Centurion on Canmore Wall Goes Free at 5.10+

The Canmore Wall above the Bow Valley present obvious challenges for climbers, but it wasn’t climbed until 1998 when two routes were added.

Over the years, the wall has seen little action and only two additional rock climbs added. While there are many new lines to be climbed, Raphael Slawinski and Ian Welsted chose to free up an old 360-metre 5.10b A1 at 5.10+.

When Raph exclaims "It's so cool to be climbing a pitch like this at the very top of the wall" you know it's good. FFA? Felt like Rome was burning and we were on the march.

A post shared by Ian Welsted (@ianwelsted) on Aug 6, 2017 at 10:39pm PDT

The wall takes less than two hours to reach and can be walked off. The route they climbed is called Centurion and was one of the two 1998 lines, it was first climbed by Choc Quinn and Chris Perry.

The other route climbed in 1998 is called Lex 5.9 and was done by Dave Marra and B. Lawrence. Other rock climbs include the North Ridge, a not recommended 5.5, and the 10-pitch Kurihara 5.10d.

This was the second time Slawinski and Welsted climbed the wall, in 2014 they established the 350-metre winter mixed route Perpetual Spring M7 with Alik Berg.