Canada’s New “Big-Wall” Mixed Route at Helmcken

Will Gadd, Sarah Hueniken, John Freeman and Katie Bono have finished their mega-project at Helmcken Falls, B.C.

The climbers spent two weeks in early 2014 establishing Overhead Hazard, Mhard, 200 metres, at the now-popular spray-ice climbing destination. “I first saw this line years ago when Tim Emmett and I visited the cave for the first time. There are actually some traditional water ice daggers lurking out of wild mini-caves and scoops, and connecting them looked really hard. So much radically overhanging terrain for so much vertical gain, just too much. Plus at that point I was interested in spray ice, but swore I’d be back for the wildest mixed line I had ever seen,” wrote Gadd on his blog.

Pitch one, the warmup. M10, 30 m.

Pitch two, horizontal, give or take , the business, M fun and hard enough, 20 m.

Pitch three, M11, 20 m, or M13+ (hype if combined with pitch-two.)

Pitch four, M11, 40 m, enjoy the belly flop onto the ledge, it’s more complicated than it looks.

Pitch five, M11, 40 m, still steep.

Pitch six, M10+, 30 m, still biting.

Pitch seven, M7, 30 m, to the top.

Source: Will Gadd, Gadd’s blog