Japanese Team Climbs Mount Temple’s Snowy North Face

Yamada Toshiyuki and Takeshi Tani are Japanese climbers currently based in the Canadian Rockies. 

The two alpinists have been making quick work of some of the area’s most classic big alpine routes.

A few weeks ago, they made a rare ascent of The Wild Thing 1,300 m M7 WI5 on Mount Chephren. While they didn’t break any speed records, they climbed the route in far-from-perfect conditions.

First Japanese Ascent of The Wild Thing

Likewise, their ascent of The Greenwood/Locke M6 1,200 metres on Mount Temple’s north face was technically in spring, but the wall was in winter conditions.

[shareprints gallery_id=”12967″ gallery_type=”thumb_slider” gallery_position=”pos_center” gallery_width=”width_100″ image_size=”large” image_padding=”0″ theme=”dark” image_hover=”false” lightbox_type=”slide” titles=”true” captions=”true” descriptions=”true” comments=”true” sharing=”true”]Photos by Takeshi Tani of climbing the Greenwood/Locke on Mount Temple.

The Greenwood/Locke had its second winter ascent this year by Alik Berg and Skiy Detray.

The route was first climbed by Brian Greenwood and Charlie Locke in 1966. The first winter ascent was by Raphael Slawinski and Ben Firth in 2004. The first solo ascent was by Tim Pochay in 1989.

The line sees a number of ascents every summer as it’s become somewhat of a trade route. It’s been climbed in only a few hours and when it’s in the right conditions is comfortably climbed car to car in a day.

Mount Temple will be featured in Gripped editor Brandon Pullan’s upcoming book, The Bold and Cold, which is expected out this fall. For more information, see here.