A Day on the Fluffy Goat Butt Face

Last year, Tyler Kirkland and Mark Carlson put up a new route on the Goat Wall, Fluffy Goat Butt Face. Numerous friends were recruited to help build trail, ferry ropes and gear and bolt the 21 pitch, 605 m sport route. Kyle spent a day on the wall helping clean the route and was excited to hear that Mark and Tyler had recently climbed the complete route. When Tyler invited us on a day on the Goat to test out the route descriptions and beta we couldn't say no, despite the new official grade of 5.11.

Morning light on all the goats. Goat buttress is far right, 1/2 in shade, 1/2 in sun. We climbed the sunny face on the right side

The route is big, burly and long. This is likely one of the few opportunities I will have to get on it, with Tyler as a guide and his friend Khrisna rope gunning. We went in with no expectations other than to have a fun day out. Nonetheless, we got up at 4:50 and left the car at 5:45 to start walking in. We wanted to give ourselves the best chance to get high on the route.

The approach starts at the dump by Exshaw (same parking as for Kidd Goat). Follow the single track trail around the right side of the dump and continue onto double track. At the double track fork, take a right. Continue taking right forks until reaching a meadow. Leave the main trail and cross the meadow diagonally, aiming for the far corner (in the direction of the Goat Wall). You should come across a small trail with orange flagging tape. Follow this to get to the Goat Wall.

Following the trail through the meadows. Hopefully it won't get too overgrown!

Sometimes the trail wasn't super obvious, but it was well flagged and marked if you kept your eyes open

 The trail crosses a creek bed (look for flagging on the far side). When you get back in the creek bed a few minutes later, continue up the creek until a cairn marks a flagged trail on the right hand side. We missed this and continued up the creek. It was pretty obvious that we had gone the wrong way when we reached unpassable snags a few minutes later. After backtracking we easily found the trail. The trail crosses 2 more creek beds before heading straight up the hill to the base of the route. 

Do not continue up the creek after this cairn. Instead, turn right and head up the trail. Its easier that way

 The trail is steep and narrow, but pretty easy to follow thanks to the orange flagging tape and well placed rocks and logs. Don't walk over piles of logs. They are there for a reason!

Approaching the Goat Buttress. Fluffy Goat Butt Face picks its way up the sunny face

An hour and forty-five minutes later, we arrived at the base of the route. It starts down in a gully to the left of the rock face so don't be fooled by the distinct path heading up to the trees on the right. This is a bivy site that was used during route setting and could probably come in handy for parties looking for an early start. We met Tyler and Khrisna at the bivy, and they put on coffee for us so we took our time getting ready to start. The route is in the sun from sunrise to about 3 pm this time of year, which puts it in a good spot for early and late season ascents!

The full Goat Buttress and Fluffy Goat Butt Face route as seen from the start of the route

Kyle and Khrisna jumped on first and swapped leads up the lower pitches. I teamed up with Tyler and lead the first 4 pitches of low grade climbing (5.6/5.7) as 2 linked 60 m pitches. Pitch 5 was where things started to get steep, challenging, and slow which was the theme for the rest of the day.

Even from the lowest pitches, you can see the top of the route! It doesn't look so far... Khrisna leading a scary pitch 5

This route is massive. There are many times during the day that you can see all the way to the top. It never really looks that far, but it also never seems to get closer. You are reminded of how high you are at the exposed traverses and hanging belays though!

Tyler is pumped to have convinced his friends to climb his route, and put up the rope!

Tyler top-rope soloing pitch 5, currently rated 10+ and open to interpretation

 Tyler has been on the lower pitches of the route many times; bolting, cleaning, top-roping and leading. He knows the beta and was happy to share. It was nice to have someone who knew exactly where we were supposed to be going as some of the moves are pretty cryptic. The route is well protected though and it was pretty obvious where to go next. My favourite pitch was pitch 7 (~5.10a). This came after an exposed traverse and a seated belay in a cave. It climbed up a chimney that you could stem the entire way up before traversing left back onto the face for a thin finish.

Tyler leads the traversing pitch 6 as Khrisna leads the chimney pitch 7

Fun in the sun on the Goat Wall

 It was slow going for our fearless leader, Khrisna, who was leading the more challenging pitches. The style is is hard to describe as there is a bit of everything, but the majority of the harder pitches we climbed were steep or off vert with sharp edges, bulges and tiny feet. I was happy to be on top rope and have the option to pull on draws when I lost my balance and was about to peel off. As the route has seen little traffic, there are still many loose rocks and holds. Some of the moves are through crumbly sections where you need to really pay attention to what you are using. On the 10th pitch (5.11), Khrisna pulled off a handhold as he was moving through a crux, resulting in a fall, but everyone was fine.

Great views from the belay stations

Hanging out at the belay

Kyle starts up pitch 8

 The best part of the day were the views. As we got higher, we were able to see Yamnuska and hikers hanging out on top. We also had great views down into the prairies. There were other sight-seers out too. We must have seen at least 15 helicopter tours fly by as we were climbing. One disadvantage of climbing on the Goat Wall is that the weather all seems to come from behind the mountain and you can't tell what is coming until it is over you. We had a few dark clouds moving through but fortunately everything just passed us by.

Ominous clouds over Yamnuska

Kyle climbing into the sky on pitch 9

 We hadn't planned on a turn around time or pitch, but by 3 pm, everyone was ready to start heading down. At this point, we were all at the top of pitch 9 and Khrisna was just climbing pitch 10 (the first 5.11 pitch) because he wanted to try it out. Everyone was pretty happy with the day and there was no problem starting the rappel down once he was done. There had never been a goal to get to the top on this trip. It was more of a fun day out climbing with friends, checking out a new route. Even after only 9 pitches (not even half the route), I was tired, sore, bleeding and bruised. The sharp limestone is not very forgiving!

Khrisna crushing the first 5.11 pitch (pitch 10) and a crowded belay station peanut gallery looks on

Waiting for my turn

 The route has been bolted for 30 m rappels all the way down. Some of the stations are the same as the anchor stations, but some are not. The rap line takes a more direct route than the climbing route. We had 9 rappels to do but it went pretty quick. Tyler recently rappelled the entire route in about 2 hours (21 pitches).

 Starting the rappels, lots of exposure

Tyler rappelling

Car to car for 9 pitches of the Fluffy Goat Butt Face took us just under 14 hours. We were not moving quick but it really shows how much commitment this route is going to be. I was climbing at my max on some of the pitches, even on top rope and it only gets harder up higher. If you are heading out to give this route a try, be prepared to turn back before the top and be ready for some scary leads.

Thanks to Mark and Tyler for all their hard work!

Gear (as recommended by Tyler)

-60 m rope

-12 sport draws

-6 alpine draws

Stay tuned for the route description