Canmore Swingers Party is New 300-metre Rockies M6+R

Canmore Swingers Party is a new 300-metre M6+R that climbs the north face of Mount Lawrence Grassi above Canmore. The wall has a number of routes, but Canmore Swingers Party follows one of the more striking up a buttress feature. The first winter route up the wall was in 2014 by David Lussier, Jay Mills and Ian Welsted up The Hole M6.

Niall Hamill and Ryan Richardson made the first ascent of May 3, a few months after Hamill’s earlier attempt that ended with a 100-foot whipper and a broken scapula in Hamill’s back. Canmore Swingers Party starts at the base of the wall on a M7 WI5 pitch that climbs into Tainted Love WI3 M9, which was first climbed by Juan Henriquez, Colin Simon and Raphael Slawinski in 2015. The first attempt up this part of the wall was 15 years ago by Sean Isaac and Rob Owens.

“It steers west away from the bolts into an attractive weakness,” said Hamill about the line he and Richardson followed. “A chimney/wide crack that splits the upper buttress and goes on all natural gear. The climbing is fairly sustained in the M6 to M6+ range, and in a few places, not easily protectable. There are some fixed pins and a couple of wires left in-situ, all anchors are fixed for rappel. We rappelled the route but you can scramble and walk off of the backside, or into miners’ gully.”

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"Canmore Swingers Party" Lawrence Grassi North Face May 3, 2019 Niall Hamill, Ryan Richardson 300m M6+R At a Canmore swingers party you are sure to find cracks of all shapes and sizes. You are also likely to find swingers. When there is little ice to swing into, the swingers may gravitate towards limestone of varying quality. This is a variation to "Tainted Love" on the North Face of Lawrence Grassi, and shares the first two and a half pitches with this route. It then steers west away from the bolts into an attractive weakness, a chimney/wide crack that splits the upper buttress and goes on all natural gear. The climbing is fairly sustained in the M6 to 6+ range, and in a few places, not easily protectable. There are some fixed pins and a couple of wires left in-situ, all anchors are fixed for rappel. We rappelled the route but you can scramble and walk off of the backside, or into miners' gully. There is a direct start dagger that has been climbed at M7 Wi5. (4 bolts) Thank you to @canadianalpinetools for the bomber iron!

A post shared by Niall Hamill (@niallhamill) on May 4, 2019 at 8:01am PDT