Mother's Day Buttress

   The trouble with rock climbers is that they understand up and they understand down but switchbacks are a foreign concept to them. So when the bottom of a climb is uphill from the parking spot, the path to it just goes straight up the hill. Just straight up, no switching back, just plodding up a hill in a nearly straight line, which is miserable. And the descent is not much better, because why would you make a path more walkable if it means deviating from walking straight down the steep hill? Talus and rubble on slab! Best for walking. (It is not).

   REGARDLESS, while parts of getting to and from the actual climb were sub-par the climb itself was quite enjoyable, the view was lovely, and it was an all around splendid day.  Plus part of the descent path meandered through some lovely forest at at the top of a cliff and it was all very nice despite all my complaining about climbers making paths.

   SO: a couple weeks ago my bro and I both had Friday off, and decided to climb Mother's Day Buttress in Banff National Park. It's an 8-pitch 5.6, with a couple alternate pitches to bump it up to a 5.7 or a 5.8. We opted for a 5.7 pitch, but shied away from a chossy, crumbly 5.8 corner. Here's a picture of it, which my bro took (we were still on the approach at this point):

thanks, bro

   We left the city at a little after 7:00, drove out to Banff, parked, got out of the car, started getting our gear in order, and said "oh hey, there's a bear," because there was a bear across the highway from us. BUT it was going the opposite way from our destination and was a black bear, so whatever. We make loud noise in the forest so that bears will stay away from us anyways. If it were a grizzly we would not have been so blase, but it was not. 
   

some topo for alla y'all

    At some point (I think in pitch 2? Maybe 3), I was a couple of moves up when I pulled a hold. It wasn't a big one, but I lost my balance a bit and almost fell, and although I was perfectly safe due to ropes, etc: I still had a "SIRI CALL MOM" moment. Limestone is notorious for loose rocks, and sometimes they come off of the mountain when you are in the process of putting your weight onto them. Yay? There's also sometimes parts of the limestone that sound hollow when smacked, which is disconcerting. BUT that ain't gonna keep us from climbing, yo.

hi, I love to climb

   On pitch 5 (I think? Hahaaaa, I was not keeping track) we went off-route which resulted in us making the climb seven pitches instead of eight, and needing to rely on a built anchor instead of one with bolts and chains, etc. Climbing on trad gear is sometimes a bit funny, because I'll be following my brother up the route, pulling his gear placements out, and sometimes they are thumbnail sized nuts or tiny cams (those links are so you can see what nuts and cams look like) and I'm all "hahahhaaa what in the world" because how is that going to keep me safe? But they are rated at between 2 and 14 kNs, so really there's nothing to worry about. And if you're worried, just don't fall. That's the key: don't fall and you'll be fine.

    The climb had all sorts of different climbing, which was great! One pitch would be all slab and the next one would be juggy and then there's be some good cracks in corners and it was all good. When we arrived at the top we exclaimed about the view, since it was indeed very lovely. Some panorama action for you:

I didn't even get Lake Minnewanka in this picture, it was SO PRETTY

hi, I'm at the top of a cliff, I love it

   Basically, the climb was fun and enjoyable and the lame parts of the approach/descent were an equitable exchange for the pleasant parts. One such part was when we arrived at the top of Cascade Falls, where the wind was blowing the water back up the falls, which was excellent because a) it was awesome to see, b) we got sprayed with cold water on a hella hot day, and c) I had a drink from the stream because I was out of water and we were up high and there weren't signs of goats and I live on the edge. All in all, a banner day.

smile real wide if you love climbing