Issue 11

Tales of Vertical Trails

Whirlpool & Lookout Slabs

Spring of 2022 brought new energy and I was excited to develop. Unfinished Business was definitely on my mind. I convinced Phil Bietz to head west and give it a cleaning pass with me. Unfortunately, the weather was much poorer than forecast at Freyja Wall, so we had to revert to our plan B.

Issue 11

Whirlpool & Lookout Slabs

Spring of 2022 brought new energy and I was excited to develop. Unfinished Business was definitely on my mind. I convinced Phil Bietz to head west and give it a cleaning pass with me. Unfortunately, the weather was much poorer than forecast at Freyja Wall, so we had to revert to our plan B.
Phil and I ended up bolting and cleaning up Billy Goat Slabs on that trip. Billy Goat Slabs had amazing quality rock at friendly grades. We ground up bolted Silly Billy, and then rapp bolted Kili and Fili. These three multi pitch routes are a great addition to the fun climbing zone at Lookout Slabs. Our original plan was thwarted and Unfinished Business would have to wait for another day.

As May arrived I had my eye on Whirlpool Notch, a hidden gem. For the next two months I spent every spare evening running up to the crag and developing routes to add to the original seven, high quality climbs. I was pleased with the atmosphere of the zone. It was fun, the bolting was friendly, and the rock was high quality dolomite. I added seventeen routes to this fun zone and felt like the season was off to a good start. You might notice a lot of the routes at Whirlpool Notch have a bear theme. If you run into me at Whirlpool Notch I will tell you the story of Matt and the bear. Matt and Brad spent a lot of days with me that spring as they were part of our year long Mountain Coaching Program. They helped establish a number of the routes at Whirlpool Point.

In the Fall of 2022 Janet Welch had the itch to get out developing again and I was stoked to make it happen. We spent a few days and added Rammed If I Do, as well as Rammed If I Don’t. During the development of Rammed If I Do, I looked down to see an enormous Bighorn sheep walk right past Janet at the second belay. This completed the development at Lookout Slabs and solidified it as the best entry level multi pitch zone in the Canadian Rockies.

Whirlpool Notch
Liz Taylor on (un)finished Business

More Tales of Vertical Trails:

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Know When To Fold ‘Em

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Ultimate Nordegg Thing

Ultimate Nordegg Thing

During my early years of development, I had added two multi pitch routes to the Yambraham area. I knew we could get a lot of climbing on the way up the southwest and have six short rappels to exit off the eastern Yambraham side. The day promised to be hot and we had a...

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Bloody Coleslaw

Bloody Coleslaw

The sight of him was unexpected. As our day wrapped up, I had an itch to bolt a line that had been on my mind for quite some time. I invited Per to join and we all headed up the route called After, to the big tree ledge. I knew that this route would be a high quality...

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