The Apocalypse Cave is Difficult New Rockies Crag

Evan Hau has been hard at work developing a new crag in the Bow Valley.

The Apocalypse Cave is on Grotto Mountain in the Bow Valley. Grotto Mountain has hundreds of pitches of quality climbing, from sport routes in Grotto Canyon and Cougar Creek to steep 5.13s at Bataan and 5.14s in Echo Canyon to long multi-pitch 5.13s. Now you can add the Apocalypse Cave to the list of must-visit crags.

Hau, who is a Calgary-based climber and one of Canada’s strongest sport climbers, started development at the cave early this year. After a lot of new routing, there are now eight completed climbs and one project. Hau said there are about another 12 potential routes up to 25 metres high.

Visit Hau’s blog for access and route information. The crag is close to the winter dry-tooling area called the Playground and climbers stress that the Apocalypse Cave is not a dry-tooling spot.

The Apocalypse Cave is a free climbing area. Do not climb these routes with ice tools! The wall is located in the Middle Grotto of Grotto Mountain, the same canyon as The Playground and Silent Auction multi-pitch. The tallest climbs are roughly 25m high and a 60m rope is required.

The most difficult routes at the crag are Box of Souls 5.14a, Ants in Overdrive 5.13d and Kerploof 5.13c. Visit here for a list of the routes on Sendage.com.