Page 22 - 2000 AMA Summer

more pitch must follow including a tricky exit on thin ice and tree roots, but for now chill out and bring up your second.
A trip to Haffner Creek just West of Banff via the Radium Highway (Highway 93 South) is very worthwhile. The first view of Haffner after the short walk-in is impressive, although the ice never exceeds more than 25m in height the entire venue is a frozen amphitheatre. As with most creek and canyon areas it contains many summer limestone sport routes which look good quality entertainment. Because of the off vertical nature of the crag many of the lines take the form of vertical curtain climbs hanging clear of the walls. Where the rock is overhanging and the ice does not reach the floor locals have taken to dry tooling to reach their precious material, utilising the summer
T his year saw the Army Sport Climbing Champi­ onships move to the biggest
clips until it is time for ice ensure you don’t blink! screws to come into play. Above this small hamlet beyond the worrying Yoho National Park: Heading avalanche signs is Mount just a few miles West of Dennis and a veritable beer Lake Louise takes us out of festival. Carlsberg Column, Alberta and into British Guinness Gully, Labatt’s Lane, Columbia and Yoho National Pilsner Pillar, Heineken Hall, Park. Before reaching the Guinness Stout and Cascade town of Golden the road Kronenbourg. Feel intoxicated travels through Kicking Horse yet? An entire week could be Canyon where roadside ice devoted to this area alone, can be found. From the but note that most routes parking bay you could belay are of a high grade. We in the comfort of your vehicle decided to sample Guinness on Pretty Nuts Wl 4, although Gully. Of its 245m course not advised. Take a walk the final pitch provides the down the rail track and the biggest surprise,50m of Wl 4 100m high Riverside comes raises its head and laughs into sight. This friendly just as fatigue sets in. At waterfall goes at Wl 3 and is first glance the wall looks best climbed in three enormous and doubt springs pitches. Being quite a wide to mind as to whether our formation there is room for British length ropes will several parties on the route, reach the tree belays. Doubt only the last pitch should be prompted a hanging belay devoted to a single climber at 10m to avoid any margin due to it being quite narrow. for error, the subsequent On the same road from abseil made a mockery of Golden to Lake Louise is the this decision. If the other tiny village of Field, please lines of the venue live up to
By W02 Mike Smith REME
this gully’s quality (the guidebook tells us they do) then Field could be home for a while.
So there we have it, the ultimate winter playground? There are few places around the world where the ice is on tap, virtually guaranteed and such a large concentra­ tion of routes in an accessi­ ble area. Also the ethics and etiquette of the climbing itself are similar to that of the U. K. Plus, plenty of scope for getting scared. Whilst on the last pitch of Guinness Gully a friend commented that his fingers were becoming very cold but he knew the reason behind this. His reckoning was because of fear; all the blood was rushing to his sphincter!! Of course a trip to the Canadian Rockies does not necessitate pushing the grades there are plenty of classic routes to enjoy without having to insulate your fingers.
location to date, the Welsh
International Climbing Centre
(WICC) near Cardiff. The cen­
tre is the largest purpose built
climbing wall in Europe and
was a perfect venue for the
championships. Entries were
up on last year with a record
number of advance entries.
On the day there were 97 Reg­
ular Army. TA and OTC individ­
ual climbers and 8 teams tak­ the use of two elimination ing part in what continues to
be an extremely friendly and good natured competition.
As usual the Championships were well supported by our principal sponsor Cotswold Essential Outdoor who donated trophies and £200 worth of Cotswold vouchers. Ropes and several prizes for the event were provided by High Places. HB provided belay devices and prizes for the team competition. Entre Prises, builders of the WICC
routes. This proved to be a controversial move as although checked several times by the route setter one route was slightly easier than the other. The cut was made and sadly several competitors who reached the top of the right hand route were eliminat­ ed on time. A short list of 17 competitors went through to the VS final. This was on a slightly overhanging wall which had a few well spaced holds. A difficult move at half height ejected half of the field.
Armv Mountaineer
supplied a number of small then another long reach for a
prizes for the fun events. We medium sized hold ejected hotly contested event and this are always indebted to our the rest n despite this large year was no exception. It took sponsors as without their amounts of grit and determi­ several hours to thin out the
support the Army nation were in evidence
35 competitors, which produced a short list of 10 competitors. Time constraints were the reason of such a savage cut. Amazingly for the second year running several climbers managed to climb the final route. This weaved
Rachael Kelsey In the E2 Final.
Championships would not take place n please recipro­ cate and purchase their gear whenever possible. All sponsors deal with HM forces at contract prices.
throughout the final. It was Sig Peter Goddard of 11 Sig Regt who was the only male competitor to top out on the VS route. This was an excellent effort on a grade 6a+ route.
The VS category was slightly oversubscribed and required
The HVS category is always a