Americans Climb The Wild Thing in Canadian Rockies
This is one of the most classic difficult alpine mixed routes in Banff National Park
In 1987, Barry Blanchard, Peter Arbic and Ward Robinson made the first ascent of The Wild Thing on the east face of Mount Chephren in Banff National Park. It’s been climbed less than 20 times.
The most recent ascent was by Americans Dane Steadman and Cody Winckler, who climbed it this fall. “First time travelling outside of the US; success,” said Winckler. “Big thanks to Steadman and co for making this possible. and to Barry Blanchard for a good many of personal reason.”
The second ascent was by Grant Statham, Joe Josephson and Sean Dougherty in 1992. Statham recently had this to say about it, “I was soaked, spent and disheartened after leading ‘the last pitch’ only to find there was one more. Shit. It’s pitch black. Above us was a steep, chockstone filled chimney with a 30 cm wide ice vein in the back. Guided by the beam of my headlamp, the rest of the world fell away while I concentrated on what was right in front of me, pausing only to reflect on the madness of my position. Time seemed to stop, until finally I climbed directly onto the summit. It was flat and the west wind was biting.”
The Wild Thing had an A3 pitch until it was freed by Jonny Sims and Jon Walsh in a 44-hour round trip at M7 WI5, see them on the first pitch below. A story by Blanchard and Arbic appeared in Canadian Mountaineering Anthology by Bruce Fairley – read it here.
The Wild Thing
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