Absolutely brilliant! Hedd-wyn and I got a very early start, and did the approach in the dark. We had prepared to ski in, but the snow turned out to be very well consolidated from the recent warm temperatures, so we just walked the 5km of road. After the exciting approach through the canyon, we rounded a corner and there it was! What an impressive looking climb.

The first pitch has really wild mushrooms. Hedd-wyn was going to do the second (grade 6) pitch, so I wanted to do the first, which is easier. The book calls it a "deceptively hard and technical" pitch, and it definitely presented interesting climbing through some small overhangs created by the mushrooms. After some fun climbing, I got to a nice belay cave and brought Hedd-wyn up. After getting a breather, he stepped around the pillar on dead vertical ground, and gave 'er! What a wild pitch. It consisted of a vertical straw with running ice behind it... neat! After carefully finishing the pitch, he put me on belay and it was my turn! After a very solid workout, I made the top and took some pictures, after which we rappelled down. Surprisingly, it was only 1 double rope rappel to the bottom, with some easy downclimbing. After slogging out to the car, we made it back to Calgary quite early. A memorable day!