Curtain Call
125m IV, WI 6
Peter Valchev, Hedd-wyn Williams
April 4, 2009
Youtube video
In Joe Josephson's "Waterfall Ice", this is described as a climb
that can be "one of the scariest-looking routes around". It didn't
look that scary this year and I always wanted to do it - I felt good
this year and suggested it to Hedd-wyn as an objective when I booked
my flight a couple of weeks prior. I was in Calgary for a week as I
needed to renew my passport and was hoping to sneak in a couple of
climbs between work. So here we were: Friday night, 6pm in Calgary,
Hedd-wyn came by my house to pick me up.
We got to Canmore and decided we were hungry, so we stopped by The
Drake. I love the bison burger there, so my choice was made,
Hedd-wyn had some chicken pie. Yummy!
I drove the next stretch from Canmore and somehow it started snowing
when we got to Lake Louise. At times it was dumping so heavily you
could barely see the road! The road quickly accumulated a couple of
inches of snow at Bow Summit too. The forecast was promising blue
skies! By the time we got to the base of the climb, it was snowing
only lightly and we shuffled the gear into the front seats of the
truck, preparing the back for sleeping. What followed is one of the
most comfortable nights of sleep I ever had - somehow, I love
sleeping in a sleeping bag when it's cold outside. The thick
mattress Hedd-wyn had installed made it quite comfortable too.
In the morning it was cold and we boiled some water for breakfast.
We woke up early because wanted to ensure we were first to get on
the climb - it would have sucked to do all that driving, and get
scooped by a party from Jasper that woke up earlier than us! And we
were definitely first. :) The hike up went quite quickly, despite
some post holing through the meadow - there was a trail the rest of
the way, 1 hour to the climb. We were in no rush, so we snacked some
more at the base and I got into my warm down jacket. We had my 70m
ropes, so we could easily do the climb in two pitches. Of course
Hedd-wyn wanted to lead one, and I gave up the first pitch as I
heard the second one was the crux (this later turned out to not be
true, the first pitch was more strenuous also due to the longer
length). Hedd-wyn let me have what I wanted, and headed off.
About 1/3 of the way up there was a section that was not too
well-consolidated, so he took his time to carefully climb it. Shortly
after that, he broke the first few teeth of one of his picks again
(after doing the same on Wednesday to his other tool)... he finished
the pitch with a broken pick. I joined, took the remaining gear and
headed up the 2nd pitch.
The second pitch was quite technical to climb around & over some of
the big mushrooms, but it was over before I knew it and the angle
started backing off. That was it!? I wasn't going to complain... I
belayed Hedd-wyn and soaked in the sun that was JUST coming around
the mountain. You gotta love ice climbing in April, when you're
becoming a soft Californian! He joined me, we snapped a lot of
photos and reluctantly rappelled.
After lunch & admiring the views, we got out of there. There were
some guys from Calgary that had come in to do a mixed climb next to
Curtain Call - apparently they pulled off some serious loose rock
and we chatted with them for a while... After we got to the truck,
we leisurely drove down the highway stopping to take pictures. I
have been up the parkway a few times and I've never seen such blue
skies the whole way - the day was totally blue bird and we could
actually see all the mountains! We debated climbing something else
as we had plenty of time, but just shot for Calgary in the end.
Another great day of climbing in Canada! I was off to California the
next day, arriving to 22 degC temperatures...
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The pile of fun-facilitating gear at home. |
Hedd-wyn making breakfast on the side of the highway after we had a very comfortable sleep in the back of the Durango |
Mmm, breakfast time |
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The comfortable mattress that provided an excellent night's sleep |
Cramming a bowl of oatmeal and bottles of calories in the morning |
Curtain Call as seen from the truck |
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Sunrise on the icefields parkway |
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The slogging through the trees is minimal (less than an hour total approach) |
Beautiful morning |
Curtain Call |
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Curtain Call |
Responding to a call from The Curtain |
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Hedd-wyn is being called too |
Almost there! Our car is on the bottom right. |
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I told my tools to stop posing already. But they wanted another shot, sigh... enough! |
Looking up at Curtain Call from the bottom |
Gearing up at the base. |
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Gearing up |
Hedd-wyn on the first pitch of Curtain Call |
Hedd-wyn higher up on Curtain Call |
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Getting to the cave |
Looking up at the second pitch of Curtain Call |
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And another one bites the dust! Hedd-wyn actually climbed the top 1/3 of the pitch like that. |
Jasper is 45 minutes up the road that way... |
Exchanged gear, let's climb already |
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Protection is good, let's get some |
Hello! |
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Coming onto the front |
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Belay anchor at the top of Curtain Call |
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Happy |
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The climb is in a spectacular position! |
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Hedd-wyn on top of Curtain Call with the Banff-Jasper highway |
Looking down straight down the second pitch on rappel |
Looking down the very-featured second pitch |
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Another shot on rappel, now looking up |
Time to leave... |
Hiking down from Curtain Call |
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Curtain Call as seen from the car, cropped version |
Curtain Call as seen from the car |
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Shooting into the sun at the Icefields Parkway |
There's no end in sight for the posing |
More posing with Curtain Call in the background |
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Back at the truck! |
The classic north face of Athabasca |
One of these is Echo Madness? The one on the left seems like the book picture. Massive seracs... |
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Mt Kitchener, home of the Grand Central Couloir in the middle of the face |
Athabasca & Andromeda |
Mt Andromeda, several routes here, Andromeda Strain being one of the famous ones |
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Sure is a pretty drive! We couldn't help but stop several times. |
Snowdome, East Face hosting Slipstream, a classic ice climb with scary serac/avalanche danger (the fat blue line) |
Parker Ridge, a popular yo-yo skiing destination, with some fresh tracks |
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The Weeping Wall looking fat and friendly |
The Weeping Pillar looks super-fat and surely has hero ice at this time! |
The upper tiers of Polar Circus |
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Not sure which one this is, but the tower on the right looks neat |
Ice Nine (WI 6) on the left (not formed), and Happy Days in fat condition on the right (WI 6 X) |
Mt Chephren |
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The much-coveted face of House Peak with many possible lines |
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The Trophy Wall. Left to right: Terminator, Replicant, Troubled Dreams, Postcriptum, Sea of Vapors |
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