The Odyssey is New Seven-Pitch WI4 on Lake Minnewanka
The wild new ice line is bound to become a classic, as long as the lake crossing is in safe conditions
Photo by: Luka Bogdanovic of pitch six
Luka Bogdanovic and Shawn White made the first ascent of The Odyssey, a 200-metre seven-pitch WI4 above Lake Minnewanka this past weekend.
The huge line can’t be seen from the lake, as it climbs a meandering canyon with steep walls. There are a number of routes along the shores of Minnewanka, including Nietzsche Stick WI3 (Carl Cibart and friends 1991), Vanilla Ice WI2 (Dave Thomson 1992), Hammer Horror WI4+ (Chris Geisler, Dave Thomson 1994) and Lake Monster WI4 150m (Noel Gingrich, Brandon Pullan 2008).
The Odyssey is similar to This House of Sky WI3 in the Ghost, which was recently climbed over two days by a team from the Calgary Mountain Club who hauled a bench to the top. The new route required 11 kilometres of biking, but in the right conditions you could skate.
The climb starts at 51.2600, -115.3485 on the north shore of Minnewanka after the big turn to the east. The pitches go at WI3 10m, WI3+ 20m, WI2 40m, WI3 40m, WI4 20m, WI4- 20m and WI4 50m. The last pitch is 40 minutes above the previous.
Be sure to follow Bogdanovic on Instagram for more ice climbing images from the Canadian Rockies.
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