New Routes on Castle and Stanley Headwall
Good weather windows have led to several ascents of note over the past few weeks
Despite being a hot and smoky summer in the Canadian Rockies, climbers have been busy repeating old routes and establishing new ones. First ascents have gone up on several walls, including the Stanley Headwall and on Castle Mountain.
On Castle Mountain, Merrick Montemurro and Kevin Sevalrud climbed a new 150-metre 5.11b above Rockbound Lake called Shaolin Shadowboxin’. You can read about it on the Bow Valley Climbing Community page here and watch a short reel from Sevalrud below. In 2022, Montemurro and Chris Petrauskas established The Black Labyrinth above Rockbound Lake, a 225-metre 5.10d, which you can read about here.
On the Stanley Headwall, Mason Tessier made the first ascent of Tombstone 5.13d, now the hardest route on the Kootenay National Park crag – read more about his route on his Instagram here. Tessier added the 45-metre 18-bolt climb to Sendage, which you can see here. The Stanley Headwall, which was one of the world’s most famous ice/mixed climbing areas, became a popular rock climbing destination thanks to the late Gery Unterasinger’s route development efforts. Read more about the climbing on the Stanley Headwall here.
Another ascent of note in Canada’s mountains recently was a repeat of the North Pillar on Mount MacDonald by Zach Colbran and Rory O’Donnell. The 1,000-metre 5.11 was first climbed by Jon Walsh and Bruce Kay – read about their first ascent in the American Alpine Journal here.
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