New Barrier Bluffs Crag in Kananaskis with Bolted 5.12s

Barrier Bluffs above Barrier Lake in Kananaskis Country west of Calgary has been a go-to crag for over 20 years, but the area is far from climbed out. The most popular wall has long been Yellow Wall.

A few Bow Valley climbers have established a new crag with around 10 routes up to 5.13-. Mason Tessier, Ysbrand Nusse, Maddy Marchuk, Marcus Norman and others have built a number of nice looking routes at the new Cornerstone crag. Watch a short video of the crag below.

“We’ve got nine new routes up there, mostly 5.11-5.12, and they’re all pretty high quality I think,” said Ysbrand. There are two 5.13b routes: Mr. Squeeze and Baby Driver. You can see a list of all route on Sendage.com here and find a topo on the Sloper climbing app here.

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When we moved to Canada, I was nervous about was making new friends. Luckily, the first group of guys I met turned out to be the absolutely perfect crew for me. Mason, Maddy, and Marcus are all really talented climbers, but more importantly are super motivated. They get it done, and fast. It’s hard to keep up. Since the parks re-opened, we developed a new little cliff at Barrier called Cornerstone. Mason in particular put in a ton of work, and opening more than half of the routes, which of course are all the harder ones. Here is the man himself on my new route, Name of the Wind, 5.12a. It’s probably the best route I’ve ever bolted. We shot a little video of some of the routes, check out my link if you’re interested in seeing them. We’ve got 9 new routes up there, mostly 5.11-5.12, and they’re all pretty high quality I think.

A post shared by Ysbrand Nusse (@ysbrand_nusse) on May 30, 2020 at 6:17am PDT

Cornerstone Crag