Noah Beek Sends Steeples Traverse in B.C. in a Day
During a year where fast times and link-ups are more popular than ever
Noah Beek was a youth champ in the international ice climbing competition world a few years ago and is now based in Canmore where he works as an electrician. Recently, he made a rare traverse of a mountain range near his hometown of Cranbrook, B.C.
The Steeples Traverse follows the skyline of The Steeples, a 2,843-metre range at the southern end of the Hughes Ranges, east of Norbury Lake Provincial Park and the Rocky Mountain Trench. The ridge is over five kilometres long and can be seen from the Crowsnest Highway and Cranbrook. The closest well-known peak with established alpine routes is Mount Fisher to the north-northwest.
The first traverse of The Steeples was done over 20 years ago by the late Guy Edwards who took two days to complete it. Beek said: “I did the Traverse South-North starting at the Bull River side. The day was around 15 hours ending at my car parked by Sunken Creek Trailhead.
“It was about 40/60 on ridge/off ridge. Lots of difficult route finding involved. If anyone wants beta give me a shout.”
In the Bow Valley, many big link-ups have been going down this year with a number of records being set. Rockies-based Adam Campbell and Squamish-based Eric Carter completed the Technical Canmore Quad, which follows harder-than-scrambling routes to the summits of Ha Ling, Grotto Mountain, Mount Lady Macdonald and EEOR. They completed their 5.8, 57-kilometre, 5,000-vertical-metre in 18.5 hours.
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