Raphael Slawinski

Yesterday Eamonn and I came back for the last route in our Tangle(d) trilogy. Undertow was the first route climbed on the wall, and is without a doubt one of the finest ice climbs in the Rockies. All but one or two pitches are moderate, but they go on and on, all the way to the summit. Below are some photos from our day. Dawn over the Sunwapta valley. It had been snowing off and on over the previous few days, and fresh snow blanketed the mountains. Eamonn making the long traverse from the top of Shades of Beauty to the base of the routes. We traversed above treeline to avoid the post-holing in the trees. This is what we drove three hours and walked four hours for. From the left: "Undertow", "Can't Touch This" and "Boobquake". As the sun hit the wall, sloughs started coming down all over the place. Some were big enough to make us stop and think what we might be getting ourselves into. "Let's go, they're just sloughs. What's the w...

Given that I live on the doorstep on the Canadian Rockies, it’s probably just as well I’m not a devoted rock climber. Don’t get me wrong, I love rock climbing, and I've been going up to Yam and Bataan since the middle of March. But when the weather turns cold and snowy, I’m just as happy going ice climbing – especially when it’s ice like the stuff on the north side of Tangle Ridge. I’d heard rumours of big ice back there, but it wasn’t until I saw photos of the route “Undertow” that I realized just how cool it was. The northeast face of Tangle Ridge. From the left, the routes are "Undertow", "Can't Touch This" and "Boobquake" Last weekend Dana Ruddy, Eamonn Walsh, Ian Welsted and I got up early and hiked up Beauty Creek. The approach is long (almost four hours) but straightforward, and the tedium is nicely broken by having to climb “Shades of Beauty” an hour into it. We considered making a foursome on “Undertow” but thought this might involve t...

April: robins have returned from their wintering grounds, green shoots are appearing on trees, and rock climbing season is well under way. Or at least it would be, if temperatures were not hovering around freezing. Well then, why not go spring alpine climbing? That would indeed be a good idea if the avalanche reports did not the show the infamous "red brick" of high hazard. Fortunately the ice climbing season in the Rockies is a long one, and there is still plenty of ice about if one is so inclined. Yesterday, taking advantage of a gorgeous clear day, Lyle Rotter and I enjoyed what is arguably the best ice adventure to be had in the Ghost: the Hydrophobia-Sorcerer link up. The morning was cold, the sun was strong, and the ice was blue. Walking along a high ridge between the routes was a bit like being in the wintry alpine. But the echoing staccato of a woodpecker as we touched down at the base of the Sorcerer for the second time was life waking up in the valleys.

Spring equinox is a great time to be a climber in the Rockies. As the Earth’s northern hemisphere begins to tilt toward the Sun, south-facing crags in the Front Ranges offer a welcome relief from the long winter. But early spring, with its crisp mornings and long days, is also a good time to venture into the high, shady places near the Divide. On the first day of spring Eamonn Walsh and I headed up on Yamnuska. I cannot count the number of times I have hiked up the switchbacks to play on Yam's grey and yellow walls. There is something up there that keeps drawing me back: sometimes it is to push myself cerebrally on a rarely traveled, runout testpieces; sometimes it is to push myself physically on multi-route linkups; and sometime it is just to have fun. The most recent outing fit into the third category: well-protected climbing, not desperate but challenging enough to have to try at the cruxes. In spite of all the time I have spent up there, every spring it takes me a few routes...

Being a weekend warrior means making the most of your days out. If Plan A does not pan out, it is not back to the coffee shop: it is on to Plan B, and if need be, even C. Last weekend Eamonn Walsh (not a weekend warrior, incidentally) and I were up by 2 a.m., on the road by 2:30, and at the base of the first pitch of our intended route before 6. We were a bit disturbed to find most of it had fallen off in the heat of the previous few days. We could have walked around it, but the fact that we were standing there in the predawn darkness without gloves or hats, listening to the rush of flowing water, with miles of avalanche slopes above us, did not inspire. Legend has it Bonatti would not even cross the ‘schrund unless it was minus ten or colder. Neither of us is Bonatti, but we have walked into enough stupid situations to recognize the potential for another one. We were back at the car still in the dark. Less than virgin ice on Polar Circus. We were psyched for a big day but the alpin...

A couple of weeks ago I flew south for a few days, to the east side of the Sierra Nevada. There was some ice climbing involved (yes, there is decent ice in California), but the highlight of the trip was the few days I spent in Bishop. As everybody knows, the sport climbing in the Owens River Gorge is really good, but the bouldering at the Happy Boulders and the Buttermilks is simply phenomenal. I gawked a lot, climbed a bit, and left psyched on rock climbing. Below are a few photos from my all-too-brief stay in Bishop.