Cascade Falls Ice Climb WI 3

After a great time at the Night of Lies in Canmore on Friday night, we were psyched to get on some ice. The plan was to go cragging at Bear Spirit with Tiff and Kevin, but we had also tossed the idea of Cascade (WI 3) around so we pulled over to check it out on the way by. I was so excited and really wanted to climb it. This is such a prominent route that I check out every time I drive through Banff, but there have been so many times when conditions were not quite right with its southern exposure and overhead avalanche hazard. On Saturday however, there wasn't too much snow in the bowls above, it was cool and overcast without too much sun or snow in the forecast, and to top it all off, there was nobody on the route! Needless to say, we decided to go for it. 

Looking up at Cascade Falls from the airstrip

Since it is still early season, we were expecting some areas of thin ice. We roped up at the first ice pitch and split into 2 teams, me with Kyle and Kevin with Tiff. Kyle and Tiff got to practice their guiding by leading all the pitches for Kevin and I! The initial pitches of ice weren't very steep but it was thin and we were hitting rocks with tools and screws. Flowing water out to our left made it hard to hear our climbing partners, and increasing wind through the day made for a very introspective climb as it was difficult to communicate much beyond a few tugs on the rope back and forth.

Kyle starting up the first pitch beside running water

 We pitched out the first 120 metres as two pitches of low angle, thin ice. We passed bolted anchors near the top of the first pitch but kept going to use all the rope. Next, we walked up the snow through a semi-frozen creek to the bottom of some more ice that also wasn't particularly steep. We climbed this as two more 60 m pitches. It was a good warm up for me as this was the first ice I had been on this year. It was thin and you could see water flowing under some of the ice. It was pretty spectacular and spooky at the same time. Fortunately, the route wasn't wet and we were able to make good time through the lower sections.

Thin ice on pitch 2 with the upper pitches in sight

On my way up pitch 4 to the bottom of the steep ice

By the time we had arrived at the bottom of our 5th pitch of ice (a station protected by a single bolt) a few other parties had started up the route below us. Tiff and Kevin were a bit behind us and another party of two was right behind them. Kyle led out onto the crux pitch of the route and two more parties arrived! It was a busy day on cascade and I was thankful to be out in front despite our leisurely 10 am start. Pitch 5 and 6 are the real money pitches of Cascade. They are both long WI 3 pitches with great exposure over the highway and there were bolted stations at the top of both pitches. You would need 2 ropes to rappel off from the stations as the pitches are close to 60 metres each. The top of pitch 6 appears to be the top of the waterfall from the highway. There was a large bulge that you had to pull over and water was flowing right below a thin layer of ice. It was pretty nerve-wracking looking at the water below your picks and trying not to break through on the last steep moves below the anchor!

Kyle starts up pitch 5 - the crux of the day

Getting into steeper ice on the crux pitch

Pitch 6 goes up through the narrow notch

Sun was low in the sky by the time we got up high

Looking down at Tiff from pitch 6 and the route we had climbed down below

Tiff finishing off the crux pitch

Either we had been really sheltered on the route, or the wind picked up a lot when we reached the top of pitch 6. Kyle was frozen and we threw all our layers on to warm up. We had briefly considered waiting for Tiff and Kevin who were a pitch and a bit behind us so that we could use the two ropes to rappel.  We quickly decided against it because we knew the walk off and didn't want to be dealing with passing the 3 other parties on the way down. Plus we figured the walk off would get us into the trees and out of the wind and that it would just maybe be faster than rappelling.

Cold but happy in the canyon

To access the walk-off, you have to walk up the gully for about 5 minutes then climb one more pitch of ice. The ice was actually quite sustained and steeper than it looked. Kyle was getting really tired after leading all day and freezing at the belays but he pulled off one more awesome lead up the left side to top us out.

Last pitch before the walk off (pitch 7)

Looking up the gully to top of Cascade and Kyle at his tree belay

Tiff and Kevin were still below us so we started walking down along the descent trail on lookers left of the gully just below Kyle's tree anchor. It was well trodden and easy to follow, with the one short rappel about 2/3rds of the way down. After that, it was smooth sailing back to the trailer where we fired up the stove to celebrate with some hot food and cold beer. The route had taken us just under 7 hours.

Strong winds were blowing snow and clouds over Rundle all day

Descending the walk off from Cascade (same as the walk off for Rogan's Gully and Mother's Day Buttress)

Tiff and Kevin showed up a while later in the dark. They had also suffered from the cold wind and Kevin was a bit delirious from the long day. He muttered something about how we shouldn't have taken someone onto the ice that wasn't meant for the ice, before having to rush off for dinner with his family! But after a warm meal and a good sleep, I think he was feeling a bit better about the whole experience!