simon and I were straight away fascinated. I have never climbed such a long ice route. Yesterday we left the car at 6:30 a.m. We didn’t bring any bivy gear; we decided to be fast or not to finish the route. But not finishing the route was definitely not an option!” They climbed the route in a single push, adding a steep final pitch through the overhanging serac at the top.
The following day, in classic Rockies weather, they repeated Riptide (VI WI6/7) on Mount Patterson. “The weather is still Canadian, snow and wind… But anyway we were still motivated… The route is more psychological than technically difficult… hollow and thin ice is normal.” During their climb, they spotted a new route to the right of Rocket Man (V M7+ WI5+, 300 m), so they returned the following day.
“We were not sure what we wanted to do. The second pitch is the hardest one… The hooks are small and slippery… After 40 minutes the crux pitch was done. Very motivated, we kept going. [The route has] several pitches where you shouldn’t fall.” A 59-metre WI5+X pitch followed, where there was no option but to “just keep climbing and trust your ice tools…” They topped out late and ended the day in Lake Louise. The route became Rocket Baby (VI M8+ WI5+X), for which Steck recommended “a strong head.”
Repeated attempts on Howse Peak were shut down by avalanches. Steck said, “So, no climbing on Howse Peak… We drove back to Canmore, quite depressed. The weather was just too good.” Still unwilling to waste daylight, they sprinted up Mount Rundle and climbed Sea of Vapors in thin WI6+ conditions. “The short ice screws were mostly too long… But we climbed the route, and we were back in Canmore, and it was still daylight.”
Also on Rundle, after they climbed Sacre Bleu WI5+, Steck soloed Ten Years After (WI5+ M5), saying after: “I was very much motivated to climb the route once more, but without rope. I had a pretty hard time since my accident at Annapurna, and I had some problems getting focused again. I felt it was time to climb this route again and get back my strong head. It took me about half an hour to get focused before I started the climb once more without rope. I am very happy, because it worked out really nice. I enjoyed the whole climb and I was really sure about it.”
A new route followed on Mount Rundle with Not Flying is Not Trying (M8 WI6) on trad gear, a route above the 125-metre Razor Blade WI4+. “I climbed up on all this scary gear,” said Steck. “I climbed all the way up to the crux and just before you can clip the good angle-pin, I broke the hook, and I went for a ride… I remember that I realised that the knifeblade was ripping off. The fall was stopped by a sling that was around a small ice icicle of maybe 10 centimetres of diameter… but it held. After this I finished the pitch and Simon lowered me down.”
Steck and Anthamatten then completed a new route on the lower cliffs of Crowfoot Mountain via an often-eyed series of drips to create the four-pitch Cockfight (M9+ WI5+), one of the most technical multi-pitch mixed routes in the Rockies at the time.
Their 2007 visit remains one of the most inspiring chapters of hard climbing in the Rockies, as many of the routes they established have seen few, if any, repeats over the past two decades.
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