"Many thanks for the truly great week. I’ll be in touch later this year to book another."

Fil

The Canadian Rockies is a sedimentary range of peaks running North to South along the great divide from Mexico to Alaska. This vast range is protected in part by four interconnected National Parks; Jasper/ Banff/ Kootenay/ Yoho. It features vast tracts of undeveloped wilderness, extensive glaciation, and is world famous for its rugged, wild character. Wintertime showcases its true glory, with snow highlighting the horizontal rock banding, and azure ice lines streaking down the flanks of archetypical mountains such as Chephren, Cirrus, Temple, and Snowdome.

Visitors are drawn to the region for the outdoor activities, and a number of world class ski resorts operate here. Lake Louise, Sunshine, and Kicking Horse are among the better known ones. Cross country skiing, ski-touring, snowshoeing, and of course ice climbing are also popular.

With over 800 frozen waterfalls to choose from, it is possible to find routes suited for any ability level, and any weather conditions. Whether you looking for your first ice climbing adventure or coming back to tick a huge testpiece, it can be found here.

The Rockies has cragging ice and mixed venues that are practically roadside, and mulitpitch routes that you can walk to from town. For the more adventurous there are remote lines that can be approached on overnight trips on skis.

Where

Calgary, Alberta is a large city with an international airport. From hear it is a one hour drive to Canmore, the gateway to the Rocky Mountains. Banff is 10 minutes west, and Lake Louise another 45min. drive.

The majority of routes are accessed from the highways between Golden/Jasper/Canmore. Most climbers base out of Canmore, Banff or Lake Louise, all of which offer all the amenities needed for an ice climber. Climbs are done as day trips from whichever town we are based from. It is possible to switch towns during a trip to concentrate on a particular area. Additionally there are hostels located on the Icefields Parkway between Lake Louise and Jasper.

Season

According to climbing legend B.B. "We've got it here, acres of wonderful azure and chrome ice, so many routes to do. A destination for ice climbers worldwide. It doesn't matter how desperate the rest of the world is for ice, it's always happening here."

To the delight of local ice climbers the winter season consistently extends from Nov 1st to early April 1st every year.

Early season routes are scratched up in October, and I have climbed waterice in great shape in early May. November and December are often neglected but can the best time to access certain routes before the snows come and create undesirable avalanche hazards. Dec, Jan, Feb are the deep winter months, when its guaranteed that routes of all aspects and elevations will be in. March with its longer days is a prime month. Temperatures are consistently sub zero Celsius, however cold and warm snaps can occur at anytime throughout the season.

There is no accurate way to predict the weather for your trip from months or weeks in advance, but it is guaranteed that their will more than enough ice to climb from Nov1 to April1 every year. We have the option to choose suitable climbs for any conditions, and I have yet to be skunked on a days climbing due to weather.